2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

What did FIRST do particularly well this year?

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

The game was great from the spectator stand point and was a decent mix of all elements. This was probably the 2nd best game I have particpated in. (after 2004 which is a type of game we won't see again)

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

The game was easy to watch and score, the penalties were immediately given and there was very little delay as to who won.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

I second that.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

I agree the game was easy to follow and fun. Having live scoring including penalty points was great. Having a basketball theme in the middle of March Madness was an added bonus, planned or not. :) Though I did not get to attend the Finale, it was a huge improvement over last year from the description. Playing all teams on the dome floor again was right. Allowing MAR, so more teams could experience the district structure was good! Great Championship. Great support!

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

Besides the GDC giving us the best game in recent history, I would like to thank them for this years motor rules.

The amount of motor power we had to work with this year was fantastic and left a lot of options. I hope to see this and the pneumatic rules make it through to following years. Overall the rulebook was fairly well written (minus some issues with trolling, grappling, and appendages).

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

The game was awesome, the robot construction rules were wide open, and there was FINALLY a working/worthwhile vision system.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

The bridges were probably the coolest most dynamic and exciting bonus I have seen in FIRST. They provided an excellent challenge and rewarded good design and driving yet were simple enough with a little teamwork almost anyone could score on them. Rotate a similar element into the game every few years as this one was a winner.

More than Michigan can do the district model. I talked to a lot of MAR participants this year and while almost everyone had a very specific complaint, the season seemed to meet or surpass their expectations over and over.

I was truly shocked how many teams were able to shoot baskets. When the challenge was anounced, I thought this would be a horribly low scoring season. Overall, I am impressed with so many teams doing so well at scoring.

With 1114 winning the Chairman's Award, a lot of myths were "busted". Yes an international team can win. No you don't need a team of 100 students (I think 1114 is around 24). Yes field competitive teams are role models too.

Never judge a book by its cover. When Kareem Abdul Jabar was invited to be an honored guest, there a few vocal people against hero worship of pro-atheletes, only to find out KAJ is a huge supporter of STEM complete with even writing a book targeted to get middle school kids excited about inventors.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

FIRST Choice and Vouchers in the KOP. Making the KOP more flexible for teams is a huge win.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

I was just about to say FIRST Choice this year was better than ever. I like the freedom of choice. The $30 to Banebots voucher, Gates Belts/Sprockets and Bimba Cyllinders were also very welcome and appreciated by my team.

The game is the best I've ever seen in FRC (like the 2010 FTC game). It was very exciting to watch finals. It was nerve racking to see our opponents balance, knowing we had to do the same to win in less time. Box on wheels bots had a place; super stars were still super stars. The rules weren't constricting. Strategy could be the deciding factor when executed.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

Some more 2012 postives:

The bumper rules stayed the more or less the same from the previous few years. Although Bill Miller has mentioned that a special group will soon be tasked with reviewing the bumper rules and possibly revising them, I think they'll find that the seat of the problem is not with the rules, but instead with teams choosing to build something else instead. I hope they'll decide to keep the rules functionally the same and instead find new ways to reinforce the existing rules.

The KOP wheels were awesome.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

The co-opertition bridge, and it's effect on the rankings.

It allowed for some of the greatest matches (possibly ever,) to occur this year.

1114 vs 2056 at GTR West is a prime example of that.

It allowed 488 to seed #1 at Alamo, an event that 148, 118 or 1477 was expected to seed #1st.

But most importantly, it allowed for some great stories and great experiences for students and mentors alike to happen.

-Nick

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

At the risk of sounding repetitive, this year's game was incredible. Easy to follow, fun, high scoring, and required robots to be good at all aspects of gameplay. The co-op bridge also added a meta-strategic aspect, which made alliance selections much more exciting, in my opinion.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

I challenge everyone to make The Positive thread longer than The Negative thread.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

This year's game produced an unbelievable number of dramatic matches that came down to the last few seconds. Yet it didn't suffer from a problem of the end game being worth too much. Almost all of our team's matches this year was close until the end, which made the competitions very exciting. And the game is already pretty spectator friendly because of its simplicity and its basketball theme.

Coopertition bonus was great. It embedded a value of FIRST into the game in an effective way. It also evened out the impact of randomly drawing an easy or difficult qualifier schedule, which was nice.

