Our sister team isn't great

Will our team be sent to the gulag if we don’t pick our sister team in the tournament? This is their first competition, and they have a very janky bot. It works 35% of the time, but we need a reliable partner. Can we choose another team instead of the sister team?

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You can choose whoever you want!

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Alright, just making sure it wasn’t like an unofficial rule or moral code.

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This is competitive robotics. There is no such thing.

Just kidding, be kind and sportsmanllike.

But still try to win.

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Yes, although your mentor might say otherwise, you are free to pick whichever team (within reason and the rules, of course) you want at any tournament. Don’t feel pressured to pick them just because it is their 1st tournament and they have not qualified for regionals yet.

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I have seen teams step up during competition and help out their randomly selected alliance partner make their robots better during competition.

While you may not have your sister team as a partner during eliminations, you probably should spend time helping the team make their robot better prior to competition and give tips on driving tactics for this game by loaning them your robot to practice with. Sometimes that bit of good will goes a long way to making a first year team feel valued.

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Our team has done this, but they often refuse help. We have tried to give them parts we made for them in some spare time that they were making, and they just left it. We will try to help them at the competition, but our coach will help them a bunch.

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keep an eye on them during competition, advise but in the end be prepared to let them do their thing. Then afterward help them figure out what they could do better.
If they dont do well point out the bright side so they lean towards more motivation to do better rather then a ‘wow this blows’

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We will. Thank you for the advice.

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I often tell my sister team to not pick me, so go ahead.

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Ok, this makes us feel much better.

When I was a freshman(TT) an alliance partner helped write a one cube auton.

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