Team 254 Presents: Chezy Champs

[Tom Bottiglieri]

Save the Date!
Team 254 Presents: Chezy Champs

When: Saturday and Sunday, August 30-31, 2014
Where: Bellarmine College Preparatory, San Jose, California
What: A brand new offseason event hosted by Team 254, The Cheesy Poofs

Team 254 is excited to host its first ever FRC event, Chezy Champs! Chezy Champs will be a super affordable, highly competitive, fun packed event held at Bellarmine College Prep on August 30/31. We will be playing Aerial Assist with minimal rule changes, so make sure your bots are ready to roll!

We have not finalized all of the details yet, but we plan to have some of the following at the event:

Celebrity MCs/announcers
Properly-timed pedestal lighting
Non-wooden field
"Best lit pit" award
More #ejswag than you can handle
Mentor matches
Exhibition match: Teh Chezy Pofs "Skystalker" vs. Teh Robnots "Paper Jam"
Corndog vendor(s)
Photo booth: Selfies with Mr. EJ.


(We're kidding about some of these details, but we're serious about the event! See you in August!)

[AdamHeard]

Will the lit pit award be granted purely on quantity of lights? or will clean backlit lettering be eligible as well?

How much bbq will there be?

What will the mandatory volunteer (that's an oxymoron!) deposit be?

[bkahl]

Any room for CT teams? :D

[Brandon Holley]

I will be THERE.

[Thad House]

As long as you are not kidding about the Corn Dog venders its all good. Should be a fun event. I might have to come down to California to watch.

[Mark Sheridan]

Sweet looking forward to it. I hope the chezy fms is debuting there. I am willing to bet there will be a few wood bots showing up.

[DampRobot]

I hope we can make it. Will there be inspections?

[Mk.32]

Looks like fun I may have to come up and enjoy the the corndogs, they are Free right?

[dipmeinaluminum]

Mentor Matches!!!

GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!!
:P

[magnets]

Will there be a webcast/recorded matches? This sounds awesome!

[PayneTrain]

We have not finalized all of the details yet, but we plan to have some of the following at the event:

Photo booth: Selfies with Mr. EJ.


(We're kidding about some of these details, but we're serious about the event! See you in August!)

Well you better not be kidding about this because I'm not flying out to Northern California without a guaranteed selfie.

[Andrew Lawrence]

Been waiting to hear about this. I'd be down to volunteer, if help is needed.

[Pat Fairbank]

Will there be inspections?
IRI rules apply.

[R.C.]

Hella awesome.

We will for sure be coming out.

[Andrew Schreiber]

I will be THERE.

Can we request RC teach our students the finer points of speaking Cali first?

[Travis Covington]

Will the lit pit award be granted purely on quantity of lights? or will clean backlit lettering be eligible as well?

How much bbq will there be?

What will the mandatory volunteer (that's an oxymoron!) deposit be?

Pit-lighting award qualifications are TBD

Lots of BBQ will be available. One free mentor corndog will be included. Teams with mentors named Jared get two free corndogs.

All joking aside, no "mandatory" volunteering is required. Any profit we make from the event will be refunded to the teams. Our registration fee goal is < $200 per team.

[BrendanB]

Time to travel to Cali!

[sanddrag]

696 will be there.

To whom do I send the check?

[MrTechCenter]

We'll come to yours if you come to ours! But seriously, this sounds awesome and I can't wait! Wow, there's an offseason pretty much every couple of weeks in California. Chezy Champs in late August, our competition in Mid-September, CalGames in early October, Fall Classic and Battle at the Border in mid-late October, and the MadTown Throwdown in mid-November. Last year, it was easy for us to make all three NorCal events, but FOUR NorCal events within weeks of each other? Wow, this is going to be tough.

[Pauline Tasci]

I have been waiting for this for so long.
YES.
U will see me there

[Eugene Fang]

Properly-timed pedestal lighting


And hot goal.

[Gregor]

And hot goal.

Maybe 2 if we're lucky?

[Citrus Dad]

As long as you are not kidding about the Corn Dog venders its all good. Should be a fun event. I might have to come down to California to watch.

Make sure to have veggie corndogs too!;)

[Nica F.]

Question 1: Can we bring our own props to the selfies with EJ event?
Question 2: Is there a designated hashtag for instagram posts for said selfies other than #ejswag?

[AdamHeard]

Question 1: Can we bring our own props to the selfies with EJ event?
Question 2: Is there a designated hashtag for instagram posts for said selfies other than #ejswag?

#SpaceAgeSwag
#EdwinJamesSabathia

[Cory]

#SpaceAgeSwag
#EdwinJamesSabathia

#mistaEJ

[Libby K]

I've never been to California, let alone a west coast FIRST event... this may just have to be my first...

[tim-tim]

I've never been to California, let alone a west coast FIRST event... this may just have to be my first...

Ditto

[plnyyanks]

I've never been to California, let alone a west coast FIRST event... this may just have to be my first...

Same here. Does anybody have an East - > West coast teleporter laying around?

[Karthik]

Barring something else coming up, I'm in. Need an MC?

[saikiranra]

#BestCoastIRI

[thatismytruck]

Any room for CT teams? :D

That'd be one heck of a bus ride!

[TurretPunchLove]

Properly lit pedestals for all! :D

[Thad House]

Barring something else coming up, I'm in. Need an MC?

You should come and MC a PNW event some time. We would love to have you come up here and bring some Canadian knowledge.


And yeah, a #BestCoastIRI would be awesome.

[ThunderousPrime]

Will there be a webcast/recorded matches? This sounds awesome!

I second this notion. Preferably HQ recordings if it's not too much to ask for. :D

[Botsup]

As long as you are not joking about these items we are there!


Properly-timed pedestal lighting

Corndog vendor(s)

Photo booth: Selfies with Mr. EJ.

[Cory]

As long as you are not joking about these items we are there!


Properly-timed pedestal lighting

Corndog vendor(s)

Photo booth: Selfies with Mr. EJ.


Corn dogs and Mista EJ are no joking matter.

In all likelihood there will be no pedestal lighting and there will likely be a rule added that says you may pick the ball up at any time and may introduce it as soon as the ball on the field is scored.

[clayrosenthal]

Photo booth: Selfies with Mr. EJ.




http://imgur.com/YFhFIiL

[Rangel(kf7fdb)]

We would be definitely interested in making a drive out there to compete. We were just talking about competing in an off-season event as well.

[Tom Bottiglieri]

Any room for CT teams? :D
We can probably fit a few of you in. :)

(Still holding out my dream of a 254, 125, 195 alliance someday)

[CTbiker105]

That'd be one heck of a bus ride!

With you guys, anything's possible.

Let's just hope our bus driver doesn't get taken away in an ambulance again in the middle of nowhere.

[MrSandman416]

Will "Shockwave" be making a appearance?

[Kevin Sheridan]

Will "Shockwave" be making a appearance?

"Shockwave" will be the primary means of distributing corndogs so not only will people not have to wait in line, but they won't even have to leave their seats!

[Daniel Brim]

Can we request RC teach our students the finer points of speaking Cali first?

You have a local source! Rule one: don't say "Cali."
(Also, Southern Californians cannot endorse use of the word "hella")

[Max Boord]

Barring something else coming up, I'm in. Need an MC?
Rematch of Barrage VS Simbot Evolution commentated by the best MC in first ^?

In all honesty this sounds awesome! Can we please get a proper 720p 30 fps live stream with score though?

[bkahl]

(Still holding out my dream of a 254, 125, 195 alliance someday)

...that would be legendary

[JohnFogarty]

We were just having the off-season event planning meeting tonight too. GOLLY.

[baumgartensam]

Just to help you out, here are a few local corn dog venders :)
http://www.yelp.com/biz/sticks-bay-area-2

Here's a link about SF corn dog day 2014: http://sf.funcheap.com/city-guide/corn-dog-day-2014/

Also, are you guys looking for any volunteers?

[P.J.]

I think I may have to make the trip from Michigan...this sounds awesome.

