Re: Championship 2008 - Atlanta - Your Thoughts Please
 

The CA being announced first seemed wrong, but I did like the way they did awards between matches.
The reason I normally payed attention during awards (it can get long after a while) was for Chairmans.
Although the way they did it this year was pretty good.
I think regionals should also do the awards inbetween qualifing matches, just because it gives mechanics more time to work on their bots and some robots can't handle the match after match after match.
Regionals should leave chairmans for the very last though....

Re: Championship 2008 - Atlanta - Your Thoughts Please
 

I kinda liked having CA being first. It was an interesting way to cement them in their new role in the FIRST community. Rather than have them parade through at the end, why not give them front row seats to the rest of the ceremony?

On a slightly less upbeat note, I don't much care for the style of one of the emcees. I can't remember his name, but he was the one that repeatedly said "Thats what I'm talking about BABY". I do hope that he is replaced next year by someone with more insightful commentary.

Overall, I was very happy. Those last matches of Wayne on Wayne action were amazing!

Re: Championship 2008 - Atlanta - Your Thoughts Please
 

Sir Charles. A lot of people like him, but he could use some extra training in being useful as play-by-play.

Re: Championship 2008 - Atlanta - Your Thoughts Please
 

For any of you that follow college basketball, Sir Charles is like the Dickie V. of FIRST. His energy and excitement are contagious, but if you actually take the time to listen to what he is saying you realize he isn't saying much of anything at all.

For me, the play by play doesn't always do much, but over a webcast the announcer is the only good way to convey the energy of the event. That puts me in the "like him" camp, but I do understand those that want more commentary and less "FIRST Overdrive BABY"

Re: Championship 2008 - Atlanta - Your Thoughts Please
 

For A Heads Up, I'm Doing This On My Phone, On The Bus While The Championship Is Still Fresh On My Mind. Overall I'm Very Satisfied With The Championship. Two Small Things That Should Have Been Approved Were Communication And Judging. I Had No Idea When To Turn In All Of Our Safety Credits Until It Was Too Late. Pit Admin Said It Was Announced Over The Announcements And That A Safety Judge Was To Come By. Well... No Judge Came By To Tell Us And I Couldn't Understand Anything Over The Announcements. For The Judging, Only One Robot Judge Came By During The Whole Event, And She Really Didn't Want To Hear About Our Robot. Even Though I Don't Think We Would Have Won An Award For Our Robot Design, I Think It Was Not Fair That We Were Not Even Given A Chance. I Was Going To Explain Some Of Our Programming Techniques And Electrical Techniques, But She Said That She Didn't Need To Hear About Those. She Never Really Even Asked Much About Our Design, It Was More Like She Was Scouting Our Team, Asking About Our Drive Train And Our Method Of Hurdling.

Re: Championship 2008 - Atlanta - Your Thoughts Please
 

Sir Charles had a great time during Aim High, boo-yaa, boo-yaa, boo-yaa

Re: Championship 2008 - Atlanta - Your Thoughts Please
 

Having missed the webcast, does anyone know if the footage is stored any where? I'd like to catch up on some of it, esp. the Chairman's video.

Re: Championship 2008 - Atlanta - Your Thoughts Please
 

This was the best run Championships in a long time, I think FIRST finally has a hold on how to work this venue with this many teams, it's not perfect yet, but it's close.

I like the idea of putting Chairmans first, and a mention at the end of the ceremonies would be nice too.

I like the fact the ceremonies were closer to ending on schedule, and I agree that making Friday last longer would help with that, then in addition try and control the Dean/Woody speeches would put us in a good position to finally have it end at 6:30.

Seemed that this year the wrap party seemed to end REALLY early, or was that just me?

I liked having scholarship row more in the middle of things, same with the Hall of Fame. And I also liked the choices in food this time around.

Re: Championship 2008 - Atlanta - Your Thoughts Please
 

for those of you that d9idn't notice, the entire dome roof was tarped off, making the visuals a lot better during the competition.

i honestly think there should be more qualification matches, run qf's on Friday until 6-6:30, and run on Saturday until.... 2pm (think about it, if you put in 100's of hours into a robot, you should get the opportunity to use it. a conservative teams puts in at least 2000 man hours during build, why hold yourself to playing only 15:45...7 qf's minimum, add the extra 2 or 3 hours and fit in a couple of qf's per teams....also this means the Einstein finals would be in prime time, )

i'll post the rest as a note on facebook, too much to type here to give people an idea of my thoughts...

