Re: 2014 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

Odd.

We weren't able to register until late on Wednesday due to travel issues. They made an exception and let me register the team and even then there was no schedule in our packet.

Its no big deal but this isn't the first time its happened this season where p-match schedules weren't handed out.

Re: 2014 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

It seems like the simple solution to practice matches would be to do what the Michigan Districts do: Open the field to matches on a first-come first-serve basis, allow each team to play two matches in a row, then send them to the back of the line if they want to play more. Everyone who wants to practice gets to unless they wait until the last minute.

Re: 2014 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

The only thing in my opinion this year was the fouls. Technical fouls seemed a little TOO punishing, but overall, this year was pretty good.

Re: 2014 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

In the 2 first regionals where we made Chairman's presentations, we got completely opposite assessments and advice from the 2 different sets of judges. We couldn't really figure out what we needed to focus on consistently. Despite that, I think our last presentation at our 3rd regional was the best by far.

Re: 2014 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

I'm not completely wedded to this, but I liked the consequences of failed auto routines. This is real life--when your program doesn't work quite right, most often it's not just that you don't get all of the bonus points--sometimes it can put a life at risk. It also showed the importance of developing a response strategy to quickly clean up the mess. Teams had to make choices about whether to chase more points or reduce their risks--again a real world choice in many situations. Because the auto score was capped at such a low level compared to 2012 and 2013, it was less important to the overall game score, and teams that made a different risk assessment could quickly make up the difference, unlike last year. In 2013, an alliance could nail its auto, play great defense and seal the victory with a big climb at the end. This year an alliance had to play the whole way.

Re: 2014 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

I was a volunteer on the VULCAN practice field next to CURIE. I just want to say that I had a great time meeting all of the teams who played on our field. For the most part things ran smoothly from Thursday afternoon on. I was appointed the queuer. I did my best to keep track of all the teams in the FILLER line so no one was overlooked. Most of the time we were running 10 to 15 minutes ahead of schedule.

The biggest problem we had were teams showing up for their match at exactly the time they signed up for. We did our best to inform teams to arrive 5 minutes before their match so I could get them q'd up. The majority of the teams complied. At times when we were running way ahead I would run into the pits to find the teams scheduled next to inform them that we were running ahead so they did not miss their scheduled match. ( I was probably the person the PIT ADMIN kept telling to stop RUNNING over the PA.) I just want everyone to know that I did my best to accomadate all of the teams utlizing our practice field.

I want to thank all of the teams and other volunteers for making my first volunteer experience at CHAMPS a most amazing experience. I am planning on doing the same job next year so maybe I will see you their.

Re: 2014 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

tl;dr.

On the Curie field, many teams missed matches!

With the lack of wifi/3G/4G connectivity in the pits, it was extremely difficult to know what match they were on.
Yes, I do know that by looking at the big screen, you can see what match was completed.

But is this process clear and coherent for the many new teams that come to CMPs for the 1st time? Posting a time on the match schedule HURTS the process. Even though we all should know matches dont always run on time, putting a time stamp next to matches will naturally make newbies think that's when their match will take place.

Connectivity should be a big priority next year, especially with 600 teams in 2015 and 8 fields to worry about.

Re: 2014 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

Did everyone except me forget the bomb Dean kamen and Qualcomm dropped during the closing ceremonies? I think they hinted at getting Wi-Fi off the machines and back into our pockets.

Re: 2014 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

Our solution for this is we have a scout text the match number of the match that was just finished to a student in pit who is tasked with timing.

We do this at regionals too.

Re: 2014 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

Did they? I thought he was referencing Qualcomm helping during the Einstein 2012 shenanigans. (I don't recall if they were mentioned in the Einstein Report)

Re: 2014 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

Yes, veterans such as ourselves know better. But not to everyone, especially new participants.

Re: 2014 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

I agree completely. I can't remember a time when TBA actually had a problem that wasn't caused by incorrect data from FIRST. I'm sure members of the FIRST community could come up with a more reliable method of providing the data. The issues with connectivity seem to happen even when there is a working internet connection.

