2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

What did FIRST do particularly well this year?

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

Great game.
The GDC has hit it out of the park two years in a row.
I got a nice rental car for about $250 for a whole week. Now if I can get a hotel room for that long for that much we'll be all set.
The volunteer catering was amazing!
FIRST volunteers in general wherever I go are awesome beyond compare. FIRST events are in very good hands.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

Things that made me love FIRST even more than before:

• Frame size being determined by perimeter.
• WildCards.
• Being able to choose between a KitBot and a voucher for AndyMark.
• Making Judges Award, Rookie All-Star and Rookie divisional awards.
• Higher numbered teams recieving a lot more recognition than in past years.
• the new 'Making it Loud' award.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

One of the best games in a while, it forced teams to have to make rough decisions. The point values were fairly balanced in my opinion. Overall it was a very fun season.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

Guys lets do our best to make this Positive Thread be longer then the negative one, We did it last year with Einstein being what it was we can do it this year:


Quick List:
Straight forward ranking system
New Game piece
Exciting Endgame
Straight forward scoring
Balanced game between Auto, Tele, and Climb
The addition of 2 more full Cims to be used legally
WildCard.


Long Elaborating List:

The volunteers at the two regionals and championship were the best I have dealt with in my 8 years attending events, (And no I am not just saying that because Ed was doing queuing at Orlando and Newton, though I am sure it helped), It seems like we are getting to the point where the volunteers at are a part of or at the very least "get" what FIRST is about.

Ri3D should get support from FIRST if they need it since though my team had to deal with our share of bots that could not score disks, the number was MUCH less than I thought it would be before I found out about Ri3D. I feel many teams were able to build scoring machines thanks to this crews videos and I really hope they continue.

This years game allowed the return of defense that I feel we have sorely missed since 2006/2007, allowing for upsets that would not have been possible with all the protected areas of previous games.

FIRST being willing to admit: "You know what we were wrong and we are sorry" This was done through the change of the throwing disks at the end of a match (which now that I have done a whole season and have not been a part of a match where at least one colored disk on each side was not thrown clean over the field) I think was a smart move on their part. This also goes on to the hand counting of disks since the weight sensors were not going to work and we as a community knew it. Last for this point Semi-final 1 match 2 on Einstein with the score being falsely reported I feel horrible for the Newton Teams but imagine if FIRST would have bit their tongue to save face? We would have new World Champs right now.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

I don't have anything to post in the negative thread. Either I've just gotten used to how things work, or else the events are run in a good way by great people so that everything just works.

I like that.

Great game, there are a lot more robots "playing the game" this year than in past years.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

My biggest positive is how open FIRST has been this year. It has been really nice to get answers on why most decisions have been made, and I really hope it continues is the future.

This game was also amazing, and the tradeoffs were very interesting.

Also switching the rookie awards to divisions was a great idea, but I might just be a little biased. ;)

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

My philosophy with my crew is always "let the talent be talented". FIRST is stocked to the brim with talented, smart, capable can do people who do not need to be micromanaged to be honest. You give them the vision of what you need and have them execute what is required. I am rarely disappointed..

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

This game is awesome. The last TWO games have been awesome. I don't think the GDC has made games this enjoyable to watch in consecutive years since the mid-2000s. The point system is well balanced and it is fairly easy to explain the game to spectators.

The Wildcard system is a great idea and based on the scores from Champs that I saw (didn't get to watch it) it has increased the level of competition there.

Kitbot frame voucher, it would have been very difficult for us to afford the parts to simplify our mecanum drive without it this year.

Taking feedback from the community and the transparency in Frank's blog posts. FIRST giving the "why" behind rule changes and decisions this year makes them much easier to accept, even if we disagree with the decision.

The number of robots able to play the game this year. I don't know if it is due more to game piece choice or resources like Ri3D but I hope this is a trend for the future.

Michigan State Championship broadcast by Detroit Public Television. I hope all of the District systems look into this type of live stream for their Championship level competition, and FIRST does something similar for the World Championships in the future.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

Highest retention of teams ever this year was a quote I heard from someone at FIRST.
Audience friendly game.
Frank's frankness on the blog.
The way the scoring problem was handled on Einstein.
Uploading business plans (although there are still kinks to work out)

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

Best game I've had the chance to play.

Wildcard system is the best.

More places need the district system so the best teams attend Championships.

Frank really listens to the teams.

I just want to echo how great the wild card system was. There were some situations where it seemed almost magical. ie. Crossroads finals, due to wild cards ALL finalists were able to get their tickets to worlds. This was also the case at the Spokane regional.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

The standing ovation for the Air Force general speaking on Einstein. I was quite proud of the members of FIRST for recongnizing someone service to up our country.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

The game is fantastic and well balanced.
Robot in 3 Days had a visible impact on median level of play.
Fewer comms problems than ever before in the NI era.
I liked the perimeter rather than length/width restrictions.
Fantastic motor choices.
Wild card system was a great idea, just needs to be expanded.
Driver station logging improvements were much appreciated.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

My favorite Good Things, in order (highest to "lowest"):
1) Wild cards. I love that teams that deserved to go, but happened to attend the regional where someone else was taking another qualification spot, got to go to CMP.
2) The game. It was a well-balanced, fun to watch game that required hard design choices. But it even with that it was accessible, and I think that a higher percentage of teams were able to contribute successfully to their alliances.
3) Frame perimeter instead of dimensions. Please, Please, Please keep this, GDC. This allowed more creativity in base designs than I've seen before.


I have other positives, but I have other posts to write. :)

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

Great game, because it forced you to choose between several successful design options. The point structure for options (discs, climb, pyramid discs) was well balanced.

Good call to change the HP throwing of white discs. I think this made a better game and a safer game.