[cavalier]

Can we please get a proper 720p 30 fps live stream with score though?

Barring any unforseen circumstances, 1678 would like to provide live streaming for this event. Our system is also FMS independent so live scoring will work regardless of the field configuration.

Example: http://youtu.be/oZ_iJ_e0v6E

[Jonathan Norris]

This sounds too awesome to miss, I'll be there! Let me know if you need any volunteers.

[JVN]

The Robowranglers are discussing how to make this happen, we want in.

[BrendanB]

This event may just become as popular as IRI and Battlecry in one day!

[Michael Corsetto]

1678 will definitely be there #einsteinroundtwo

[tommypacker]

Team 766 will be looking forward to the selfies with EJ

[Pat Fairbank]

Barring any unforseen circumstances, 1678 would like to provide live streaming for this event. Our system is also FMS independent so live scoring will work regardless of the field configuration.

Example: http://youtu.be/oZ_iJ_e0v6E
Absolutely, your system is slick. Cheesy Arena will expose an API you can get the scores from, or we can work together on the overlays.

[DCA Fan]

Corn dogs for everyone!

You guys need a GA?

[Mark Sheridan]

Wow a lot of teams want in. Looks like there going to have to be some sort of application process.

[Eugene Fang]

Wow a lot of teams want in. Looks like there going to have to be some sort of application process.

Chezy Champs Invitational

[Brandon_L]

I've never been to California, let alone a west coast FIRST event... this may just have to be my first...

I second, this is worth a trip. And its like the perfect time of the year too. Can't wait, off to figure out how to get my butt out there.

EDIT:
UGH this is what dreams are made of
http://i.imgur.com/8x96Mqe.png

[Hallry]

I second, this is worth a trip. And its like the perfect time of the year too. Can't wait, off to figure out how to get my butt out there.

Road trip? ;) :rolleyes:

[marshall]

900 will be launching some balls out to the other coast for you guys to play with. That distance shouldn't be a problem for our shot. ;)

[cjl2625]

That'd be one heck of a bus ride!

45 hours from CT? Worth it.
I'll walk if I have to; it's only 986 hours by foot.

[Mastonevich]

I second, this is worth a trip. And its like the perfect time of the year too. Can't wait, off to figure out how to get my butt out there.

EDIT:
UGH this is what dreams are made of
http://i.imgur.com/8x96Mqe.png

SERIOUSLY In and Out needs to franchise. Enough of this it is a family run business and quality can't suffer stuff.

[Boe]

There should be a match with the poofs comp bot, practice bot, and skystalker :D

[Lil' Lavery]

With all the incredible burger joints in California, I will never understand why anyone cares about In'N'Out.

[MrTechCenter]

With all the incredible burger joints in California, I will never understand why anyone cares about In'N'Out.

Never say this in California. EVER.

[billbo911]

I second, this is worth a trip. And its like the perfect time of the year too. Can't wait, off to figure out how to get my butt out there.

EDIT:
UGH this is what dreams are made of
http://i.imgur.com/8x96Mqe.png

For all of you un-initiated, Brandon has his priorities CORRECT!!

If you don't include a stop at In-N-Out on your way to this event, you will not have the complete California experience!
I grew up mere miles from the original location in So. Cal. Now I have one less than a mile from where I live.

Trust me when I say, "Double Double, Animal Style".

[billbo911]

With all the incredible burger joints in California, I will never understand why anyone cares about In'N'Out.

I love you Bro, but DUDE!!!!?

[connor.worley]

With all the incredible burger joints in California, I will never understand why anyone cares about In'N'Out.

In'n'Out accounts for a lot of those incredible burger joints...

[Lil' Lavery]

While I'll confess I'm much more familiar with San Diego than the Bay Area, I can't imagine the Bay Area would be a subpar burger zone. There's a bunch of places in San Diego I'd rather grab a burger than In'N'Out. Gimme Slater's 50/50, The Counter, Johnny Rotten's or even Smashburger or Hodad's instead of In'N'Out.

Great, now I want a burger for lunch.

[David8696]

MOTHER OF HODAD'S
But inNOut>=hodads;

[clayrosenthal]

Gimme Slater's 50/50,






Yes. If this is the half bacon half burger place that I'm thinking of this place is great.

[Lil' Lavery]

That's the place.

The only thing we've established is that this clearly means Chezy Burgers must be available in addition to corndogs.

[Tom Bottiglieri]

I will be THERE.

I've never been to California, let alone a west coast FIRST event... this may just have to be my first...

Barring something else coming up, I'm in.
We're thrilled to have you all here.

Now, if you decide you like California and want to "extend" your stay (much like Pat, Jared, and I have), I have a feeling you would all look good in blue come FRC season next year. :D

[nfhammes]

How do I sign up to volunteer? I'm doing Scorekeeping at my fourth event this year, at Minnesota state in a few weeks.

I'm a Minnesota volunteer, moving for work to the Mountain View area in July...

[billbo911]

Now, if you decide you like California and want to "extend" your stay (much like Pat, Jared, and I have), I have a feeling you would all look good in blue come FRC season next year. :D

EagleForce Blue!

[Tom Bottiglieri]

How do I sign up to volunteer? I'm doing Scorekeeping at my fourth event this year, at Minnesota state in a few weeks.

I'm a Minnesota volunteer, moving for work to the Mountain View area in July...
We are still trying to solidify the details of the event. As soon as we are ready we will post here, on our Facebook, and the new Chezy Champs website regarding how to volunteer.

Also, cool that you are moving here! We'd love to have you help at the event and welcome you to the Bay Area FIRST community!

[michael.saxon]

2478 would like to participate as well! We're considering a team Roadtrip ;)

[dubiousSwain]

http://i.imgur.com/GN1LvF3.jpg

[roystur44]

Please keep Team 4543 in the loop. We will have a whole new team to get up to speed.

Thanks,

[DJB11]

I think you are underestimating the amount of #ejswag I can handle.

[calicogang]

When will applications be available and cost? Would love to be there.
Mark Crusoe; First Team 701.

[NickE]

Quick update on this event:

Volunteering: For those who have expressed interest in volunteering at Chezy Champs, a volunteer form (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1EJwU1P080z8lRpAh4wyf_uy7AzDpxSb86HEa0qFJg-Y/viewform) is now available.
Invites: Invitations have been sent to 39 teams (http://www.team254.com/chezychamps/#teams)
Schedule: A more detailed schedule has been posted (http://chezychamps.com)

All of this information is available at chezychamps.com (http://chezychamps.com). Let us know if you have any questions. 8 weeks to go...

[sanddrag]

Let us know if you have any questions. Where do we send the check?

[NickE]

Where do we send the check?I've replied via PM. Information should be going out to all teams in the next couple of days.

[Jasmine Zhou]

Volunteering: For those who have expressed interest in volunteering at Chezy Champs, a volunteer form (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1EJwU1P080z8lRpAh4wyf_uy7AzDpxSb86HEa0qFJg-Y/viewform) is now available.
There's a slight typo on the volunteer form- I'm assuming the second "Saturday, 8/30, AM" times available check box is meant to be "Sunday, 8/31, AM"?

I'm excited. This is going to be awesome.

[NickE]

There's a slight typo on the volunteer form- I'm assuming the second "Saturday, 8/30, AM" times available check box is meant to be "Sunday, 8/31, AM"?Good catch. The form has been updated.

[Francis-134]

The GameSense crew is really excited to announce that we will be doing live match analysis and commentary at Chezy Champs!

All six members of the GameSense crew will be in attendance, bringing you analysis and on-site event coverage from start to finish. We've been working hard with the Chezy Champs team to create a fun, professional and cohesive viewer experience for attendees and online viewers alike. All-new GameSense graphics will be integrated directly with the Chezy Arena field system for live-updating information on upcoming matches, team statistics, history and rankings, balanced with live interviews and highlight reels.

