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Re: 2015 Peachtree Regional
Let me start by agreeing with the previous comments on the negatives.
I was not happy to arrive on Wednesday for field setup and find the seating so far from the field and so little rake. As a planning committee we have input on layout and other issues, but not final control. Sometimes there are also issues such as power, floor access points, hanging or rigging points or other considerations that have to be taken into account as well. Unfortunately if the bleachers can't be set up right the first time, there's no way to rearrange them at the last minute. We will try to do better in future years.
As for giving every team 9 or more matches, that would be wonderful. We'd just need to make it a four day event and find lots of new volunteers (I took 2.5 days of my vacation time to help run this event, so while I'll gladly give you another day of my vacation,I'm not sure all volunteers can do that). The math breaks down this way: With 66 teams you need to run 11 matches (66/6) for each team to play one. Multiply that by 8 or 9 to yield 88 or 99 qualification matches. Cycle time is the time between the start of one match to the next and has to include the match itself, finalizing the scoring, getting the robots off the field, then getting new robots on the field and getting them linked up and ready to play. With this year's game, it's pretty hard to do that in 6 minutes and probably impossible to sustain that match after match. So if you assume a 7 minute cycle, 88 matches requires 616 minutes and 99 matches requires 693. With 11 hours (660 minutes) allocated in a FIRST three day event to qualifications, you can see why you had 8 matches. one other consideration is that you know there will be a team or teams that has trouble linking with the field; for every minute you hold the match waiting for linkup, you have to run that number of matches one minute faster than your target cycle time to catch up. Or to put it another way, we can stay on schedule by bypassing you if you're not ready at the 7 minute mark, or we can give you every effort we can for you to run your robot and be late. We chose the latter over the former and I'd really like to know if you think we made the wrong choice.
Now let's run the same math for the Georgia Southern Classic regional in Perry: 42 teams means you need 7 matches for every team to play one. Knowing it was a week one regional with a new control system, we targeted 8 minute cycles and still had time enough to give every team 11 matches (77 total requiring 616 minutes). We were never more than 10 minutes behind schedule and finished each segment within 2 minutes of target.
I like everything to run on schedule too, but when it isn't happening, we need to remember we are still in this together.
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Mentor(2007-2013) - Team 1379 - Gear Devils - Norcross, GA
2010 Palmetto regional Semifinalists, Judges Award
2010 Peachtree Regional Quarterfinalists, GM Industrial Design Award
2009 Palmetto Regional Finalists
2008 Bayou Regional Quarterfinalists
2008 Peachtree Regional Semifinalists
2007 Peachtree Regional Quarterfinalists
Georgia FRC Planning Committee
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