Wild Card system that gives top teams from events a spot at the CHP.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

KOP vouchers rock, including the kit chassis in the system this year was a great choice. The reduction in waste and allowing teams more choices works.

The GDC hit the game out of the park. A diverse game that had many way to play that gave every team down to the most resource challenged a chance to be competitive.

Wildcards a good idea and a nice addition, just needs a little tweaking.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

Kit voucher was awesome, obviously.

And although we didn't use it, seeing the teams that did use it, the kitbot this year was REALLY REALLY REALLY good.

Love defining FP by perimeter, not dimensions

Awesome awesome game that made prethinking your overall strategy/approach to the game a difficult, intricate decision.

I'm sure there are plenty other positives I'll think of later.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

I also have to say this was the first year I actually regret having to leave St. Louis. The city put on a good show (no scare me to death weather events helped alot. The floods never affected me) and the event was great.
This was probably my favorite year I've ever had in FIRST.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

Game was great. There weren't any truly game-breaking strategies, and there was enough to do (and appropriate numbers of points to do each thing) that a team could be successful doing anything as long as they did it well.

Wildcard change was amazing. No more whiny threads of "BUT THEY ALREADY QUAAAAALIFIIIIEEED, THEY'RE JERKS FOR STEALING OUR SPOOOOOOOTS". I also noticed much more cheering for our local unstoppable robots at the regional I attended. probably because the horde of stoppable teams felt like they finally had a fair chance to qualify for championships.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

1) The game was awesome this year. I loved the variety of robot designs and strategies. I thought the discs was a really good game piece. It had really good flight characteristics and was very durable. I like that the GDC choose to have a large amount of dics and avoided having scored discs returned to the field. It really helped keep the flow of the game fast. I also like the ranking system was nice and simple. My team loves this game so much, we don't want to stop playing it. We are going to have to go to as many off season events as we can.
2) kit voucher: It was great to get exactly what we needed. It really reduced our budget this year
3) Motor variety: it seems there is a motor in the kit for any application you can think of.
4)I was really impressed by the lack of zero score matches. There was a big reduction in non-competative robots. I think a big thanks goes to the 3 day robot. It gave teams a template that they could start off of. It also gave many teams a standard of competitiveness. I think the whole field of robots are more competitive this year. It seemed the bell curve was smoothed out a bit.
5)FIRST's transparency this year made their decisions a lot clearer.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

The game. 'Nuff said.

The Coyotes and Theory 6 achieving their due respect north of the border was sweet.
Texas Torque had a great game and the coolest logo. I so want one of their shirts.

The only number one seed on Einstein was from the Curie division.
The Citrus Circuits got little respect but their scorched earth policy was validated.

Las Guerillas and Killer Bees had never allied together before this year. Mechanical Mayhem was finally noticed.

Code Orange, Sab-BOT-age, & TEST teams were brilliant in their upset on Newton.

The District model, it is where we are all headed.
We are starting it in New England next season.
Get used to it. 5 out of the 12 teams and Einstein were from the districts.
Teams will spend less money and get many more matches.
The opportunity for teams to refine their designs is invaluable.

The St. Louis Cardinals game on Friday night was wonderful. The rain held off and there were a lot of fireworks.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

The game this year was amazing!
The student ambassador-ing was well organized (though i dont have anything to compare it to)
The matches were relatively on schedule
LOTS of gp

and much more that im sure ill think of later

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

I'm mostly echoing other people, but these things were all such great things that I want to add my voice.

1) Amazing game that forced trade-offs and made us want alliances with different types of robots and allowed matches to play out in a variety of ways (contrast with 2011)

2) Transparency from Frank and quick responses to some concerns raised during the season - this has been great.

3) KoP vouchers and AndyMark voucher in particular were really great. Having choices is a very good thing since teams have different needs and different plans. FIRST Choice can be a very good thing as long as some common sense changes are put in place - please keep doing FIRST Choice.

4) Wild cards are great. I'd love to see this expanded a little bit to cover some situations when teams deserve a wildcard but don't get one.

5) Early availability of the Championship match schedule was great.

6) Apart from FIRST HQ stuff, we have great new robot COTS product offerings this year. VexPro's launch was great. I'm thrilled by the Talon and Victor 888. AndyMark has great new stuff (like 4" FIRST wheels) and lower prices. Options are up and costs are down, and competition is good for FRC teams.

7) Simpler bumper rules.

8) Pneumatic rules continue to gradually open up, after years of only being allows to use one certain component by one certain manufacturer.

9) Frame perimeter instead of 28x38 constraint has been great.

10) The ranking system makes sense and offers no bizarre incentives to score points for your opponents.

11) Running practice matches prior to Einstein was smart.

12) Getting information about what would be in the Kit of Parts before the season was helpful. And being able to order some of the materials before the season started was very nice. Having generally useful items on hand for the first day is great.

The southeast isn't big enough that the district system would work very well.

The volunteer section for Einstein was awesome.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

I have to say FIRST and the GDC really knocked the game out of the park this year. They created a game that fun to watch and encourages a variety of strategies. The game was made so that no team could full court, climb and dump, and 7 disk in auto. This made everybody's robots very different. Additionally, they made it fairly simple for a rookie team to score points by making the default shooter easy to do.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

More echoes...

+1 to the game being a really good one. I haven't seen this much strategy in what to build since... wait for it... 2004. (2007 comes close, though.)
+1 to Frank being, well, frank--if the reasoning is given, it's a lot easier to understand a "Why is this done this way, this is dumb" call.

The higher numbers were competitive in force this year. (1477 is now the highest numbered team to win Einstein, with 1241 as #2 on that list, as I recall.)

+1 to frame perimeter. Sometimes, you just have to think outside the box.

Not nearly as many threads complaining about "mentor-built robots" is a definite plus.

