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Originally Posted by Max Boord

I forgot the exact number but the its around 5 times.

Arial Assault is a broken game and, with a plethora of new rules updates the GDC seems addicted to making it worse. Here the 12 step program:

1. Lower all human player penalties to regular fouls.
2. Stop making strategy changing rules updates the day regionals start.
3. Get an apple I or comadore 64 for field timing so the hot goals turn on at the right time.
4. See #3 and replace hot goal with robots being enabled and disabled.
5. Make the inbound an assist. No more having to hold the ball for half an hour to get the 1st assist.
6. Develop a system of immediate rematches for when things go wrong.
7. Create a proper inspection protocol for eliminations.
8. Remove refs ability to retroactively DQ a team or alliance due to an inspectors mistake.
9. Remove penalties that hurt offensive plays under heavy defense.
10. Make ball tracking and assist crediting ether all electronic or the job of 1 ref per alliance.
11. Remove rules that can not be enforced evenly throughout different events.
12. Inject some common sense into penalty judgement.

Wow!.......Now that would make this particular game on Einstein in just a few weeks time, a "completely different game", than was released in January. (If we need a 12 point program to fix it, we need to also go to rehab. here in AZ for a few weeks (like many politicians who fall from grace seem to do lately), and the season will never become a great memory for the Senior and other Students)....But, they certainly could learn a whole lot about life in the process. Lol.

Smirk. SRY. (Personally, I hope they "fixed the game issues" about as much as they are going to.....But, I fear that is not the case, since some still believe changes -some wholesale changes, are still necessary. It sure looked cleaner to me yesterday streaming many regionals from the comfort of my home.

Also TY FIRST, for getting the AZ Reg. "stats link" fixed late Friday night...My blood pressure was much less elevated yesterday due to solely that fact. To see those stats & scores posted too made a world of difference.
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Thanks also to Falcon Robotics (and others), for the high quality full field Q-vids Friday (that helped me tremendously, though without the actual scores included it was really tough to keep track...Though, I also know doing it by phone had to be very hard to add those too). I hope you also did the elims., and will be posting those on YouTube in the same place too...I know you were plenty busy...Congrat's. on that big Win. I personally know your competitors, fully enjoyed it right down to the bitter & great tasting end.
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Those elims., & the finals were absolutely fantastic to watch. (The smile on my son's face at 1:30 AM this morning (when they arrived home), will be a very long lasting memory, for both of us)...And his banner say's Regional Finalist this time instead of Regional Winner. In 4 years of actual building, driving, programming, and every other facet of the FIRST experience he has been immersed in throughout his 4 years of High School, he has tasted both of those feelings, and utter absolute defeat also. He knows the difference by now). He's proud of their acheivements...and there is still the rest of the season to go, and to look forward to. I can tell he is in the "I Love This Game! camp." He said so this morning. I'm slowly being won over.

So, ergo, the game does work GDC! That much I can tell you. You can see it in their sparkling eyes. Even when they eventually lose in the end...They (and we), are all WINNERS! At least they played the game, as some never actually get a chance to do.

Knowing you played your best, against the very best (especially against long rules odds, w/ some odd things occurring too at the same time, and you just battled on w/ pure GP)......That makes that sparkle in the eyes truly & easily show.

I was proud of watching the level of play yesterday across all of the Regions and Districts...I was more proud of that level of play personally involved w/ a team and as a parent of a direct participant, when I later found out this morning, that in the middle of all that great action yesterday, a driver station laptop (the 6th seed Alliance Captain's....Yes, OURS), was dropped & the screen was accidentally broken w/ the drivers station still up during qualifying, but through a totally unviewable white & rainbow colored screen. (I was told only by text that there was "an issue," not ever explained to, what that "very serious issue" was, even when I texted "what system?", I was "properly just ignored"....The "issue" was "being handled", and that, was all I needed to know).

Then for them, to come back from that major issue (all I knew watching the stream is they arrived at the next and last 2 of their scheduled Q-Matches and played very well...looked like a minor issue easily resolved to me, business as usual, doing what they can do w/ the robot they designed and built, can accomplish, and trying things they did not even design for specifically, and battle on like nothing ever happened, and do that well, was just amazing. Good Job.

My personal thanks goes out to ALL that helped concerning the curing of that particular serious issue, as you ALL embody GP. (Strictly my fault...except that I did not drop it...But, then again, you can't drop it, if you don't take the long chance of actually carrying and using it, high pressure, to say the least is, a robot drivers job). My personal fault because, I always sneak the backup laptop puter down w/ us, even if others do not actually think we will ever need it...But I didn't go, so it wasn't ready to just slap on that drivers station in a single minute, all ready & charged and therefore, ready to go...issue resolved).

Lastly, (watch the vids of both the AZ and the Waterloo Regionals, all of them, but especially the Final Matches)....And you just may see IMHO, the game the GDC attempted to design all of a sudden appear out of nowhere. At least that's what I think I saw.

That wasn't Battle Bots like we have seen earlier...Those eliminations were pure art and flow, showcasing what only FIRST Robotics can be. Winning isn't everything, playing is. It isn't ALL about the robot, or ALL about the specific game designed in less than a year.

STEM turned into artful accomplishment. Only FIRST provides that experience to our children. TY FIRST, and TY to all those daring officiants always, but, especially this year.