2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

Only a week away! Can't wait but simultaneously wanting more time.

PS Keep fingers crossed, webcast planned on ustream.tv channel first-bae-granite-state-regional if things work out as planned.

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

Same here.

Can't wait to see all the creations these teams have done. Gonna be a fun regional.

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

Im surprised this thread wasn't started earlier. Im sure it will be a great event as always. My list of teams to watch out for includes: 20, 40, 121, 175, 1276

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

Does anyone have any pictures of BAE's robot unveiling? Always got some nifty robots there.

I'm excited to see we've got at least one robot with a propellor coming (1729), I really want to see how that system plays out on the field.

It's also really neat that it might get webcast, we've had family members asking about that sort of things for years.

For the first time in 3 years, we'll have all the Maine teams at the same regional! (all 7 of us) :D

Overall, I'm really looking forward (in a very bittersweet sort of way) to my last BAE Granite State Regional as a student.

[EDIT]How very fitting this is my 1519th post...[/EDIT]

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

I'm really exited for Granite State this year!
This is my first year going to this regional, so I must ask the all important question.... how's the food? xD

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

Food inside the Verizon center is overpriced staduim food :ahh:

That said, there are a number of excellent resturants within walking distance that are reasonably priced.

If y'all need more help, PM me and we'll help set y'all up.

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

I hope things work out a webcast of BAE would be pretty amazing!! It strikes me as worth noting how far we've come when FIRST started the idea of a web cast was all but unthinkable. Now it doesn't take much more than a laptop, a Ustream account, and an EVDO modem.

Good luck to all teams who will be in NH.

Justin

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

Oh great, overpriced stadium food :rolleyes:

Thanks for the offer! Although, I think we are working on getting box lunches... *crosses fingers*

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

Well, on the positive side the prices haven't increased in the six years I've been ordering a Chicken Tender and French Fry basket for lunch it's been $6.50, which isn't too bad. The $3.50 Pepsi on the other hand...

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

Ugh, highway robbery...at least tell me they have red bull/monster/amp/other highly-caffeinated-sugary-horrible-for-you-but-still-tasty-energy-drinks for sale?

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

Not sure. I've always just gotten fountain drinks. I think there is bottled stuff somewhere, but I'm not positive.

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

I work a few blocks north of the verizon. My list of lunch places are all a 10 minute walk away, but pretty tastey:

Ate Doors Down: Just past the CVS. Absolutely delicious, my favorite. They make their own breads on premises, which makes a huge difference. Try their small pizza - they use their own pita as the crust.

Chinese Place whose name I forgot: right next to Ate doors. They do a buffet, it is ok.

Koi Japan: Across the street from the CVS. I ate there once, and will never do so again. Avoid at all cost.

Consuelo's: Go to the CVS, turn left up the alley. Delicious Mexican food. Note that I'm a New Englander, you can make your snide comments about "real mexican" all you want, I don't care. I like it.

Wicked Good Deli: Across from the Quiznos. Good cheap food. Used to be my favorite, then Ate Doors Down opened.

B&B: Turn right at Ben&Jerry's. Best Caesar Wrap in town, although slightly hard to eat cleanly.

Cafe 324: On Commercial Street. Got sick eating their food 4 times in the past. Since then, an employee was fired for mishandling food, so it might be better. I still won't eat there, even though it is in the same building that I work in.

Tiya's: Turn right after the big citizen's bank. Good Thai.

Lala's: Across the street from the big citizen's bank and slightly before it. Great Hungarian food. 10$ish, but will stick to your ribs. Best sides in town.

Red Arrow Diner: On Lowell street. Only 24hr food place in town. Good greasy diner.

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

Unfortunately, this is not the case....2648 (Messalonskee), as of writing this, is only registered for the Boston Regional, as BAE was already full before they were able to register for a regional event. Everybody else, including our new rookie team(!), will be there. I'm going to work on making my way around to everybody to see all of you.

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

Food cannot be brought into the Verizon center (Stadium rules) and it tends to be cold outside in NH in late February.

As EricVanWyk said, there's plenty of good eats within 10 minutes of the Verizon, although I'd suggest you run your lunches in shifts as the local eateries tend to get overrun with teams during the lunch break and the match schedules tend to slip (making reservations rather difficult).

Again, if you need a local guide, look me up ... I'll probably be in our pits most of the day :rolleyes:

see y'all in just a few days :D

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

As pit captain, I always skipped lunch, and I expect you to do the same (j/k about the second part).

I'll have a copious amount of fruit punch in our pits which you're welcome to.

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

I'd like to add one more onto the list:

Caesario's Pizza & Subs: It's a little longer walk up Elm Street than most of the other places listed here, but they have great hot/cold subs and pizza. On a related note, if you take advantage of the free municipal parking garage on Saturday, Caesario's is only a half block away from there.