+1 to the wild-card system. Kinks? Sure. But it worked pretty well.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

-I like games with a high rate of fire so this game was very entertaining to watch.
-The game piece was different.
-The game was pretty easy to describe to people who were unfamiliar with FIRST
-There were multiple strategies that could prove to be very successful
-The game was balanced
-Karthik's seminar was amazing. I wish I didn't have to leave when he moved outside

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

I love how the GDC managed to make a game that was challenging, but still allowed inexperienced teams to do well. I can't think of a game that would've been a better year for FIRST to blow up in Calgary.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

As a member of a finalist team at Spokane, I am really grateful for it too.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

I'm pretty sure that's a given (unless you count FIRST Frenzy).

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

Designing and building a robot for this year's challenge was a blast, and incredibly useful from a student perspective of learning about actual tradeoffs in design.

Dean's List finalists getting those headphones (a friend of mine was a finalist, she listened to them all the way back to Minnesota). Those things are seriously pretty.

Full match schedule on Galileo. I know some people probably weren't a fan of this, but as a spectator, it was an absolute blast seeing all those matches played. Watching 2169 hit almost every shot from cross court was one of my match highlights this season.

Better information for the Dean's List Ceremony-- it wasn't in a freaking bunker this year!

Karthik getting to talk for a long time after the official presentation ended. This was seriously my absolute favorite part of championships. I've never learned so much from one person in so little time.

The obscene amount of swag getting handed out in from the companies with booths (seriously, a friend of mine got a desktop tool carousel-y thing).

Overall, an incredible season. I can't wait to see how FIRST improves on things next year.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

This.
I was excited to see Karthik's talk, because I had only seen his last year's talk through the recording with poor audio.
What was awesome was after they finally kicked him out of the presentation room, he continued presenting out in the hallway without his Powerpoint or anything!
Thanks to both the event for letting that happen, and Karthik for both presenting such a good presentation that was informative, inspiring, and downright entertaining, as well as being so committed to improving the competitiveness of the FIRST community that he continued his presentation out in the hall like that.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

Not sure what you mean since they are referring to 2012 & 2011 having similar game pieces to 2006 & 2007 respectively

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

Yeah that is what I meant. I didn't clarify.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

I have been really impressed with Frank this year, and his willingness to bring the greater good has been amazing. In fact, while we were at the airport he actually came up to a group of us and started asking what we though of the event, what was good, and what could be improved on. He really does care what teams think and wants to improve the experience for all teams.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

Overall:

The conferences being free and open to all! Such a great change.

99% of the volunteers that I talked to were AMAZING. They all had great attitudes, were having fun and worked their butts off. (Big shout-out especially to Jess Boucher, who I saw managing volunteers with a constant big smile on her face. Thanks for everything that you did this weekend, Jess!)

The game was my favorite. The GDC did a fantastic job. It was fun to watch and easy to understand. Very engaging for an audience who may have never seen anything like FIRST before.

Personal:

Volunteering for FLL was the best choice I made for my Worlds experience. The FLL volunteers are outstanding! And the kids were wonderful. It made my volunteer experience at Worlds way better than last year.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

Like others, I echo a lot of what was good this year already presented. The volunteers were AWESOME (WPI Regional especially, dealing with the winter BLAST and teams not able to show up!), the game was a slam-dunk from a playability perspective (i'll touch on the logistical in the negative thread), even though I was not able to partake in the joys of the Wildcard system, I love the concept, and I, for one, welcome our new perimiter overlords.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

There were so many things first did right, I will just focus on the Championship for this post while the thoughts are fresh.

I worked with the folks in Archimedes:

The perimeter rule sped up the initial weigh-in and sizing a bit. This in general kept the line down other than end of the day Wednesday when about 30 teams decided to get weighted 40 minutes before pits close (note to teams, do this as soon as you possibly can in the future).

The field crew was top notch, and I noticed that there was a lot less "rushing" of teams. In general most of the volunteers around queing were a lot more cordial.

I also liked on Archimedes that a couple of times, when ahead of schedule, the FTAs allowed for a little extra time for teams to attempt to get their bots going. This helped 2 young teams make their matches. A third young team had a wiring issue, that was just un-solvable in the 5 minute window they had, but the FTAs made a real effort to try and help them play.

The treatment of Volunteers was outstanding. Great food, easy check-in. 2 t-shirts for those of us doing 4 days!

Overall, a great time.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

Using a GoPro to record/webcast matches.

Full field match footage is hard to come by and I would like to see this used at more events next year. I like the instant upload technique by 2337. Having no recorded footage for events is frustrating. Full field footage is the best and archiving event footage is something that needs to happen more often. I will be looking into using the link below to record Peachtree next year.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...64&postcount=9

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

This is probably my favorite game I've been a part of, just barely ahead of 2007 and 2009.

Offense was very diverse and prominent, but defense was still very playable and noticeably had a factor in the outcome of playoff games. Some pretty sick collisions and block, some that I haven't seen the likes of since before the days of mandated bumpers. Very physical gameplay, yet still finesse scoring.

The biggest improvement this year from the past 3 imo was the tactful use of restricted zones. Well used this year (not overdone like '11 or '12), no zone limitations (like '10), and did not inhibit gameplay or maneuverability.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

The game this year was fun to watch, and broad enough to encourage diversity in robot designs. This made wandering around the pits a lot more fun.

I was very impressed with the level of attention the FTA's gave to isolating our comm issues on Galileo and Einstein. They were able to tell us it wasn't the Crio resetting, and had us focus on the radio instead. After checking and re-checking power connections for several matches with similar random cutouts, they brought a new DC-DC converter to us and helped us reinstall it. And this seemed to solve the problem!

There was a First representative at champs dedicated to helping international teams with shipping their crates home. He was extremely helpful and thorough, and made shipping a lot smoother than previous years.

