Not Bragging or Whining

I think its a little odd how FIRST computes rankings at a competition. You'd think that the best team would be ranked first, right?

Well, this is how FIRST ranks teams. They first look at your overall record during qualifying; Team 904 was 10-2. FIRST awards 2 points for each win 1 point for a tie and 0 for a loss. That gave us 20 points after the first set of matches. In the event that two teams have the same win/loss record, FIRST also computes another ranking based off of your opponents scores.

The teams from the winning alliance receives the losing alliance's score (before penalties) and the losing alliance gets their score after penalties. They average this total and this becomes the second factor for ranking teams. This gives an advantage to teams that win in closer, high scoring matches and a disadvantage to teams that annihilate their opponents (like 904).

Say for instance we win most of our matches and keep our opponents from scoring on us. This keeps our second score low, however if we had let them score more points on us, our score would have been higher. A lower second score means a lower ranking.

Maybe this rule made more sense in an earlier FIRST competition, but in Lunacy I don't think it does. There are a set number of points that can possibly be scored. Also it is next to impossible to really know how many points you have while the match is being played. Scoring judges watch each trailer and try to keep a running count as to how many moon rocks have been scored. I saw many times where scores changed dramatically at the end of the match when the actual count was made. Also teams trying to score with the super cell have to do it in the last 20 seconds. Obviously the better teams will want to have as much of a lead as possible at the end of every match.

904 obviously had the dominant machine in Traverse City, but since we were too good, we didn't rise to the top. Had the field and all robots been working properly we may have been ranked first, meaning we may have had fewer losses.

Teams that will be participating in the West Michigan District event, look out. You'll be playing in our house errr... crater. :)