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Originally Posted by SoMe_DuDe904
Since 2008 (That year: KING TeC, Senior in HS) I've always remembered what my mentor said to me, "You can build the best robot in the world, but you need a bit of luck to win these competitions." That year, our robot crashed into the field at full speed and was disabled in match #3 of the finals in Wisconsin, leaving our teammate Team 93 to score solo for 2 minutes while we watched helplessly from the divers station.
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Was this a robot or field issue?
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Originally Posted by SoMe_DuDe904
What happened at North Star, and moreover seems to happen consistently at North Star is teams that "should win" expect to win.
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It is true that I expected Team 967 to win, based on their performance before and during elimination matches. Everyone has expectations, and these get upset all the time. I am not taking issue with the fact that they did not win. I am taking issue with the fact that they did not get a fair chance to win. I think this is a reasonable expectation.
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Originally Posted by SoMe_DuDe904
WINNING IS NOT WHAT FIRST IS ABOUT.
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You are correct. It is not about winning. But when officials reward the hard work of this team with results like this, and the FIRST community has this response, it makes me wonder what it is about.
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Originally Posted by SoMe_DuDe904
To 2175, 967, and 4607, if you guys believe a call was made incorrectly, then please use the proper channels to air your grievances. Don't take it out on the forums and more importantly the teams that played their hearts out, and gave it their all (likely including sweat and blood) to be where they are today.
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I and several others have already done so. My original post was made with the intent of informing the general public about the situation, as they did not seem to be informed (there was confusion in the stands immediately afterwards). Others did not seem to understand that there was an issue, so I stuck with it. I did not call out any of the teams on the opposing alliance for unfair play or malicious intent.
I am seeing the same trend across the country this season. Students and teams are being held accountable for their own honest and trivial mistakes as well as misfortunes out of their control, while FIRST is not responsible for mistakes on their end, in refereeing, field hardware, field software, inspection, etc. (Salient examples: Waterloo SF 1-3, Orlando QF 1, SVR SF 1-2, etc.) I don't like this. I would like it to change.