Quote:
Originally Posted by Ian Curtis
Specifically, how did FIRST improve on the things they set out to? I wasn't at an event, so curious to hear from those that lived it.
- Upper Goal Bounce-Outs
- Fouls
- Refs
- System Issues
- Balls Being Returned to Field
Link to Bill's Blog Week 1 |
As someone that watched almost every week 1 and was at Central Valley week 2, I'll give my 2 cents.
Bounce outs: I saw no ball that passed completely through the goal opening and came back out.
Fouls: the G40 change did almost nothing. One of our scouts was watching only penalties, and every G40 or G35 he saw was due to a field fault or a minor incursion that didn't compromise safety in any way. Most matches, qualifications and eliminations, were determined by what penalties the refs called and what they didn't, rather than the actual gameplay, which was incredibly dissapointing.
Refs: are still being asked to do too much. So much wasn't called (including a frame perimeter incursion in our first elimination match that crippled us for the rest of the tournament) and matches were being decided by what the refs were willing to call. I don't think the refs can physically call everything without 8-10 refs (one for every robot and ball in play). Incidental contact with an opponent's ball was called as herding waaaaay too often, and frame perimeter violations were hardly called on robots that were designed without this in mind.
I have to respect the head ref and FTA at Central Valley, though, as they must've had at least 2 people in the question boxes after every single match played, and they always kept their cool and were respectful and helpful to the best of their extent.
System Issues: the pedestals weren't working more often than they were. Delays of 10 secs were common throughout, and the general response was to deal with it. The worst issue our scouts noticed were pedestals lighting up and then turning off, which gave that alliance a G35 almost every time it happened, and they had no means of arguing otherwise. If improvements happened this week, I shudder at thinking of what week 1 teams had to suffer through.
Balls being returned to the field: seemed to improve quite a bit. There's obviously a delay, but most of the volunteers were ready for whenever the ball came at them and knew how important it was to get the ball to the human player as fast as possible.
In general, slight improvements, but there's still a long way to go before we see Aeriel Ascent not decided by technical fouls, pedestal issues, and inconsistent refereeing.