I like the design trade-offs that this year's game design forced by making the elimination rounds score differently than the qualification rounds. Some people griped about that, but it made for a great engineering design challenge.

Edit: The instantaneous final score in most matches was also great.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

The ability they had this year to have the score update nearly instantly and accurately during the match and then having the final score available in under 10 seconds after the match was over is a huge improvement.

I remember during our rookie year in 2005 we had some matches occur at FLR (which also might have been compounded by the fact it was the very first year that regional took place) that we didn't find out what the score was until after the proceeding match was already over with.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

1. I loved the game this year. It was fun and exciting. Eliminations proved that the #1 seed would not always be Champs. Lots of things for teams to do and everybody could do something. I think this game may go down as my favorite, if not a close 2nd to 2004.

2. KOP was terrific this year. Lots of choices in motors, pneumatics and other components available through FIRST Choice, gates, and vouchers.

3.Pretty well written rules. There were some serious gaps but it mostly made sense.

4. Real time scoring. It is nice to know where you stand during the match and if you won or lost as soon as the match ended.

You know, if people can just let the field issues, 2012 was really a great year. Some reasons why:

Rebound Rumble was a great game. It's spectator friendly, and fantastic to play. Watching the balances was really an incredible sight. Plus games like Rebound Rumble of Breakaway are always great, cause they make my job of explaining what we do to not FIRSTers a lot easy. People always respond better to our robot plays soccer or basketball then to years when I say it hangs inner tubes or shoots these moon balls. (not slamming those games, just to the public there harder to explain).

I love the faster reveal times on final match scores. Doing everything electronic like that was a fantastic idea, and props go to whoever at HQ pushed that through.

The overall policy of having the Finals hand shake moved from after the first Finals Match to before finals begins is a very welcome one. Props to Blair Hundertmark and whoever else was involved in that change for making it happen.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

The coopertition bridge, at least assuming the intent was to mix up the rankings giving the non-power house teams the ability to rank higher and possibly end up in a picking instead of pickee position.

Simplified penalty/foul rules and imediate scoring adjustments based upon those fouls.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

The triple balance. It was the single, most exciting thing I have seen at a FIRST event. I don't want to do the research, but I doubt many #8 alliances have won regionals before, let alone three in one season.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

The game was cool and encouraged some automation.

The Kinect was interesting, not sure I like it, but it sure was funny watching people mess with it.

The mess with communications was finally acknowledged. (A lot of the positives shown here are fixes for old issues...you can't fix what you don't acknowledge.)

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

-Relatively Accurate Real Time Scoring. Made for some nail biting matches, especially at the CMP.

-An "easy" but important Autonomous Mode. It wasn't that hard for most teams to at least contribute something in Autonomous.

-Exciting end game. The bridges were easy to explain to someone at first glance and were huge crowd pleasers. (ALMOST made up for minibots in 2011.)

-Relaxation of many parts rules, including motors and pneumatics. Relax the bumper rules a hair or three and we're onto something good.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

I really liked the fact that I could describe this game in very simple terms to a community member not associated with FIRST. "We're making robots to play basketball" while a massive simplification gets the conversation going and opens the door with something intriguing. Logomotion was difficult to make seem fun and interesting to the unitiated: "We pick up inner tubes and hang them on a wall of pegs..." Again, the end-game was easy to figure out: more robots balancing = more points.

Kudos to the GDC for making this a fun, challenging game, with broad based appeal for non-FIRSTers.

PS, I think anyone who wants to post in the negative thread should have to post here first.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

Our performance at Alamo was on par with those other teams, though, so I feel that we would've seeded well in the absence of CP.

We seeded 64th in our division despite on-field scoring performance in the top 10% of the division, also as a consequence of CP. It's a double-edged sword.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

Agreed! Teams not showing up to balance significantly hurt our ranking as well.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

Dont overthink the game. At the beginning we were trying to program full autoalign and shoot with the camera, and once we got to st louis we had removed all camera tracking code and were doing manual alignment for everything including auton. It worked so much better for us. Also realizing other special ways for auton was very helpful. In the very front position our auton was deadly accurate, and we were fed balls by another teammate, and this worked very well.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

The Championship FRC pit layout was well done. I could quibble with the placement of Pit Administration, but it wasn't a problem.

The response to the call for lots of experienced robot inspectors was fantastic. Among other things, I don't think any teams had to wait to unbag their robots due to a lack of an authorized person to "unlock" the bag.

