[Justin]

Hello All,

Well I wasn't sure whether I wanted to voice my opinions on BattleCry in this forum or not. But I would like to try and make a few observations about what I saw there in a, hopefully, constructive manner.

1- Reffing issues. I think that everyone at BattleCry saw at least one call that wouldn't agree with. I think everyone @ a FIRST comp saw at least one call they wouldn't agree with. I think when people started to get more than a little concerned is when a certian call benefited the host team in a postive way. My suggestion would be to get a truly independant group of reffs. Someone from another team w/no alligences to anyone team. For example Plymouth North used to have Gaelforce's adults reff their competition. In fairness however....the reffing job was complicated not only by the fact that many of the reffs may not have been intimately familar w/the FIRST rules...there were BattleCry specific rules layered on top of those FIRST rules.

2- This game desprately wanted to be exciting. And I desprately wanted it to be. What was unfortunate is that it turned into one team doing one thing and another team doing their thing....and no true interaction between the alliances. I think that perhaps this is simply because of how offensively minded we became this year. I am not sure what the solution to this problem is. I thought that things would just revert back to 2on2 mentalities and things would be peachy. After seeing this...I question what a transition back to a 2on2 defensive oriented game would really look like. I also question whether FIRST (Dean?) will be that drastic.

3- Consitency, consitency, consitency. This kinda goes with reffing...but I think it's also a seprate issue. Teams running need to make sure that they follow the precedents they set and set the rigth ones. Why does situation a deserve a rematch and situation b doesn't?? Why qualifies "contact with the ramp?" These things need to be explained to the refs before hand and well thought out. Most importantly they cannot be changed mid-stream 3 matches before the finals. That is not an accusation simply a statement.

4- Lastly, I really do commend BattleCry for having the courage to take a risk and desing their own game. I look forward to BattleCry 3 and Kickoff 2002.

My thoughts,

-Justin