As many have already said, the wildcards are a huge improvement. In the past the only way we could hope to qualify was to travel out of country.

The bumper and frame rules keep getting better.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

Ultimate Ascent was a very fun game, with very achievable goals for rookie teams and challenging goals for veterans. It was fun to watch, and fun to play, and overall I think this year was a great success.

Frisbees were a particularly fun/intriguing choice as a game piece, and I hope FIRST continues to branch out in new directions. Please let next year not be ball game again. Please.

Championships were a load of fun and supremely energetic, small problems aside.

As an aside, the "positive" thread is only 3 pages long, and the "negative" thread is 8. I admit I am partly at fault for this, but perhaps we can try to fix this?

After all, I'm sure we're all very pleased with FIRST as a whole, right? ;)

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

I was impressed how a lot of teams were put on the same level. Powerhouse teams were not automatically winning everything and non-powerhouse teams seemed to have a chance.

Frank's blog was very helpful this year and all he did was superb.

Have to give props to the Wisconsin Regional, you spoil all of us with such an amazing regional. Please keep up the good work!

Getting rid of the Kinect control station area from last year, I feel, was an improvement.

The volunteer shirt color at championships stood out more, so they were easier to find (even if it made the Thunder Chickens much more difficult to isolate ;] ).

Strategy was incredibly important in this year's game. Brute force and a stagnant strategy couldn't cut it like it would be able to in some games, and it was clearly evident from one match to the next how effective a change in strategy was.

Overall, the procedure of taking down the 30 point climbers was executed incredibly well, and after the first week or so did not greatly impact match cycle times nearly as much as I anticipated it would.

The shortened kickoff, though some may complain was too short, was definitely appreciated by new/freshmen members who typically get lost in it as they have not yet been immersed in our FIRST culture.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

Awesome game. I loved that not only was teleop capability tiered (in terms of difficulty-for-payoff), but the endgame was, too. I was skeptical of the hanging points being what they were, but all it all it seemed to work out just great.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

Great game, kept even the best strategists in FRC trying to find the best solution to the game all year round.

Solid game piece. There were very few issues with the game pieces deforming or being damaged and effecting robots (148 at SVR is one of the few that comes to mind). I loved that we know exactly what we would be playing with all year long.

Relatively easy to build field element for at least scoring discs. A PVC goal was all you really needed, or even tape on a wall could get you close.

Simpler bumper and frame rules. More motors & more open pneumatics rules.

The volunteer experience keeps improving at every event and especially championship. I felt like this year they really stepped up and showed that they cared for the volunteers at championship. The food was good, the seating for Einstein was even better (though they might want to make a bit smaller there were several empty seats around me).

The introduction of new COTS items by suppliers seemed to really level field for a lot of teams. VEXpro, AM, and CTRE all are allowing the mid tier teams to play at the same level as that the powerhouse teams have been at for a long time.

FIRST Choice and vouchers are steps in the right direction and the systems will keep improving.

The field videos were great again, they really help teams that don't get a chance to see the field at Kickoff.

Overall the best season of FRC yet. I can't wait till next season.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

Remove "AM" from that statement, and I agree completely.

We (4464) had some bad experiences with AndyMark hardware this year...

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

- This game was a strategist's dream. It was very dynamic at champs, given the variety and depth of types of robots. If you're the #1 seed, simply pick your strategy and go get 'em!

- Integration of more vendors into the Voucher Program.

- More motor controller options

- The rules are getting better
-- Bumper rules were very clear
-- Less restrictive sizing requirements this year

- Given 8 or 9 minute match cycles, FIRST did what they could to give teams more playing time on the field

- Districts are coming to VA/MD/DC in 2015. Can't wait.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

Some people had issues with Talons and BAG motors, or Digital Sidecars and Banebox planetaries. On the whole, FRC Suppliers provide good, cheap materials to most teams, and that's why we welcome them all back on an organizational and personal level every year.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

My main complaint is with the Toughbox Mini, whose quality was far too unreliable to warrant being included as the KOP gearbox. Something like half of the units we purchased over the season were defective, usually due to gear spacing or angle being off.

Perhaps FRC can include VexPro gearboxes in the kit next year?

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

A lot of great stuff has already been mentioned, this year was a very fun game, accessible to less experienced teams to do well, but allowed plenty of room for great teams to shine.

As a programmer, I liked that autonomous was a big part of the game this year, it has geared me up to do more sensors projects with the programming team in the off season, in the hope that next year they will provide a leg up.

I loved all the cool climbing designs, especially the caterpillar climber (on Newton I think, if anyone knows who that was and has a video or picture, I'd love to see it again, only caught it in passing on the practice field), it's unfortunate climbing wasn't as valuable as it was difficult.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

From a FRC Alum/Team Head Mentor Perspective:

-AWESOME game. There were a lot of different approaches, the game was exciting almost every match, and you could build a defensive robot and be a top-tier competitor
-The KOP was really good this year. I liked the switch to belts for the stock frame, and the sheer amount of documentation and support made available by AndyMark, NI, and more was awesome
-The game element wasn't a ball! The FRC game element has been a generic ball for several years now, and it was great that FIRST mixed it up and made teams think differently this year. By the time Rebound Rumble rolled around, everyone knew how to pick up and manipulate a ball well - this forced teams to throw out all that knowledge and start from scratch
-Einstein was handled very well. A mistake was made, but it was caught and made right.
-Team's responses to the Einstein mixup were good. I was terrified that people would blow the mistake out of proportion and make it a much bigger deal than it was, but everyone is showing their gracious professionalism and realizing that we all make mistakes, and it doesn't really matter as long as they are caught and made right.

