I guess I'll start with my gripes so that I might end with some positive comments.
The bad:- Someone, somewhere needs to do something that'll stop these first regionals from being guinea pigs for everyone else's benefit.
- It seemed like enforcement of the rules was phased in throughout the day Friday and through Saturday. On Friday, our lifts were never measured once deployed and we were awarded a 30 pt. bonus. On Saturday, during the elimination rounds, our lifts were measured every time they deployed and we found that there were circumstances that resulted in our partners dipping below 12". That's an important bit of information to know before starting the elimination rounds. Enforce all of the rules all of the time.
- We were penalized once for exceeding a 72" x 72" box outside our home zone when the corner of our one, deployed lift passed over the tape. I didn't see anyone actually measure anything, though. I can't eyeball 6' within one or two inches, so I'm happy that FIRST found some volunteers that could.
- The match generation algorithm is simply terrible and needs to be changed before the next set of events. It's not fair to anyone.
- We were disallowed from testing an autonomous mode that used about 3/4 of the practice field because it interfered with a side of that field that folks were using to practice throwing tubes. I get that FIRST's not about robots, but can we all agree that the robots are just a bit more valuable to the message than the human players?
- After alliance selection, the practice field was closed and packed away. With so many different sorts of ramp/lifting robots around and a match generation algorithm that ensures you won't play with a majority of the teams at the event, we felt that making sure our partners (that had never played with or against our machine) knew how to get atop our lifts was important and the practice field makes doing that a lot easier. Let's keep the practice field around until the elimination rounds start next time.
The good:
- The game is great fun to strategize and play. I can't speak to how things appear from the stands, but the field gets pretty crowded at some times and coordinating between three teams to stay out of everyone's way and still play effectively was challenging.
- The 'random' matches meant that we played against team 492 (another group from near Seattle) in every match. As a result, they got consistently better at defending us each time we played and we had a great time trying to find better, more effective ways of playing defense while trying to avoid being trapped on the other side of the field.
- We're exceptionally happy with our robot and strategy. As the weeks pass and teams get better, it will become increasingly difficult for lifters to dominate completely, but I think they'll be an integral part of winning alliances.
- Blair has called our robot the "White Wonder". We like it.
- The random placement of the Rack isn't nearly as giant a variable as it seemed at first. Some teams were able to consistently score during autonomous mode.
- 30 pts. of penalties for sitting in an opponent's end zone was a large enough disincentive to stop most teams from opting to try such a strategy. Those teams that did lost as a result every time I'm aware it happened.
- Congratulations to Eric Stokely for winning the Regional Woodie Flowers Award
- Congratulations to team 1540 -- The Flaming Chickens -- for winning the Regional Chairman's Award. Our kids would love to know more about your presentation so they know how to better prepare themselves next year.
- Having a functional robot means we got to do more to help other teams.
- The referees were great about addressing questions from our students, even if we weren't always happy with the answers.
My gripes, excepting the match list and consistent use of rules, are all pretty inconsequential. The event ran well, we had a great time, the volunteers all did a great job to keep things running smoothly, and we like the game and think that it's dynamic, challenging and fun to play. We're really looking forward to heading down to San Jose, CA in two weeks to see how things have changed and we hope our machine is as effective and valuable then as it was this weekend.