Quote:
Originally Posted by sodizzle
Driver for 1023 here (1st seeded at Centerline). Im sharing a few of my observations about this years game after competitng.
-Defense. Defense can shange a single power robot from running a 160 point match by itself to barely putting up 50.
-Penalties. While I was not here for 2010 like many people are referring to, I am aware that the majority of eliminations at centerline were decided by foul points.
-Technicals. After committing a technical, you're pretty much done. 50 points is insanely hard to come back from especially with defense.
-Referees. The referees missed fouls and missed called plenty of fouls. I believe it is because of how much responsibility they are given. Scoring and penalties and watching multiple (maybe all 6) robots at once. Its insane.
-Playing "dirty". Heavy defense and overwhelmed refs are not a good combination for a team that is trying to play the game with assists. Or shooting for that matter. Fouls could slip through unnoticed and damage would occur. Like it did.
-What I think should change immediately. Scorekeepers. They need to be there. They need to free up refs so they can focus specifically on fouls and making the right call. Or a technical foul should be decreased. Especially since the majority of technicals were forced by the opponent and ended up changing match results.
This is all based on my opinion and I am in no way singing out the referees. I just think they are overworked and overwhelmed.
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Sodizzle, you kept that very polite. I intend to expound on this.
Centerline was perhaps the single most frustrating FIRST event I've ever attended. The qualification matches went well. The FTA's were wonderful working through problems. The refs were working hard and while the game was difficult to play, it was fun.
At the elimination driver's meeting the drivers were told that intrusions inside the bumper area were going to be called.
What wasn't understood was that it meant that ANY intrusion at ANY time, even one initiated by the defending bot, was going to be a foul. For example: we were shooting. Not moving. Intake down. A defensive bot came up from behind at full speed and slammed into us. WE were assessed the 50 point foul.
In the next match, we went to pick up our ball that was stuck in the corner between the opposing goal and the driver station wall. Again, a defending bot saw a good opportunity and slammed into us from behind to stop us from picking up the ball. That pushed a portion of our pickup into the goal. Technical foul again, on us.
Shooting the ball to the human player, but get hit in the process and have him miss the catch? Technical foul.
Going to pick up a ball at the edge of the field, but get hit so your pickup extends outside the arena? Called a foul.
I use these only as examples out of quite literally
dozens that occurred during the elimination rounds. I appreciate the hard work the referees and other volunteers put in. However, I think it's important these issues be brought to light in the hopes that FIRST provide some guidance for their volunteers to try to ease some of the issues we saw at the event.
There were SO many penalties that for quite a while they weren't announcing who was getting penalized for what. No one had any clue - spectators or competitors. The 'question' box for the ref was full (there was a line at several points). At one point, upon being questioned, they were unable to tell us what the fouls were for!
I almost feel like we aren't playing the game FIRST intended us to be playing - offensive bots terrified to lower their intakes for fear of penalties while defensive bots battered away scoring more points in a couple seconds in penalties than most alliances scored on offense.
I am unsure if there was a single elimination match that wasn't decided by penalties. Hopefully the insights gained at Centerline can be used to improve the games going forward.