Frank,
Thanks for sharing the survey feedback. Unfortunately, I was not able to participate in the survey after our two events. These opinions are my own, not my full team.
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Aerial Assist was a very different game for FRC, with our attempt to have a more sports-like game and strongly encourage teamwork on alliances.
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The game design was a significant paradigm shift with limited game pieces and no "end game." Encouraging more teamwork is definitely an admirable goal. However, making game more sports-like is not the best approach.
Sports have many subjective rules that both teams and refs understand after years of play and abundant visual references. Having no reference point for subjective fouls or possession calls was frustrating.
Additionally, two thirds of my team's contribution to our alliance was focused primarily on the drive base of the robot - setting picks or defending. This is common for sports but translates poorly to the "sport" of FRC. I personally prefer contributing to our alliance through the scoring section. All teams pour a great deal of effort into scoring functions. I feel some teams were not given the opportunity or had very limited chances to use what they built.
We did enjoy the challenge of building a machine for Aerial Assist. Overall our team and students gained valuable experience in our second year. We achieved many "firsts" and look forward to next season.
David Allred
Mentor 4451 ROBOTZ Garage