I actually thought the bumper rules were pretty good. (It's not the manual's fault if teams miss implications like "unless you actually have at least 8 inches of frame on each side of a corner to protect, you won't be in compliance with the rule that bumpers must protect at least 8 inches of frame on each side of a corner.")

The black volunteer shirts were a good choice. They didn't show the accumulated grime of several days of working around robots. (They also didn't show perspiration.)

Retroreflective vision targets and camera ring lights are a very good combination.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

The number one thing I liked was: the bridge method of coopertition made coopertition virtually mandatory without rules to mandate it.
Teams figured out early on that you had better be discussing coopertition strategies in queue or earlier.
There was a slight negative side-effect of sometimes arguing with your own alliance as to who 'got to' cooperate.
Interestingly to me, was the fact that, in quite a few matches, teams cooperated instead of winning. (i.e. the match was within 10 points and their own bridge was empty) Largely because (IMO) it became a big negative to promise to cooperate and fail to follow through.
I am interested to see if FIRST can come up with something so effective next season. And how the teams will adjust to it.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

+1 on the retroreflective tape + LED rings. Even though this year we blazed a different trail by using Kinect, I was really impressed by the quality of image masking that teams were getting in their vision systems this year.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

No backorder on the game balls.

No FTC parts mandated.

Variety of robots and drivetrains. Game design and rules allowed a great variety of winning designs.

FIRST released videos showing specific aspects of the field (e.g. the bridge video showing the use of two batteries to achieve the correct force needed).

More options for gearboxes for the 5xx and 7xx motors.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

Both of these, x1000.

Seconded.

When I'm not in the middle of finals, I will certainly add my few cents to this thread.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

1. The scoring. Both the instant nature of it and the points were balanced this year so it was hard for teams to "run away" and kept the scores close.

2. Understanding what the game is. "Shooting basketballs and balancing on a teeter-totter" is a lot easier for someone outside of FIRST to understand compared to "hanging specific-shaped inner tubes in a specific place on a rack and having a smaller robot climb a pole" (nothing against Logomotion for the game itself, as it was still a fun game).

3. The end game. It seemed like a lot of teams were able to accomplish it this year.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

The coop bridge was great. It made teams not only strategies with their own alliance but with the other as well. The extra interaction was a nice addition.

The absolute GP way all of the teams at Einstein behaved. With the field troubles the way these teams acted should be an inspiration to us all.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

Definitely to both.

And the bridges in general really engaged the audience. You could watch the body language, whole sections tilting their heads, or shifting to one side as if they could influence the balance remotely. And the universal cheer, or expulsion of held breath, when a last second teetering succeeded.. or failed.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

Many cheers for the smooth-scrolling ranking displays!

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

Quoted again because it really needs to emphasized!

Wooodie's remarks during kickoff. They were the best.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

Things I liked about this year:

The match turn around. FIRST really had it with Real Time Scoring this year. Not only were penalties and baskets pretty much instantly assessed, but one the match was over, the score was ready to be displayed within a minute, except under extenuating circumstances. While I admit I miss the climactic wait for the score presentation in the elimination matches, it was nice to have a much shorter match turnaround.

While a lot of people are hating on the Kinect, I thought it was a really cool aspect of the game. While I didn't think it was cool or useful enough to spend time implementing it on a robot, I thought it was a nice element to add to the game (especially considering it was optional). If nothing else, teams got a nice camera. I think, with a little refinement, it could be an awesome addition to the game.

Game versatility. In the past, there has been pretty much one thing you can do, and that's pretty much it. Here, you could have a shooter and a specialized bridge mechanism to be competitive, plus you could choose what baskets you want to score on. I think this game brought the most intense/interested end game in a good while, as well as numerous possible scoring designs for shooting.

The Coop bridge, in my mind, was a great addition to the game. The introduction of the coopertition award last year with minibot sharing was a good step, but incorporating an active game mechanism with it was a great way to demonstrate the ideals of FIRST. Though some teams may have 'abused' it, for the most part, it was still a great game element.

Bridge and bumps. The bridge's and bumps were a unique design challenge. It was kinda like the bumps in 2010, except a bit more interesting. I really liked it because I liked to see what teams came up with to overcome it. From the 1986 talons to the 148 stinger, from 16's drop down system to the many teams who had slides on their drive system, I thought it was a great way to see what teams come up with what.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

A shout out to Big Al, Ed Sparks and all the inspectors at CMP this year. What a great group this was to work with. (I was on the N & G side, but on the C & A last year). The inspectors were full of wisdom, humor and most of all, common sense.