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

lol, well maybe you can hide some food in your hair for me to eat...I like Doritos =P

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

cool, thanks =D

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

haha, yah I will probably be in the pits all day too, so food will come from begging it off of passerbyer's/ team members who have nothing to do so I pay them to buy me food xP

Cool, maybe I'll send one of the team's mentors down your way

See everyone in 3 days (or four days if you are coming on Friday...)

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

For food, I recommend Joe Kelly's. It's a very popular choice among robotics teams during the competiton, so you'll be lucky if you find the "right time" go in just between rushes.

The food is excellent and not too expensive.

Take a right out of the Verizon, cross the street, and start walking. It's not too far away.

The number of places to eat within walking distance is one of the great things about GSR.

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

One more thing before I leave you all alone haha, is there going to be a website where we can upload or look at pictures from the regional?

I know last year Team 20 went to Finger Lakes and there wasn't really an all-encompassing multimedia focused website =[

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

Currently sitting in my hotel watching LOST and finishing up the scouting sheet. Can't wait to watch the game unfold tomorrow!

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

Webcast

Picture archive

Not sure if the archive will be started on thursday or not.

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

Great practice matches today, the referees sorted out confusion in the rules relatively quickly, and made sure to reiterate any clarifications throughout the day.

Hope to see some exciting matches tomorrow!

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

How or why were trailers coming unhitched?

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

It could either be from faulty trailers, or bad/loose trailer hitches on the robots.

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

the clips that they use to hold the trailer pin on aren't very tight, the metal rod can be easily bent and slipped off during a big hit.

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

Were they using the Mcmaster pin FIRST recommended?

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

i was told that the match schedule for tomorrow was being posted online tonight, does anyone know the url?

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

Looks like it isn't up yet.

If it were up it should be located at:
http://www2.usfirst.org/2009comp/eve...edulequal.html

I only see the schedules for DC, Midwest and Buckeye posted.

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

Hmm... There's a couple of possibilities, none of which are working for me at the moment.

First off, there's this link, which should list the regionals. All of the schedule related links turn up 404 though.

http://usfirst.org/whatsgoingon.aspx

Also, in another thread, there's a link to the Midwest schedule. First's nomenclature for events typically is the first two letters of the state (i.e. ours should be "NH") but no dice there either.

posted link: http://www2.usfirst.org/2009comp/eve...edulequal.html
theoretically this should work: http://www2.usfirst.org/2009comp/eve...edulequal.html

It seems like you'd be more "in-the-know" than I (judging by your last name). Did they give any sort of time frame? I'd be really interested in seeing the match schedule.

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

Not sure whether to post this in the general webcast thread or not, but it seems to make more sense here at the moment.

If you are a student team member and would like to try your hand at webcasting I'll have a signup sheet at the webcast station (corner of field area just before you return to pits next to the vid/audio arena drop). The webcast can use both a video director and strategy/chat room moderator. Signup slots are 1 hour long and each team can sign up for 1 director/chat room slot each day so that multiple teams/students have the opportunity to help out. Just make sure you clear it with your mentor and coordinate with your team first.

The video director watches the stream and tries to keep it running which was no small task yesterday. *IF* the network is stable then we run match record/instant replays during the next match setup period. All you need is some basic computer experience and about 5 minutes training which I can provide.

The stategy/chat room moderator will watch the chat room and make comments as appropriate. Often folks are looking for on-line links for information such as the schedule or just general questions about the event.

I'd love to have company. If you just want to stop and say hi - I'd appreciate that too -- really!

Bud

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

For anyone who is interested, here is the seeding ranks as of 6:20 on Friday night. I know that these are available online, but last year the list was incorrect. This one is double checked:

1- 238
2- 1276
3- 20
4- 134
5- 121
6- 175
7- 562
8- 501
9- 58
10- 1519
11- 1729
12- 241
13- 1512
14- 1073
15- 151
16- 87
17- 467
18- 1517
19- 1277
20- 2342
21- 40
22- 1831
23- 571
24- 2621
25- 2067
26- 1721
27- 509
28- 138
29- 2370
30- 3074
31- 319
32- 885
33- 172
34- 131
35- 1058
36- 1824
37- 663
38- 1922
39- 1307
40- 811
41- 1761
42- 166
43- 1138
44- 1289
45- 1247
46- 133
47- 1995



Good luck to all tomorrow from 1519 Mechanical Mayhem!

Brendan

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

Why is 241 ranked 13 and 14?

