Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom Line
Negatives:
1. Judging consistency.
Crab is cool. It's also pretty old in terms of FIRST. It's time to educate the judges about standard FIRST systems so we stop seeing awards given out to teams for the same thing. It's my opinion that every team that made an effective fan this year should have won an award (and we did NOT make one).... but I saw multiple awards at every district I attended that mentioned... CRAB.... this is a personal beef but it's also a microcosm of what we see with judging around the country. With the current judging setup of volunteers, I don't know how you can fix it.
The judges need some better standards to work from. In one district, our presenters were told we needed more planning for future work. When we presented that at States, we got a very chilly reaction because we hadn't done them yet.
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I couldnt agree more about teams winning an award for crab or swerve drivetrains. At both regionals we attended, the same team won a design award for a swerve drivetrain. I completely believe that they had a very good swerve drivetrain, and many teams iterations were not as effective but there was nothing new or unique about there rendition. I think the xerox creativity award should actually award a creative design, not a design that has been around FIRST for at least the last 5 years. I think that the judges should be better versed in what has been done previously to have a better understanding of what is truly unique.