We're hoping to help make Chezy Champs the most viewer-friendly and entertaining FRC event ever, so make sure to clear your calendars! Check out Chezy Champs on August 30th and 31st, live in San Jose, CA or online at www.twitch.tv/FRCGameSense!

[Bryce2471]

Will there be a recording of the broadcast available? For those of us who won't have Internet access during the competition.

[Francis-134]

Will there be a recording of the broadcast available? For those of us who won't have Internet access during the competition.

Our live stream will automatically archive the entire broadcast and post it to our channel page. At this time, we have no plans to store the footage anywhere else. Now that we see there is some interest, we may make an effort to record and upload one long video of eliminations.

[tickspe15]

Can you post a breakdown of the hardware you are using to run the stream?

[Libby K]

Our live stream will automatically archive the entire broadcast and post it to our channel page. At this time, we have no plans to store the footage anywhere else. Now that we see there is some interest, we may make an effort to record and upload one long video of eliminations.

Would that channel-archive be affected by the new Twitch rules? Since there's no 'save forever' option anymore, having it someplace else would be pretty good to have.

[Rangel(kf7fdb)]

With the new twitch VOD rules too, the recorded video might get flagged for copyright music playing in the arena and be muted.

[AllenGregoryIV]

With the new twitch VOD rules too, the recorded video might get flagged for copyright music playing in the arena and be muted.

When we (Texas Events) stream to Youtube we just get an audio feed with only the microphones and game sounds. We haven't had our live stream shut down yet when doing this. Over three events, we have had a few individual matches flagged for copyright because the music was picked by the microphone but most of them have been fine. I'd assume the Gamecast crew will do something similar to reduce/remove the arena music for their broadcast.

[NickE]

Can you post a breakdown of the hardware you are using to run the stream?Spencer,

We are renting a field from FIRSTWA including the AV case that was at IRI. Evan Morrison is coming down for GameSense and will help us get everything set up.

Nick

[AdamHeard]

Our live stream will automatically archive the entire broadcast and post it to our channel page. At this time, we have no plans to store the footage anywhere else. Now that we see there is some interest, we may make an effort to record and upload one long video of eliminations.

We have a box that can record as a backup if you like. I believe it takes hdmi.

[saikiranra]

Will there be Internet accessible for team use in the stands?

[Nuttyman54]

To everyone who is curious about the broadcast recording and VODs:

There will be local recording of the stream, but we are still working out if it will be chopped and uploaded match-by-match in real-time, or if we're just going to record the entire broadcast in half-day chunks and deal with match chopping later. Rest assured, we will have a way to get the recordings on to YouTube without having to worry about Twitch's new VOD muting policy.

[BrendanB]

Glad to see Gamesense being added in to the event!

Can't wait for CC!

[Metonym]

After spending a good 11 hours organizing our finally back from IRI road case and going over all of Game Sense's plans, I can say for certain that all of you are going to be blown away by what Game Sense is bringing to the table. This will be the best live/venue streaming and sports casting ever in FIRST history*. Also, yes the Chezy Arena FMS overlay looks more amazing than anything you have seen so far. I actually wish it was the standard, with the CC logo replaced with the FIRST logo.

*I heard the ESPN stuff was pretty good, but come on that was so long ago.

[NickE]

All,

We expect to have the following rule changes for Chezy Champs. Notable changes from IRI include the lack of a 4th autonomous ball, standard serpentine draft, no picking of backups, and allowing timeouts during elims.


No inspection, Honor system on legality. +5 pounds allowed. Gross / obvious violations of robot rules will be identified by referees and event staff and must be corrected before the robot continues. All other FIRST robot rules apply.
There is no zone requirement for possession/ assists.
A trussed ball which is untouched by another robot and enters the low goal will be considered scored.
G21 [Robots may not extend outside the field.] No penalty for violations. Continuous / repeated violations will still be a technical foul. Contact outside the safety zone will still be enforced.
G14 [Strategies aimed solely at forcing the opposing alliance to violate a rule are not in the spirit of FRC and are not allowed.] Violation: Technical Foul or "No Call" at discretion of the head referee
G12 [An alliance may not possess their opponent's balls.] An immediately rectified possession of the opposing alliance ball (from a truss shot, human play or field crew action) will not be penalized.
Referees will not attempt to judge team intent - the benefit of the doubt with regards to penalties will go to the teams.
The field will not contain dynamic retroflective vision targets. Hot goal indicator lights will still be present.


Nick

[DampRobot]

All,

We expect to have the following rule changes for Chezy Champs. Notable changes from IRI include the lack of a 4th autonomous ball, standard serpentine draft, no picking of backups, and allowing timeouts during elims.


No inspection, Honor system on legality. +5 pounds allowed. Gross / obvious violations of robot rules will be identified by referees and event staff and must be corrected before the robot continues. All other FIRST robot rules apply.
There is no zone requirement for possession/ assists.
A trussed ball which is untouched by another robot and enters the low goal will be considered scored.
G21 [Robots may not extend outside the field.] No penalty for violations. Continuous / repeated violations will still be a technical foul. Contact outside the safety zone will still be enforced.
G14 [Strategies aimed solely at forcing the opposing alliance to violate a rule are not in the spirit of FRC and are not allowed.] Violation: Technical Foul or "No Call" at discretion of the head referee
G12 [An alliance may not possess their opponent's balls.] An immediately rectified possession of the opposing alliance ball (from a truss shot, human play or field crew action) will not be penalized.
Referees will not attempt to judge team intent - the benefit of the doubt with regards to penalties will go to the teams.
The field will not contain dynamic retroflective vision targets. Hot goal indicator lights will still be present.


Nick

These are the rules we should have had all season long. CC should be awesome!

[Andrew Lawrence]

Well there goes our 4 ball auto... :rolleyes:

On a more serious note, these changes are going to be fantastic for the game. I'm curious, though, why you chose to keep the serpentine draft.

[Justin Montois]

All,

Referees will not attempt to judge team intent - the benefit of the doubt with regards to penalties will go to the teams.

Nick

If you could pass this one along to the GDC that would be great.

Looking forward to watching a great event!

[Cory]

Well there goes our 4 ball auto... :rolleyes:

On a more serious note, these changes are going to be fantastic for the game. I'm curious, though, why you chose to keep the serpentine draft.

There aren't enough teams to effectively do 1-8, 1-8 without giving #1 a massive advantage.

[Citrus Dad]

There aren't enough teams to effectively do 1-8, 1-8 without giving #1 a massive advantage.

I like the serpentine draft--and we've been the #1 or #2 seed in every competition the last 2 years. It makes for a great challenge in creating the draft. But more importantly the seeding order too often can be influenced by random events and qualifying round alliances. The serpentine draft levels the playing field to reduce the influence of those random occurrences.

[kevincrispie]

I like the serpentine draft--and we've been the #1 or #2 seed in every competition the last 2 years. It makes for a great challenge in creating the draft. But more importantly the seeding order too often can be influenced by random events and qualifying round alliances. The serpentine draft levels the playing field to reduce the influence of those random occurrences.

Weren't you ranked 7th and on the 6th seeded alliance in 2013 (http://www.thebluealliance.com/team/1678/2013) at Central Valley? (still counts as </= 2 years as far as I'm aware.)

Just because you played the draft intelligently and ended up winning the competition with a solid robot doesn't mean you can claim a number 1 or 2 seed out of it. ;)

Anyway, overall, rule changes are nice. I'm hoping to see some interesting strategies develop. I also have a feeling that the Chezy Champs trophies are going to look pretty cool as well...

[NickE]

Chezy Champs is less than a week away! This message contains some important information about the event.

Food Options
We have a couple of food options available for Chezy Champs:

Pizza Preorders (http://chezychamps.com/#preorders) will be conveniently delivered to the concessions area on Saturday and Sunday.
Concessions: We will be selling Pizza by the slice as well as other things at the event.
Food Trucks and Vendors: On Saturday, we have Sticks (http://www.stickscorndogs.com/) and the Hula Truck (http://www.hulatruck408.com/). On Sunday, we will have the Gold Rush Eatery.
Local Eateries: We have compiled a list of local eateries (http://media.team254.com/2014/08/Nearby%20Hardware%20Stores%20and%20Eateries.pdf).