I'd also like to thank everyone for being so helpful at this regional. We only traveled with 5 team members from California and no programmers or engineering mentors. Everybody at this regional has been extremely helpful in getting us up and running through all of our issues. The past two days we have seen almost everything go wrong and pretty much everyone has been more then willing to help out.
Thank You NH


Team 1138

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

I guess that I forgot to triple check, I was talking with several people about today while doing this.

Hope all goes well for 1138, and Mayhem is always available across from you guys if help is needed. :)

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

Hopefully you'll get all the bugs worked out here and take home gold in LA and Hawai'i

And if y'all still need some help, let us know in Plan B (1729). We're always willing to help.

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

After repicking, the alliances are:

1. 238 562 319
2. 20 40 885
3. 241 501 2342
4. 121 175 2621
5. 1729 1073 166
6. 151 58 571
7. 1512 134 1517
8. 87 1276 1519

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

What happened with alliance selection. I looked like there was an alliance selection and then another one when I was watching the webcast.

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

Congrats to Kristen Kelso on the Woodie Flowers Award. Way to go Kristen :D:D

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

I have to say, this has been one of the poorest run regionals that I have seen in a wile. There were several matches that had to be re played because of error. In one insrance, the blue alliance was disabled for the last 15 seconds of the match and still managed to win, but the regional staff made them re-play the match despite that fact that they said they didn't see any need to re-play the match. that alliance then lost by 2 points. The fact that they had to re-do the selection due to error is also un-beleavable.

Hopefully the other regionals this year don't have these issues.

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

As far as I understand it, match 60 had to be replayed several times because of field error. But the final results were not incorporated into the standings. So the teams picked in the wrong order. When they realized this, the selection had to be redone.

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

Congrats to 121, 175, and 2621 on winning, and to 20, 40, and 885 on putting up a tough fight.

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

Not to mention the constant replay of quarter final matches.
They finally narrowed down what they though the field problem was to static build-up. To fix it, they taped the airlocks so that robot frames or members couldn't come in contact with them to conduct, and they watered the field.
Yes, they wet the carpet around the regolith to aid in the static problem. I think this is as close as we'll come to getting that water game we've been waiting for.

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

I think we have the problem isolated. The robots spinning their wheels on the FRP build up huge static charges similiar to helicopters flying through the air. Then when the robots would slam into the drivers station walls or arena side rails, they'd do a high voltage ground discharge. I didn't know if the DSes were sending something into the FMS SCCE switches or not causing errors, but I went in the switches logs while you were finishing elims and the recorded error log had no errors for your whole tournament, so it seems the issue is isolated to the DS. The SCCEs are built from industrial hard gear this year from FIRST's great sponsor Allen Bradley and they did a great job despite the static issue. Hopefully FIRST will announce solutions quickly.

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

Thanks. We were able to get the bugs worked out just in time for our final qualification match thanks to 1831 for helping with the code today, and thanks to 1831, 1729, 138, 2342?(Phoenix Robotics, I think that's their #), and 811. Hopefully I didn't leave anyone out who helped, but we had so many people come by to help us out it was hard to keep track of it all.

In the end we went out on a high note with the Engineering Inspiration Award!
Congratulations to 121, 175, and 2621 for winning it all and to 20, 40, and 885 for competing to the end providing some very exciting finals matches.
One last congratulations to 1519 on the Chairman's Award win.

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

I love FIRST. For over 8 years, I have been heavilly involved and have loved every moment of it. It has made me who I am today. This regional was the first time I have been upset at the way an official FIRST regional was run.

All yesterday and all today we were constantly having to replay matches 2 to 3 times. I want FIRST to make these regionals as fair as possible, and I do understand the need to replay matches with problems, but they were letting the match finish (when the loss of communciation happened 20 seconds into the match) and showing the score, before announcing that the match needed to be replayed.

As one of the teams who was 'de-allianced' in the second alliance pairings, we were all very upset. Our drivers were queing when they announced that there needed to be a second round of selection. We had kids who were crying in the stands. WE DO NOT BLAME THE TEAMS WHO WERE CHOSING FOR THIS. It is very upsetting to be on a team that was chosen for an alliance, to have worked out a strategy with these people, and then to have been told that you will not be competing again in that competition. The fact that the alliance selection had to be redone is almost unexcusable in my mind- it seems, to the observor, like a simple proofreading error.

I understand that there is a lot of stress going on for the scorers, the refs, the regional directors and everyone else involved with running that table, but it was just as stressful to be working as hard as you possibly could and to see everything taken out from under you, constantly

All in all, I love the teams in Manchester, I hope to compete with them again. Everyone was very friendly and helpful. I do hope that these problems will not occur again in the season, to others, because it was very upsetting to all of us to have to deal with them today.

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

They also watered down the carpet at the operator's stations.

