I was hoping that at Nationals they would have someone come on stage like last year where they had Mandy Moore come on... I threw my room key at her but she didn't get it... lol

not to mention trying to take pictures of the field side view when the lexan was all scratched up us short people can't stand very tall nor can we see at long distances to shoot a good video shot or take a decent picture

Re: FIRST Report Card 2003
 

yeah, but only if they actually broke. we managed to draw WAY more power out of em before they actually died. :D

Both this year and last year I liked the idea of having slightly different scoring methods during qualifications and elimination. It really encourages variety, as you can either design for high-scoring rounds that shoot you to the top of the standings or you can design an aggressive bot that may not seed well but will perform in the playoffs. Additionally, it really puts a premium on scouting.

Again folks, Let's keep it on topic, this isn't about robots, it's about the game.

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The walk wasn't so bad, if you wanted to lose some weight before the match. It was about a 1/2 mile each way and seemingly uphill both ways (Pushing uphill, pulling downhill so robot cart doesn't smash into the wall).

There was no way to prevent this at that venue but it was still a pain.
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Something that hasn't been mentioned has been the food, I know it's pretty much the same every year because the venue controls the food, but it's just too darn expensive. This isn't a baseball game, I don't want a $2.00 hot dog or $2.50 Pizza or $1.50 for a 12oz sodapop. It's like extortion, get hungry from working hard, not allowed to bring in food, better bring the ATM card.
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The kit was neat this year, with some good ideas like the premade gearbox housing for the drill motors. I saw a lot of teams (including non-rookies) using the premade housing. Then again, I saw a lot of shattered pieces of the housing. I'd give the pre-made gearbox a B- because of it's failures ruining matches for so many teams.
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A lot of excitment was lost for spectators this year. The only really exciting moments happened in the first 15 or the last 15 seconds of the matches (if it happened). There were a few cool things that happened around the field, but those were rare. This years game wasn't too spectator friendly and the scoring made spectators whom understood the concept lost in knowing who won. (Especially in Elims).
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Best of 2 Elimnations.. We never made it to these, but from what I watched, they seemed to largely be Win the first one and you move on. Only a few teams ever came back from a Match 1 loss and advanced.

some gruff some stuff
 

Hey my second year and here's my report:

Field:B+ because it took a beating this year and came out in one piece. I like 3 different surfaces but something else is needed, like un-manmade terrain. Imagine sand in your robot!

Game: A- Definate improvement over ready, GO!, slam into a goal, tug o war. Actual robot interaction, climbing on one another, blocking the ramp, making stacks, collecting boxes, knocking down boxes,protecting stacks, So many things to do! But what's with the 20 updates?

Kit-o-parts:A Why no 90 degree motor to go with flexable shaft?

Kickoff: A+ great!

Website:A- Rankings for some regionals disappered? Maybe something like soap108? Why isn't Soap108 on their recomended sites? More coverage of regionals.

There were elevators in the astrodome. Think about it, at every sports arena elevators are required for handicapped people. The astrodome was no exception, I forgot exactly where they were at but i saw them.

Also, we weren't lucky enough to book inside of the package so we brought food into the pits from Burger King and several other fast food places. When we brought the food in no one stopped us or said anything about it. We had a cooler full of drinks and I saw some one with a 3 liter of coke in their back pack; so the food issue shouldn't have been a problem.

Lets keep this more about the game and other things than 'Houston Sucked' 'No it didn't' type of thread. We already have 10000 different threads like that.

I have been talking to some other team members. What I have figured out is that at lease we were in a wonderful arena. Our team votes back to Disney next year (thats just our opinion though). The way I see it, is that Texas put on a wonderful show for us, also remember we are not there to play around, we are there to compete.

Good Luck to everyone this year at the invatationals, see you guys at IRI.

-Greg