Schedule
Our planned event schedule is as follows:

Friday
6pm – 9pm – Pits Open to Teams
6:30pm – 9pm – Practice Matches
Saturday
8am – Venue Opens
9:30am – 10am – Opening Ceremonies
10am – 12pm – Qualification Matches
1pm – 6pm – Qualification Matches
6:30pm – Venue Closes
Sunday
9am – Venue Opens
9:30am – 10am – Opening Ceremonies
10am – 11am – Qualification Matches
11:30am – 12pm – Alliance Selection
1pm – 4:30pm – Elimination Matches & Closing Ceremonies
6pm – Venue Closes

Preorders
Preorders for pizza and swag are still open at chezychamps.com (http://chezychamps.com/#preorders). Quantities of everything are limited - the preorder form will say when something is sold out.

Power & Wifi
Unfortunately, it's looking like the power in the pits will be shut off overnight during the event. Premium pits are in a different building and are unaffected. Also, we are trying our best to ensure reliable wireless internet access for teams at the event but will not be able to guarantee anything.

Rule Changes
Thanks to everyone for the feedback on rule changes. We will be adding one additional change: Yelling of 'robot' in the pits will not be permitted.

Hope everyone is looking forward to what is shaping up to be a great event! More information about logistics and a pit map will come later in the week.

[Andrew Lawrence]

Rule Changes
Thanks to everyone for the feedback on rule changes. We will be adding one additional change: Yelling of 'robot' in the pits will not be permitted.


Thank you based EJ.

[sanddrag]

What are the rules/specifics on the mentor matches?

[NickE]

What are the rules/specifics on the mentor matches?We scrapped mentor matches in favor of more qualification matches for teams.

[billbo911]

We scrapped mentor matches in favor of more qualification matches for teams.

+1

[Andrew Lawrence]

We scrapped mentor matches in favor of more qualification matches for teams.

How many qualification matches would you estimate are planned per team?

[NickE]

All,

We've had a last minute drop and have an open spot for Chezy Champs this weekend! If any teams are interested in participating, please email us as soon as possible at cc@team254.com

Nick

[PayneTrain]

Rule Changes
Thanks to everyone for the feedback on rule changes. We will be adding one additional change: Yelling of 'robot' in the pits will not be permitted.


Is there going to be an opportunity to give feedback on the consequence of violating this rule?

[Travis Covington]

Is there going to be an opportunity to give feedback on the consequence of violating this rule?

What do you mean? We don't like people yelling robot when a simple and quieter "excuse me" works just as well. There won't be any consequences other than us telling those people/teams who are yelling it to kindly refrain from doing so.

[PayneTrain]

What do you mean? We don't like people yelling robot when a simple and quieter "excuse me" works just as well. There won't be any consequences other than us telling those people/teams who are yelling it to kindly refrain from doing so.

It wasn't meant to be taken seriously.

[ThunderChief]

Andrew Lawrence asked: How many qualification matches would you estimate are planned per team?

With 8 hours of Qualification Matches scheduled, and estimating 6 minutes per match, you could squeeze in 82 matches which would mean 14 matches for each of 35 teams plus 2 teams playing a dummy match. (82 matches * 6 team slots = 492 divided by 35 teams = 14 matches per team with a remainder of 2 dummies.) The more matches, the less luck in finding the Alliance Captains. :)

How many matches per team do you plan?

When do you think you will you post a Match Schedule List? :confused:

We are excited to be making our first trip up to a Bay Area competition. :yikes:

[Pat Fairbank]

We're planning on running a more relaxed cycle time than six minutes, to allow time for GameSense commentary. Count on 10-12 matches per team.

We probably won't be able to post a match schedule in advance of the event, as we are still waiting for a couple of teams to confirm their attendance and send payment.

[NickE]

We're excited to see everyone tomorrow. Here's a bit more information about the event.

Load-In
Load in will be on Friday from 6pm-9pm and on Saturday morning from 8am onward. See the map below for the load-in location.

Pit Map
A pit map is available here (http://media.team254.com/2014/08/CC2014-PitMap.PDF).

Awards
We will be giving out the following awards:
- Winner (3x)
- Finalist (3x)
- Quality Award
- Professionalism Award
- Most Improved Team
- Programming Award
- Judges Award
- Golden Corndog

Due to a generous sponsorship from NASA, the winners of the Quality and Professionalism awards will each be awarded $1000 towards their 2015 FRC Registration.

Parking
Parking is available in any of the on-campus lots except for the marked Jesuit community parking. Do not park in the Jesuit community parking.
A map of parking is provided below.

Access to the main parking lots is from 960 West Hedding Street, San Jose.

For spectators, we recommend the arena parking lot.
Arena parking is located at 799 Emory Street, San Jose. Arena parking is not accessible from the Bellarmine main entrance.

Campus Map
The event is at 960 W. Hedding St, San Jose.

A map of the campus is below with the load-in location marked is below.
There will be signs on campus with arrows towards the event.

A PDF of the map is available here (http://media.team254.com/2014/08/CC-Map.pdf).

http://media.team254.com/2014/08/CampusMap2.png

[sanddrag]

So far, very impressed with the event. Whoever put in the order for the PortaCool units, you are my hero. Also, the signage is very well done. Looking forward to a great weekend here!

[Pat Fairbank]

We have generated a tentative qualification schedule which is posted to The Blue Alliance (http://www.thebluealliance.com/event/2014cc) as well as attached.

We will run with this schedule unless there is a no-show team tomorrow.

[Eugene Fang]

We have generated a tentative qualification schedule which is posted to The Blue Alliance (http://www.thebluealliance.com/event/2014cc) as well as attached.

Updated match scores and rankings will be updated on The Blue Alliance after each match as well!
For those of you who are into data and statistics, detailed match breakdown (auton points, assist points, truss & catch points, etc.) will be available through the TBA API (http://www.thebluealliance.com/apidocs).

Many thanks to 254 for adding live data publishing to TBA in their offseason FMS. GameSense, real-time detailed data, and an overall professionally but Chezily (can I use this as an adverb?) organized event -- this is an FRC competition done right!

[Ty Tremblay]

Many thanks to 254 for adding live data publishing to TBA in their offseason FMS. GameSense, real-time detailed data, and an overall professionally but Chezily (can I use this as an adverb?) organized event -- this is an FRC competition done right!

The GameSense Crew will be taking full advantage of the additional data output by Cheesy Arena as well as the data collected over the 2014 season. Watch the live event to see:


Cycle Efficiency Ratio (CER) - Average assists per cycle, both over the event and during a match.
Calculated Win Probability - A weighted average of OPR.
Season W-L-T for entire alliances.
CORNDOG (COmbined Rating Notation Describing Offensive Gameplay) - Normalized Event OPR mapped to 1-5 scale.

[magnets]

Awesome job to 254! This is honestly the best I've ever watched. Paul and Karthik are the best set of announcers ever. Combined with gamesense and the cool graphics (both the match with picture/predictions, and the "Head-to-Head" display), the time between matches is just as entertaining as the matches themselves.

Team 254's FMS is far superior to FIRST's FMS system, and the graphics for scores, overlays, and rankings are beautiful and smoothly animated. The color displays above the driver stations with team names are awesome. Pedestal lighting and hot goal lights are correct. Scores update instantly, field lights respond instantly, and the assist counters appear instantly, which never happened before. There are no delays with anything here.

On top of all that, it was developed in months, vs. the years that FIRST has had to work on theirs.

I have a few questions for any team 254 people who worked on this FMS

Do you guys plan on releasing any parts of it?

For the field LEDs, do you guys use the Phillips Colorkinetics that normally are used in fields? If so, what sort of controller do you guys use?

What do you use to generate the schedule? Do you use FIRST's matchmaker executable (matchmaker.exe) or do you guys have another method?