From a Volunteer Perspective
-Adding the ability to log to the Driver's Station was AMAZING. I was a Control Systems Advisor at a few regionals and at Worlds, and having those logs made it so easy to help teams. The logs helped show teams that 99.9% of problems are not related to the FMS and are, in fact, issues with the robot, and also made it super easy to diagnose whether or not the issue was software or hardware related. Troubleshooting was a breeze due to the logging!
-FIRST did a really good job making sure that all of the volunteers had the resources and training they needed to do well.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

This was an absolutely excellent year overall. Great job FIRST.

• The most balanced and diverse game in the FIRST 3v3 era.
• Rigid, consistent game piece was far easier to shoot, yet game design still allowed for "stretch" shooting tasks (FCS)
• Game challenge allowed for tasks of varying difficulty for any level of team experience.
• Any robot archetype could be competitive if designed and played correctly.
• FIRST has been more transparent than it has ever been before. Frank's blog posts in particular are a breath of fresh air, and the organization is clearly more than willing to admit mistakes and explain the "why" behind decisions.
• Robot in 3 Days made FRC as a whole dramatically more competitive.
• Motor selection was FANTASTIC. No hard choices to make between reliability, power, ease of gearing, etc. I hope the mini-CIM never leaves FRC.
• MULTIPLE ROBOT ARCHETYPES!!! I can't tell you how long I've been waiting for a game that was more than a "one task wonder" that forced every team in FRC to make tough decisions.
• Our regionals weren't decided by the control system this year.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

Oh, the one with the driveshaft that kept falling out?

As a longtime customer of both AndyMark and VEX, I understand that a single product does not a company make. I also understand that the vast majority of issues from both companies came from manufacturer error - this year, they seemed compounded for both parties. I thought both the Hoosiers and Texans handled these problems with grace, humility, and outstanding customer service.
I understand that no amount of testing will simulate the rigor provided by tens of thousands of high schoolers bashing and beating their products, and especially when compared to products available to us as recent as five years ago, the COTS products are remarkably robust.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

If my counts are correct, during the official matches 141,077 points were scored, and a minimum of 28,746 frisbees were successfully shot into goals (the actual number was undoubtedly higher, as this minimum was calculated assuming all Frisbees were shot into the top goal). All without a single decapitation, severed limb, or even one porpoise becoming accidentally entangled in the nets. All in all, that makes for one pretty successful event!

-dave


.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

I was very happy with the expanded motor rules. Being able to use 10 CIMs allowed teams to make some really great designs they wouldn't have been able to make in the past. I'd really love to see the only motor rule be a "power ceiling" where you can use any number of designated motors, but not over a certain summed power (3000 watts?).

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

Though it has already been said, I absolutely loved the Wild Card slots. Two teams at MN 10K (2502 and 2705) earned a spot at Champs. The announcement during the event caused a roar of cheers.

FIRST, please keep the Wild Card slots and the perimeter-based constraints. They make everything more interesting!

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

-Great game, very diverse array of competitive robots

-Great game piece. It was non-standard but they stood up very well to competition and testing, remained mostly consistent, and there were only minor supply hiccups. It also presented a completely unique manipulation challenge to floor pickup and in-robot storage.

-Vastly improved bumper rules

-Wildcards were fantastic. Still room for improvement, but overall a resounded YES in my book.

-Prelim match schedules at champs were nice. My opinion may have been different if they ended up getting changed at the last minute, but they did not. It was great to be able to notify people back home of when the team would be playing matches early.

-Practice matches on Einstein I'm sure were a great help to the team, and were really fun to watch. In a strictly no-defense format, it was really fun to watch all the teams run at their full capacity. It was almost like a showcase match.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

I understand your point, and I do appreciate the value of COTS parts and do not wish to insult the work that people put into increasing their quality, but unfortunately the experience my team had with AndyMark parts this year (not limited to the gearboxes, mind you) was not acceptable. That said, I suspect this thread is not the place for this discussion so I'll give it a rest.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

-Frank Merrick as (Acting?) FRC Director has been nothing short of fantastic. Communicative, open to new ideas, and really cares about this community. If the 'acting' part still exists in his title, it should be dropped. FRC definitely needs him to stick around to keep things in a positive direction.
-Wildcard system, as already stated, has been really great.
-Ultimate Ascent is my favorite game in a long time. Diverse options for teams.
-Volunteers have (mostly) been really friendly and engaging at events.
-Suppliers and vendors like VEXpro and AndyMark gave teams so many options to work with.

I'm really happy with how this season has gone, for the most part.
2013's been good.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

The length of this compared to the negatives thread doesn't dictate how much FIRST has done right this year. FIRST has gone above and beyond previous years to ensure we have a great experience.

• Obviously Wild cards are one of the most well received things FIRST has ever done. Seeing championships and the competition level was just amazing
• The game. FIRST has knocked one out of the park again. It's exciting. It's engaging. It requires strategies and tradeoffs in design, and most of all, it's spectator friendly. Thank you GDC, for making this game so enjoyable
• Frank's blog and his openness has gotten rid of the black box image of HQ. Thank you for listening and showing us why hard decisions are made.
• The resources that FIRST has provided has allowed teams to go custom for much cheaper. Thank you again for all of these COTS vouchers.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

Out of curiosity, what would be THE favorite game, of all time, then?

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

Alot of people pick 2004 as THE favorite game of all time for many of the same reasons is people like this years game. These 2 games all required major strategy decisions, and everything bots were next to impossible.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

I hope it's not 9 more years before we see another game like this one :)

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

My favorite game, hands-down, was Overdrive. Line violations notwithstanding, of course. Those sucked. But the game was awesome.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

Did you let them know? I know the customer service at AndyMark is very nice and will try their hardest to make the customer happy.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

Oh, their customer service was great, and had they not been we probably would not have fielded a functioning robot. But, that said, about half of the hardware we purchased from them this year, from gearboxes to shaft collars (which we should have purchased from McMaster, yes, we know) to wheels, was defective.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

The 2013 Season has been the best one in a LONG time...

