Re: IRI Rule Changes - 2012
 

After thinking about it, I've come up with a few more thoughts.

1) I still believe the #2 and #3 rule changes are bad ideas. I believe they take away from the core fundamentals of Rebound Rumble and I think will alter the tournament in a negative way.

2) That said, I'm becoming more interested in finding out if I am right or wrong. This experiment might end up as a good thing for FIRST - why? Because it may determine the future of FIRST robotics games. I theorized at the end of the FIRST robotics season (to myself, I didn't write it anywhere) that we won't be seeing any more Co-op point interactions in the near future. However, I think this might end up giving the GDC the factors they need to greenlight more Co-Op interactions in the future or hammer the nail in the coffin.

3) Why is rule #1 enforced on the honor system? Are the robots not weighed and inspected at IRI? And why is it worded like that? Is the rule stating that your original robot must maintain it's original weight +5 pounds? With all the talk about being able to do some upgrades on your robot, why is the rule +5 pounds rather than maximum robot weight is 125 pounds? And +5 pounds since when? Since championship or the end of the ship date, since many robots are altered greatly at each event they attend.

Re: IRI Rule Changes - 2012
 

Where are you getting this information from? I don't see anywhere saying that 907 is pro the change? Put us in the "just deal with it and stop complaining" section please....

Re: IRI Rule Changes - 2012
 

I was thinking the same thing. I doubt it will hurt us. we can hang over so far that i think (as along as we can be on the outside) that we will be able to triple most of the time. Even though we have never tripled at competitions as we only tried it once in queen city, we also put our COG on the outside of the bridge and just flipped.

Re: IRI Rule Changes - 2012
 

It has always (for at least the last several years) been this way, so that teams can make repairs and modifications and not be worried about the 120 pound weight limit. +5 refers to the FIRST rule of 120 pounds.

No, we don't inspect at IRI. We trust teams to be legal and stay legal. We don't weight robots, but if a robot appears to be signficantly heavy, the referee can check it.

Re: IRI Rule Changes - 2012
 

Count one Secret Unnamed, and long, Team to Pro. In my opinion, cooperation points just masked what teams played the game best. Not that our team would have done better, just that cooperation points didn't rank teams such that teams that would do better in eliminations would be ranked higher. It added noise to the system.

Re: IRI Rule Changes - 2012
 

To be clear, that list was only relevant to Rule Change #3 - the qualifying triple rule change.

Hey Dustin - step away from your popcorn and post your meme. It summarizes the general gist of the #3 rule change analysis fairly accurately. :-)

I think Rule Change #2 (no co-op bridge) has been generally accepted by most participating teams, expressed in a range of opinions spanning from "awesome!" to "not horrible".

Re: IRI Rule Changes - 2012
 

Well here we are, doing what we CDers are best at...

I may as well chip in. My only real issue (as I've stated before) is the elimination of the coopertition bridge, probably my favorite feature of this game. (So I guess my response to that specifically is more adverse than "not horrible".) But there will certainly be plenty of excitement with triple balances in quals, with the caliber of the teams attending.

Also, I completely agree that the perceived detriment to long bots from this change is quite overblown. For one, you can never completely avoid being randomly assigned a match that is weighted heavily against you (doesn't mean you can't win though...). However, at this event, the caliber of those attending shouldn't give you much to worry about when it comes to your alliance's ability. But in any case, it's a great opportunity to make your robot even better to meet whatever challenge is specifically posed to your team.

And as many have mentioned, the organizers certainly have their right to make rule modifications to make the event more exciting for spectators, more inspiring for teams, and generally better. I have no doubts that the committee were very thoughtful and deliberate in this decision.

Re: IRI Rule Changes - 2012
 

I couldnt agree more.
Not because we are a long bot, but because teams still have to be able to score. There is still a large difference between teams that can score quickly down to the ones that have a much more difficult time.
If the rule change was that detrimental, we would have either canceled or made a widebot in preparation of this tournament.

The rule change makes elimination matches in every match, nothing more, nothing less.

Coopertition, while great in concept, had flaws that created drama between several teams this season. Anything to revise or adjust the concept in the future to avoid such situations would be great.
The most odd part of it all that baffles me, is that two different games were being played in order to be successful between qualification and elimination matches.

Re: IRI Rule Changes - 2012
 

Part of me hates to revive this thread, but ...

Now that the IRI has been played with the modified rule, what are your thoughts?

Re: IRI Rule Changes - 2012
 

I thought it was a great rule change and really devalued the triple if anything because teams saw how it wasn't as worth the risk as they thought. In the long run I think it helped long bots make the eliminations more than it hurt them.

Re: IRI Rule Changes - 2012
 

I think 2826, 1114 and 4334 proved that being long doesn't matter for the triple. It's all about the combination of the bots that makes it work. Even on the practice field, we could pretty quickly triple with 245 instead of 4334.

I did not originally agree with the elimination of the coop points and I really disagreed with the full time triple award, but I now think it added a whole new level of excitement to the game. At least half the matches had all the excitement of the Archimedes finals. Seeing multiple qual matches topping 100 pooints in an alliance keeps the crowd coming back for more.

Re: IRI Rule Changes - 2012
 

I think it was an awesome change that made matches more exciting and added a bit of extra strategic depth to qual matches.

Re: IRI Rule Changes - 2012
 

I think I already provided my post-IRI feedback to Chris in person and therefore don't need to repeat it here. :-)

Re: IRI Rule Changes - 2012
 

For the teams which accomplished it, it was quite a rush. The crowd certainly seemed to appreciate it. I wonder what the statistics would say about the impact on the rankings. The way it was officiated was explained and seemed to be applied consistently.

The end game of each match was certainly different, but I wouldn't say that I missed the co-op bridge.

It obviously made Paul very happy.

Re: IRI Rule Changes - 2012
 

It obviously made quite a few people very happy:D The loud cheering when the head referee went over that rule change during the driver's meeting was immense.