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Re: Wow! what a year
Posted by Elaine Anselm.
Engineer on team #191, X-Cats, from Jos Wilson High School and Xerox.
Posted on 4/11/2000 11:06 AM MST
In Reply to: Wow! what a year posted by Mike Kulibaba on 4/10/2000 3:18 PM MST:
I must second what Mike said - this was one of the greatest years for competition that I can remember and I have seen them all since 1992. Thank you to FIRST for taking and using many of the suggestions made by teams last year.
I am also pleased to see the changes that Disney made to accommodate basic comfort, matches moving faster, staying on schedule and getting from field to field easily. The covered arena, great lighting and raised seats were awesome on the inside arenas. More places to sit would have really helped but things have taken a giant leap forward here.
Many people were not around in 1995, the first year at Disney, but the competition was inside EPCOT Center at the America's Pavilion. The Pits were in a little covered area with no walls next to the America's building. There was a thunder storm all Friday afternoon. There was a robot crossing sign to get robots to and from the playing field through the EPCOT visitors. Some of our team members walked by the area on Friday night and commented how tiny it looks. It looked huge back than. Things have come a very long way in 6 years. Personal commentary - I know that the visibility provided by Disney is something FIRST wants and needs, but from a team perspective, I still find Disney a very expensive distraction, even with the improvements.
I agree that it is unfortunate that a lot of really good teams did not get to play in the final rounds at the Nationals. Many of our team members were very disappointed at not getting picked. We finished 31st, won 6 out of 7 matches and did very well in the NJ Regional. It was disappointing to see so many other good robots overlooked as well. There were many awesome robots this year however and those who made it to the finals put on a terrific show.
Some people I talked to were disappointed that the schedule for picking alliance partners was pushed up almost an hour from the published schedule and that people were not ready. I don't know if it would have made a difference but I am not a fan of changing schedules once they are set.
One suggestion I would like to make is to have more relevant and timely data available to teams starting when the Pits open on Thursday and going through till Saturday. I think this would help teams doing the picking and level the playing field for new teams and less visible teams that do exceptionally well in the competitions. Initial information could include some basics on robot strategy (as provided by the team), information on Regionals attended such as matches won/lost, avg. score, rank going into finals and final rank if in top 8. During the competition information should be updated often, preferably real time. Waiting for the screen to scroll in the pit was not very timely and did not give sufficient information. This idea might sound a little out there but at the Olympics there are kiosks with up to date information on demand, so why not at the FIRST Nationals? A few people suggested to me that it would have been helpful to have copy services available on site. This could be used to provide status information to teams 2-3 times per day. Working for Xerox, I am willing to investigate the possibility with FIRST if people think it would be worthwhile - no promises, but I will do my best.
Thanks again to everyone for making this one of the best FIRST years ever. I was not able to attend the Regional we participated in this year and I was tied up with things at the Nationals until Saturday morning so I missed seeing many of you (and unfortunately most of my teams matches). Sorry I missed you. I look forward to talking with you throughout the year and seeing you next year.
Elaine Anselm
X-Cats - team 191
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