- The Game. Ultimate Ascent ranks high up on the 'best' games of all time list, and would more than likely have been the 'best' game of the Three Team Alliance era had the climbing rules been a tad less restrictive. The deceptive ease of scoring frisbees is exactly what we needed after the last few games. Just about any team could build an upper middle tier robot in terms of disc scoring with parts bought from Home Depot/Lowes/Etc (#BucketAlliance) and some smart thinking.

- The Rules. They're definitely getting better at making the games easier to follow and call. Now if only we could have a game where 'intent' wasn't a factor....

- Motor Allowances. I'm a fan of 6 CIM's, 4 Mini-Cims/BAGs, 4 550's, 4 9015's and the rest. We should do this again.

- Starting Volume. The Perimeter method is definitely the way to go, makes inspection so much faster and easier.

- Versa Wheels. Cheap, Light and Grippy - can't ask for more in a wheel. The piloting may have been a tad overhyped (or they didn't plan on someone piloting 4 parts together) but it works well for doing sprocket to wheel connections.

I'll probably have more stuff eventually.

I believe this topic would be better discussed in the '2013 Lessons Learned: The Negative' thread...

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

Definitely agree here. Having this much power available was fantastic.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

Huh. We used eight of them between our robot and practice robot, and had no issues whatsoever.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

Only change I would like to see is 4 Mini-Cims and 4 BAG motors be allowed. They are so useful and don't really need to be combined.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

Time for the positives, and there is a lot!

• Overall amazing season!
• Frank Merrick and the transparency from HQ. Getting to speak Frank myself, he really does care about what the teams think. I too will add with Libby that I hope the acting get's dropped from his title and that he will become the permanent Director of FRC. He's taken FRC in such a great direction in just a season, and I think the program will be in amazing places under his leadership for the long term.
• The Game: At first I wasn't crazy about it, but I have fallen in love with Ultimate Ascent. Bravo to the GDC for making another amazing one.
• Champs in general! It was my first time ever going and I had an amazing time. I'm looking forward to returning in 2014 as a Volunteer!
• The Volunteers were incredible. I've always had amazing luck with FIRST volunteers, but this year they seemed extra special (I want to give a shout-out to the women who was working FRC Safety Glasses at Championships. I have never seen someone have so much fun working safety glasses before.)
• Getting to be a Volunteer! It was my first year as a volunteer in the on-season, and I loved it! I can't wait to get even more involved next year.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

My team and I had an outstanding experience at Nationals:

* Looking at some of the best robots in the world and learning from the kids and mentors how they were built.

* Competing with the best and realizing that there is nothing stopping us from joining them.

* The game itself was fantastic.

* The venue was wonderful - especially with the immediate access to our hotel and plenty of food options.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

1) From an outsiders prospective, this game was excellent: I've noticed that the games in the odd numbered years tend not to be as exciting for the spectators as the games in the even numbered years. (Triple Play vs Aim High, Rack N Roll vs Overdrive... etc). This year brought a pleasant change to that concept. For some reason, I thought this game would be boring and some teams would find it difficult to score and climb. Then again, I haven't played frisbee in a few years.

2) I still prefer regional events over districts. While districts are great for some regions. other regions simply lack the team involvement, quality of play, or volunteer base to implement a program similar to MAR or FiM. I do think that districts are great for the ares that may be able to support them in the near future (New England, Minnesota, California, Texas, DMV...)

3) This was the best Championship Event I've attended in St Louis. The program was really well put together. aside from the paper planes, everything went great. Sure Einstein was long, but you had nine matches with a recount for one of those matches, what else was there to expect?

4) I for one did not find any of the speeches too lengthy, maybe its' the ten years that I've been involved with FIRST. Maybe I've finally gotten used to this format.

5) Preliminary Schedules = AMAZING!, Please do this again, let regional events try this out if they can as well.

6) This was the first year I truly thought that the FRC portion was truly a World Championship. Three of the top six ranked teams on Galileo and Curie were teams from outside the United States. This really goes to show how much this program has grown outside our borders. I'm hoping this trend continues.

7) The FIRST Robotics Conferences being free this year was a treat. While I wasn't able to attend the seminar that I wanted to go to (I'm sure there were about 150-200 others that found themselves in a similar predicament...) Just seeing the buzz surrounding the conference halls Wednesday night around 6pm was something I didn't expect and was presently surprised by. I hope they give Karthik 3 hours and the auditorium next year.

8) Providing special seating for Volunteers was something new that was added this year. The seats were great and I'm sure a lot of other volunteers were really appreciative for this arrangement (As someone who was helping with handing our awards on Galileo as the main lights for the dome shut down, I'm happy i got the seats i got instead of being up in the nosebleeds or having an obscure view of the field somewhere else).

(DISCLAIMER I wasn't really involved with my team this season as I was busy trying to get my career off the ground)

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

Talon motor controllers - lower price and flawless performance
Frank Merrick visiting our pit at the Inland Empire regional - he really is a great guy

and the best:
the nVidia graphics cards on FIRST choice. PLEASE nVidia donate to FIRST again! Thank you!

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

I think Ultimate Ascent is the best all-around game since the turn of the century. It was very exciting, and there were tons of strategic choices, and the robots looked different! While 2004 will forever be a person favorite, I tried to sell it a bunch of newer mentors and they told me it was too complicated. :( Ultimate Ascent was easy to grasp for people that just showed up at the day of the competition.

The voucher & FIRST Choice were good additions, I'm sure FIRST has learned from this year and they will be even better next year. Getting additional free game pieces was awesome!

The level of play was definitely higher than I expected. Ri3D is probably partially responsible for this, but I think a big thing is that there were plenty of parallels back to 2012. Some of the lessons learned shooting in 2012 could be applied to this year. Frisbees are also a really spectacular game piece. Not very expensive, and very consistent to shoot and pickup.

