What went right?

[Cuog]

There have been a lot of threads and posts going around on what sorts of things have gone wrong this year, along with complaints, constructive criticisms, and possible solutions. But I think we need to look at the other side of the equation. So here it is, what does everyone think went right?

I'm sure there is something from this year that everyone liked, so lets point it out. Most importantly what do you guys want next year? What should stay?

[StephLee]

I love the insane strategy of this game, and for some reason I love how the matches can be so close even if the final score doesn't show it. For example, if an alliance loses 128 (row of 7) to 30 (a 12-inch lift), all they needed was one spoiler in the right spot and the score would have been 16 to 30.

[Lil' Lavery]

At VCU:
~The yellow/red card system
~The gameplay during the elminations
~The cooperation between teams
~Pretty close to being on schedule
~Not many teams missed matches
~The scoring system
~The Chairman's interview system
~Containment of the Norwalk virus ;)
~No major injuries I knew of
~The MC and Announcing crew was the best in FIRST (as usual)
~The food
~The vex "petting zoo" and other Vex & FVC related displays
~Team spirit
~The venue as a whole
and tons of other things I can't think of at the moment

[meatmanek]

all they needed was one spoiler in the right spot and the score would have been 16 to 30.

Ahh, but it seems getting that one spoiler on the rack is the hardest thing to do in this game.

But yeah, that's pretty cool.
What's also really interesting to me is the fact that we've seen a lot of low-scoring qualification rounds, where an alliance that gets over 60 has probably won the match, then in elimination rounds we see really high-scoring rounds, where an alliance that gets under 60 has probably lost the match.

[StephLee]

Ahh, but it seems getting that one spoiler on the rack is the hardest thing to do in this game.


That makes it just that much more amazing if a team does it. Spoiling a row, when it's done at the right time, will be almost more exciting than making a row worth spoiling.

[Koko Ed]

There were no scoring software problems at FLR or field problems. In face I haven't heard of any of those problems at all this year.
FIRST deserves a pat on the back for that.

[Andrew Blair]

Scoring was excellent. And at Pittsburgh, I never saw a match restart, a huge improvement over last year.

[StephLee]

Scoring was excellent. And at Pittsburgh, I never saw a match restart, a huge improvement over last year.

I forgot to mention that earlier, that was a DEFINATE leap forward from the constant restarts and delays during the elims last year.

Also, for such a complex game, the visual scoring representation seems to be fairly easy for spectators to understand, even if the actual scoring isn't.

[ChuckDickerson]

The Bayou Regional Planning Committee did a great job at Bayou. The venue in New Orleans was great. There was plenty of space all around. The Marti Gras parade and party line were really cool and unique. I bet no other regional got Marti Gras beads thrown to them by Andy Baker! The robot traffic flow was better than any regional I have ever been to.

We are happy to report that New Orleans is alive and just as much fun as ever. The sweet sounds of jazz and zydeco flowed in the streets and, of course, the choice of food in New Orleans just can't be beaten! Laissez les bons temps rouler!

[Josh Fox]

from what I've heard (being a rookie) this has been one of the more challenging games over the past few years. it may not be that fast-paced, but it requires lots of strategy and thought/logic skills:)

[Billfred]

I was at the Florida Regional for two of the three days (Friday and Saturday). Not once did I hear the foghorn. That alone puts a grin on my face.

[Michael Corsetto]

We had a HUGE practice field area at PNW. At times there were 7-8 teams on the field but we were all able to stay in certain areas and not get in each other's way. I remember after Fridays qualifiers we spent a good 40 minutes in front of the practice field rack, scoring ringer after ringer. We also got a compliment on our robot design from the FIRST president while we were practicing, which was something special :)

One of the main reasons I like going up north week one is because although there were still 50-something teams there, the pit is so wide open and relaxed and we get a lot of space to make all the last minute fixes that come with a week 1 regional.

[SURVIVORfan44]

This year's game seemed less brutal to me. I am a volunteer and I didn't pick up any parts on the field. Last year, I couldn't pick up the poof balls because I was busy picking up all the spare robot pieces.

This year's game embraced teamwork unlike any other.
Teamwork is very valuable every year, I know, but this year seemed different to me. At VCU, I saw the teams work together like never before. I was impressed. The teams that worked together the best won easily.

The game is very easy to score and tally up all the points. The referees seemed to enjoy it, being that there weren't as many penalties as last year and all.

The field set up was very easy to put back in place. Last year, it took a while with all those balls and the robots that still had balls stuck inside them.

This game wasn't as entertaining as last year, but I don't feel as if it's about entertainment. I think the importance of this year's game is the message it sent out to teams and the lessons learned.

[=Martin=Taylor=]

This game is easy to keep track of.

There were matches last year where so many balls were flying, and the scoring system was going haywire that it was impossible to tell who was wining.

It’s easier to watch.

[dtengineering]

We had a HUGE practice field area at PNW. At times there were 7-8 teams on the field but we were all able to stay in certain areas and not get in each other's way.

One of the main reasons I like going up north week one is because although there were still 50-something teams there, the pit is so wide open and relaxed and we get a lot of space to make all the last minute fixes that come with a week 1 regional.

If they packed teams into PNW like they do into Hershey Centre for the GTR, I figure Memorial Colliseum could hold over 100 teams.... and still be less crowded. Hmm... the PNW with 100 teams.... both sides of the stands open... I know we could fit two playing fields in there....