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

Congrats to 121, 175, and 2621 it was a well deserved win. And thanks for 40 and 885 for being such great alliance partners. I agree though, this regional was very poorly run. In my mind there was no excuse for that mistake with the team rankings and it is unbelievable that they had to redo the alliance selections. It is hard to believe that they would give teams the opportunity to go to the elimination rounds and then take it away 30 minutes later.

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

Aww man! For the first time we left early to keep on some sort of schedule (I submitted a scholarship application due at midnight at about 11:56 PM ... :yikes:) and I'm SO disappointed I missed 1519 winning the Chairman's award. Without a doubt, they are a class act team. We had the honor of playing with them in the elimination tournament today. We didn't get as far as we would've liked, but it was still way too much fun to be on the field with these guys.

Congratulations again, you guys deserve every inch of this Chairman's award. Good Luck in ATL! :)

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

Thanks a lot team 1276, that means a lot. And a special thanks to team 87 for picking such a great alliance, but the outcome was unfortunate. Like how our digital side car was unplugged for the first match. We all had a great weekend and wish everyone well in the rest of the season.

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

I originally had a complaint drawn up, but I didn't want 1519 to get dragged down in that. Frankly, we were shocked when you guys weren't "re-selected." According to our data, your robot/HP combination was in the top 10 for positive contributions to alliance scores.

I was told that 238 informed the scorer's table that the team rankings were incorrect. From across the way, it appeared that 121 may have been trying to do the same thing. Was someone closer to the scorer's table than I?

Overall, alliance selections were a trainwreck. Some picking teams and picked teams didn't know the rules of the draft, and it seemed like the scoring table didn't either. We got through them the first time. And then we all came back and did them again... I really didn't like this. While it didn't happen, what if a robot slipped through and someone stole them on the way back up. A team worth their salt wouldn't let it happen again. The scoring table should have had the up to date rankings. That's a pretty inexcusable error.


The play-by-play was not good. If you're going to use newbie play-by-play announcers, please, please team them up with veteran announcers. Poor play-by-play really drags down the quality of the event, especially to the outsiders we're trying to impress. Good play-by-play makes the regional sound like the exciting high-stakes high-energy competition it is, poor play-by-play makes it sound like some hokey high school thing.

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

We were also upset over the fact that we had to re-pick alliances mostly because we liked our alliance already, not to mention that the event was already far behind and we were looking forward to playing with 467 but it didn't work out

And the alliance name "The Mechanical Duct Taped Blitz" Just sounds cool:cool:

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

238 was in the replay of match #60, which apparently wasn't correctly entered back into the system, putting them at a 6-2 record when it should have been 7-1.


All I can say about the announcing, put Grady back on the mic next year, he's one of FIRST's best game announcers. The two announcers at this years event sounded like it was their first time at a FIRST regional, not to mention that they just plain weren't good at announcing in general.

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

Christina,

I have been involved in FIRST for 7 years now and I, too, am very disappointed at the way GSR was run.

Maybe we've been spoiled because GSR has always been one of the best run regionals around, with an excellent staff and very good competitors. Hopefully this year was just an abboration, and not a precurser of things to come.

Here's hoping that Karma smiles on the Duct Tape Bandits at Chesapeake.

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

Thanks to all teams who participated and a special thanks to Teams 121 and 2621 & Teams 20, 40 and 885 for making it an exciting finish and a great weekend!!!

In reading these posts I know that there is some negative sentament about how things did not go as smoothly as they could have but as Dean said, this is a "Development Program" and mimicks what goes on in the real world. Just think how bad some of my co-workers felt after they heard that the Orbiting Carbon Observatory that they worked so hard on fell into the ocean near Antartica last week!!!

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

Yeah, I was quite irritated at the refs for not having updated the rankings based on the last match. However, it didn't matter really, as I still picked FORCE and Chop Shop. Actually, I was kind of glad that we didn't have to face 20 and 121 at the same time, but we still got stomped. Maybe we will do better in the off-season competitions.

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

First off, I'd like to congratulate Buzz, 121, and 2621 for their regional win.

Before our QF matches I believed that with our propellers we could pin anyone. Now I believe that we can still pin anyone ... but 121 won't be pinned for long, their machine and driver are incredible.

The machine from Buzz was outstanding and dominating, as usual. By the way, where did you guys find Larry Bird? That guy was hitting 20' jumpers everytime.

Also 2621 ... what a great robot and what a great addition to this championship alliance. Somebodies scouting was very good ;)

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

Team 2621 sends thanks right back to Teams 121 and 175 for selecting us for their alliance. We are still in shock this morning that our second year team, not so recognized by the school yet and building in the back of a bio classroom, had the opportunity to compete with so many well-known and experienced teams - AND came home with an award. What a great final set of matches it was - to quote one of my students, "It's much more fun when the matches truly are a competition!" We had a blast in general - thanks to everyone for making that happen.