FIRST can change a rule after the week zero scrimmages, and other than the immediate predictable "HOW COULD THEY DO THIS THE WORLD IS GOING TO END!!1" thread on CD, the game still worked out fine. To be honest, I think the frisbee blizzard probably would have taken away from the game at weaker events where humans had a ton of frisbees to throw.

The bumper rules have gotten simpler while I've been gone, which is nice.

I also really liked the change to the perimeter rule. We came so underweight we put a bucket of lead onboard and still weighed less than 100 lbs. :D It will be interesting to see if lots of teams have weight issues next year, particularly if we switch back to a bigger size.

The Wildcard system is definitely an improvement as well. Nice to see the finalists get a ticket to the championship when the winning alliance has teams that already have spots.

It was a great year to be back after taking a couple years off from actively working with a team. :)

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

I want to talk more about it later, but I just want to ask a question:

Can you feel it?

Teetering on the edge of it all, solemnly looking below at how far we could fall while we focus on the horizon beyond and imagining how far we can fly. It sounds cushy and whatnot, but I mean it. This is serious business.

For the better part of the last few years, I felt that FIRST was more or less going through the motions. More teams, more events, different games, Dean tells teams get in contact with alumni and senators and start more teams. The program has felt like it was in a bit of a rut, going nowhere.

I know this may seem like a touchy subject, but you could feel the fire in Dean Kamen all throughout that dome on Friday. He has had to bury his father and brother in the span of a few years. He is not the spry 40-year old that founded FIRST so long ago, nor is he just some little guy from Brooklyn with a few crazy ideas up his sleeves.

Time is short for everything. It is short for Dean, it's short for me, it's short for all of us... but it was also short for this organization until it recommitted itself to not just changing the culture, but being an active participant in it all.

I don't want to live in a place where I still have to explain FIRST to people in 20 years. We can't afford to let this be the best kept secret much longer. FIRST is quickly reaching a critical mass where it will either consume the hearts and minds of a lot of people or remain stuck in neutral forever until it withers away. The organization needs to be bigger. More people need to know.

I am excited about all of that very much.

Is there a video of the opening ceremonies anywhere?

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

Forget an auditorium. Let's give Karthik a primetime TV Slot XD

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

I'd settle for just giving him an MC assignment at the championship.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

I knew I forgot a few things. To add on to what Dustin said, the motor allowances were great this year, and I think had a lot to do with the increased competitiveness of teams, since a lot more teams were able to build fast/accurate mechanisms without a lot of advanced planning.

I REALLY REALLY REALLY liked the perimeter specification rather than maximum cardinal dimensions, I think it contributed heavily to the large variety of robot designs this year, and made things seem less "cookie cutter". It also makes it easy to adjust in future years to adapt the exact size to the field and game challenge without being a "major" rules change.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

Several things I noticed

The game:
The game this year was very well designed, in my opinion. Very few teams were able to build a robot that could do everything, and yet it was easy for any team to compete, such as building a kitbot with pool noodles and a drive on hanger.

The rankings:
The rankings were much better this year than in my rookie year. It was difficult to explain the rankings with the coopertition bridge, so this year was much better for explaining the tournament to spectators.

My favorite game so far (small sample size, though :))

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

Everyone is mentioning Frank, and I totally agree: Thanks for all you've done for us this past year!

I also want to mention how great the rest of the FIRST staff were this year.

I felt extremely prepared going in as a volunteer at Worlds.

At MSC we had multiple FIRST staff members visiting our event and spreading their positive energy to everyone.

The communication via email, web conferences, phone conferences and even text message was fantastic.

Their helpfulness at Worlds was unending.

Thanks, FIRST staff, for all that you do. You have difficult and often under-paid jobs.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

I am going to pile on with not necessaryily new stuff, but stuff I really like:

Game quality was awesome this year. I loved Triple Play, and was really hoping for a gme similar to that. Initially I was dissappointed, and worried shooting frisbees would be more difficult than it turned out. Kudos to the GDC for making sucha great game.

I think they got the points perfect for each section. Balance was quite good. I would have changed the climbing rules a bit to make climbing easier, but I would not have changed the points. Nice job.

I liked that both the regular scoring and the bonus had a tiered scoring structure with the lower tier being very easily achieveable. This not only gave some clean and simple objectives so that teams could score, but allowed for teams to add depth to the cost benefit analysis that they do for various game efforts. There are a lot of important lessons taht come from this.

Thank you VEXPro and AndyMark for your continued support and availability of high quality affordable products. Yes, not every product was perfect, but I dare you to find a product line that is. Both of your teams made products that makes FRC so much better. Just watch any old match video and you can tell the difference.

Talons, I can't say enough good things about this product. Compact, capable, and a great value. I may not know why a chicken crosses the road, but I can tell you the bees are very happy the crossed over to Talons.

Thank you GDC for the additional high motor options. There are now so many good COTS power transmission products available, teams can focus their efforts on designing manipulators and scoring devices.

I like the frame perimeter rule. This allowed teams to think outside the box (pun intended) and added a lot of variety this year. 112 was a tough dimension to work within, but I like the challenges of a smaller footprint, and I think it helped with congestion on the field. Between this and the 54", I don't think it actually saved any inspection time (as others have said), but it has allowed for more diversity. Here in Michigan, we pay very close attention to the time required to inspect, and in general, the 112" was measured at the weigh in station which meant pretty much the same time as using the sizing box. It did allow for faster set-up of the inspection station which is a big plus.

I really appreciate the "Frank" discussion (2nd pun also intended) we have been receiving from FIRST HQ this year. I have been really impressed with the improvement in communication. Even when decisions were made taht were unpopular due to timing, I think the honesty and humility conveyed in the communications made it much easier to deal with.

