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Originally Posted by Brianelite
It doesn't sound like FIRST can succeed in Israel. If coaches are urging students to disrupt matches there is no hope....
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On the contrary, FIRST probably has a better chance of succeeding in Isreal than it does here in the US. I would be greatly surprised if any of the US Regionals would be able to carry on with their program if they experienced technical problems any where near what Isreal did, given the pressure any teams in the region are already under.
Compared to Isreal, the Bayou Regional had minor technical problems. They caused delays of up to several hours and forced several matches to be replayed. There were some communications problems throughout the regional but the majority seemed to always be with the same robots. Not sure how much of that you can blame on the field. Every team still got to play 10 qualifiers even though it ran late every night.
Just to make it clear, the following incidents happened at the BAYOU REGIONAL in the US, NOT in Isreal:
A timer problem caused one of the quarter-final matches to be replayed. 1912, the top seed and #1 alliance, lost the re-played match and was eliminated from the playoffs. This lead to an incident of one of the team members throwing things on the field which caused the announcer to stop the proceedings,which he stated was unprecedented in FIRST, and chastise the team for their behavior. Try to imagine what might have happened if a coin-toss had decided the match. This was NOT a low-funded rookie team, but one of the older powerhouse teams in the region who went on to win the Chairman's Award at the Bayou after this incident!
The field did not get any visibility of many of their problems on Thursday because there was never a full field of robots to test with. The practice schedule was totally abandoned and the announcers were begging for any team with a running robot to bring it to the field for practice matches so they could test the field. This is not a reflection on the field system, it is a result of the complex operating system on the robot which only a few teams have the mentors or students to fully understand.
Their were also difficulties with many teams passing inspection. At 5:00 Thursday afternoon 4 teams had passed inspection. There were several statements made by predominantly black teams that the white teams had an "easier" inspection. The last team did not make it through inspection until their last match, but still qualified 8th and were an alliance captain. This directly lead to some of the qualifying changes in Update 16.
Compared to Isreal, these were all EXTREMELY minor problems. Yet they still quickly lead to dissension and a loss of Gracious Professionalism among the teams. Given the same pressures, anyone who thinks that a United States regional would turn out any better than the Isreali regional is severely mistaken. I would commend the teams at the Isreali regional for carrying on despite the adverse conditions.
If FIRST is really serious about their mission, they will reconsider their use of a control system that is so complicated that only a relatively few strong teams are proficient with it, much less the bunch of volunteers trying to integrate it into a field system and run a regional. It is quickly leading to a situation where there are 2 distinct levels of teams. A small team that spends it's entire 6 week build time fighting with the control system instead of building an effective robot is quickly disappointed and won't be back once the "free" grants run out.