[JamesBrown]

Alright, I thought about this a bit and am ready to post, as a disclaimer I loved ever thing about this year, both regionals we went to were fabulous and Championships were also alot of fun.

Scoring system- I refuse to bash FIRST on this topic, yes it was flawed, yes it could be confusing but overall it was far better than last years scoring system. I was at a week 1 regional and must say I had more good experiences with it than bad ones. Give them time, FIRST will have automatic scoring figured out by next year.

Foot traffic in Atlanta- I don't think it was FIRST making these calls but rather the GWCC, it was a little bit more difficult than necessary to get to the dome from the pits and Vice Versa.

IFI- Can't say anything negative about the people, the IFI reps in Boston and Manchester were fabulous. One thing they could improve would be in the event of another problem like the 8.2v bug have Regional Staff call a meeting for the programmers, the drivers many times don't know what they are talking about when it comes to programming. I heard about the fix when my driver told me "they said some thing about putting a word in the code to fix the battery problem", Luckily the IFI guys were a little more helpful.

Spare Parts- IF possible when regional organizers assign volunteer positions try to have the spare parts person be some one knowledgeable about the control systems, many times when you go to ask for or about something they don't know what you mean. This isn't necessary but would be a bonus.

Radio Control - at regionals, especially those in larger venues it would be great if they could set up an area to run the robot without the tether, at Manchester we had problems with our controls that the IFI rep had never seen, I couldn't isolate the problem because it only happened under radio control (ie in practice matches) Eventually the machine shop guys gave us space and power to try to run every thing under radio control this allowed us to isolate the problem and to fix it.

This is all I can think of now, as far as I am concerned FIRST has not even approached Failing us and I am a bit disgusted when people suggest they have, sure there is room for improvement and please try to keep the criticism constructive. FIRST in no way deserves to be bashed they give us way more than we pay for in materials alone, the experience is a bonus, don't bash them , offer advice and then take things as they come. FIRST improves every year and this year was no exception.