Re: Rumble in the Roads - 2014
 

I have good news and bad news.

The good news:
All of the match video 2363 has through the finals is now on our teams youtube account.

The bad news:
The card that the semifinals was recorded on died, so we have no video of the semifinals.

Re: Rumble in the Roads - 2014
 

Lessons learned document published here!

Re: Rumble in the Roads - 2014
 

I'm reading through it, and now I'm wondering how many offseasons have ever provided driver buttons. You call the whole event something as "a sort of practice," but you consider buttons to be a huge need. I honestly can't remember an offseason I've participated in that has supplied driver buttons. Someone who has gone to IRI might be able to answer if even they have them. The only one I can think has them is MKM.

I also don't know of any actual offseason (not counting the offseason state championships) that provide inspectors, but providing it as an optional process could be good. Could result in some negative effects by having an inspector stress rules at the offseason that undergo heavy changes or be de-emphasized/deleted for the next year's game (read as: bumpers).

On the point of adding a queuer, I think the one thing Virginia always does well is queuing. I don't know how much of the VARI queuing staff was at RitR, but it felt like zero. Cycling in and out of the field went from typical-offseason quirkiness to downright nightmarish depending on who interacted with who (new student on the drive team + guy I have never seen before doing queuing=disaster). If better routes could be established and pointed out in the future with taped arrows, it would go a long way to fix that issue.

I have more but I'll put it in another email later.

Re: Rumble in the Roads - 2014
 

Will,

A lot of the comments in the document were direct feedback from the attendants of the event. We didn't think drive team buttons were a big deal at all, which is why we didn't provide them. But, you'd be surprised how many times Pit Admin was asked about the buttons.

Re: Rumble in the Roads - 2014
 

The reason I asked was that the head reff(/reff in training) said we needed them during the driver's meeting.

Re: Rumble in the Roads - 2014
 

That would explain it. Either way its a simple request that can be planned in the future to give it that much more of a real event feel.

Re: Rumble in the Roads - 2014
 

All,

When reading through Nate's lessons learned document if there is anything that you think we missed that could improve the event for future years please leave your comments here. We appreciate any feedback that will make the event better for all those volunteering, competing, and attending.

Thanks.

Re: Rumble in the Roads - 2014
 

There was a lack of corndogs at the event. Is this something you will address next year? ;)

Seriously, you guys had one of the best run off season events. It was well done. I'm sure there are a ton of improvements you want to make and you will and I'm hoping we'll be back next year when you do it again. Thank you for hosting it.

Re: Rumble in the Roads - 2014
 

please, please, please, keep the corndog thing on the west coast where it belongs...

Re: Rumble in the Roads - 2014
 

Fine then... event needed more BBQ then. :)

Re: Rumble in the Roads - 2014
 

That's entirely unsurprising. At least it simulated the emotional distress one gets from a driver's meeting at the Virginia Regional.

Re: Rumble in the Roads - 2014
 

Why do you call this unsurprising? We recruited experienced referees for our event and they were asked to officiate the event just as if they were at a real regional. Our goal is to hold a district event at Menchville in the future. By making our off-season as much like a real event as possible we help to prepare everyone involved: the teams, the volunteers, the school system, etc.

Real regionals have driver buttons and it was our fault for not communicating to the referees that buttons were not provided. Our lessons learned document includes a statement about the buttons mainly because of the miscommunication. We either need buttons or we need to communicate better that there are no buttons.

On a different note since you felt the need to blend your text color in with the background color, can you elaborate on why you feel the driver's meeting at the regional is stressful? In my opinion, the only thing stressful about it is the utter lack of attention from the teams and the questions they ask that are clearly answered in the rules. Properly prepared teams have no reason to be stressed.

Re: Rumble in the Roads - 2014
 

To be fair to the reff, I think the reason he/she brought it up was because there were a few teams at the drivers meeting that were wearing their driver buttons from other events. So it isn't unreasonable to for him/her (to be honest I can't remember if it was the head reff or the reff in training) to assume the event had buttons.

Re: Rumble in the Roads - 2014
 

BBQ = 1.90
SAUCE = 0.80 :)

Re: Rumble in the Roads - 2014
 

Regional driver meetings are stressful when you have to relay team updates to referees before they tell the teams they will be enforcing rules that are no longer in effect and/or following an invalid interpretation of the rules. It creates a situation where if a drive team can't trust a referee to be aware of and/or communicate rules available from a public resource, the drive team may think the referee might be susceptible to other issues that shouldn't be issues.

The headaches I have had with referee crews aren't exclusive to Rumble in the Roads. There are a number of issues that are constant presences at the Virginia/DC Regional year in and year out that are not issues at other events I have attended in the past (2014 Champs, 2014 Alamo, 2013 Champs, 2012 NC, 2011 MD, 2010 NJ, 2009 NJ, a half dozen Mid-Atlantic offseasons, other event's I'm forgetting). This is not the first and only place I have discussed this issue and there are people with far more influence than those who post in this forum who are aware of the issue.

I don't think I called out RitR here for saying mean things about my mom or claimed it would always be picked last in kickball, so I'm not really sure what made you think this now-ludicrous discourse on driver buttons at an offseason event made me think Menchville couldn't hold a district. In fact, I called out teams for thinking it's weird to expect driver buttons. IRI doesn't give out driver buttons. Communicating a lack of driver buttons in advance wasn't an option listed on the lessons learned paper, but it's good to see that's an option.
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Why do I blur out some things on Chief Delphi?

Because sometimes people go off the reserve when you express an opinion they don't like.