After 2 years, I believe having dedicated people to "manage" the inspectors and process is a valuable addition to keeping the train moving to benefit all the teams.

I am hoping there is a way to sign up for this specific position in the VIMS in the coming season, as to not turn off volunteers who might be good at it. I worked with 2 volunteers who were new to the position, but who were so good at it I wasn't needed and was able to move to another position.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

You know it's a successful game when people come into the venue looking confused and a conversation like this happens:

- Can I help you?
- I'm looking for the robotics event.
- Well, you're in the right place! The field is right down there.
- No, I'm not looking for the basketball game, I want to see the robots!
- ... I understand your confusion. The robots are the ones playing basketball!


That said, a few other positives:
- The GDC is assembling a knowledgeable team to look at the bumper rules and make them clearer and more consistent for next year
- There were no horrible issues for any teams at both of the events I inspected at, and we managed to get everyone to their first match on Friday.
- The new rule distribution system seemed to work out well (onliine content management versus the old PDF's), and the rules were kept a bit shorter than in the past, which makes it easier to get through.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

Our team had a great experience at CMP this year.
The FINALE, even though it was raining.... was terrific!!
We got to go to the Science Center and the food was really good..I just wish we got there earlier so we could see more!!

I thought the volunteers were also terrific.... whenever we had a question it was answered to the best of the volunteer's ability and they went out of their way to find the right answer.

The field crews were quick and helpful.
We had plenty of room in the pits...

Being on the floor for all of our matches was also very nice.
Last year we only got one day there... this was much better!!

All in all, I think this was our best experience at CMP since our team started to go. We have been lucky enough to qualify for the past six years in a row and this was the best.

I guess the best thing about CMP is getting to know the other teams and we had great fun both on and off the field.

We hope to see you all next year!!!

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

Madstream's webcast aggregator was the best.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

Perhaps we could call them "Inspector Wranglers"?

I loved the game this year -- good balance of scoring between the game phases, exciting, easy to explain, wide variety of successful designs, and a generally thrilling endgame.

The KC and OKC regionals were well-run as usual, and MOREnet did their usual awesome job on the KC webcast and archiving.

Having the HOF positioned right up front and center by the pit entrance at Championships was much better.

On the build front, the KOP was lovely this year. I liked the new motor selection and the FIRST Choice options. It took us a bit to figure out how to use the ARA program, but that was also nifty.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

Though in name the threads are about positives and negatives, the general idea is "Things to work on" and "Things to build upon." Only natural for the 'things to work on' thread to be longer.


That said, I've got two.

1. Real-Time scoring will be key for all future FIRST games.
The ability for the drive team to calculate in their minds that they only need one robot on a bridge to secure victory rather than two can save valuable seconds (and something I did actually witness being behind a driver station and listening to drive teams) All other FIRST games from now on should see real-time scoring a priority. Having 5-second wait time for scores isn't that important, but it was really nice touch and should happen any time it can.

2. Shorter Opening Ceremonies = Good
I don't know if only the events I saw had shorter opening ceremonies, but I noticed that it was about 15-20 minutes shorter. This is a good thing. Condense opening ceremonies and keep some of the more valuable speeches till closing ceremonies or before alliance selection. It makes for a much more evened out day.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

The game was basically fantastic to play and watch, with a variety of successful strategies and plenty of opportunities for intelligent play. The scores were balanced pretty evenly between hybrid / teleop / bridges.

The autonomous mode had multiple tiers - easy (2 point dump, even 1 point was worth SOMETHING), average (top row scoring) and something a little extra (each bridge for extra points). This is a good standard to set for the future.

The end game could be completed by basically anyone who could drive, even if they couldn't push the bridge down themselves.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

I'm happy to say that I think I have more positives than negatives this year...