Grand Blanc district event. I have sung the praises of this event in previous posts this year, but the attention to detail was amazing, and made the event so smooth. This was a role model event from a role model team.

As I think of more, I will chime in again.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

I would also like to add I appreciated the announcer rotation. It was great having several different announcers come to your field from time to time. I would like them to do that with the MCs as well so more MCs can get time on the field (like Karthik and Angry Eric).

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

Does Karthik even want to MC at Champs? But I agree we should be showcasing MC's that teams might not get to see because they(both teams and MC's) don't travel

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

This! I loved the announcer rotation, and I love all the current MC's - but we definitely need to start rotating in MORE talent in both roles!

I'm not saying to replace anyone, but what about two per field? There's a lot of matches to be played (should have had more but that's another thread) and there's a lot of talent that's been in the community for years, and should probably have a spot somewhere in there.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

Team Grant Cox and Samir.
just sayin'

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

While it was neat to have Paul and Karthik guest announce on Galileo for a "lightning round" seeing the different styles of the various MC personalities in First without having to hop divisions would be awesome.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

This: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...hreadid=116551

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

I have to say the best thing is Frank Merrick, his responsiveness and transparency that he has brought with him.

Please, please, pretty please who ever is in the position to remove the "acting" from his title do it now it is long overdue.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

Wildcards - Great. (do need to address lack of wildcard options at early-season events to encourage "outsider" teams to attend them)

Game Design - Great.

FRC-specific Championship planning and execution - Great. (no input on Finale or other program levels)

AndyMark PDV - Great.

Rookie Kitbot - Great.

Frank Merrick - Great.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

I'd like to congratulate the GDC for a well formed game. Aside from not realizing how incredibly terrible human players would be at throwing discs and keeping them on the field.

There's not much that needs changing in the rules. I've created rule changes for off-seasons here in MI, and I don't have any changes to suggest this year.

While there were some subjective elements - what's "consequential"? - it was a relatively easy game to referee. And exciting to watch.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

Let's see if the positive thread hit a hundred before the negative hits three hundred.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

This was easily my favorite game since my first year in FIRST (2008). So kudos to the GDC.

Also, why is the negative lessons thread over twice as long as the positive one?! Cmon guys we can do much better than this!! This was a great year for FIRST! Let's tell them the things they did right so they can keep doing them in the future!

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

At least half of it is prolonged debate but CD Denzines do love to complain...

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

To get us to 100...

A couple positives.

1) Bumper rules. I think finally we got many of the teams all on the same boat finally...
2) Frisbee... Awesome. We have to train the next group of ultimate Frisbee players.. i mean scientists and engineers. Heck before Central Valley's Pits opened my team was playing ultimate instead just sitting around. A game piece that is fun to play with but difficult to pick up is just classic.
3) Versa Planetary... OMG I love this little gear box. Turns itself into a wonderful COTS solution to many of our driving systems.
4) Central Valley Regional and Week 1. I totally enjoyed the regional and the difficulties of week 1 play. I think all teams to toughen up and play a week 1.
5) Wildcards... To an extent. Good Good Good for late regional events and for teams that didn't qualify that should have... BAD BAD BAD for week 1 regional attendees. begs the questions on why go to week 1? Need a soln for this.
6) Long Beach Regional.. Another great venue put on by an amazing set of volunteers. As our home regional its great to see all the familiar faces and new rookies all the time
7) The rise of Orange County FRC teams. After my 7+ years of FRC experience we are finally seeing FRC in Orange County starting to blossom. Steel will be sharpening steel in So Cal!
8) Bag motors, MiniCIMS and CIMs Oh my!.. loved the new motors
9) Good for us.. but not necessarily AM's bottom line.. But VexPro triggering a price reduction on Motor Controllers.. Hope the prices stay!
10) And finally an overall well put together game. I am bias when saying 2010 was my favorite but this one was memorable

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

Ultimate Ascent is by far my favorite game of all time.
See, half of our FIRST team plays Ultimate Frisbee, and we concluded months before the season began that were the robot required to throw a frisbee, we would go to Einstein. Alas, despite the frisbee game, we failed in our "ultimate" objective.

In addition, the preliminary match schedules and overall accommodating nature of the communications between teams and FIRST HQ was fantastic.
Frank is awesome.

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

From my perspective:

As an Inspection Manager, I loved not having a sizing box to deal with this year. Frame perimeters rock! :]

I worked with a great team of RI Volunteers at Championship this year: my first MVP was Rob H. from Rochester, NY (Regional LRI) for his trouble shooting and problem solving skills. Matt S. from Sacramento, CA (Regional LRI) was my second MVP for his field communication skills. Big Al receiving Volunteer of the Year was awesome!

Note: We are still seeing bumpers that are not constructed per the rules and/or are not secured properly as my Championship Field RI witnessed several of them falling off during various matches. The Field RI sent me the pictures and notes by text message back to the Inspection Station to ensure the issues were fixed before the next match. Even with the time delay in receiving the text message, this worked out great.

I remember a Volunteer reserved section to watch Einstein when we were still in the Georgia Dome. This time, there was some confusion with the EJD arena staff about the reserved seating in sections 126, 127, and 128 and at what time and which people were allowed to sit in them. there was a huge pile-up on the landing with all the tape still up around the seats. However, all was good in the end. We had a great view. BTW, I usually do not have time to watch any matches until the very end: Einstein was my first time this season watching students feed the game pieces into the robot and shoot them all the way across the field into the goal!

Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive
 

I second this. Rob was fantastic. He spent at least half an hour in our pit troubleshooting a code issue, on Thursday, at a week 1 regional when I'm sure there were a 100 other things he could have been doing. Any LRI that goes that much out of their way to help teams is very good at what they do.