[sanddrag]

Team 696 is offering free corn dogs in the pit for the next two hours only, for Facebook and twitter followers. Stop by and get one cooked to order!

[DampRobot]

Will there be any videos from, say, GameSense, posted before tomorrow AM?

[Navid Shafa]

Will there be any videos from, say, GameSense, posted before tomorrow AM?

Nope, definitely not by tomorrow morning, but I do have a few Cool Graphics (http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1398545#post1398545) to share from tonight's post show.

P.S. Roger, If you're there tomorrow, stop by and say hi!

[Jay O'Donnell]

Somebody please tell me that there is a video of F1-1 that I can watch again. One of the best matches of the year.

[Ty Tremblay]

Somebody please tell me that there is a video of F1-1 that I can watch again. One of the best matches of the year.
We have all the matches recorded in high def. We'll get them up as soon as we can.

In the mean time, it's probably on our Twitch VOD until its muted due to the music.

[MrTechCenter]

I said this at the end of the tournament, and I'll say it again here. Not only was that the best offseason competition that I've been to, that was the best competition I've ever been to PERIOD. Really well put together and very fun. 2073 had a blast. I wish our own offseason could be as cool. The matches were more exciting than most of the matches on Curie this year and every match was very intense. Just plain awesome.

[MARS_James]

From what I saw it looked like a blast, and seems like this may be a very nice alternative to IRI for west coast teams. In fact there were some things about this competition that IRI may want to look at adding for next year

[Jared Russell]

Somebody please tell me that there is a video of F1-1 that I can watch again. One of the best matches of the year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzEDHavpnfw&list=UUYJntTPP7W2mCMGYac3xC9A

[owenli10]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzEDHavpnfw&list=UUYJntTPP7W2mCMGYac3xC9A

You beat me to posting our own video ;) . First off, I'd like to thank Teh Chezy Pofs for putting on such a fabulous event. Like everyone's been saying, it really has been one of, if not the, best event, off-season or regular-season, that I've been a part of. Having this many high-caliber teams so early in the season was a great way for our brand new 2014-2015 drive-team (myself included) to get their feet wet and prepare for more off-season competitions and the 2015 regular-season. I'd like to thank our incredible alliance partners, Teams 971 and 2135, for an amazing run through the elimination rounds. You guys were a joy to work with and we played great as an alliance. Congrats to the winners, Teams 1678, 254, and 973; you guys are truly phenomenal and it was a great pleasure to be able to play against you guys in the finals. See y'all at the 2015 Chezy Champs! :)

[Cory]

Having this many high-caliber teams so early in the season was a great way for our brand new 2014-2015 drive-team (myself included) to get their feet wet and prepare for more off-season competitions and the 2015 regular-season.

You had a brand new drive team? It didn't show. You guys were awesome.

[Max Boord]

Having this many high-caliber teams so early in the season was a great way for our brand new 2014-2015 drive-team (myself included) to get their feet wet and prepare for more off-season competitions and the 2015 regular-season.

Wow. I would have never called you guys where running a first year drive team. As a first year driver in the 2014 season, I am shocked that another drive team with similar experience was able to do so well at a nearly IRI level competition. Best of luck in 2015 and congratulations on doing so well at your first event.

[Lance5136]

What an awesome event! 5136 had a blast and enjoyed working with our alliance partners 2485 and 604. We can't wait to see some similar faces at CVR in March!

[NWChen]

Who were the award winners?

[Francis-134]

The GameSense crew has uploaded all the elimination matches from Chezy Champs to our youtube, including the pre and post-match commentary.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIY-TB1MAu-V1_3k9GujwYzkixkmI7rtH

[Tweedy399]

Will all of the Chaezy Champs matches be posted? Would like to watch them. Also I never saw skystalker at the event.

[Ty Tremblay]

Will all of the Chaezy Champs matches be posted? Would like to watch them. Also I never saw skystalker at the event.

Yes. They're on the casting computer on its way back to Washington FIRST. As soon as its back, we'll upload the rest of the matches as fast as we can.

[Nick Mercadante]

Side note, if anyone has pictures or vids of #EJRoomba before and after EJ heads were added along with screenshots of it being featured on FRC GameSense, could you post them? Looking to compile all of its media footage.

[Boe]

Side note, if anyone has pictures or vids of #EJRoomba before and after EJ heads were added along with screenshots of it being featured on FRC GameSense, could you post them? Looking to compile all of its media footage.

http://i.imgur.com/xh3oxMo.jpg

[Navid Shafa]

Side note, if anyone has pictures or vids of #EJRoomba before and after EJ heads were added along with screenshots of it being featured on FRC GameSense, could you post them? Looking to compile all of its media footage.

Can confirm, we have the EJ footage. You can pull a copy off the switcher box, before it ships back to FIRST WA if you want. Otherwise, we'll work on it when we get back. If you don't need audio, you could also get it from the VOD on Twitch.

[icecube45]

I had a great time at Chezy Champs this year,
my only complaints (constrictive criticism) would be
a: Try to space out the matches a bit more (we had 2 sets of back to back matches, and each time, our robot broke in the first match, resulting in 2 matches with a dead robot).

b: The "get to the chopper" 30 second mark was a bit distracting as a driver

[DampRobot]

b: The "get to the chopper" 30 second mark was a bit distracting as a driver

Although I wasn't driving, I thought it was hilarious. That, and Karthik and Paul's back-and-forth.

[MrTechCenter]

Although I wasn't driving, I thought it was hilarious. That, and Karthik and Paul's back-and-forth.

As a drive team coach, I honestly never even heard it once when we were on the field. I don't know if that's because we were focused on the match or because the sound didn't reach the floor well.

[icecube45]

As a drive team coach, I honestly never even heard it once when we were on the field. I don't know if that's because we were focused on the match or because the sound didn't reach the floor well.

I can't expect it annoyed everyone, when I'm driving I typically tune everything out (except the yelling of the drive coach). The get to the chopper really jarred me out of that focused zone thing.

[Pat Fairbank]

Team 254's FMS is far superior to FIRST's FMS system, and the graphics for scores, overlays, and rankings are beautiful and smoothly animated. The color displays above the driver stations with team names are awesome. Pedestal lighting and hot goal lights are correct. Scores update instantly, field lights respond instantly, and the assist counters appear instantly, which never happened before. There are no delays with anything here.

On top of all that, it was developed in months, vs. the years that FIRST has had to work on theirs.
Thanks. It was a fun project to work on and it was gratifying to see it work as intended, with no foghorned matches all weekend.

For those wondering about the couple of delays on Saturday, Cheesy Arena was picking up on sporadic dropped packets between all of the team's driver stations and robots after all the robots were connected prior to the match. We delayed starting the matches to investigate and looked at the switch logs to figure out if there was any abnormal traffic, but didn't find anything. The packet loss went away as soon as we started the matches, and all six robots remained connected throughout. We finally figured out the root cause during the quarter-finals on Sunday -- the wireless handheld camera from the PNW A/V setup transmits at 5GHz, and was causing packet loss while it was on and in certain positions relative to the field/robots. Since we would switch to the full-field camera at the start of the match and shut the handheld off, the problem was never manifesting during the match itself and so was more difficult to troubleshoot.

We'll be releasing the source and binaries to Cheesy Arena within the next couple of weeks, once I remove the CC branding and write some documentation.

The lights are custom -- the Phillips lights and DMX controllers are prohibitively expensive so we made our own, driven by an embedded processor which was controlled over the field network via UDP.

[AllenGregoryIV]

We'll be releasing the source and binaries to Cheesy Arena within the next couple of weeks, once I remove the CC branding and write some documentation.

I can't wait.

One thing I'm wondering is how easy will this be to run alongside the real FMS at regionals, just so we can use the graphics on web streams. Basically we would have to enter the match schedule and hand input scores, unless the new API gets integrated.

The event was awesome to watch live and I thank everyone that worked on it for showing us all how an FRC competition should be broadcasted.

