[Jeanne Boyarsky]

I wrote this before reading the replies. I wholeheartedly agree with Racer26. Sam (as senior on 694) wrote an excellent post as well. Great job Sam!

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On the "ranking system", I thought the "picking your alliance" was supposed to compensate for that. Personally, I refer to it as a seeding system rather than a ranking system. It's not a simple ordered ranking but a guide. Like in tennis. The #1 seed isn't necessarily the best - he/she is the one who played/won the matches. Many people realized #334 was the best. I didn't see the match you lost so I don't know if it was bad luck or a jam or what. But you were clearly a top robot and the #1 seed certainly recognized that.

We were on the opposing alliance of the one that got 120+ points in penalties. (I think it was more because when they asked for a re-count on their missing 10 points, our score went up about 40 points.) It was early in the day so I'm guessing the penalty calling was overly aggressive. That said, pushing a robot while it is under it's own pyramid isn't a good strategy. Too much risk of pushing the opponent into the pyramid. (The high penalty match was #4 - can't find it on ustream for a link)

"not everyone reads the rules" - Sorry, but this is a cop out. We were all given the rules. We are all supposed to read them. If a team is out of dimensions, it doesn't pass inspection. Yes, it is unfortunate that the alliance partners get assessed the penalties too. All I can see, this increases the need for the experienced teams (like both of ours) to *talk* to our alliance partners to make sure they know the rules. Particularly the ones relating to the match strategy. Or any of the 3 coaches to notice the penalties and tell the driver to back off.

I'm sorry you feel "done with FIRST" after your team had such a great day. Your team fielded one of the best robots there if not the best. I hope they learned a lot. They inspired others. That is what FIRST is about. And mentoring for the matter. Granted, I'm thrilled we won - but that wasn't the most important thing to me that happened yesterday.