We were glad that the decision was made to allow several matches to be replayed - as one of the teams who sat dead in the water during our match, we couldn't believe we were loosing the chance to actually play. It was nice to be able to replay - even if we did loose (and what a great rematch #5 was!). We did feel that the FIRST officials tried to be fair and allow those matches to be replayed.

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

I too would like to thank teams 121 and 175 for being such great alliance partners, and especially teams 20, 40, and 885 for some amazing matches. To a second year team like us, you guys and your truly amazing bots really put the inspiration in FIRST.

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

I'm rather curious as to why team 238 had a 7-2 record in qualifiers. They played in a "qualification match 0", with a crushing defeat, boosting their RS substantially (enough to rank ahead of 20). Reseting the alliances because of one mistake, and not catching this one is unacceptable. I know the field is new, but the FIRST should know how the ranking software works by now.

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

Hey guys,
I've been reading and listening to a lot of people's frustrations about how the past 3 days went. As someone who was physically on the field working, I share your frustration and feel your pain from the double-selecting mishap.

However, please keep in mind that this is a brand new system and that the game play generates a lot of static electricity. I received a zap every time I had to disconnect a trailer this weekend. As we saw, after the airlocks were taped up and water was lightly applied to the carpeting, the system improved tremendously as robots were no longer discharging themselves when they went to drop off empty cells.

When airing your thoughts and displeasure, please try to remember that some of the best crew in FIRST were working that competition. They put in many hours trying to get everything up and running. The refs, FTA, and scoring crew are not out to spoil your day. Trust me, they'd rather see every match played perfectly once and go home sooner. Just be a little patient while all the kinks are getting worked out.

Just my two cents.
Thanks.

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

I think one of the most frustrating parts of the regonal was that the officials would never expalin what exactly went wrong. There were some matches that went on without problems, but then there would be an error and when we asked what it was it couldnt be explained to us. Also in matches where something clearly went wrong, like robots not being able to move from the begining of the match, the match was played all the way through then replayed. They let it finish which took more time and caused more confusion and frustration. Also when they re picked alliances it took about a half an hour to announce the re-picking. Many alliances had already stratigised and the first matches had already been called for cuing. Alliance pairings is such an important aspect of the competition and they should be checked over before doing the picking. They were not done right and it was fair that they were redone, but the problem should not have come up in the first place.

I understand it was a new system, and that there could be bugs in it, but teams can not do anything to fix the problem. The problems were also talked about as being what the world is like, however teams could not fix this problem and could not have prevented it. It was the responsability of the regional to make sure systems worked and putting it to the system alone and the way problems were handled made this in my opinion a very poorly run regoinal.

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

Thanks to all the other five teams in the GSR finals, from Team 885. Thank you for your sportsmanship and good will. Thanks for an exciting final. Thanks for all the help we received from team 811, and many others.

This was a real thrill for our team. Nobody's feet are touching the ground yet.

Yes, there were some problems with the way the matches and the pairing were run. Still, we are very happy for the opportunity to be in the tournament at all, and we couldn't be more happy with the way it turned out.

Jim Wick
Adult Mentor for Team 885

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

I would like to offer props for the volunteers at the BAE regional for admitting their mistake in the draft order, owning up to it, and redoing the draft.

This is unprecedented as far as I know, and it is an impossible situation.

On the one hand you know that when you redo the draft there’s a possibility that a team that made the finals first time around won't make it second time around. Which is utterly heartbreaking.

But on the other, 238 played by the rules, and deserved the right to draft as the #1 seed, breaking up what would've been a powerhouse alliance (20/121).

In an impossible situation, I think the volunteers should be commended for owning up to their mistake and doing what was right by the rules, even if it added more time, and led to some heartbreak for a few teams.

And for the record it was an absolute travesty that 467 somehow didn’t make the finals the second time around, they were absolutely one of the 24 best teams at BAE, and should be watched out for at Chesapeake. I think some of the drafting teams really missed the boat. Great robot guys!

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

I'd echo the sentiments that while the competition wasn't perfect, it still was a really enjoyable experience for our Team. Many times in the real world, companies don't "own" their mistakes and proceed as if they didn't exist. The fact that there was a plan of action to correct it (and admit it) says much more to me than the fact that the error occured. If you're waiting for perfect announcers, perfect fields and computer systems, and perfect anything, you're going to be very disappointed in FIRST, as in life. Try to enjoy yourselves and not take everything SO seriously. Dean says it's not about the robot, and that includes the field and competition.

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

I agree, I just wish they had caught the mistake in the seedings earlier. To give a team hope that they were in the finals and then to rip it away...that must have sucked.

