From our team, congratulations to all of the teams who made this a great event. It was pretty cool to see 525 pair up with 1986 (and don't forget 4296). 525 and 1986 are both so full of super nice people that it was really cool to see them win together. Our alliance had hopes of upsetting them in the semis, but that #1 seed was simply more reliable and effective than us. If we replayed that matchup enough times, we'd eventually get lucky and win a few
It was great to meet some really cool teams while we were there. I got a chance to talk to people from 1756 a bunch, and they're a really cool team with a great program - thanks for the alliance invitation! 1288 is likewise a very smart bunch. It's SO much nicer to work with allies who are quick on their feet with rules and strategy. Sorry we couldn't get our auto working in the elims! We thought we had it!
Congratulations to Team 1986 on their first Chairman's Award (am I right?). I knew it was only a matter of time.
Congratulations to Jan on the Woodie Flowers trophy! No surprises there either, and no surprise that 525 now has no fewer than three WFFA recipients mentoring the team.
Congratulations to the finalist alliance on a strong performance. Our team has a bit of a new connection to 171 since their drive coach is a respected alumni of our team.
Some thoughts on the robot flipping in the finals, and this is all just my analysis, not an attempt to tell anybody the definition of right and wrong.
4296 had a tendency to tip. While their team built quite a good robot, it is possible for it to tip as a result of normal pushing on the front bumpers. That indicates that the bumpers were mounted a little too high, the CoG was too high, the CoG was too far to the rear of the robot, or some combination of those. That was evident in one of the qualifier matches prior to alliance selections, so I'd say that the #1 alliance took a knowable risk by selecting them. I don't think the first flip in Match 1 of the finals was an example of egregious behavior. I do think it would have been better for everyone if the 171 driver had had the presence of mind to realize that the robot was in the process tipping and backed off before it happened. In match 2, 171 had a blue ball they were trying to score, so I don't entirely blame them for driving through the defender on the way to their scoring zone. In match 3, the driver had already tipped 4296 twice and could be reasonably expected to know that they were tippy. I think it was unnecessary for them to plow through and tip them again, so I find that instance to warrant a penalty or yellow/red card. I can give the driver a bit of slack since finals match 3 is a really high adrenaline situation, they know they're the underdogs and they're trying to play 110%, things happen faster than people think behind the glass, and 4296+alliance own a piece of the responsibility for the existence of the tipping risk of that robot. Nevertheless, on balance I call that third tip a penalty/yellow card offense. And if the first or second ones had been called as a foul, that's life, because that's a risk you take if you tip a robot over, even if it's by accident. I fully believe 171 when they say they weren't intentionally trying to tip anybody. On the 1986 tip, it's worth noting that 171's arm was stuck in the deployed position (bent cylinders); they were not intentionally leaving it down as a battering ram. But it's a foul/card for contact inside the frame perimeter as the rules are written, and a driver has a responsibility to drive a little more carefully when their collector arm is sticking out in front of the robot. It can cause damage and tipping, which is a potential issue both from a sportsmanship perspective and from the pragmatic perspective of avoiding fouls and damage to your own robot.
In that last area, our drive team also has had a bit of a learning curve. We have talked about it some, and I think we are a little wiser now. To 1747, I wish we had gone over to your pits to apologize and try to help with repairs after we accidentally scraped off your pneumatics with our collector arm during the qualifier match. Our drivers said that they got more careful about the arm position after that, but they certainly continued to drive aggressively. If we damaged anybody else, we apologize. (we have some scars of our own)
I do hope FIRST finds a way to make this game less difficult to referee. While I did feel there were some incorrect calls and scores, I don't blame the refs for not being able to correctly do so many things at once. The system needs to be adjusted to provide some relief to the referees, who are human after all.
I have plenty of other opinions... if you want more, just ask! Okay, I'll shut up.