As for what went right... the scoring, the lack of fog-horns... and a ton of GP as per usual. All the good stuff is still there and we shouldn't let anyone think that the concerns and criticisms discussed in other threads negate that.

Jason

[sanddrag]

This year's game embraced teamwork unlike any other.
Teamwork is very valuable every year, I know, but this year seemed different to me. At VCU, I saw the teams work together like never before. I was impressed. The teams that worked together the best won easily.From being down on the field, I can definitely say you are 100% correct. I'm not sure if anyone saw me, but it was such an incredible experince as coach leaving my drivers behind and hopping over to the partner teams to make sure they had the information and direction they needed. I really was all over the allaince station, because that's what it took to get the job done. And to watch our partners keep our opponents off of us, and to push us back into the homezone when our drivetrain died, and to make that last minute dash onto our platforms, and to level out mid-lift, it was all just so incredible. This is a game that truly does take teamwork to succeed. The coordination we were able to achieve behind that window was just remarkable.

[MrForbes]

Pretty much everything went right.

Something specific that went right: I got to personally thank Ian Lao, Don Knight, Jeff Seaton, Steve Sanghi, Carol Popovich, and several others who helped make the Arizona regional happen.

[Luke]

I loved that in eliminations all 1st rounds of the 4 quarter final matches are played before moving to the 2nd rounds.

[Jeremytice]

This year at FLR everything ran very smoothly. There were no field problems and no scoring problems like Ed said. Also the matches were basically on time like scheduled! Great job FIRST!

[Bongle]

With just a few hiccups, the webcasts worked excellantly, though I wish that GLR had one.

The end-of-game ramp climbing is more exciting than last year, since you don't know if the robot can climb, or if the ramps will deploy.

[ChrisH]

The only restart we had at SoCal was due to human error. The announcer started the 3-2-1 while the IFI guy was still on the field and the guy pushing the button didn't notice. Since the robot he was checking out was one of the few with an automode and it went forwards, he left the field rather quickly when the start sounded.

There was a field problem but the IFI guy had not worked out just where it was before he beat a hasty retreat and he signaled us to stop the match.

Since it was the only time we restarted, we forgot to have teams reset their robots. Which resulted in another restart ...

Such a change from previous years when humans had nothing to do with causing restarts.

[Donut]

Relatively few field problems this year, the only time the fog horn sounded was in the second Qualifier at AZ (a robot didn't initialize to move, the same thing happened in the first match so both had to be replayed). Other than those delays, the times went smoothly as well; they were on time for all the alliance selections and ceremonies, and we were actually 15 minutes ahead of schedule on Friday and got an extra long lunch (something I've NEVER seen before, usually we're having to cut 15 minutes out of lunch to make up for lost time).

I also like the new ranking/scoring software, no crashes in the system, ever, plain and simple.

[Steve S.]

There were no scoring software problems at FLR or field problems. In face I haven't heard of any of those problems at all this year.
FIRST deserves a pat on the back for that.

i do believe there was one problem where they had to restart the match...

This year at FLR everything ran very smoothly. There were no field problems and no scoring problems like Ed said. Also the matches were basically on time like scheduled! Great job FIRST!

They were actually running about 10 mins ahead on thursday :)

[Alex Cormier]

There were no scoring software problems at FLR or field problems. In face I haven't heard of any of those problems at all this year.
FIRST deserves a pat on the back for that.

Actually yes there was.

Friday's last few matches had a issue because of the palm pilots which did the real time scoring had kept restarting themselves. The reaosn was because of a earlier match which had a penalty so they had to put it back into the system, so the system saw two of the same match and freaked out. but by staurday they fixed the issue. other then that FLR ram very smooth and we were actually on time for 90% of the event. i never thought that would have happened.

[Dan Petrovic]

The real time and final scoring.

It's outstanding this year. We were taking robots off of the field and the scores were up. I was very impressed with how fast they got the score up the first time they did.

[Cuog]

Well I'm glad that there are still things in the game that everyone enjoyed, I certainly enjoyed the amount of team work this brought about. Its really fun to have teams try to deal with differences in design and how to overcome not quite compatible designs(Omnis + Ramp = true challenge).

[JaneYoung]

One of the stories I'd like to share is from the Florida Regional.
I was taking a lunch break and one of the great referees who has been volunteering there for 11 years - asked about his PDA. He wanted to know who came up with that idea. He commented that it was fast and accurate and he loved it, just loved it. He said, "someone needs to tell whoever designed this that it is great!" He called it his PDQ (pretty darn quick). :)
Jane

[J Hayashi]

Our team loved that the gameplay required closer cooperation with the other teams. As mentioned before, the practice field at the PNW Regional was larger than past years. This allowed us and other teams to practice with each other. It was helpful in giving our driver the confidence to get up some of the narrower ramps.

The Gracious Professionalism showed by the teams at the Regional. Team 1318 gave us pointers on autonomous strategy and Team 1280 provided us with Anderson connectors to repair our backup battery connection. We played against Team 1280 in every match and they were still willing to help us.

On a more personal note: Our team had a great season! We were able to use pneumatics, learned how to create several new mechanisms, got the camera to work at home, and have students that want to stay involved in robotics year round.