Posted by colleen - T190 at 03/11/2001 11:59 AM EST
Engineer on team #190, Gompei, from Massachusetts Academy of Math and Science and WPI.
In Reply to: Three suggestions for FIRST
Posted by Joe Johnson on 03/10/2001 7:13 PM EST:
If I had only gone and coached in UTC, I would prolly agree with Joe... in CT there were many more dynamics to working with teams.. there were A LOT of great robots, and thus teams that wanted to strut their stuff, do it their way, and do it ON THEIR OWN (almost I would say just to prove they could).. It sometimes made it hard to work something out in which everyone benefitted (i.e. high score to which at least 3 robots contribute something)... Having more time to talk would have at least given more time to help people see the big picture and how easily max points could be accomplished..
In LongIsland.. it was a complete different dynamic.. with a lot of teams that were rookies.. and some getting some technical help from other teams that was making their robots work.. Friday morning seemed more like practice rounds to many teams... Instead of like UTC where we heard "we're going to balance 2-goals on our own, load the big ball, and get into the endzone.. you just get there..", at LI it was more of a "we want to see if this works..." Therefore, the in the morning Friday there was a lot of entanglement between robots, things not working, not driving, and low scores.. as the day progressed, the learning curve was much higher than UTC.. we went out to matches, people said admitedly "hey, we may not be able to get over the ramp on our own" or "we have never tried to balance two.. we probably can't do it by ourselves".. most matches had 4 robots doing what they could and doing it together.. by Saturday morning, high scores were being topped left and right by using basic strategies and everyone watching out for everyone else..
The moral: Two-minute (if even, you only get as long as the match before you takes to play) strategies are rough.. but that's why this game is 'diabolical' right? It's stressing when you're in there, but I like the situation as I look back on it.. and that was reinforced by going to LI..
As for the other points.. Nationals I COMPLETELY agree about that... as we all saw.. the finals at regionals so far have been SHORT (we even played our semi-matches to 6, and the finals to 5 matches, and it was over in barely any time)... it might tack an extra 1/2 hour onto competition... and it would benefit everyone...
As for tie breakers-- we haven't run into that problem (due to nice human player hail mary by team 250 in the semi's) but it seems logical.. it should be based on your performance as an alliance together since you're the ones who tie is being broken...
Just what I think.. see you all at nationals
--c