The game this year was amazing. Fun to watch, fun to play, fun to design. No absurd rules that ruined defensive strategies and no rules that refs called excessively (such as lane violations)

MAR: Upon finding out that NJ/Eastern PA/Delaware would be moving to the district system, I was pretty skeptical and unsure about it. I was afraid to miss the flair of traditional regionals and to just end up with dull, uneventful, lame events that felt like offseasons. Boy was I wrong. Not once did I feel that way. Everything was planned out perfectly, and it feels like FIRST gave MAR some nice leeway towards doing things on their own (Ed Petrillo gave a great analogy at Rutgers, comparing it to a 17 year old being handed a driver's license and keys to a car...that one was personal for me :D ). I can't wait for next season; I'm sure the few flaws of MAR will be fixed and it'll get better and better every year. And of course, how can you NOT love a water jug in the pits?

The actual format of the manual: The new, online manual was nice to have. It felt a whole lot easier to search through than in past years. It's easier to just click around than having to CTRL+F through a huge PDF document. Sure, the content had its flaws, but the format of it was great.

Instant scoring and instant penalties: No more thinking, "well, the score shows we won, but I'm not sure if there were any penalties". And I was skeptical about the loss of the dramatic wait to find out the final score, but having the instant score was awesome and a welcome change.

KOP: Motors, motors, motors. Add that to vouchers and FIRST Choice and it was awesome.

This is all I can think of now, I'm sure I'll come up with more later. Overall, many great things were done this great season*.

Of course, Dean's List Finalist is always a healthy ego boost :D

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

I loved this years game!

Bridges were a great endgame that most teams at your event could participate and we found creative ways to get those last few teams on the bridge at our last event which really made it an endgame that you just needed a drivebase for!

Real-time scoring was great!

Relaxed in game rules was nice along with real time penalties *although I wished they told you after the match quickly what penalties were called I saw several robots who kept committing the same foul in several matches I assume they never knew they were getting called for it. :rolleyes:

The field test videos FIRST came out with was a great asset! Even after seeing the field at kickoff I learned some more after watching the videos and I'm sure that a lot of teams valued these quick vids! Hope to see more next year!

While I thought this year was going to be a year full of clone/similar robots I really saw a wide variety of robots ours was no exception! ;)

Our team had a great two regionals this year. Our robot never had a mechanical issue so it was very relaxed as a team and the students enjoyed themselves after a long regional.

A lot was learned this year both good and bad but I for one was extremely with how the first half of 2012 went! 3467 learned a lot and our students are eager and preparing for 2013!!!

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

I absolutely loved the amount of motors allowed to be used.

More Power uh uh uh uh...

I really liked learning the limits of the 120 Amp breaker. It was painful at the time, but it turns out it will in fact limit the amount that can be drawn.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

A big lesson learned; don't trust opposing alliances to hold to their word on the co-op bridge. We strategized in every match to balance and twice the opposing alliance left us on the bridge holding the bag. I think that the co-op points were too valuable in this game; your standings were left-up to the opposing alliance. It’s a great idea, but I think the point system did not safeguard against the possible sabotage. It was a great experience one of the best games played!!!
“We don’t just build robots, we build character!”
Slok
FIRST Team 533

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

A big lesson learned; don't trust opposing alliances to hold to their word on the co-op bridge. We strategized in every match to balance and twice the opposing alliance left us on the bridge holding the bag. I think that the co-op points were too valuable in this game; your standings were left-up to the opposing alliance. It’s a great idea, but I think the point system did not safeguard against the possible sabotage. It was a great experience one of the best games played!!!
“We don’t just build robots, we build character!”
Slok
FIRST Team 533

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

I loved this years game.

I loved the Finale (City Museum).

I loved the Scholarship Breakfast.

I loved how the weather added intensity and suspense of the Einstein matches.

There was never a dull moment.

I didnt feel sick this year! *My chicken sandwich was pink this year and I didnt eat it!!*

My team did better than last year!!

I love EVERYTHING ABOUT FIRST!

* I posted in the negatives post because there are extremely minor things that were really bothering me *

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

Just as has been said, the game itself was great in so many ways, creating extremely exciting matches and unpredictable results.

I also loved instant score reports, as well as how penalties were scored. I think that made it very transparent to the spectators as well.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

I loved the game -- easy to explain, with interesting (and deceptively difficult) design challenges and a lot of strategy.

Real time scoring/penalties = great.

The KOP improvements, from motors to FIRST Choice, were just fantastic.

The video tour of the field was excellent and informative -- especially the bit about calibrating the inexpensive bridge!