I'm still thinking about what a 121/ 20 alliance would have been like...though I must give props to 121, 175, 2621 for their victory, good job guys, it was an intense final!

To 40: your crab drive is impresssivee, it was awesome to be allied with you for a second year in a row!

To 885: I loved your multi-material robot =D and y'all were great in the elimination matches!

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

Thanks for the support everyone! Though at first I was disappointed at not getting picked for the finals, I think that our team still preformed very well and I'm proud of our robot. Paula and Christina, I would like to point out to you that this is the first regional that we competed in where the robot passed inspection immediately, and it also didn't break once, which I found amazing :)

I think the competition could have run smoother, but I still had a ton of fun participating. 1519 and 1276 thanks for picking us the first time, you both have great robots, 1519- your human player is amazing, and I think we would have been pretty awesome together. Team 58, you guys had one of the nicest drive teams that I've ever worked with, and Think Pink's signs made me laugh (mango pie?)

besides the replays gave us extra practice time

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

Oh Man was that amazing! being a member of 885 were not exactly used to being in the elimination matches but making it to the finals holy cow what a way to end my senior year. I would love to personally thank teams 20 and 40 for making this possible for us! and wow 121, 175, and 2621 you guys are amazing ...that was a tough last match and a well deserved win for all of you :)

...Forest

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

I feel confident that since both Woodie Flowers and Dean Kamen were aware that there were issues beyond those of the static problem, that as soon as the regional ended they were reviewing what occurred to make improvements for all future regionals. Hearing Woodie Flowers get angry at the situation of the redo of the finals rounds let our students know that the problems were recognized, and hopefully would be addressed so they do not happen again.

My favorite quote of the competition occurred right at the start of the regional and was, “Don’t ask to have a match replayed, it won’t be!”

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

That's really nice to know, and 467 was looking forward to playing with you guys as well. And congrats on chairmans 1519, it was very well deserved!

But yea, as many other people have said, this was one of the most poorly managed regionals I have ever seen. I understand the pressure of scoring and judging (from scoring FLL teams once, madness!), but there should not have been nearly as many redos as there were, or at least matches that had already run all the way through that were redone. That's what the foghorn is there for! If a team is disabled without hitting their big red button, it's time to stop the match and check out the system (or splash the field a bit, as we saw towards the end). This regional also showed that it's important not to rush alliance pickings. I could tell that the MC had been told to go as fast as he could, since some teams weren't being asked to accept (although it was true that some of the acceptances were obvious based on reactions). Even though the competition was behind schedule, it would have been more beneficial to take it at a decent pace. If they hadn't been rushed, the ranking mishap might have been noticed earlier.

467 has gone to Manchester to observe the game in past years and to see what teams are doing, and it has always been a smooth running competition. Although this is my last year as a highschool student in FIRST, I hope that next year in Manchester will be as good or better than it's past years past years (and that I can come back and see some more action!).

Finally, congrats to 121, 175, and 2621! You guys did a great job and had outstanding robots. If you're going to nationals, good luck!

And Think Pink, congrats on the spirit award! I loved your signs, and I want to thank you for humoring my request for "Pant."

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

Thanks for the kind words of congratulations everyone. I would like to thank 175 and 2621 for an awesome alliance! 2621 is looking great for a second year team. Hope you guys can make it to Atlanta!

Also congratulations to all the award winning teams! 1519 sounded like they really deserved that Chairman's Award. Also props go to hard working Kristen Kelso on the WFA win.

PS: The DJ at BAE was awesome.

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

The DJ did play quite a few good songs, but getting Rick Rolled while the messed up rankings were fixed was a slap in the face.

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

Yah, I was almost expecting the video to pop up on the screen... *face palm*

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

No, that was me :P

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

I will echo everyone's sentiments and note that this was a poorly run regional. Yes, participants understand that there are issues that may come from a new control system, volunteer errors, field problems related to game elements, or isolated incidents related to the venue. I am disappointed to say that this event was plagued by all of these.

Yes, there were control system issues. I won't even go into this except to say that whether related to static or not, it put a complete damper on the event. During the original alliance selection, some teams were not even asked whether or not they accepted the alliance invitation, and in one instance an alliance was almost paired that would have completely violated the rules. (Thank goodness a hundred people or more were screaming in the stands and the rule was finally recognized.) Not to mention teams having to correct volunteers' interpretations of written rules during practice day. All of these incidents just compounded until participants were exasperated.

