[GaryVoshol]

You can't double the size of the playoffs, and then add only an hour to the schedule to compensate. Yes, I'm talking about you, FiM and MSC. And it didn't help anything that the hour was taken up by a speech and award given by Dean to the governor, and by a field delay.

Regarding the MSC productions, RoboZone had the whole season to evolve and had excellent mentor direction in the first place. Jim Zondag for sure, but I'm sure there were others.

The crew from the PBS station that makes the MSC special also does their homework. They come to districts to see how the game goes, what kind of camera angles they will need, etc. And they often practice during the qualifications at MSC so they have it down before we get to playoffs. Not that there's no issues, like the time a couple years ago we had to convince the boom camera operator that he couldn't put the camera in the goal mouth because it would block game pieces. But in general, they do a good job of preparation to get the production values high.

I think this is the kind of preparation and partnership Carolyn wants to see between SRE and FIRST.