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

I loved the instant scoring. Even though the delay in previous years made some great tension and anxiety, being able to know who won 10 seconds after the match sure does beat shutting the field down because of scoring issues. Go Buzz:)

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

My 75-year-old mother in law really enjoyed herself.
So did my 3-year-old son.

What more can you ask for?

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

I like the way that the GDC incorporated two primary objectives (shooting baskets and balancing on bridges) that drove the robot design in opposite directions and made you think. Tall (and top-heavy) is great for shooting baskets but lousy for balancing and vice versa. Long is more stable on the bridge, but wide is better for a triple balance. It required creativity to develop a comprehensive solution.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

I brought some friends from a nearby school to come watch. They didn't expect much when they arrived, but when we were puling off triple double balances at the end, I could hear them screaming, specifically, in the loudest I've ever heard a FIRST venue get.

This was my senior year, and I feel blessed to have played the most exciting, easy to understand, fast paced, robot-varied, KOP-open game ever. If the GDC can actually top Rebound Rumble, I might cry at the reveal.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

The Coopertition Bridge - I think it was great to have opposing alliances work together for a mutual benefit.

- Mr. Van
Coach, Robodox

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

I thought the game was an overwhelming success. One of the best design challenges in my time in FIRST (2005-Present).

One other thing I liked was that Hybrid, Teleop, Bridge, and Coop points were all tracked seperately and reported. This allowed for some cool statistical analysis, like Overall Hybrid points, TeleopOPR, etc..

It also allowed people to look further into a match to understand how it played out, specifically in elminations. If an alliance was a really high powered ball scoring alliance, but couldn't balance...you could see that in the data without watching the match.

Told a much more useful story than overall match scores.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

I really liked the ways that this year teams were more easily able to combine functions. last year it would have been a tad silly to put your mini-bot in your tube manipulator, but this year you got see teams who could use their bridge tipper to acquire balls, go over bumps, and maybe a couple other things I didn't notice.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

I liked that the seeding system this year (for the first time in a long, long time) didn't discourage defense, encourage scoring for the other team, or anything similar and instead rewarded an act of actual coopertition(TM).

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

As a rookie mentor on a rookie team, I was over come with all the emotion at our Regional (week 6 was a long wait). I was very inspired by Thursday " no robot left behind" done by all teams working as one large functioning group to better everyone. This is not what I grew up with coaching sports teams. Rookie team 4061 is still on fire with the ideas of FIRST.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

Vision targets were implemented well this year. Having multiple, large, basic shapes made vision a manageable task.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

Amen to that!!

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

I will second this, but it should have scrolled from 100th seed to first seed with the 30 second freeze frame containing the top seeded teams, just a thought.
mike d

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

Hm, this might make looking at the screen much more exciting!

I will give first a lot of credit for the field test info videos. They are much better laid out than Dean and Woodie's field tour, give facts and figures that teams need (try searching here on CD for tube height from last year), and are easily available online. Do more of them next year! (Maybe we will see part one?)

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

I agree - the video info clips were great. Though our experience was that the practice field bridges at regionals (didn't have a chance to check at championships) didn't quite behave as the video described - they took slightly less force. And the competition bridges "appeared" to take more. If FIRST is going to go to the effort of documenting expected behavior, there should be some way to confirm that the actual field behavior is consistent.

I can't condone one team mentor check bridge loading early one morning at the DC regional, but a mechanism to confirm that game elements are behaving as documented would be useful.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

I said this before but it's worth saying again, because it's bitten us more times than I'd care to admit:

In FIRST, assume all values are nominal.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

[quote=IKE;1165694]

With 1114 winning the Chairman's Award, a lot of myths were "busted". Yes an international team can win. No you don't need a team of 100 students (I think 1114 is around 24). Yes field competitive teams are role models too.

QUOTE]

This is a myth still. Most HOF teams have teams in the 25-40 range. And many have had much success on the field as well.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

1. The game was exciting.

2. The game was fun.

3. The game was easy to watch.

4. The robots will be great demo bots.

5. Championships was a blast, despite the problems encountered.

I could go on an on. The negative list will always overwhelm the positive, because negative events tend to stick in people's minds. Regardless, I had a great time at Champs! We're already talking about changes to make on the robot for the off season :yikes:

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

We didn't implement multiple target lock until just before MSC. It made a huge improvement in our vision ability.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

I liked that the fields were in the Dome this year and it was easier to scout instead of moving back and forth from the Dome to the Convention Center.

