Growing up with FIRST, the thing I always loved an looked forward to most was the dancing. It's so quintessentially FIRST for me at this point, I can't imagine a Regional without it. I think it adds to the excitement and energy of the competition and can also be a great display of sportsmanship with members of teams on both alliances dancing together and having fun.
I agree, to outsiders, it may be a bit confusing during the Playoffs to have random dance breaks, but there aren't many alternatives. Most of the Regionals in Canada this year showed the "FRC Rhapsody" and "All about Them Totes" music videos, which filled a few timeouts.
I like the idea of some more audience interaction with facts, quizzes and playing the animation a few times.
However, I don't think its a good idea to hold awards during those 6-minute timeouts. Logistically, it's just too much. With the judges and MC having to be on the field while game elements are still in place, with robots on the field, and with entire teams having to come down to collect, it's just way too much and would probably cause more delays than time it would save.
To address this:
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Between both teams and announcers, it can get very confusing when people refer to the game pieces variously as totes, containers, RCs, litter, noodles, crates, bins, barrels, garbage cans, yellow totes, coop totes, "cooperation" totes, cans, et cetera. Can we get some consistency (especially from the announcers?
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I was a rookie Game Announcer this year at the North Bay Regional, and I get it. I admit that I interchanged a lot of terms while I was calling matches, and the other veteran Game Announcer admitted that he did too.
Before this season, I always called Totes Orbis Bins, which unfortunately caused some confusion during Matches.
I can tell you that I definitely did not use the wrong terms on purpose. I know what terms the FRC Manual uses, but in the heat of the moment, I was less concerned with using the wrong term and more concerned with keeping up with the action on the field.
I can't speak for anyone else, but that would be my answer to your question.