Re: Drivers' Meeting
 

Wow that rule for expanding bots is terrible! If any of you have seen SPIKE we expand with our net, and now people can just hit the net, and we get penalites, that is really dumb. Why start using this rule now? It was not in effect at the two regionals we attended. :mad:
Luckily we were able to constrain our expanding hopper, but this new rule/interepretation is ridiculous.

Re: Drivers' Meeting
 

I, too, was thoroughly disgusted by the drivers meeting. However, I feel like I am against the majority. I was not offended by the rules, they are what they are, and there is little use to arguing with the referees over moot points. I was shocked by the complete lack of gracious professionalism by some of the drivers/stage crew. No respect was shown to the referees or FIRST.

Worst of all though, everyone applauded the repeated, unsportsman-like conduct. I've seen a lot better out of first.

Also, everyone needs to remember that you are representing your entire team, not just yourself.

Re: Drivers' Meeting
 

I was not there, but I can understand people getting upset when they are forced to completely change their strategy on very short notice when FIRST could well have issued a "point of emphasis" in an update or the head ref. In any event, I try to avoid accusing others of lacking gracious professionalism. Here are a couple of spotlighted quotes that I find relevant (though I based on what I just said I can't really associate myself with the first one):

Re: Drivers' Meeting
 

it was long and spiteful, full of people who need to learn to read... and it made me miss dinner with my team >_<
Seriously, the manual is out for a reason... um... to read it maybe?

Re: Drivers' Meeting
 

No one said you had to be/stay there.

I was the kid from team 461 asking lots of questions about incidental contact, I just wanted to know if our wheelie bars (to keep us from tipping) would be penalized for getting ran into/over. We never got a penalty the entire competion for anything, and I don't think anyone got penalized for the incidental contact situation, but someone else could probably shed more light on that situation.

Keep in mind, everything has to do with what the referees see, and it is probably a lot more complicated than you think it is.

Re: Drivers' Meeting
 

I was very disappointed watching the driver meeting. First off people were asking questions that were clearly stated in the manual. The there was one individual who was quite rude when asking their questions.

Beyond that there were quite a few good questions that were asked.



I would like to thank the Head Refs for taking the time to answer our questions, even though I think some abused the privilege.



Oh and one other thing, I read some ones post in response to some one saying they missed dinner for the meeting, that said they could have just left. In my the way I see it the Refs were taking their time to be there and couldn't leave, and I found it rude that people got up and left. Being a driver means taking extra responsibility, responsibility to attend driver meetings and staying through them.

So again thank you to the Refs for doing such a great job all weekend.

Re: Drivers' Meeting
 

all i have to say is i was very upset that TWICE to us inparticular were not only entagled but flipped by an "apendage" and there was no call... no penalty... no dq... no nothing... if we werent flipped it wouldnt have been a blowout like it was i was just very upset so much time was taken to clear those rules and none of them were called... =(

Re: Drivers' Meeting
 

I noticed this. I saw a lot of appendage interaction with very little to no calling. I know that personally Bunney, the 222 operator was a quick trigger on getting our flipped back up when we came near an opponent.

Re: Drivers' Meeting
 

Seeing Spike's robot with the smaller net was thoroughly depressing. At Chesapeake, everyone knew who Spike was. They had a great machine and I applaud them for playing hard. I am sorry that they had to change an excellent robot to conform with rules that had been enforced differently at previous competitions. I know that with the game changing every year and all the different people responsible for enforcing the rules, these sorts of things do happen. Thanks to the refs for all their hard work.