To cap off all of this madness, I was an unfortunate witness to a few EXCEPTIONALLY rude Verizon Wireless Arena employees who treated attendees with disgusting disrespect. One employee manning the front doors of the arena at the end of the event ran toward two students with a cart of tools and loudly berated them until they left, including the gem that "You won't be ruining my doors with your little robot". Once he was done with those kids, he stopped a girl attempting to enter to meet up with the rest of her team - something that VZW Arena employees told students was okay as long as they were returning to assist teams in the pits. She was belittled and then turned away even after explaining her situation. Even more disturbing, other Verizon employees stood on the pit floor with the EMTs staffing the event and made comments about a few teams that were still packing up their robots and pit areas after the event. (These are comments I don't even want to repeat on CD for inappropriateness.)

The worst part was attending the event with someone who was completely new to FIRST, never having seen a robot or the competitions. Essentially, the entire regional was spent noting "...but it's not normally like this" or "...really, I've never seen this before". I'm sure that made a great impression.

I was a little more forgiving toward the event when I assumed other events were having the same issues - I was shocked to hear that we were still in the awards ceremonies when the DC event was already completely torn down and packed up. After many years in FIRST, the inexperience and way many issues were handled made the GSR event appear extremely poorly run. I'm not so sure I'll be attending next year.

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

It might just have been me but I was surprised when the announcer stated in the semi-finals that the non-BAE sponsored teams were in trouble because they were up against an all BAE supported team. I have no problem with who a team is sponsored by, that's their business but it seems unprofessional to make such a comment to other teams, it made me feel that there was a bias between BAE groups and teams that wern't backed by BAE Systems.

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

We just laughed over the comment about being against all BAE teams. We took it as a joke. And then we won. :)

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

Everything Amanda has said is true. All of the volunteers (besides Verizon employees) were nice people. When you try to slip something by all the veteran teams at this event, we are going to notice. The teams have spent 8 weeks immersed in this game and now it inside and out. Some of the volunteers seemed like they just started reading the rules this past Wednesday. This could be because almost all volunteers were BAE employees.

The first year of the Boston Regional was more professional than this weekends event (BAE Regional has been around for 7 years now). At times, it felt more like a scrimmage than an FRC Regional.

These are my points coming from a drive team coaches point of view:

• Pit Setup - The pits were completely out of order. No rhyme or reason to how they were set up. Made alliance strategy sessions and pit scouting a nightmare. Please put teams in order.
• Announcer - Please pair up new announcers with veterans. I know Andy Grady was helping his team and saving his voice for Boston. But, there are many other veterans in the area that could have helped. The webcast is hard enough to watch without a good announcer. Although the announcing did get much better.
• Rules - Having to argue with queuers about were human players and robots can start was a headache. This was figured out by Friday morning though.
• Alliance Picking Redo - When multiple teams are telling you the rankings are wrong, please take the 5 minutes to double check. Don't let the picking happen, let teams have half an hour to eat lunch and make a strategy, then decide to redo picking. Also teams had absolutely no time to prepare for a second round of picking. The top 8 changed and teams were unprepared. Unacceptable.
• Scoring System/Rankings - Teams have made Excel spreadsheets more solid than the current scoring and ranking system. No excuse for this.
• Field Control - Multiple teams experienced matches when their Auto modes did not run. Matches were decided because teams sat there and got their trailers filled.
• No Comms - When a whole alliance loses communication 30 seconds into a match, kill the match and replay ASAP. Do not play out the match, score it, and then redo it.
• DJ/Music - Nicest guy. Played what teams wanted to hear during their matches. The YMCA and other line dance songs were saved for down times and not overplayed.

I know that is alot of gripes but they need to be said to hopefully improve the regional for next year. For many New England teams, this was their only event for 2009.

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

As the mentor assisting our scouting, I can tell you that sponsors didn't enter our discussion. We were soley focused on robots that would play into our strategy.

The first time I realized that they were all BAE teams was when he made that comment.

We all laughed about that comment as well.
Y'all were awesome. Congratulations on your win.

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

What was just as bad was the regolith coming up on the edges (There were a number of teams that had issues with the regolith coming up). We had more than 1/2" clearence and we still got caught on the "flat" regolith edge and disabled by the refs for "tearing up the field". They also refused to redo any of those matches where the regolith caused teams to get disabled, yet they were frequently redoing matches for the field control system.

Just frustrating.

I, too, saw VZW employees that were "less than Courteous". I had 1 employee tell me how much of a pain it was that he had to come in on Friday, and then continue to say that he 'Had' to be in on Saturday as well. **note: my words are more polite than the words he used **.


I understand the difficulties of a new control system, and I can sympathize with all the issues that they faced at GSR. However, things like picking alliances without doublechecking to make sure the order is correct is just poor decisionmaking. Hopefully the orgainizers will see and fix these things for next year.

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

We had a wonderful time - it was a pleasure playing against you and all the other teams. We sure learned a lot!

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

I would like to lightly scold think pink for not making the phrase "Enigma".

