To this webcast watcher, the event seemed to run very smoothly.
In an ideal would, I would appreciate if
these two sites to be updated on a near-real-time basis during Einstein awards/finals/closing ceremonies. At the time of this post (10:10 EST), they have not been updated.
I would also like FIRST to publish alliance selection information on some kind of dynamic page as well. Tall order, but I think it would be a worthwhile addition.
Seeing the confetti come down for the Champion alliance (as opposed to coming down for the Chairman's winner) was disappointing. Dean can say all he wants about not losing sight of the program's true purpose, but this year's change (presenting Chairman's first) must have removed some of our focus from the true goal here.
Four years ago my team only went to one regional a year, and if we were not involved in eliminations, we always decided to leave before the final awards were presented. We just didn't know what the big deal was-- we thought we were just playing a game with robots. After some gentle urging, my teammates decided to start paying attention to all the Chairman's stuff, and now we're a three-time RCA winner. In my absence, they continue to find innovative ways to make positive changes in their community, but if the Championship competition starts to honor the champions more than the CA winner, they may end up diminishing their focus on the advancement of science and technology.
As a more trivial aside, I should also note that that the presentation of the Highest Rookie Seed award on Galileo was a bit rough (the MC ran out of filler as the team worked its way up to the arena floor). Perhaps a new system should be worked out for the presentation of this (very important, if underrated) award-- maybe the winning team could be asked to gather on the field before it is presented?