Thread: Elitist Teams
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Unread 26-03-2012, 09:53
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Re: Elitist Teams

Quote:
Originally Posted by R3P0 View Post
Shall I go on? How about the team that completely took over one part of the stands that our team had saved for the mentors and pit crew to come up in the stands to watch the matchs?


Let's continue. OK so the refs tell us that we have to fix our broken bumpers after we lost a wheel during competition and broke one of the bumpers trying to go over the hump with a lost wheel. We have a flurry of activity and we HAD to do some work across from our pits on the bumpers. Did it occur to the people on one of the teams that drove over my already broken toe with their robot to say I'm sorry when the saw me writhing in pain in the floor, nope. All I got from the last team member was, " you shouldn't have been in the isle". BTW this is the same team that pushed us out of stands at the other regional.

Frankly this type of stuff should cause a few of these teams to be immediately disqualified, period. NO discussion, pack up your crap and leave. Loose your qualifiying points, ban them from further competition for the year. Once a few of these teams get banned from a regional I think they will learn that gracious professionalism is part of First. If you can't handle it, First is going to penalize you.
I admittedly haven't been to a competition since 2010 but some of this stuff is ridiculous.

First, I don't know what regional or districts you compete at but I have never been to a competition that had extra seats in good locations to watch matches and have never been to one that did not clearly state that there is no saving of seats. I have been on the pit crew for many different teams at many different events and have often got to thae stands expecting to sit with my team only to find those seats taken. It isn't fun but there is no reserved seating so you just have to deal with it, find a seat (usually you can find a good one recently vacated by another teams pit crew), enjoy the match then back to work. As for the rude mother, their ar rude people every where, and every one with a team represents the team, that said I always urge people not to judge a team based on the family in the stands.

As for the second occurance. I agree, a simple I'm sorry would have been nice. That said you really should never be working in an area where there is robot traffic. The rules say all work should take place in your pit but I know that isn't always possible. When you need more space it is you're responsibility to ensure that you are out of the way of every one else. Again I don't know what regional you were at, and I definitely wasn't there but you really should have found an empty space, depending on your regional there are usually areas near the mobile machine shop (if available), near the practice field, or in the areas of the stands that cannot see the field (in stadium/arena venues).

I understand your frustration, regionals are stressful and running into rude people really can set you off, often against their whole team. That said in both your complaints against this team you were directly violating FIRST rules/guidelines (saving seats and working outside your pit) I know that both these things are common practice and I belive you guys were not doing it to hurt anyone else but if you want to make the other teams pack up their crap and leave and ban them from further competition you should probably take a close look at what your team is or isn't doing that is against the rules.

Quote:
Originally Posted by R3P0 View Post
We ran into the same thing at one of the regionals this year. One of the lower numbered teams came to us and said "this is what you are going to do." I don't know about you, but as a mentor I spent time undoing what this does to a drive team when drivers from another team come over and TELL YOU what your team is going to do in a match.
This sucks, I know, I have bounced through quite a few high numbered teams, and it is not unheard of or even uncommon for a team to tell a team that is in their opinion less competitive what to do. However I have neve been in a situation where the other coach wouldn't atleast discuss. Two examples both while I was working with 3280 (I'll even give team numbers) 157 at WPI in 2010 the coach told me the strategy, justified using it because he "had more experience than our entire drive team" (he didn't) long story short, I convinced him we could win with defense while still allowing a lot of scoring. He finally gave in, we won, he apologized, we ended up picking them for eliminations and teamed up at another regional as well as two off seasons. The other was with 69, they told us their plan, they just wanted us to stay in the first zone and clean up balls, but not hang. Our mechanism was broken at WPI, the last they saw it, however we were confident we had fixed it and felt it was important for us to demonstrate it, they gave in, we hung, the next day they picked us first overall in alliance selections.

Some times the big teams will pusk you around a little but you need to see it from their perspective. I can;t tell you how many times in FRC and FTC I have been on a high seeded team and had another team explain their strategy or promise they could do something only to have it come out that they couldn't. If I am in a competitive position and you aren't than I fully expect to be allowed to make my own decisions.

The best example of this was at Championships in 2010, we were a very good first zone bot and hanger, we were seeded high from the beginning and in all strategy discussions said we would be the front bot, even if there was some one else who wanted to do it. If we knew we were best then we were doing it. We gave in only once and ended up having to climb the bumps to get to the front zone and clean up after the other team to win. In our experience the teams who gave us the least grief about being the first bot were the vetrans as they always came with the same analysis of how we play best. By the time we got to the end of the season we ended up picking 359 and 71 (two teams I would consider elite) in our division and they were both very receptive to our strategy ideas.
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