I accidently hit POST REPLY before sharing my full note, so here is the rest...
THE NOT-SO-GOOD
* Day too long
- announcer was taking too long to announce teams. Once the high school, sponsor, etc. was announced once, there was no need to repeat it. For some matches, we went through at least two repeats of the full name for each team.
* Playing Field Electrical
- I do not know the full extent of the problem, but there were several stoppages due to electrical. It may have been teams not knowing the proper procedure or the electrical / communications signals for the field itself. A number of matches had robots without power halfway through the match. I know during the wildcard rounds, Team #222 lost power with about 45 seconds remaining. This really isn't fair to teams.
* Match Schedule
- I know Team #84 got snowed in and could not attend. There was at least one other team who didn't make it. It may have been better to redo the schedule than to ask other teams to sub. I can go both ways on this. While it is nice to be able to play more matches, will teams really be putting their hearts into it if they do not get any point credit? Don't know. With some teams not attending, we could have reduced the number of Qualifying Matches and saved some time.
* Slow down / Speed Up
- With the day dragging on (Qualifying Matches were not completed until at least 1PM), the announcer was asking teams to "hurry up" if they had last minute set-up to do while their robots were in pre-match on the field. It's hard to take when, through no fault of anyone, we might be trying to make up for lost time due to electrical difficiulties.
* Organization / Queuing
- For some reason, some matches would be over and no teams would be queued up for the next match. This happened a number of times.
While these are not major issues, they all add up to adding lots of time to an already full schedule. With the placement of one or two volunteers in the pits to keep things moving, this could be easily improved.
THE THANKS
Through it all, Team #365 had a great time! Thanks to Team #224 for selecting us to share their alliance. Also, thanks to Team #651 for being a great partner.
To teams #25, #341, and #271. Great job! Your alliance played more matches than anyone and you did it all with style, grace, and power! You guys deserve to take home the ULTIMATE Tiki God Statue.
Team #87 - terrific job with your #1 Seeding. You guys had more QPs by far than anyone else. And if our comp team would have done a thing or two different in our match together (we didn't get into the endzone and were a mere two feet away at the end of the match), you would have had an even higher average.
Team #303 - The "It Ain't Easy Being Green" Award was very gracious and thoughtful. Thanks!
All the individual organizers - Wayne C., Paul K, Mike Wade & Pete (the FIRST FIELD ON TOUR guys) and everyone who helped. It doesn't happen without y'all.
Thanks for the chance to compete one last time with last year's bot. Looking forward to working with you all in 2003!!!
