Quote:
Originally posted by kymtilani
I've been in FIRST for three years, since the start of my team in 2001. I won't say I've seen it all, I don't think anyone can. The past two years, our team went to SVR and Nationals last year (which was absolutely fantastic!), and I've always had a wonderful time, and come back to this "reality" thing grinning and cheerful.
This year, though, seems to be a little different. Maybe it's just the game that's got me jaded; it doesn't seem to inspire as much goodwill between teams as the past two games have, and I don't really like that there's so little strategizing you can really do ahead of time - the rule of thumb for this game seems to be whoever can knock the most boxes from the ramp onto their side generally wins. Maybe it's all the stuff that happened during the six weeks, with the motor specs coming so terribly late, trying to create a whole new drive train, not to mention normal team dynamics. But my own little theory is that over the years, the fundamental ideals of FIRST, the teamwork and gracous professionalism, the learning, wonder and excitement of this opportunity, they've lessened to a degree where it's stopped being fun for some people.
Today at SVR, I was watching a match that my team was playing in. A robot on the other alliance flipped our partner, and while our two team's spectators gasped and tried to make sure the robot was alright, the team who's robot had flipped our partners' started yelling and cheering even louder. Now, I don't know *why* they were cheering, maybe it was for something their partner had done. But I was completely disgusted with their behavior.
I've heard from other people their stories of the loss of gracious professionalism, horror stories that make you wonder how they could have happened in a place like this. Others have spoken of the "gentlemen's agreements" that have been going on this year, their experiences with the lack of GP. Guess I've added myself to their ranks. I just wish I could say I was the last one.
- Casey Greene
<Casey668>
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This is a non-issue. I didn't see the match, but if I was on the team against you I'd be cheering, too. Don't think that if one of your opponents was somehow disabled or a no show you wouldn't be extatic at the chance your team could rack up tons of points. It sucks your alliance had a robot that flipped over, but it's all part of the game.
I disagree with the comparison of the FIRST RC to the NASCAR fire scenario. In NASCAR you're dealing with peoples' lives at stake, and in FIRST it's just your robot. Yeah, to some of us our robot is our lives, many people on these boards can tell you I feel that way about my robots. If your robot gets flipped over, it doesn't necessarily mean it's damaged. Even if it is damaged, it's not the end of your life. FIRST is a wonderful distraction from the real world which is pretty successful at roping in kids to technical futures. It's not the only thing that's important in life. You've got to let things go. I've had a tough time with this, but this year and last year I've come a long way to recognizing this as a game and nothing more.
Getting back to robots tipping and being flipped... It's either a design flaw on your partner's part (high CG) or something else which could have been avoided. What I'm trying to say (with less than 12 hours of sleep over 3 days) is that you ought to concern yourself with convincing your own team to not be careless in your design or driving so that you don't tip over. You can't do anything about the other robots. There's no magic wand you can wave to make your partner be a better robot or a more complimentary robot. Roll with the punches life (and FIRST) throws at you. If you don't, you'll never be happy. Don't make life so rigid and serious, you'll never make it out alive.
There's my more than half asleep $0.02