Re: Championship 2008 - Atlanta - Your Thoughts Please
 

How about limiting each of the divisions to 50 robots? Over a quarter of FRC teams go to Atlanta, is that really necessary? Or how about moving FLL and FTC into one of the GWCC halls with bleachers (like the Seattle Regional) and having six FRC fields in the dome? I don't think the FTC folks got anything extra out of going into the Dome, and it would be nice to have three or four divisions of FTC instead of only two, for which we might have room in a smaller setting with more fields. I can't speak to FLL, since I have no idea what those teams would like.

Re: Championship 2008 - Atlanta - Your Thoughts Please
 

200 robots... Hmm... 6*44 (counting next year's regionals)= 264. That means that 64 teams won't be able to go who would currently be allowed to. That's through qualifying. This doesn't include the HoF teams or the legacy teams or the current champions (another 15-20 teams). Minimum size to allow for current rules for next year, worst case (teams don't overlap and all teams go) would be 284, or 71 teams per division. You'd have to change the qualification structure.

Or add more divisions, which means more time to do eliminations, which means less time at the wrap party (for those who go). Better scheduling would be needed.

Good idea, but under the current structure, impractical. Better start thinking of how to convince the GDC and others at HQ to implement this.

Re: Championship 2008 - Atlanta - Your Thoughts Please
 

Bear in mind, my point of view is wonky with this year. Your mileage may vary.

Good:
-I was pretty pleased with the state of things in the Dome and GWCC. It was a little cozy, but only the occasional plywood indicated anything was wrong.
-Chairman's first felt a little awkward, since it's always been at the end, but I dig it now that I've seen it done. Giving them the seats on stage is also pretty awesome and emphasizes to the uninitiated that Chairman's Is Serious Business.
-I appreciate the slimmed-down awards ceremony. It would've been murderous with the traditional complement of speakers.
-Whatever the Dome pays the staff that makes those brownies with the marshmallows found in the volunteer lounge, it isn't enough. They're marvelous.

Bad:
-I had a (non-team) media badge on Saturday, and was not entirely sure where they drew the line for media-credentialed people to stand (well, until I slightly overstepped that line on Archimedes). That's with five years of FRC experience; I shudder to think how a newbie would handle it. A diagram on the media badge sheet would be beneficial for all. Einstein gets a pass; the area there was clearly cordoned off and is about two signs from being perfect. (Thanks for parking right there after Finals 1, Thunderchickens!)
-Franklin, which was already a few matches behind after issues Thursday, started Friday an hour and a half behind after the opening ceremonies ran long. Einstein wrapped up over an hour late, even with the best efforts at slimming down the awards. This is not a new development, either. Extend the schedule a bit.
-While it isn't about the robots, it didn't quite seem like the final two alliances really had a proper chance to receive their hard-earned awards. It was a bit of a madhouse on the floor after the last match, so I doubt it could've been done this season, but it would be nice to find a way to make sure their award is presented well (especially if it remains that theirs are the two awards given last).

Overall, good job Atlanta!

Re: Championship 2008 - Atlanta - Your Thoughts Please
 

I liked the fact that the CA was announced early, and then had the team 'showcased' for the rest of the day on the stage while the matches on Einstein and awards were given out.

I think the Team 842 was clued into their win beforehand. They had front row seats roped off in front of the stage before they were announced.

I also think that there will need to be additional playing fields. With 85 teams in each division and only 7 qaulifying matches, each one was critical. Next year there will be 3 new regionals with many additional rookie teams. This is making the number of teams per division approach 100. If additional fields are not the answer, then there has to be some knid of alternative.

Re: Championship 2008 - Atlanta - Your Thoughts Please
 

How about the dome have not 4 but 6 divisions. It would make Einstein slightly longer but overall a better result with more matches for everyone.

Re: Championship 2008 - Atlanta - Your Thoughts Please
 

So...umm...how is Einstein going to work? Might be easier to do 8 divisions... Or else two divisions get byes.