It would be nice to know how much the setup cost for other off-seasons/regionals that want to invest in this. Plus how many people were dedicated to the production experience for the viewers.

[Mark Sheridan]

This was absolutely the best off-season event I ever been too. I can vouch for 766, 3309 and 3476, they had a fantastic time.

A few things I thought were awesome:
1. The Chezy Arena was fantastic. The pedestal lighting timing, and real time scoring were awesome. I thought the LCD displays for the driver stations were cool and very useful for making sure your robot was connected. Plus there was no arena faults that I was aware of, absolutely awesome.
2. The team of FTAs and mentors that were debugging robots on the field was amazing. They caught so many robot issues, got so many robots running and helped so many team fix their problems. They really made sure everyone got the most out of their matches.
3. The Refs were really good and there were only 4 of them. They made some very excellent calls. Plus they were super nice too.
4. Of course the best MCs Paul and Karthik, they had some really good match intros and play by plays. I am going to have to listen back to all their jokes.
5. The whole gamesense crew took this event to a whole new level. I am still processing how sureal have such a professional commentary at an robotics event. All my students were really proud to hear their name in match analysis. It was really inspirational for them to step into that limelight.

Overall, I was very happy to come to this event. I big thank you for all the volunteers for making this happen. I look forward to the 2015 chezy champs.

[Eugene Fang]

Who were the award winners?

The awards are up here: http://www.thebluealliance.com/event/2014cc

I was really disappointed that I moved out of the Bay Area in time to miss the inaugural Chezy Champs, but the production value of the GameSense stream and Cheesy Arena's nice score overlays made it an amazing remote-viewing experience.

Also, it was great to have Cheesy Arena publish scores, rankings, and alliance selections to TBA throughout the event. I hate hunting around for offseason event results, and the results were available faster than those for official FIRST events!

[Jonathan Norris]

We'll be releasing the source and binaries to Cheesy Arena within the next couple of weeks, once I remove the CC branding and write some documentation.

The lights are custom -- the Phillips lights and DMX controllers are prohibitively expensive so we made our own, driven by an embedded processor which was controlled over the field network via UDP.

Cheesy Arena was incredible Pat, I was blown away by it. I probably watched the arena/video setup more for the first hour I was there then the matches. Looking forward to taking a peak at the code.

FIRST is missing a HUGE opportunity to improve their code (FMS/CRio libraries/Driver Station/ect.) by not open sourcing it all. There are so many incredible student and mentor programers that could help build the future of FIRST if they just let us send pull requests... I hope you guys continue to lead the way in open sourcing everything and showing FIRST that a small group of students and mentors can build better systems then they could ever pay for.

[Pat Fairbank]

One thing I'm wondering is how easy will this be to run alongside the real FMS at regionals, just so we can use the graphics on web streams. Basically we would have to enter the match schedule and hand input scores, unless the new API gets integrated.

The event was awesome to watch live and I thank everyone that worked on it for showing us all how an FRC competition should be broadcasted.

It would be nice to know how much the setup cost for other off-seasons/regionals that want to invest in this. Plus how many people were dedicated to the production experience for the viewers.
That's a cool use case for Cheesy Arena I hadn't though of. I could add functionality to pull in a match schedule for an existing event, and then it wouldn't be that hard to run it standalone for the purpose of webcast overlays. The realtime scoring for this year's game only took two (albeit really capable) people, and you'd need one more to start/stop the match and control the overlays.

Other than the scorekeepers, we had one person on the video switcher and one camera operator, plus the six-person GameSense crew.

I can't speak to the cost of the production equipment since we got most of it with the PNW field we rented, but their forthcoming white paper should explain it. The field electronics added up to around $2000, which includes the networking hardware, LEDs, alliance station displays, and cables. Considerably less than the $100k+ cost of the official electronics, judging by how much insurance offseasons using them are expected to obtain.

[Metonym]

I can't speak to the cost of the production equipment since we got most of it with the PNW field we rented

You guys received a slightly modified version of what we used at most events, lets just say our inventory lists are bit messed up right now and I don't know what was sent. But I can still give the value of the equipment we generally take to districts, which is about $20,000+. I'm being a bit generous, there is a lot of stuff that is being tested and stuff we need to inventory before I can really be sure of our gear cost.

forthcoming white paper should explain it

Oh don't remind me. I don't know how close we are to finalizing that. The FIRSTWA staff isn't very large and there is always something else that takes priority.

On another note, I sadly didn't get the chance to sit down and watch the broadcast properly, but after seeing the VODs I was a bit disappointed in some production choices. Otherwise it looked great and I congratulate the Game Sense crew on a great first event as a production team. Did the highlight reel get posted anywhere?

[Nuttyman54]

Did the highlight reel get posted anywhere?

I should have the highlight reels posted tonight, didn't have enough time to get them up before we left Cali.

[AdamHeard]

What a great event!

Everything about it was pleasant... it's just the little things that add up.

The match timing was hectic, which is common for CA offseasons... but usually we're not playing such good teams every match and have more room to breath!

I hope everyone enjoyed me embarrassing myself in a "Bro-Tank", my team always comments I take things too seriously so I figure if there was any event to be Chezy it was this one. I apologize for anyone suffering from eye damage due to the paleness.

As for our performance, I think it is a great reminder to our students (and other teams) that the phrase , "Fail to plan, plan to fail" is always true. A lot of little details were overlooked going into the event, and these add up to bite you. This combined with the completely unforseeable failure of driveshafts made us play awful. I know my student leaders will learn a great deal from this painful lesson. I hope no one gets offended by this, but winning a non-champs event as a 3rd is not how 973 would like to win events.

As for our drive failures, we started snapping our gearbox output shafts (3CIM ballshifter we turned to .5" round then milled to 7/16" hex, snapped at that junction) at this event and ran out of spares Sunday morning. We actually didn't even have spares made, we just pulled them from practice bot. Similar geometry hasn't failed on us before, so this was scary. This game is far more intense than previous years though. The same shafts did last our 2nd regional and champs for reference. This combined was terrifying to us as we couldn't predict when they'd break again (as some had lasted several events, some had lasted 3 matches). If we broke another in elims we'd have to be subbed out.

For other small and combined reasons, we weren't able to reliably shoot top goal or truss (there was a time lag on the truss release, which made aiming to the HP very difficult). We also were bending frame in a way that made our intake incapable of picking up balls in most matches. All of these will be fixed of course!

I warned most of the alliance captains I could find, because 973 is very conservative when drafting teams, as I would appreciate knowing such risks about potential picks.

We very much appreciate our buddies on 1678 and 254 taking chance on us, I guess it was easier for their alliance to take the risk for two reasons. First, they were darn good. Second, they knew the next seeded team was 114, who was likely the quality of their non-973 options anyway. So if we died, they'd have a decent replacement.

For those accusing us of being deceptive, we're just as good of friends with 971 as the above teams, and they chose to PASS on us knowing the risks we had. If I were any of the alliance captains, I likely would not have picked us (except maybe in 1678's spot, knowing 114 was the backup). I'm glad we broke no shafts in elims, as it would have been very upsetting to us to let others down.

We are also grateful to teams 4543 and 5136 for allowing our scouts to work with you for alliance selections. Our students were bummed that the scouting they practiced wouldn't be useful for guiding picks for 973, so being able to discuss and have some input with picks of other teams was a cool experience for them. Sounds like some of the students made some new friends out of it too.

Watch out for 5136 in the future, they're a team that gets it. They work within their means and are looking to also increase their resources. I'm excited for their potential.

Overall it was a well run event and lots of fun. The humor the Paul/Karthik combo brought along with the reduced seriousness of the event was a nice change of pace compared to the typical event. I hope (and expect!) an even bigger and better Chezy Champs next year!

[Michael Corsetto]

254, thank you so much for showing the world how truly awesome competitive robotics at the FRC level can be. When you combine passion, skill and an unwavering desire for excellence, its no wonder Chezy Champs has become the best event in FRC.