I also liked that they had other concessions there other than the boxed lunches.

I also liked that they had the Baseball game, which was super cool. I never been to a Cardinals game so it was pretty awesome. (My team didnt go, but the option was AWESOME)

The finale party at the City Museum was cool because they Recycled stuff to make a playground which was awesome!

I liked the atmosphere better this year than last year. :)

I think this thread should definitely be longer than the Negative.

LETS DO THIS! LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRROYY JENKINSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

There were many things that I liked about this year's game:

I liked that real time score during matches didn't make us wait until after the end of a match to know the winner.

Penalties points added to the other alliance score helped eliminated many of the 0-0 matches.

Coopertition bridge really changed the game by making working with other teams extremely important during matches.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

What I liked about this year is the quality of the events. Although I have never attended events prior to this year, the events seem to look better than previous years judging by videos of past years. It seem that everything from the scoring system, to the commentating, to the camerawork seems to be better this year.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

I thought the GDC nailed the bridge dimensions.

The length of the bridge was such that a triple balance was difficult but not unreasonable

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

That's a really good point. They must have looked at quite a bit to calculate out that length to make it something you had to really design for.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

For that matter the barrier was a great touch. They essentially eliminated the brick bot from contention -- to be useful, you had to be able to do *something* more than drive, whether it's manipulate the bridge or go over the barrier.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

Or shoot. You didn't necessarily have to cross the center.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

I think he was referring specifically to the "Rookie" brick-bots that are just basic KoP robots meant to play defense. You definitely couldn't just do that this year because than you'd be stuck in your own end. You either had to manipulate the bridge, or find a way to cross the center to be a useful defensive robot.

I of course use the term "Rookie" loosely as there were some incredible rookie teams this year.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

Yeah, great point. Even if you couldn't aim or sink a basket, being able to shoot -- that is, feed balls forward -- was at least useful!

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

Time for my contribution:

1. Best. Game. EVER!!!
2. I love that the District championships were on a stand alone week seven.
3. Much easier to deal with game pieces that didn't die within seconds of use.
4. Great volunteer food.


FOR WEEK 1 ALAMO:
San Antonio is very nice.
I am a big fan of convention center setups
The Time Warner and military personnel volunteers proved very useful.
Jon, Bharat and Joe. They kept the whole ship afloat.

FOR WEEK 2 FLR:
My favorite venue still.
My awesome veteran que team was on their game as usual.

FOR WEEK 3 MONTREAL:
The setup surpassed some concerts.
The coat check was a nice touch
The energy level was AMAZING!
The MC. Dan is a star in the making.
Kate. Without her the event never gets off the ground.

FOR WEEK 4 BOSTON:
Best field crew all year.
Angry Eric.
The JefFTA!

FOR WEEK 5 DC:
Liz and Cowboy Jesus!
The Americorps volunteers (a very awesome bunch of kids indeed)
Our lead que Patrick Fee
Great venue

FOR WEEK 6 QUEEN CITY:
Gorgeous venue
Best level of competition at a pure regional this season.
My Wisconsin based Que Crew
Paul ran a tight ship on the field making things go smoothly.


FOR WEEK 7 MSC:
Highest level of competition I've seen this yer.
Highly professional teams that qued themselves. It was an honor and a pleasure to work with them.
Terrific field team that kept everything rolling seamlessly.

FOR THE CHAMPS:
Great to have all the fields back in the dome.
Terrific all star que and field team led by Liz, Cowboy Jesus and Jesse.
The volunteer lounge (though I didn't find much time to spend in it)
The afterparty was MUCH better than last year. The food variety was much appreciated!

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

Echoed

Also:
- Epic game. No, I mean really, really great. Playing, watching, explaining, scoring, strategizing, everything.
- Coopertition (Bridge). It's not a perfected concept yet, but it's got a lot going for it.
- Real time scoring
- The fields are in the Dome!
- 1114 rocks ok ok, not strictly a 2012 lesson...
- District Model = awesome
- Did I mention I seriously liked this game?

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

I have to echo all the positive comments about the district system. I love it!

This year was also the most I've had the chance to work with many different teams on robot design and just becoming better friends.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive
 

I liked the real time scoring and having the fields back in the dome. I also liked the co-op bridge because it was the reason we made the 8th alliance captain in Queen City (and later went on to win the entire event).