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

"Gnome Hat" was pretty excellent though, as was "Minigoat"

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

Yes my team too was personaly berated by the VZW staff. We had a (i believe) security guard screaming at our team to hurry up and to not take up anymore room on "his" floor. **again nicer words used here**

Though there were a lot of problems the GSR staff were very willing to say they were wrong... And correct their mistakes... as a driver I fond it very frustratiing to have to explain that we didn't deserve to lose an empty cell, or that our PS's could be anywhere, but after explaining it was all good..

I will admit the alliance parings was annoying but I'm glad they owned up to their mistake...

I've been to GSR 3 times now as a driver and i will admit this one was the most frustrating, it all ended up being fun in the end and the staff and all great people..

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

My team did not participate but a few of us drove up to the event. I came in without wearing any team colors, just a spectator.

As a spectator, I was appalled at the teams who had many seats available in "saved sections" and were indignant or downright rude when I asked to sit.

After getting bounced from the fifth "saved section" I tried to point out that saving seats was not allowed (section 3.15.4). What I received was a hostile tirade... I just walked away...

This is no way to treat a visitor... If I were a visiting teacher or engineer looking to start a team, I might have walked away forever...

Regards,

Mike

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

Sadly, I've seen this many times over the 7 years that I've been at GSR.

My team took up residence in the top tier section 225 (re: nose bleed seats) to try and stay together while not interfering with the general public. I hope that other teams will do this in the future (there are a few that do it now).

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

After a day or two to take a deep breath and think back to this weekend, Yes, I do believe there were many issues at the event. But knowing that I could have done something about these issues, and did not, is weighing heavily on my conscience.

Although simply chastising the event as 'poorly run', that generalization is not what I meant to convey. I was most upset by three different areas - volunteer training, arena staff, and the obvious field problems. All of these can be chalked up to issues we all know exist: people aren't perfect, and field issues, well, electronics and software aren't always perfect either. But to categorize the whole event as a disappointment because of isolated incidents... that is a bit of an overstatement.

I realize there were many times when I saw something that could have been fixed - including some of my examples from earlier - but did little to nothing to actually rectify the situation. Instead, I was perfectly happy to take the stance that "something wrong has happened, and so I will feel wronged" instead of "something wrong has happened, and I will fix it to ensure it doesn't happen again". Perhaps we as FIRST participants have taken this stance all too often; we watch the problem and then complain because the problem happened.

I'm now saddened to see the comments that were left after my post, especially regarding arena staff. If one of us had just let someone know about this issue, so much could have been prevented or at least handled accordingly. If we'd just spoken up, so many of us wouldn't have had that bad experience. But I, as much as anyone, am guilty of simply using ChiefDelphi (inappropriately) as a place to vent about these issues instead of actually DOING something about them. It wasn't the right course of action, and I realize now that I've hurt more than I could have ever helped.

Yes, perhaps I was reiterating that this regional was not the smoothest event that occurred last weekend, but venting on ChiefDelphi was not the place to have had this discussion. I have violated my own morals by being content with simply watching things happen instead of proactively assisting with correcting them. I don't plan on letting that happen again.

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

Dose any one have the final and "Right" position standing with the RS and QS scores. The one on the BAE web site is "Wrong".

Thanks

Re: 2009 BAE Granite State Regional
 

Amanda, thanks for posting this. I'm relatively new to FIRST and definitely new to Chief Delphi. This year was my second year at BAE and last year was a blur as I was getting over the flu.

I certainly knew that there were issues with the game. It wasn't until closing ceremonies that I began to understand what was causing the field problems. And one of our mentors, who has been with FIRST for 4 years, was probably one of the people who others saw messing up. But a team member (along with another mentor and a judge!) helped him rectify his mistake. Thankfully, I never saw Verizon employees behaving badly though I did get great help from two of the Shepard folks.

This is a long-winded way of saying that perhaps because I didn't know that the events were supposed to work seamlessly, I still had a great time. I was on the new FIRST-er rollercoaster of despair and joy. Our robot didn't work, then it did. Then it crashed into the wall during autonomous mode. It worked again, and then a roller bar fell off in game play. In the end, we did as well as I could have hoped.

I know lots of people were/are upset that it didn't go the way it should. On the other hand, I'm grateful that BAE chose to fund us and the regional. Without their funding, we wouldn't have had enough cash to enter. Really. And to go to Boston or Hartford would have been financial distress for a lot of team members. I'm glad that we had so many teams come to New Hampshire -we got a lot great ideas and photos to examine for next year.

Is there any way that the FIRST community can work to make sure that everyone knows the rules? Obviously we can't predict problems like static build-up. What is possible to improve for next year? I'm willing to try to help beforehand. I know build season will be crazy once again.