Is this fair?
 

Today, Me and my team participated in the 2nd day of the Florida Regional. And a call by the field officials was made, that we and probably you all would not agree with after reading this.
Okay, where to begin. The night before today (the first day of the regional), we were the last one's to get inspected before the Pit. Admin closd for the night. We hadn't played any practice matches all day because we were trying to get the bugs out of our programming code, So we obviously had not gotten inspected during the day. Anyway, at night we had just barely got the weight of our robot down to where it was less than 110 pounds (our maximum). So this morning we had to get two things done to finish inspection.
In the morning we came and got our robot sized perfectly, it fit in the box and we had passed the sizing part of the inspection, Next was the visual and electronics evaluation of the robot. So, one the officials came over to our pit, evaluated us, everything was looking good so he put the sticker on the side of our bot wrote our information on his sheet, and gave us a thumbs up (Notice that he did not sign the sticker, he only put it on).
So later in the afternoon, we go to our last and final match of today. At this point in time, our rank amongst the other team was in the lower 40's because a previous match that we had won. Now, we step onto the field and we are about to start when the head official notices that the sticker is not signed on our robot, (Which we were completely unaware of since the official that had inspected us assured us that the inspection was complete and we were "safe") So he stopped the match before it was going to begin took us onto the field and showed us the problem. So, our mentor, insisted to the referee that why doesn't he tell someone to get the sheet that says whether we passed inspection or not from the person who inspected us. That is all the officials had to do, was look at that sheet, or simply call the person who inspected us. But we were mandated to take our robot to the side of the field, and they told us that a person was coming to verify that we were inspected, then 10 seconds before the match started, another official came and signed it, but the head ref, said that he cannot put you in because they have already declared that the match will begin, (Now, you guys must realize what we must be feeling right now, after knowing that we were ejeted from a match, for something that we had no control over, it was completely and utterly their fault and that because of this our rank has now plummeted to 46) So we went back to our pit, Most of us furious at this point, and at the end of the day, we found the official that had inspected us, and we asked him why. Why all this happened, and why he had not signed the sticker after inspecting us. And this is exactly what he told us, "Yesterday was my first day, I didn't know that we had to sign the stickers", and he also said that the person in charge of him had not told him anything about signing inspection stickers.
So, my question to you, the CD community is, How could FIRST let something like this happen? And also, Why did the referee handle the situation in the manner that he did? I mean, I just think that this is not right, and it should be brought up to the FIRST community. I mean, has FIRST really come to this?
Never in previous years, have I ever criticized the officials or FIRST, but now for the first time, I am realizing that tomorow,(The Final Day of the regional) My team is going to lose, not because of our robot failing, not because of a bad alliance pairing, but because of FIRST.
At this point, I don't know who to blame, or who is truly at fault, I am just craving to know, was this fair, or is this an injustice?

Re: Is this fair?
 

Sorry to hear about your situation.
I hope it doesnt affect your seeding too much and that you have the same opportunities to make the playoffs.

Re: Is this fair?
 

No one is to blame. FIRST didn't do this. The Ref didn't do this. The Inspector didn't do this. It was an accident. No one wanted you to miss your match. To make you feel a bit better, Rank means nothing in this game. One of the best scorers at VCU was in the low 40's at the end of the round-robin and went to the QF's.

It's not fair. it's not right, but stuff like this happens. If you don't get picked for finals tomorrow, get in those stands and cheer for those who did. Remember, this is FIRST.

Re: Is this fair?
 

I agree the situation that you had to deal with was not a pleasant one at all and I would be very upset if it happened to me, but going to the extent of saying that you will lose because of FIRST is uncalled for. You have matches scheduled on Saturday where you can show your team and your robots ability. While you may not be able to be one of the top eight "picking teams" you can still be easily be picked by any of them. If you go out onto the field tomorrow and you show that you have what it takes to win, there is no reason that you will not be in the elimination rounds.

Re: Is this fair?
 

Yes, I realize what you are saying, but I just can't get past the fact that how did this happen. How did the inspector not get told to do something, how did he "not know". I mean this is FIRST for god sake's. And above all, how can we prevent something like this from happening next year, or even at the championship? If the officials don't know, then who does. I mean for all we know their can be a handful of tams in my regional, who that inspector inspected that day, who are still participating and will participate tomorrow. So how can an issue like this be enforced if the officials, simply "don't know"

Re: Is this fair?
 

You were our partner in that match, and we lost because they pulled you off. Basically that simple. I didn't know why, but now that I do, I'm real thrilled too. The inspection process was over the top. I don't blame any of the volenteers. They were doing what was asked of them. I just wish these kinds of things could be avoided, but this whole thing is getting over complicated. I thought our bot was in the best possible condition in our history to go thru inspection. I thought we would zip thru at record pace. But after an hour went by and we were still going, I started to get frustrated. It just seems like that whole process should be simpler. I'm sorry you guys had to go thru that. I hope you can overlook it, and try and see the bright side of FIRST. We put a lot of hard work into our teams and bots. It all culminates at your competition, and you have high expectations. Then these silly things ruin it for us. All we can do is make the best of it, or all that work was in vein.

Re: Is this fair?
 

I'm sorry that this happened to you.

Is it fair? No, but life seldom is fair.

Blaming FIRST or the officials is not the answer though. You have the oppertunity here to show that no matter what they throw at you, you will prevail (true first spirit). Show them what teamwork and FIRST is about. If I were you, I'd go to that inspector and tell him it's all OK (I'll bet he feels worse about this than you do).

Mistakes happen. It's how we react to them and what we learn from them that shows what type of people we are.

Re: Is this fair?
 

He's a rookie inspector, Cut him a break. I know alot of the rookie teams were helped out alot this year. Do the same thing for the rookie Volunteers as well.

Re: Is this fair?
 

Perhaps you can gather all 6 teams in that match and plead for a Rematch of that match?

Re: Is this fair?
 

well said, except its "vain.":D

Re: Is this fair?
 

Its just unfortunate mistake and i am sorry to hear it happen to you. I am sorry for the teams you were matched with. All you can do is keep your head up and dont let it bother you. It happened and its over. Tommorow is a new day.

Re: Is this fair?
 

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Re: Is this fair?
 

I don't see how missing one match is going to make or break your regional. If your a strong bot you'll get picked. With the matching the way it is, I didn't think rank took an almighty weight in the decision.

Course then again this is my first year and FLR has like 35 bots, not 40+

Re: Is this fair?
 

No, I wasn't even accusing the inspector, It was the person in charge of him that had not told him anything about signing the stickers. In the end though, we explained to him though that it really wasn't his fault, because we really saw that he felt bad about and we realized that it was not his fault that he did not know.

Re: Is this fair?
 

Let this be a lesson to all - make sure that your sticker is signed.

It is unfortunate that it happened, but if you don't mind - let's turn this around and use it to help the other teams.

This way they won't go through the same situation, and feel as bad as your team does.

Mike