Re: G10, The Dallas Disable & Crickets Chirping in Manchester
 

If so we are going to be seeing some assembly while two people are holding the robot off the carpet.

Re: G10, The Dallas Disable & Crickets Chirping in Manchester
 

So glad I'm not playing with you at least so far this season.

I'm also glad our robot requires no adjustment from transport configuration so we can avoid these setup time issues.

Re: G10, The Dallas Disable & Crickets Chirping in Manchester
 

I hope not. It was in an email from Kevin Ross (PNW Chairman), and it's not in the Manual, so unless someone has something more official, hopefully this won't happen.

Re: G10, The Dallas Disable & Crickets Chirping in Manchester
 

Along similar lines...Transport Configuration.

I'm curious how it was enforced and implemented in other areas of the country. In South Florida- teams were permitted to exit Transport Configuration once they reached the on-deck queue boxes.

Will this be the norm? Is this how it was done in other venues?

-Brando

Re: G10, The Dallas Disable & Crickets Chirping in Manchester
 

This was allowed at PNW Oregon City for the entire weekend, and I heard that it was happening at PNW Auburn-Mountainview late Friday since they were running 2 hours behind. PNWFIRST has stated that FIRST approved this as a temporary thing, so don't plan on it for Week 2 events. It could happen at some events, but I think it was a Week 1 thing.

The head ref at the Indy event gave us a warning about us taking to long during set up.

Re: G10, The Dallas Disable & Crickets Chirping in Manchester
 

The SAFE expansion outside of transport configuration early in the queue is one tool events have this year to help them maintain schedule. Schedule wasn't an issue at Lake Superior this weekend, but it was across the hall at Northern Lights (due to field issues, not team issues). For those two events specifically, we hold an exhibition "Double DECCer" playoff match between the winners of both fields. So while Northern Lights was trying to catch up on Saturday (even playing matches through lunch), Lake Superior was slowing things down so they would both end roughly at the same time.

As I understand it, utilizing this tool is at the discretion of the event, based on the needs of the event. If there's no need, then I doubt it'll be used.

Re: G10, The Dallas Disable & Crickets Chirping in Manchester
 

An email from Kevin Ross (PNW Chairman) stated that this practice would not be permitted in our week 2 event and that we were expected to strictly abide by the limit. I have also gotten word (indirectly) from the head ref of that event that the 60 second time limit will be enforced.

I really don't think it's a big deal: We knew it would be an issue on day 1 and made design decisions about our robot knowing that the time limit would exist - albeit we did not know how much lenience there would be. If a veteran team creates a robot that simply cannot be assembled in less than, say, 90 seconds, they should be warned, then disabled. We have to play by the rules. If it is a rookie team, perhaps a little more patience would be wise - though not in elimination matches.

Re: G10, The Dallas Disable & Crickets Chirping in Manchester
 

Has an MC ever managed to damage a robot while introducing the teams?

Re: G10, The Dallas Disable & Crickets Chirping in Manchester
 

The 60 second setup time can be brutal, teams often took way longer than that in previous years with no transport config.

Re: G10, The Dallas Disable & Crickets Chirping in Manchester
 

At Northern Lights, we didn't end up relaxing the transport configuration rule as we only ran an hour behind and teams were pretty good about setup time. There were some laggards, but we communicated with them and they got better.

Going longer than 60 seconds is a risk, not a rule. During quals, when the event is an hour behind and your robot is in the #3 box -- more likely to be an issue. During practice matches -- less risky.

Re: G10, The Dallas Disable & Crickets Chirping in Manchester
 

A big challenge this year comes in the semifinals.
Teams need time to be able to tether (although I read somewhere you cant?) to reset their robots, fill air tanks and do other software/mechanical checks and setups prior to playing another match.

What happens if you play back-back matches during the round robin 3 matches?
Some teams at IE were rushing to get going again because of this.

Re: G10, The Dallas Disable & Crickets Chirping in Manchester
 

Well 5.6.6 in the game manual says that in the playoffs if an alliance plays back to back matches, the Head Ref WILL issue a field timeout. This doesn't just apply in the finals, but in the semis and quarters as well. So if required to play back to back, there will be a 6 minute field timeout in between.

Re: G10, The Dallas Disable & Crickets Chirping in Manchester
 

For these matches we were supposed to take a formal field time out, but we didn't get clarification on this until after the event (we still gave essentially the same amount of time to the teams)- that being said, it's still a very tight turn-around. The tethering is somewhat addressed in the latest game update - with expressed permission from FTA or referee it is allowed.

Re: G10, The Dallas Disable & Crickets Chirping in Manchester
 

The manual has been updated to explicitly allow this (I remember it being implicitly allowed at previous competitions).