FIRST Robotics Competition Blog

As we round out the end of summer, we wanted to share some information & updates on the Double Elimination playoff structure that we implemented for the 2023 season. When we announced that we would be using this model for the 2023 season, we noted that it was a pilot, and we would be soliciting feedback to understand how it went and if any changes were needed. We want to share some of that feedback and some of the changes we are making for the 2024 season.

In the weekly event surveys, we asked teams “Did you enjoy having awards between final matches more, the same, or less than having all awards after the final matches?” The responses were 66.4% positive, 20.7% neutral, and 12.9% negative overall. The chart below shows the responses week-by-week.

In the end of season survey, we also asked teams how they felt about the new tournament structure: “Did you enjoy the new Double Elimination tournament style more, the same, or less than the previous best 2 out of 3 style?” 80% of mentors and 70% of students responded positively to this question, compared to 7% of mentors and 9% of students that responded negatively.

We also solicited feedback from our Program Delivery Partners on the new tournament type as well as awards between matches, and the responses were overwhelmingly positive. Based on all of this feedback, I am happy to share that we will be continuing with the Double Elimination Playoff Tournament and will be keeping awards between matches.

We also took a look at the free-response feedback from our surveys as well as data from events to see what improvements (if any) could be made. Our findings are below:

• We noticed that for most events, playoffs took on average 3 hours and 45 minutes when we intended for playoffs to take just over 3 hours. In looking at the data, this is likely due to a few factors, including the format being new for everyone.
  • One of the main causes of this was that we had scheduled playoffs to do 7-minute cycles when on average, events were doing 8-minute cycles.
  • We also noticed that the breaks took longer than planned.
• Additionally, in some of the survey responses, people noted that they felt that the breaks without awards were long and not very engaging. Some wish we had explicitly noted what awards were being given out during each break.

So, taking all of the above into consideration, we are mapping out a new schedule. This schedule should help events better stick to the ~3-hour tournament while still guaranteeing that teams have at least 15 minutes between matches. The new schedule makes the following modifications:

• Increases the cycle time to 9-minutes
• Removes the first two breaks entirely
• Shrinks the 3^rd break to be only 5 minutes

We are also working on ways to make it clearer to event attendees when awards will be handed out.

I wanted to end this blog with my favorite piece of data from the 2023 season that shows that Double Elims worked as intended. One of the things that many people liked about this new playoff style was that it would better showcase which alliances were the best at the event as it was possible that Alliance 8 was the second-best alliance at the event. For example, in the old model, it was not possible for Alliance 1 & 8 to be the winners and finalists. The chart below gives data on which alliance ended up as a winner or finalist at events in 2022 (using the old playoff style) and in 2023 (using Double Eliminations). It’s important to note that while it is likely that Double Eliminations had some correlation to these changes, it is not the only factor at play.

Finally, we want to again thank those who helped us with implementing the Double Elimination tournament for the 2023 season and to everyone who helped provide feedback on their experiences. Looking forward to the 2024 season!