Re: IRI - What Can Be Improved
 

Fortunately, it was unseasonably cool for late-July in the Midwest (it could easily have been over 90 F). I stepped outside to cool off a couple of times.

Re: IRI - What Can Be Improved
 

Those teams with the pits next to the field seemed to me a bit crowded seeing that the robot traffic was going on right in front of their pits and as times got more hectic, there wasn't much space for either those teams to maneuver and teams trying to line up for a next match. + all of those who decided to make their way to the silent auction from that side added to the crowding as well.

I don't know if i just didn't hear them, but announcements concerning things like the team dinner/webhug/talent show/ and such would be nice.

Re: IRI - What Can Be Improved
 

For the most part, we were queuing 5 matches ahead! The field queuing area determined early on that they had room for five sets of teams without extending into the hallway. So thats what they told us to do. During those times when the crew was hustling to make up time, it really seemed to help that the extra teams were ready.

But I do think that if that's what the expectation was, we should have better communicated that to the teams.:ahh:

Re: IRI - What Can Be Improved
 

I rather enjoyed waiting in line - less time in the relatively hot pits - more time up close with the teams and the matches on the field. :)

Re: IRI - What Can Be Improved
 

LOL. Only one person (from 1902, I believe) believed me when I told them there were no extra matches. I even made calls over the PA telling people that the final match was being played... yet people kept asking. LOL. That's just a funny thing I thought I would add. No big deal, though. I was confused for a bit, too.

Re: IRI - What Can Be Improved
 

backup robot- I thought was pointless because they were not used but again great for the team because they still got an award(once winning) :D

can we have someone sing our national anthem. it would make the opening mean so much more and make it look better

Re: IRI - What Can Be Improved
 

PLEASE do not make the IRI a super-regional-like event with two fields and the whole shebang!

Re: IRI - What Can Be Improved
 

One thing I would like to see.
When playing the national anthems of other countries (Israel and Canada), display their flag on the projection screen.

Re: IRI - What Can Be Improved
 

I had three minor complaints

1. Could we have two choices for food at the dinner? I am not a fan of taco salad or whatever they served, but last year's food was great. Something like hot dogs or hamburgers would be great.

2. I had a hard time with the numbering system of the pits. It looped and just seemed generally goofy to me. But I can deal with that not changing.

3. Could pits be put in the little hallway behind the charity auction on the far side of the competition. Maybe move the the sponsors pits to there so we don't have the mass of people on that side.

Just a few small ones not really anything major

Re: IRI - What Can Be Improved
 

ummm... weren't they just in numerical order in a serpentine fashion starting with the lowest order tucked way in the corner to the highest number in the front near the curtain? (except for the sponsoring team pits). Maybe that was more obvious when you were sitting at the pit admin table, but for the group of us doing queuing, we had no problem finding the pits, once we figured out which teams were not in that pit area.

But that does bring up another thing. Whenever we had a team to queue that was in the field area pits we sent a runner from pit admin to make sure they knew they were up soon. And while it seemed effective and the runner had a great time going back and forth, it might have been more efficient to have a radio or some other means of communicating to that area. And the same thing for Genia who kept going back and forth to make sure we were queuing the matches at the same rate she needed them. It would have been simpler to buzz us periodically and ask if we were queuing match number so and so...

Re: IRI - What Can Be Improved
 

It's going to seem like I love griping, where I'm just trying to be thorough. So, here it is:

I'm really surprised nobody posted this yet: Someone please test the sound system before the opening ceremonies. The Israeli national anthem was absolutely *painful* because there was so much treble it penetrated my brain! It was better the second day, but still not great.

I didn't see a practice field--a perfect spot would be on the other side of that curtain. For that matter, it would've been nice to get a larger pit and spread into that part of the gym. But that's just a luxury.

The guys' bathroom was disgusting every time I went in there. Enough said.

I was slightly bummed that the concession stands were closed towards the end on Saturday. Then again, we just turned around and went to a restaurant.

I would've liked to see the "if you're touching the wall you don't get the bonus points" rule pulled; that always seemed like a stupid rule...but I'm only sore about it because that was a deciding factor in the first finals match...with us being decided against ;).

That's about all I have.

This was definitely much more fun than last year! You must be doing something right :).

JBot

P.S. YAY! No tech inspections!:D

Re: IRI - What Can Be Improved
 

Has the IRI ever had robot inspections? I'm guessing not, because at that point in the year inspections shouldn't be necessary. If a robot had a real issue with safety or rules compliance, I'm pretty sure there would be several people very near the field who could spot it. People with stripes on who also have significant experience with the robot rules. One guy in particular who doesn't miss much.

Re: IRI - What Can Be Improved
 

I don't remember if we had them last year...but it's still a great relief to not need to stand in line to have someone approve the electronics board you know is already in order.

Re: IRI - What Can Be Improved
 

Sorry, the committee that came up with the rule changes missed that one. And then when it happened the first time, we had no choice but to disallow points, because that's what FIRST's rule said. We didn't like it, but we had to be consistent. It should be the referees' discretion as to whether the robot was leaning against the wall for no points, or just touching the wall. (Rules mods for future off-season events, take note.)

I recall two instances in the knockout rounds; there may have been more. In one case, 107's ramps had a flap of polycarb that was supposed to go between the ramped robot and the wall, preventing the condition - but the flap didn't deploy on one side of the robot, and the ramped robot touched the wall. Another time a bot was touching the glass, despite the drive team's efforts to pull on the alliance station. Actually that only made the decision easier, the refs could clearly see the touching as the wall moved back to contact the robot :yikes:

Re: IRI - What Can Be Improved
 

I totally agree with the reason the rule was enforced. Thank you for upholding the integrity of the judging.

Yeah......that was us...:o :D

I heard about that one when they got back. We would've gotten away with it, too, if it wasn't for those meddling kids..er...judges! :)

But in all seriousness I would not be happy with winning because of a controversial call. Changing the rules during a game is wrong; thank you for not doing that, as hard as that may have been.

And I am really happy with our finalist award. My autonomous last year made sure we didn't make it past quarters--wish I had video, but the robot took off at full speed (~15ft/sec)--it was supposed to shift down after .5sec--and nearly smacked into another robot (causing me to get balled out by a judge...:ahh: ) and ending its short-lived high-speed journey smashing into the other side of the field dramatically, throwing the main battery a few feet out of the holder and causing the robot to freeze in place for the rest of the match. Gosh, that was fun to watch...

Wow, that got off-topic. Sorry...

JBot