I’d play the darn game, is what I’d do. And play to win it just like I would in any other match. Unless you’ve in fact been playing to lose the entire regional, anything else is dishonest.
EDIT: Haven’t we done the throwing the match discussion a few times before?
I believe whether it is qualifying match 1 or the last qualifying match, each team has a responsibility to their alliance to play to win that match for their alliance. That is the only Gracious Professional thing to do.
The chips may fall one way or another, but for those 2 plus minutes you are only teamed up with the two other teams on your side of the alliance station.
Being collaborated robots wouldn’t mean anything to me. I know both teams worked really hard on both robots, but I want to win, which is selfish I know. Even if your not going to be picking, you want to win and show what you can do. Besides, the #1 seed has a slight disadvantage when picking, which isn’t going to be as bad at Nationals.
Anyhoo, Nationals is a whole lot different than the regionals they attended during the year. MORE teams, BETTER teams, and going undefeated is going to be harder there. We’ll all have to wait the 4 weeks until Nationals for the results.
At most regionals (except for the large ones) you should expect to play against and with most teams. When teams choose to collaborate they should expect to be in those situations. Even if the robots are exactly the same the strategy can set each one apart from each other. So my take is and always will be play your game and let the match unfold as it will.
The Ethical Answer is that Robot B plays to win, otherwise, you are not truly acting as an alliance with your other partners in the Qualifying matches. It is dishonest not to attempt a victory.
Surprisingly though, the Logical Answer is still “Robot B plays to win”. Basically, if Robots B and C are capable of beating Robot A during qualification matches, it is a good sign that they are capable of doing the same in the playoffs. The scouts for Team C would have to be asleep in the stands to miss the dominance of that pairing.
Play to win or don’t bother continue competing. Before and after the competition (or match) we’re friends: during the match is a different story - Not exactly GP but hey we all have a place on that ranking sheet - im gonna fight for my alliance in getting those spots.
Another way to look at this is look at Racing Events 2 - 3 teams under the same owner - fairly the same cars and setups would you really slow down to let your team mate win and get passed by 15 cars in doing so or do you floor it and take the trophy home yourself.
Actually, that’s a good point in favor of throwing the match. “Team Rules” often happen in racing where a teammate is told to let their teammate pass and win because they are in the points race, and the person winning the race isn’t.
I think throwing a match is disrespectful to the partners in your alliance, the alliance playing against you, your own team and its supporters. One of the cool things about FIRST is that we “compete like crazy” on the field (and cooperate like crazy off the field). How can you do that, if you’re throwing matches?
I don’t know any team in FIRST or really any mentors in FIRST that would tell a team to throw a match. I know that i sure haven’t and will never say we should throw a match. That is not and never will be part of FIRST.
2nd: i agree that throwing the game is disrespectful. furthermore, if Robot B threw the game, everyone there including robot 1’s scouts would see it… would u want an alliance partner who had just thrown the match for their alliance?
