[Andrew Rudolph]

I thought it was neat that you guys managed to get ahead of schedule. But I would much rather have the competition running on time or a little late than fast. Its hard enough to get robots turned around but when you have the Field running ahead of time and teams having only a short amount of time in between matches it makes this more chaotic than it needs to be. Then on that the pit announcer needed to have better communication with the Field, we would come for our "final" call and wait outside the door to go to the on field cue a few times. And the pit announcer doesn't need to yell at everyone. I understand they want people to go to opening ceremonies, but having the pit announcer telling you your not allowed to practice or work on your robot, talk or do anything but sit in the stands is pretty rude. And alliance pairings took waaaaay too long.

The good parts were pretty great though, The facilities are second to none. Most of the people running the Field were very helpful and courteous which is better than other competitions I have been to. The team social is a great event, I think its the only way to have good clean fun that people wont break their necks or whatever happened in those old ones. The music was at an acceptable level and it didn't have moments where the DJ seemed to leave the cha cha slide on repeat all day. The inspection process was really smooth and the NASA Machine shop was outstandingly helpful. I liked the practice Field in another room, it was good to have room and not lots of onlookers while you work on code or test the robot.

This is my second year coming to Houston and I thoroughly enjoy the regional. The negatives really nagged me during the competition, but nothings perfect.