[tgraham_533]

Team 533 participated in the SBPLI competition this past weekend. I would first like to say that the volunteers and FIRST representatives did an excellent job of making the best out of a bad situation. I have a unique outlook on the game. I was a mentor for Team 533 and the father of one of the referees on the field. The scoring system was a major disappointment this season. As mentioned earlier, the real time scoring was turned off due to its inaccuracy. This left teams, mentors and spectators lost and resulted in numerous arguments after the scores were posted. We also suffered numerous incorrect scorings which resulted in the wrong team winning autonomous mode. In the early rounds, when these situations were questioned, the rounds were replayed, but as the competition went on the referees became less tolerant of these challenges and replays were not allowed. The last game of the finals was played 3 times due to scoring errors (one of which was called a tie) and autonomous problems. In the end, everyone competed and everyone was a winner, but I think the scoring problems hurt FIRST's reputation with the teams, parents and spectators.