Getting back to the topic of the thread...
lessons not already mentioned:
- The condition of the carpet under and around the pyramid is terrible. Other teams with pickup mechanisms take note. If they are based on scooping the disks with a dustpan type of scoop, like ours is, expect problems. We nearly destroyed our pickup arm by catching it on a taped carpet seam. See this
video at time 2:00. We attempted to avoid driving over the seams with the arm down, and paid for it when we forgot.
- We saw zero upside down disks on the field until the feeders began throwing the colored ones. We're glad we didn't spend time designing a disk flipper. We dedicated a camera to looking at the floor so we could avoid upside down frisbees. We will re-aim that camera to look into the robot to see if our hopper gets jammed.
- Even with disk pickup, unless defense is very heavy, running back to the feeder station for disks can be quicker than picking them up from the floor.
- Practice results in proficiency. I'm still in awe of how effective team 11's feeder was at loading their robot quickly. The technique he used and the skill he exhibited isn't something that just happens. It has to be learned and developed by practicing with field elements that match the real ones, not the facsimiles suggested in the team drawings.
- There is a reason why high school, college, and professional coaches sometimes scream at referees. Maybe if FIRST referees got chewed out when they blow calls, it might happen less often. These games are way too competitive, and way too much blood, sweat, and tears are invested by teams for us to just shrug away referee mistakes that change the outcome of matches. In all honesty, one lesson that could be learned from week one matches is that a strategy of risking G30 penalty points while playing defense pays off big time. By not enforcing the rules, FIRST is very effectively teaching high school students that it is better to break the rules than to be GP. All the pep talks by mentors about being Gracious Professionals, and how cheaters don't prosper mean nothing when FIRST allows rule breakers to win matches with no prospect for even appealing an obvious missed call. (OK, maybe this lesson has already been beat to death, but I just couldn't resist.)