Quote:
Originally Posted by CLandrum3081
My opinion: Great game, poor execution. You know there are too many issues/rules for referees to pay attention to when a pedestal goes unlighted for twenty seconds (what happened to my team in quals). There are ~6 of them - if one of them doesn't notice no blue/red ball on the field for twenty seconds after a goal, something is wrong. And not with the referees. The referees have too many other, non-game-changing fouls to focus on to even bother with stuff that can actually change the outcome of a match, or safety issues.
My $0.02.
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I hope I'm not speaking inappropriately by posting as a referee this past weekend, but while I've lurked around here in my past 9 years volunteering as a ref, this is the first time I've bothered registering to post. Of course my opinions are my own and not representative of anyone at my regional or my fellow referees, etc.
Without turning this into a laundry list of issues, I was surprised at the basic issues of referee location on this year's field. With regards to seeing whether the pedestal lit up, I found that standing by the tablet in front of the gates made it very challenging to see due to the angle and the number of drivers and coaches in between my position and the pedestal. I could step back and turn towards the pedestal, but that took me away from the scoring tablet and the action on the field.
If anyone knows of a proper channel to provide feedback to FIRST and the GDC as a referee, I'd be interested to hear it. I feel like a bit of an odd duck as my experience with FRC is limited to refereeing once a year and watching the occasional live stream on other weeks, and I won't be at St. Louis so I can't find someone there. For what it's worth, every prior year I finish the weekend with the intent to sign up in VIMS as soon as I remember it's open. This year is the first year where I'm more hesitant, and I expect that I'll read the 2015 game rules in detail before I agree to sign up.