[Libby K]

Originally Posted by ToddF

I think the biggest improvement regionals could make would be displaying informative graphics on the big screen between matches. There should never be a time when an audience member should need to ask, "What's going on?"

Suggestion: There should be ever present graphics between matches with the following info:
-Time since last match ended, previous match number, teams that played, outcome of the match.
-Upcoming match number, teams that are playing and their current ranks
-Some sort of graphic showing the phases between matches, with the current phase highlighted (scoring, robot removal, robot placement, connecting to field, ready for match) If a timeout is called, display the number of the team that called it, and a countdown clock. If there is an administrative timeout between finals matches, put up that graphic and countdown clock. If it's lunchtime, put up a graphic with a countdown clock until matches resume.

Having this info displayed would also make watching online streaming matches much easier to follow.

So, my solution to ending public confusion is simply to provide the information the public (and everyone else) wants to know: What's happening right now? What just happened? What's going to happen next? When will the next thing happen?

I really like this - you can still play a dance song, do FRC trivia, or have some other thing happening while this graphic is up, if you so choose - but it would certainly eliminate the "Is this a time out? Cooldown break? Just hanging out? Is it over?"

I'm fully aware of the reasons we might have a break, and I'll still miss the announcement of "Team XYZ has called their 6-minute time out, so the clock will start over..." or whatever happens to have been done - so it's confusing to team members as well as first-time spectators. The seconds-counting-down on the overlay score bar isn't quite enough for this purpose.