Mike, I also am planning to volunteer to write the scoring and display software for 2004. Perhaps we could combine our efforts and collaborate on creating and debugging it?

I was present.. and do see a fault in the system- but as Bill Enslen said, the team that was mistakenly ranked 7th (LUnatecs) were picked in the second round..

I do remember how in the second round team 56 tried to pick 433, who were ranked 8th. This might prove that the teams did not know who was really # 7/8. However, Diablo (87) was ranked 7th, and as they won the imagery award at both Philly and Chesapeake thanks to their fire theme, and as their representative was dressed in a cape and flames, I'm pretty sure most of the captains knew something was wrong.

I don't really want to dwell on this subject, but for what it's worth I believe they were removed from the video wall first. I'm not sure at what point it was. That is neither here nore there, the important part is that the event was successful and that recruits are on their way to volunteer next year.

That sounds great.
- Mike

As a volunteer at the Canadian regional I would like to add a few things. You are asking for a representative of FIRST to say they are sorry for what happened. You say that you spoke to the pit announcer who said he would talk to someone from FIRST. I know first hand how much work goes on behind the scenes and how many task one person gets involved with. More than once I promised something and a couple of hours later remembered what I had done. I did follow up and say I was sorry but I also question myself on what else did I forget. I arrived every day by 6:45 and was one of the last to leave every night. When I arrived the FIRST people where already in full swing and always were working when I left. I have worked with these people at 2 Canadian Regions and1 in Pittsburg. Believe me when I say that they try their very best to make everything work out without any errors. We are all human however and we do make mistakes. I wonder if the pit announcer forgot or in their few minutes of break( if they were lucky enough to get one ) did not get a chance to see someone. I am sorry that you were not picked but sometimes those things happen. At the Canadian Regional the 10th seeded team was not chosen and I am sure they felt that they should have been. Remember that the choosers where students. I saw a 2nd round choice of a team that was ranked 4th and was already a chooser. All I can say now is good luck for the rest of this year and I hope that next year brings you closer to winning.

I have only read the first post in this thread and this is what I think:

Sure its pretty hard to deal with malfunctions and stuff during a COMPETITION in which the rules should be right every time.

However, winning is not the point. Even though it is much more fun to win than to lose. Our team got shafted many times. But Im not $@#$@#$@#$@#$@#ing.

Why dont you get past your self for a minute and think about gracious professionalism. Think about the mission of FIRST and how we are changing the world.

Why dont you get off your soap box and help out a struggling team get into finals. Only then will you understand what this program is all about.

Philadelphia Regional Comments
 

I posted this in the Philadelphia Regional thread and it is appropriate here also:
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Congrats to all Philly Teams

This was the fourth Philly Regional I have attended, and by far it was the most competetive. I have never attended any regional (7 total) where the final eight alliances were so strong and so evenly matched. The top 4 alliances were eliminated by the bottom 4, yet the quality of gameplay never diminished. There were no weaknesses in any of these alliances, and all teams in the playoffs deserve a loud CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!

It's interesting to see how all the local teams in this regional are improving and developing together. These past few years as we've met at one or two regionals, and also at the many off-season competitions in this area, a very strong core of good teams have developed, and it showed these past three days.

Here's looking forward to Nationals. Good Luck to all the teams making the trip, and look for more excitement as we "Stack Attack" during the upcoming off-season.
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With all eight alliances being so strong, I'm not sure which team should have been replaced. That is one of the perils of attending such a strong regional; we only had three rookie teams, and two of them won their way into the playoffs. I'm sure other teams with good robots were disappointed at not being selected. Philadelphia did not have robots breaking down and sitting idly during the playoff matches, as I have observed in other regionals. I thoroughly enjoyed the gameplay of the playoffs, even after we were eliminated. Though there were glitches and calls we may have disagreed with, the Philadelphia Regional was a success, and it was indicative of the great competitions we will see here in the future.

So, we've all seen these posts and from what I read, most people are tired of them. I think they serve a purpose beyond the gratification of the poster. I really don't know the inner workings of FIRST, but I'd bet they dislike making mistakes as much as teams dislike it. I see these threads as bringing attention to real problems that FIRST has. Hey, I've whined before, and it felt good :D but seriously, if FIRST makes a mistake that just ruins an event for a team (or perhaps more than one) they might not know it, and it might be within their ability to prevent said mistake from happening in subsequent events. Perhaps these boards need a ATTN: FIRST section.

I'm getting a little sick of defending myself but there seems to be a large perception that I'm just a jerk.

At the Philly regional we gave whatever extra parts we had. A team would ask me and I would ask around our pit until we found what the person was asking for. Team 204, who did not pass inspection, came over and I showed them how you wire in the 40 amp breaker. I do feel slightly bad now that I didn't say, if you need any help over there just ask. They ended up going to the finals and wining everything, so I guess they didn't need too much help. In previous years I have helped re-program countless robots.

So before everyone goes throwing more stones, and telling me that I'm childish, just realise that I may in fact be a nicer guy than you think.

Mike, you should be thrilled that a robot you helped fix was able to be that successful... that obviously proves that you know how to wire robots correctly, and it shows good sportsmanship.

If you feel that you do not need to defend yourself, then don't. The topics of this thread have already been thoroughly discussed and further comment is unecessary.

Lets all look forward to the last two weekends of competition. Lets keep thanking the volunteers for their hard work, and thank FIRST for being able to organize such a fantastic program.

ByE

erin

graceous professionalism is only necessary WHEN something goes wrong, when someone makes a mistake, when someone screws up.

BUT HERES THE THING: its not up to the person who screwed up to make it all better by apologizing, fixing the problem, un-doing the mistake

the GRACE in GP comes from the people who got the short end of the stick, the shaft, the raw deal - you are graceous when YOU understand that the other person is doing the best they can - you know and EXPECT that mistakes will be made

you ACCEPT this as part of the whole FIRST experiece

and YOU continue to act in a professional, graceous manner - you keep functioning, you continue to be nice

knowing that without GP on YOUR part, FIRST could not possibly exist!

(and remember there is 0% value in teaching students how to stack containers or drive robots onto ramps.

Thats not what we are here for.)