And it goes a lot deeper than proper pedestal and hot goal timing:

The signage was clear and helpful.
The food vendors were many.
The atmosphere was relaxed but energetic.
I didn't hear a single kid yell "ROBOT" all weekend.
FTA's could debug problems faster with the diagnostics page on their smartphone.
They took a break between qualification matches and alliance selection to let us make pick lists.
Elimination Matches ended on time.
API to put match data in the hands of the GameSense crew.
No fog horns.
Few penalties.
Scorekeepers keeping score so the refs could call the game.
Awesome trophies.
And the list goes on...


Poofs, you put on an incredible event. I can't thank you enough.

And a HUGE thank you to the GameSense crew and FIRST WA for helping make this event possible. GameSense worked unbelievably hard to put together the best live coverage of an FRC event in history. They truly are the ESPN of FIRST and its a shame we can't clone them to cover every event. FIRST WA, thanks for sending the field and AV equipment, you guys have an incredible set up!

Huge thanks to 254 and 973 for taking our all-Einstein, "Suns Out, Guns Out" alliance all the way. Nice to play on the same side of the glass for once this season.

Thanks to 971, 846 and 2135 for making the finals the most epic matches I've ever seen. It was amazing how high the scores were with all that defense!

Special thanks to our friends on 148, 1318, 1983 and 2928 for coming from out-of-state for this event. We hope you want to come back next year, and maybe bring some of your friends with you! **cough** 118 **cough**

This really was the Best in the West. We can't wait for CC 2015!

-Mike

Side note: For those of you interested, I told 973 on Sunday morning that there was no way they would be available as a 24th pick, and I would literally do a backflip if we got to pick them. Well, it happened, and here is that backflip (http://youtu.be/kWwEW7I6FNM?list=UUImdYAIhFgueAGw8U_6lPkg).

[icecube45]

Second, they knew the next seeded team was 114, who was likely the quality of their non-973 options anyway. So if we died, they'd have a decent replacement.



ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ We're decent! ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ

[Citrus Dad]

Weren't you ranked 7th and on the 6th seeded alliance in 2013 (http://www.thebluealliance.com/team/1678/2013) at Central Valley? (still counts as </= 2 years as far as I'm aware.)

Just because you played the draft intelligently and ended up winning the competition with a solid robot doesn't mean you can claim a number 1 or 2 seed out of it. ;)


urrrr, right...:o We like to forget that part....

[Citrus Dad]

I second Mike's comments. Incredibly fun. Every match seemed to count toward having an impact on the final rankings and alliance choices. 254 demonstrated that we can have a high quality event outside of Regionals for a reasonable cost. All in all a great success.

My only complaint - the match schedule had us competing with and against several teams (e.g., 2928, 846) 3 or 4 times, while we never were in a match with others (e.g., 3476, 696). Not sure what's the setting on matchmaker to avoid that problem. I know that the Poufs were rushed at the end due to late drops. Only a minor complaint.

[Francis-134]

We have posted the raw images of all the robots at the event at our imgur (http://imgur.com/a/ce5Pn#27). These are the same images you may have seen over the weekend.

[AllenGregoryIV]

We have posted the raw images of all the robots at the event at our imgur (http://imgur.com/a/ce5Pn#27). These are the same images you may have seen over the weekend.

Thanks for posting this. Now to do this at every event, with a custom background per event. Seems pretty easy to do it as part of inspection. Perhaps have the back ground right behind the scale. Get weighed and get your photo taken.

[Nuttyman54]

Thanks for posting this. Now to do this at every event, with a custom background per event. Seems pretty easy to do it as part of inspection. Perhaps have the back ground right behind the scale. Get weighed and get your photo taken.

Better yet, integrate it with FMS and a high quality webcam. Put your robot on the scale, get the weight, take a picture, it's automatically labeled and linked to the FMS. Then have it published on the FIRST website team list and show them before each match.

[billbo911]

We have posted the raw images of all the robots at the event at our imgur (http://imgur.com/a/ce5Pn#27). These are the same images you may have seen over the weekend.

Weren't there 34 teams in attendance? It looks like someone got left out.
Hmmm, who might that have been?

[Francis-134]

Weren't there 34 teams in attendance? It looks like someone got left out.
Hmmm, who might that have been?

While I'm sure you know, it was your team! We didn't get a picture of you guys until Saturday morning, so we added it really quickly on Saturday, and it was in another directory.

The other missing team is 254, but the photo was theirs, so I do not feel it's appropriate to re-post it.

[hionwind]

I think that Mike Corsetto summed up my feelings about Chezy Champs pretty well so I don't have much to add. I will say that I had more fun at this event than at any regional we have attended in recent history. The atmosphere was very relaxed and supportive of students which is really what FIRST is all about.

The idea to run awards during elimination matches was a brilliant move. No-one likes to hang around for another hour or two once finals are done.

The elimination matches were some of the most exciting we have played this season and that includes our matches against 254 on Einstein. Thank you to all of the amazing teams (especially those who travelled from afar) who cranked up the excitement level.

So I really want to extend a huge thank you to the Poofs and all the other volunteers who helped make this a landmark off-season event. We are already looking forward to Chezy Champs 2015.

[AustinSchuh]

FTA's could debug problems faster with the diagnostics page on their smartphone.



Nobody planned for that to be possible, but the initial design decisions that Pat made made that possible. That was very handy, and saved a bunch of time. Go Pat! I hope FIRST makes that possible with the new system.

[Deetman]

Nobody planned for that to be possible, but the initial design decisions that Pat made made that possible. That was very handy, and saved a bunch of time. Go Pat! I hope FIRST makes that possible with the new system.

While I do not know all the capabilities your software has, FTAs at official events have the capability to view diagnostics via phone or tablet if they so choose.

[Karthik]

Simply put, in terms of the overall experience, Chezy Champs was easily the best off-season event I've attended. In fact, it might have been the best FRC event I've ever attended. It was nice to be at an event where the focus was on the teams, and all the volunteers worked to make sure the teams had the best experience possible. The event was what I would call "team friendly", which is something many FRC events have lost over the years. Each and every volunteer was most concerned with the teams having a great time, as opposed to being focused on their own experience. It was crazy how big of a difference this made in the event atmosphere.

Essentially the organizing committee found a way to capture all the things that make FRC awesome, while discarding the things that we've all grown frustrated with. I know I walked away with a lot of mental notes that I'm going to be taking forward to any events I end up being involved with in the future.

Thanks to Team 254 for inviting me out to this event and being such amazing hosts. It's been a long time since I've actually had fun MCing an FRC event, so thanks for reminding me what this all supposed to be about. Schedule permitting, I'll absolutely be back next year.

[Nuttyman54]

GameSense has posted a survey (https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VS376MM)to get some feedback from everyone who watched the event either in-person or online. Please help us improve for next time!

[DampRobot]

Simply put, in terms of the overall experience, Chezy Champs was easily the best off-season event I've attended. In fact, it might have been the best FRC event I've ever attended. It was nice to be at an event where the focus was on the teams, and all the volunteers worked to make sure the teams had the best experience possible. The event was what I would call "team friendly", which is something many FRC events have lost over the years. Each and every volunteer was most concerned with the teams having a great time, as opposed to being focused on their own experience. It was crazy how big of a difference this made in the event atmosphere.

Yes! I never thought of it at the time, but looking back on it, I can't think of a single time where a volunteer decided to yell at me or anyone else. I think that's the first time that's ever happened to me at an event. The volunteers were all so cool, and focused on everyone having a good time. To anyone that volunteered, thank you so much.

I also loved that the event was both chill, but really focused on performance. It's not like everyone was running around red lined on adrenaline, but the event was set up so every team was called to compete on the highest level they could. This is in contrast to the regionals I've been to, where there a very tangible level of stress around the teams and volunteers, but at the same time, the event seems to be more focused on being a "STEM celebration" as opposed to a competition (at least compared to Chezy Champs).

Oh yeah, and the field was everything it was supposed to be. Professional looking graphics, quick to connect, perfect timing, zero scoring/pedestal issues, and best of all, zero foghorns!

