0.14 Alliance selection, playoffs and advancement

This lesson separates three different results: the match ranking, the playoff result and advancing to the next event.

When the qualification matches end

When the last qualification match ends, a table stays up on the venue screen. All the teams are listed from top to bottom, and next to them are the numbers from the matches they played during the day. Teams gather in front of this table, because it decides what happens for the rest of the day.

This ranking is not the score of a single match. As you saw in the 0.1 What is FTC lesson, every match gives the alliance points, and a team plays with different partners during the day. The ranking is the result of all these matches calculated together. The calculation itself is in the season's Manual. We do not write it here because it can change from season to season. How tied teams are separated is also there.

The ranking has two jobs. One is to decide who has a say in the alliance selection that starts shortly. The other is to add to advancement points. How the second one works was explained in the 0.2 Awards and the road to the world championship lesson. Here we only look at the first.

Alliance selection

Shortly after the ranking is announced, one representative from every team is called to the edge of the field. The top-ranked teams become alliance captains. How many teams become captains depends on the size of the event and the season's rules. A captain picks the team it will form its alliance with.

Selection goes in order. The representative of the first-ranked captain comes to the microphone and invites a team by name. The invited team's representative answers: they accept or decline. A team that accepts joins that alliance and can no longer pick anyone. Then it is the next captain's turn. How many rounds there are, how many teams make up each alliance and what a team that declines can do afterward are written in the current Manual. You can reach it through 0.K Resources and printables.

The representative at the microphone holds the list you made in the previous lesson. If you are a captain, you do not decide whom to call on the spot. The answer comes from the notes you collected during the qualification matches. If a captain before you took the team at the top of your list, your representative needs a second and a third name ready too. We talked about this preparation in the 0.13 Scouting and working with your alliance lesson.

These minutes are not wasted for teams that are not captains either. If a team that finished in the middle or near the bottom of the ranking is on one of the captains' lists, its name is called and it joins an alliance. The teams that came to your pit during the day to ask about your robot were asking because they were building these lists. Being picked is as much a result as picking. Even without being a captain, a team can carry on into the playoffs. How being a captain and being picked add to advancement points is, again, in the 0.2 Awards and the road to the world championship lesson.

When the last invitation is answered, the alliances are formed. For the remaining teams, the day on the field ends here, and the alliances that were formed move on to the playoffs.

Playoff matches

When the playoffs start, your partner no longer changes from match to match. In the qualification matches you made a separate plan for each match. Now you play with the same team, one match after another. A bracket replaces the ranking table on the screen, showing which alliance plays which.

A playoff is not a single-match contest. Alliances play more than one match, and the winning alliance moves forward in the bracket. How many matches are played, the elimination format and the names of the rounds are written in the season's Manual. You check the current text through the 0.K Resources and printables page. Do not carry last season's bracket over to this season.

The time between matches is shorter than in the qualification matches. The robot can wait beside the field without going back to the pit, and battery changes and small checks happen there. You have already talked through the plan with your partner once. In the next matches you only say what will change.

When an alliance's path in the bracket ends, its teams take their robots back to the pit and watch the remaining matches from the stands. The award ceremony is for all teams, so you do not leave the venue. At the end of the playoffs, one alliance has won. That is one of the day's results. Awards and advancement have not been announced yet.

Awards and advancing to the next event

When the playoffs end, teams gather in front of the stage. Two separate kinds of result are announced here. One is what happened on the field: the winning alliance and the finalist alliance of the playoffs. The other is the team awards that come from the judges' interviews and pit visits during the day. A team that did not have a good day on the field can go up on stage for the Think Award or the Connect Award, and a team in the alliance that won the playoffs can stay in its seat without a judged award. The two are separate evaluations.

These two results come together in advancement points. Where the points come from and how they add up is in the 0.2 Awards and the road to the world championship lesson, so we do not rebuild the table here. The question here is this: how is advancement announced at the venue that day?

Winning the playoffs does not guarantee advancement on its own, and an advancing team does not need to have won the playoffs. The advancement ranking comes from the sum of all contributions during the day, and from the top of this ranking, as many teams as there are slots go to the next event. The region's Program Delivery Partner decides how many teams advance from an event, and this number is announced to teams no later than the start of alliance selection. So while you stand at the edge of the field during selection, you know how many teams will advance. At the end of the ceremony, the advancing teams are read out from the stage one by one. This list is separate from the playoff result and the awards. An advancing team may not have been mentioned in either of those.

In Türkiye this road starts with local events. The Manual classifies events as Qualifying, Super Qualifying and Regional Championship, and each season FTC Türkiye announces which of these will be held where. That announcement says what type your event is and which event teams advance to from there. The official results and advancement record is on the FTC Events page, and the link is in the 0.K Resources and printables table. The next day, check the result you heard at the venue on that page.

After the competition

At the first meeting after the event, the match notes and any match videos are on the table. What did not work in which match, which problem came up in more than one match, what did the drivers find hard on the field? Watching the videos together with the drivers shows things nobody noticed during the match. At the end of this talk, you decide what will change in the robot, the software and the driving before the next event. Your work routine continues as we described in the 0.11 From Kickoff to competition lesson, but this time you have a list that comes from real matches.

You send the result to your sponsors and supporters in a short message. The format is in the 0.3 Budget, sponsors and presenting your team lesson. Registration and the calendar for the next event follow the path in the 0.4 Building a team and registering lesson. The work waiting for a team that qualifies for the world championship at the end of the season is covered in the 0.15 Going to the world championship lesson.

Extras

• Resources and printables
• Competition Manual. The ranking calculation, alliance selection and the playoff structure. It is updated during the season.
• FTC Events. The official results and advancement record.
• FTC Türkiye. The season's event types and slot announcements.
• 0.2 Awards and the road to the world championship
• 0.13 Scouting and working with your alliance