John Bottenberg and I like arguing about dumb stuff, and this is the latest. Let’s say your team is at a district that’s playing 11 matches. If you could choose whether or not you’re scheduled in a surrogate match, would you choose to play a surrogate match or not to?
From a scouting perspective, I would like the surrogate match. It gives me a chance to look at how my team plays with two more teams and against three others.
That’s a double edged sword, it’s also one more chance for you to get penalized for making a mistake or break down in front of the scouts from other teams.
One nice thing about having a surrogate match is that you actually do have those two choices! Although your partners for that match would probably not be happy with you if you decided to work on the robot instead.
If you want a C07 red card. You should send at least one drive team member to the match to avoid the red card.
Edit:
As far as I’m concerned, no, you don’t have both options. Any team I’m on is going to treat a surrogate match like a real match. You have a moral obligation to do that.
How about the “I’d probably rather work on the robot, but that’s irrelevant because I wouldn’t screw alliance partners by not showing up” option? It’s a real match to somebody, we are obligated to play.
Edited to add: I suppose my answer would be no, I wouldn’t want a surrogate match. But I’d definitely play if we got one.
Clarified the question. It’s whether or not you’d want to be scheduled as a surrogate in the first place. So your answer is no.
By the time we get to Match 3 (I believe that is the Surrogate match), our robot is locked down. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
We would like the practice time. Maybe try a more aggressive strategy, or a rarely used autonomus routine. Something you would hate to do in a “real match” if it didn’t work out. I know, your Alliance partners wouldn’t be too happy with you. However, our robot tends to be a fairly well functioning robot, and being teamed with it (even if we are testing out something) is better than being with a low ranking robot.
Funny that people complain about only getting 11 matches (vs 12), and then complain that one of them is a surrogate match. What if that surrogate match brought you up to 12?
Finishing hard is the goal. Having more matches helps you to finish better, and a better chance of being picked.
This totally depends on my team and we’re at in the event and season for me. This year 229 is incredibly simple and will want more matches, but in my 1058 days we were usually hopeful for more time to work on the bot.
If I have to pick one, I would probably go play.
Would I want to play as a surrogate? Yes, practice on the field is always worth it.
Would I want alliance partners to be surrogates? No, There is little incentive for them to ‘play all out’ (and possibly a lot of incentive to not)
Never such a thing as too much stick time for your driver. Sign me up for every surrogate match possible.
You should play in a surrogate match with exactly the same mindset as you would for any other match. Even if you are a great team, trying a risky alternative strategy because you are a surrogate and it doesn’t matter (to you) if the strategy fails, is not fair to your partners. Perhaps your alternate strategy choice changes you from winning with three rotors rather than four – because you wanted to try out your shooter during autonomous rather than your gear hanging during autonomous.
It might actually be better if the system didn’t tell you which of your matches was a surrogate (and it was randomly assigned to one of your matches) so that you don’t know its a surrogate until after you played it. It does result in the unexpected hanging paradox though: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unexpected_hanging_paradox
I’m with Eric - especially with the state I will assume most regional practice fields will be, give me every opportunity to be on the field.
They could say it will be one of your first 5 matches, but you don’t find out until the end of Match 5 which one it was.
I’d go for the extra practice on the field. More chances to test ideas or autonomous routines on the field before playoffs, and more practice time in general for the drive team. Plus another chance for something to reveal that it needs fixing.