Lets just make every regional like CC!

[icecube45]

Yes! I never thought of it at the time, but looking back on it, I can't think of a single time where a volunteer decided to yell at me or anyone else. I think that's the first time that's ever happened to me at an event. The volunteers were all so cool, and focused on everyone having a good time. To anyone that volunteered, thank you so much.


This exactly,
I've had some pretty bad experiences with volunteers at regionals, the ones at CC were very relaxed and helpful, compared to some of the bad volunteers I've seen, these ones actually wanted to be there (or at least acted like so).

[Jeremy Germita]

To echo everyone else's comments, Chezy Champs was the best FIRST event I've ever attended.

Team 5012 walked away from the competition with many lessons learned from the highest caliber of west coast teams. The eliminations matches were amazing to watch. Kudos to all eliminations teams!

After suffering from many robot issues all weekend, we'd like to extend our most sincere thanks to the following entities:

Team 254 and Bellarmine College Preparatory
The constant advice and assistance throughout the weekend was very much appreciated. From our arm getting destroyed in quals 2 to our constant software and electrical issues, your help has been extremely valuable.
Also, thanks to Bellarmine for housing the event. BCP was possibly the best venue for an FRC event I've seen, rivaling even the Championship Event. Signage was very clear, volunteers were helpful, and pits were spacious, ventilated, and well lit.

Team 1678
Thanks so much to team 1678 for assisting us after our arm failure in our first match! The materials and advice given to us by your pit crew members was critical in us getting a functioning intake working before remainder of our qual matches. Citrus Circuits are a class act and I really enjoy attending an event with them as they strive to raise the competition all the while setting the bar themselves.

Also special thanks to 8, 399, and 5136 in lending us more parts and materials to get some things working!

Personally, I hope to be back in some capacity for Chezy Champs 2015!

Congratulations to every team who attended and thanks for making it a memorable experience! Hope to see a few of our SoCal friends at Fall Classic and Battle at the Border!

[MARS_James]

I would love an explanation on something that happened during Alliance Selections, Karthik said that Code Orange had Velcro on their scouting sheet can either he or someone from the team elaborate/show a picture of what he saw. The idea intrigues me but sound like a practicality nightmare and would love to know how they did it.

[icecube45]

I would love an explanation on something that happened during Alliance Selections, Karthik said that Code Orange had Velcro on their scouting sheet can either he or someone from the team elaborate/show a picture of what he saw. The idea intrigues me but sound like a practicality nightmare and would love to know how they did it.

I got a glance at it at competition, if I'm remembering correctly, each team at the competition had a little Velcro piece that they could move around, perhaps in order of preference.

[saikiranra]

I would love an explanation on something that happened during Alliance Selections, Karthik said that Code Orange had Velcro on their scouting sheet can either he or someone from the team elaborate/show a picture of what he saw. The idea intrigues me but sound like a practicality nightmare and would love to know how they did it.

Its essentially a page that has team numbers written on different velcro pieces. They make their pick list by organizing the teams on the page, and remove teams that are chosen as alliance selection goes on. The page may also be divided into a few sections, like a DNP List, an inbounder list, and so on. Its a quick, easy way to figure out whats going on and make good choices without looking at data during selection.

I believe that Gary Hedge, who mentored Team 980, introduced it to them.

[Mark Sheridan]

Its essentially a page that has team numbers written on different velcro pieces. They make their pick list by organizing the teams on the page, and remove teams that are chosen as alliance selection goes on. The page may also be divided into a few sections, like a DNP List, an inbounder list, and so on. Its a quick, easy way to figure out whats going on and make good choices without looking at data during selection.

I believe that Gary Hedge, who mentored Team 980, introduced it to them.
Yep Gary Hedge invented this back on 980, back in the day. Gary now mentors 3476. Funny thing is Gary's velcro sheet wound up being used by 3309. So both 3476, and 3309 were right next to each other in the rankings, thus were next to each other in line with very similar pick lists.

The 3309 students loved this system and are very thankful for Gary teaching them. Gary uses it to gut check the quantifiable atributes. Its then used as the pick list.

[Nato]

I would love an explanation on something that happened during Alliance Selections, Karthik said that Code Orange had Velcro on their scouting sheet can either he or someone from the team elaborate/show a picture of what he saw. The idea intrigues me but sound like a practicality nightmare and would love to know how they did it.

Yes, as others have stated, Code Orange adapted this system from Gary Hedge and team #980.

For those wanting a more in-depth explanation, 3476's velcro board consists of several lines of velcro ("loop" side) on the inside of our Scouting Binder. Each team's number is printed out and glued to smaller pieces of velcro ("hook" side). The pieces are color-coded to provide another visual cue. For each year, we assign other visual markings to indicate "classes" or capabilities of robots. For example, we might have marked a 2013 5+ disk autonomous robot with a green "5" or a full-court shooter with a purple dot.

Teams are generally arranged "top to bottom, left to right" style. Sometimes teams possessing a certain attribute (say, goalie pole or exceptional defense) will be ranked in a separate column of their own.

The nice thing about this system is that it is extremely liquid. It adds a qualitative level to our quantitative data (and yes, before anyone asks, Code Orange does take qualitative data as well). For example, say that the head scout notices team #XXXX is scoring 50 points per match, but falters under defense. Meanwhile, team #YYYY is scoring 45 points per match, but consistently plays through defense. The velcro board allows the scouts to reflect observations that might not be quite as visible in the "hard data."

Since teams are removed after they are selected, it is also very handy to take a look at the board during Alliance Selections and see teams that might be slipping through the cracks. Yes, we have our "hard data" that we bring on the field for Alliance Selections too, to compare findings with our alliance partner and to make last-minute references.

It has worked very well for us the past three years.

[Max Boord]

Teams are generally arranged "top to bottom, left to right" style. Sometimes teams possessing a certain attribute (say, goalie pole or exceptional defense) will be ranked in a separate column of their own.
So would the person going out to the field for alliance selections have 2 lists (1st and 2nd round pick) or would the list(s) be for things like defense, offence and capability of doing XYZ task?

Also, what happens if a team (469 for example) rolls around where they would fit into multiple categories. would they have multiple pieces of velcro to allow them to be ranked in both the offensive and goalie pole categories or just a dot? What about a team like 973 who clearly has an offensive robot but plays great defense for most of the match?

[Nato]

So would the person going out to the field for alliance selections have 2 lists (1st and 2nd round pick) or would the list(s) be for things like defense, offence and capability of doing XYZ task?

Also, what happens if a team (469 for example) rolls around where they would fit into multiple categories. would they have multiple pieces of velcro to allow them to be ranked in both the offensive and goalie pole categories or just a dot? What about a team like 973 who clearly has an offensive robot but plays great defense for most of the match?

Of course, each of our lead scouts have done it slightly differently, so it's hard for me to give you a definite answer ;)

We've never yet divided our pick lists into a defined "First Pick" and "Second Pick" columns. The danger in that I've noticed is that if a team slips through the "First Pick" list then you might disregard them even though they can still fill your "Second Pick" criteria. Furthermore, we don't generally divide the entire field into columns for offense, defense, etc., as many robots possess both of these qualities. That's what the labeling system that I explained earlier is used for. Rather, we have one large list arranged from top to bottom and left to right. To explain a bit better, we might consider each row or few rows a "tier," and robots to the further left would be top of the tier. The individual columns I explained earlier would be for robots that displayed one attribute outstandingly, and we were paying special focus on them for that attribute.

So to answer your second question, each team only gets one piece of velcro, but a team like 469 might get three different color dots (one for defense, one for offense, one for pole). Of course, these attributes would probably put them very high on the overall list, too :p 973 would probably be in a similar situation.

EDIT: I apologize for my first official thread de-rail.

[Steven Donow]

Do you have a picture of this system?

[Citrus Dad]

Cool! I'd be interested in seeing that in action.

Can you start a thread in the Scouting section on this?