Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris Hibner
Here are some of my expectations that I have built up over my years of doing FIRST:
- If a team is vying for a top spot in the rankings, they control the strategy discussion during qualification matches. Let them know what makes your robot tick, and what makes it awful (in other words, what make you perform your best, and what really screws you up), but expect the top team to have a plan to give themselves the best chance to keep their top ranking. (We always defer strategy to other teams in this situation, because that's what we expect.)
- Yelling during a match is going to happen. Things are very loud and time is tight. Economy of words is a must. Don't take insult from a yelled, short statement.
- Coaches are going to talk (yell, really - but not in a negative way) at each other during a match. It shouldn't be unexpected for one coach to run to another team's coach and yell "get to the bridge! we need you at the bridge now!!" As I said, strategy changes are going to happen.
- Teams have a lot to do at the event, and not a lot of time to do it. If a team says, "we don't have time right now - let me know where I can meet you", it's not because they're jerks. I'm sure your team has been strapped for time at one point or another as well.
- Some teams like to talk strategy really early. Some teams wait until the queue. Try not to be angry if a team does it differently than what you do.
- Don't bother a team while their robot is on the field (or immediately afterward) unless it's REALLY important.
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I can't agree more. This is word of wisdom. It is the kind of unwritten rules that everybody needs to know. Even in qualifying rounds, the strongest team that is ranked the highest should be the one who control the strategy. They should certainly listen to the other two teams' ideas but they should be in charge because the they have more at stake than the other teams.
I have had bad experience with teams with adult mentors that think that they know everything and started telling everyone what to do when their robot is not even ranked above average. We have very detail scouting data about every team so we know what to expect and what strategy to use to increase our chance of winning a match. Some teams only care about showing off what their robot's strengths are and not cooperate to win. There is nothing wrong with trying to win on the field as long as there is no cheating and lying. FIRST never said winning is not important. It is afterall called FIRST Robotics Competition and FIRST is trying to model after sports to appeal to a wider audience. It is not called FIRST Robotics Exhibition or FIRST Robotics Fair. What is important is we cooperate and help each other get better off the field to beyond what is normally just good sportsmanship, but we compete fiercely on the field, using the best strategy as an alliance to win.
We also had bad experience with alliance partners who blamed us for not scoring more when we were scoring most of the points and they were hardly scoring and sometimes even got in our way and slowed us down. For these type of teams, we have a special place for them in our alliance selection list.