Building a Picklist

What a picklist is

A picklist is your team's ordered ranking of the other teams at the event, best partner first, that you bring to alliance selection. Build a deep list — a common rule of thumb is at least 24 teams for a typical non-Championship event — because by the time it is your turn many top teams are already taken and you must keep moving down a trustworthy list.

Why one ranked list is not enough

The single most important picklist idea: the best partner depends on what your alliance needs, not just on raw strength. A common, more powerful approach is to build multiple lists or a list plus role tags:

• A list of the best overall/offensive robots.
• A list of the best defenders.
• A list of robots that fill a specific role your robot lacks (a reliable endgame, a great autonomous, a fast cycler).

During the draft you choose from the list that matches the partner you still need. If you have a strong scorer, your first pick might be another strong scorer to overwhelm opponents, or a great defender to shut them down, depending on the field.

How to build it

1. Aggregate your scouting into per-team averages and reliability flags (your averages sheet from Module 2).
2. Pull public analytics (EPA components from Statbotics, OPR/CCWM from TBA) next to your scouting.
3. Reconcile disagreements. Where your scouting and the analytics disagree, investigate. Analytics blind spots (defense, reliability) are usually the explanation, and that is where scouting earns its keep.
4. Weight by need and reliability. Demote inconsistent or frequently-disabled robots even if their averages look high; a robot that is great half the time can lose you an elimination match.
5. Hold a picklist meeting the night before or morning of selection. Get scouts, strategists, and the drive coach in one room, walk the list, and let the people who watched the robots speak.

Using the list at the draft: where you seed changes everything

A ranked list is only half the job — how you pick depends on which captain you are and whether it is your first or second pick.

• First pick, as the top seed (Captain 1). You get first choice of the entire field, so take the best available robot that complements you and raises your alliance's ceiling — usually a strong scorer whose game plan meshes with yours (it does not fight you for the same field space or scoring location). You are optimizing for the highest joint offensive output.
• First pick, as a lower captain (say 6, 7, 8). By the time it is your turn, most of the elite robots are already alliance captains or picked, so "best available" is a genuinely weaker pool. Lean harder on fit and reliability than on raw ranking: a dependable robot that plugs your specific gap beats a flashier one that duplicates what you already do. This is the a1-vs-a8 difference — the same list, used very differently depending on how much of it is still on the board.
• The second pick is a different job. The field has thinned, so this is often a "do no harm" choice: a reliable specialist that fills your alliance's last gap — defense, a consistent endgame, a strong autonomous — rather than another ceiling-raiser you do not need. A calm, dependable defender frequently beats a higher-"ranked" robot that is redundant or breaks down.
• Decide your triggers before the timer starts. Know your two or three "take them if they're there" targets, and a rule for switching lists (e.g., "if all my top scorers are gone, pivot to my best defender"). Then watch who picks ahead of you and update live — the list is a starting point, not a script.

Things scouting catches that numbers miss

• Reliability: a high average hides a robot that broke in three of eight matches.
• Defense quality: invisible to OPR/EPA but often decisive in eliminations.
• Compatibility: two robots that want the same field space or scoring location can clog each other; a great partner complements your cycle, not duplicates a bottleneck.
• Driver skill and composure: elimination matches are high-pressure; a smooth, calm driver is worth a lot.

Output

Finish with a clear artifact your alliance-selection representatives can use under time pressure: a primary ranked list, role tags or secondary lists, and a short "do not pick" set (robots with disqualifying reliability or behavior issues). Keep it on paper as well as a device, since you cannot count on connectivity on the field. A picklist you cannot read quickly under a ticking pick timer is not finished.