Another issue that never got solved was the hot goal timing, which to me doesn't seem like an impossible task. Watch 1114 move and the goal light up in this match. It also happened in an Einstein practice match. When you only have ten seconds, every single second matters.

Also, to me it seems that the rules are too complicated, not only for teams, but for the volunteers. Over the season we've had a few technical fouls called on us on a rule the ref could not cite, or did not exist. The referee was understanding, and changed the score when incorrect, but if members of our team hadn't studied the rules and memorized the foul numbers, and went to the question box, we would have lost a few matches we deserved to win. Again, at the championship, one our alliance partners came up with a strategy to have a blocker that would drop out of the way once teleop started, but were told it was illegal to start high up, so they spent a bunch of time trying to build a mechanism to deploy it. With this many rules, it's really hard for referees to be consistent in calling things like bumper violations (not called 5 times in the matches I watched), ramming, herding, the differences in offensive and defense possession (I didn't even know there was a difference until CMP...), and contact in frame perimeter, which can be called as a tech foul every time your robot breaks the plane of the frame perimeter, a tech foul every time your robot contacts another robot inside their frame perimeter, or a foul every time your robot "intentionally" contacts another robot inside their frame perimeter. Most of these consistency problems were at previous event, and overall, the refereeing at the championship was much better than at our other events.

Re: 2014 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

For Judging, cut the fluff. Hit the key points with just enough detail. The Judges only know what the Team tells them. If the Judges want more info, they will ask if there is time remaining.

Florida FTC uses an Excel spreadsheet for League and State that makes giving the feedback to the Teams easy (we were the pilot program for the spreadsheet scoring system). As long as a Judge is consistent with their scoring for all Teams, it works very well. It eliminates "strong personalities" from lobbying for any one Team from one specific area and standardizes the primary criteria. However, each Judge looks for specific things from the Teams, rather they are presentation skills, technical knowledge, or a great grip on their finances/funding.

We use text messages to communicate to the CSAs and Field/Cue Inspectors issues that the Teams are having on the Field. We had about a 10 minute delay in receiving text messages last year at Champs that we did not seem to have this year. However, 4G was still clogged solid.

Jared, where do the Robot Rules and Game Rules begin and end? Some Teams and some Volunteers know both sets of Rules. Not all Teams (Students and Mentors) nor all Volunteers who should know all the rules (Refs, Inspectors, etc.) know all the rules. As we know, Interpretation and Implementation results will vary. For example: We had a very confused student ask us if the robot had to be inspected to play in a practice match. We said no. However, we also told him that the robot has to have been inspected to play in a practice match via the filler line. He was still very confused. To me, this responsibility falls on both the Teams and Volunteers to read and understand what the rules are really telling them. The frame perimeter rule drives us a bit crazy. The withholding allowance/identical spares/changeable mechanisms also drives us a bit crazy. Non-compliant bumpers drive us even crazier, if that is even possible.

Re: 2014 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

THIS!!
FIRST needs to take the lead on this. Want to know how to "Make it Loud"?
Start with broadcast standards and then add logistical support and financial support to ensure those standards.
If a regional can't meet the standards then they should not be allowed to broadcast. Not having a webcast would be better than some of the broadcasts that I attempted to watch.
There were instances in which I wanted to direct a sponsor, a friend, my school, or a potential mentor to a regional webcast, but then decided not to tell them, because the broadcast quality was so bad.
Lets fix this!!

Re: 2014 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

After volunteering at the Greater Pittsburgh regional this year, I can say that I truly miss the days of regionals in the MAR area. You got a full day to work out issues, get inspected, play real matches that are being reffed as they will be for the rest of the event. And if the practice day is run correctly, each team gets ~8 matches to play in.

This also leads me to question why the MAR area needs the district system. This may be a topic for another thread, and has probably been beaten to death already; but seeing that there are 110 team in MAR, with 55 making it to MAR championships (and I don't recall there being that much growth in rookie teams this past year), why not throw another regional into the pot that used to be there already? (Philadelphia and Trenton)