Award Ceremony & Divisional Playoffs...

[Joe Johnson]

Hey all,

As any long time Chief Delphi Forum reader knows, many folks have advocated playing the divisional playoffs as part of the award ceremony (especially folks from the Chief Delphi Forum and especially ME -- though in honestly, the idea was not original to me. As I recall, Chris Hibner of 308 was the first to advocate it publicly on this forum).

I was shocked to see that FIRST actually did it at the Championships this year.

Sadly, because was not able to attend, I was not able to judge the effectiveness of this idea in action.

From what I was able to see on the web over a dial up modem, it was not a flawless execution (e.g. the transitions from games to awards and back could have been smoother).

Even so, it seemed to be a great improvement over prior years where a slim minority of FIRST folks actually watched the penultimate and ultimate rounds of the Grand Championship and the vast majority of the crowd was nearly bored to the point of violence during the relentlessly lengthy award ceremony.

So... ...for any folks who were actually in TX watching the Grand Championship / Award Ceremony, what do you think?

Joe J.

P.S. Please try to remove from your vote the fact that the second match of each elimination round was almost a forgone conclusion – this was a fault of the game design and not due to the format change I would like to evaluate.

[P.J. Baker]

I thought this was great. In the 5 years that I've been doing this, I don't think that more people have ever seen the the end of the tournament.

This format put a lot more butts in the seats for the final matches and broke up the monotony of the awards presentation (it also gave WildStang extra time to beat their wings back into the proper shape between matches).

Kudos to F.I.R.S.T. for this decision.

P.J.

Kudos for this move, this is only the 2nd of 4 championships that I have seen the finals matches...the only thing I didnt like was how they rushed the champions and runners up to get medals right as soon as the matches were over. I know they had Six Flags to get to and it wasn't their fault...but FIRST needed to give a little more time than the "express" ceremony for the event winners

[Jeff Waegelin]

I thought it worked well. Not having to sit through a huge long awards ceremony after the finals was nice.

[Justin]

Wow....Dr. Joe did not attend nationals....perhaps we truly are witnessing the apocolyptic season for FIRST. ;-)

-Justin

[Jack]

two words: much better.

Last year, I fell asleap during the awards because they took so long. However, this year they were very well handled. I would have to agree that it seemed they rushed the grand champs and the transitions between matches/awards do need a bit of work, but those can be worked on for next year.

Great job FIRST

[Ben Mitchell]

I liked it because it broke up the speeches a lot more than previous years - although it was probably a very tense time for those on the field, having to wait to play again.

[evulish]

I wasn't a very big fan of it. I lost track of what was going on with the matches when they did the awards. I guess it wasn't too bad. I seemed to like it the old way better.

[Dave_222]

I am indifferent my team was unable to stay due to an early flight. We couldn't even collect the award we won.

[Ron Hartman]

I've been to Nationals each year since 1998 and this was, by far, my least favorite awards ceremony. In fact, it's a stretch to call it a "ceremony" at all.

With the exception of the Founder's and Chairman's, it felt like awards were being handed out simply as filler material between matches... an after-thought, just something to fill dead air time.

Personally, I prefer the contiguous awards ceremony approach. Ceremonies like we've had at Epcot really tend to emphasize the importance and prestige of the awards, and help promote the true meaning of FIRST... it's not just about the final competition, right? ...and the speakers have the undivided attention of the audience. In Houston, it felt like the only important thing was the final set of matches, everything else was scattered in between.

As far as getting more FIRSTers to actually show up and watch the final matches... well, yes, the stands were full this time, but I think that has as much to do with the seating arrangements and unobstructed viewing than the intermixing of awards and finals. At Epcot, it was often brutally hot and the view of the Einstien field from the stands was nothing short of pathetic. You could get a better view by standing in the pits and watching the TV screens.

Ron

[soap108]

Originally posted by Ben Mitchell
I liked it because it broke up the speeches a lot more than previous years - although it was probably a very tense time for those on the field, having to wait to play again.

I wish I had the video on my laptop for you to see, Joe. Soon....

Broke up all speeches except Dean's.... Maybe run the finals during his part? j/k I was standing next to someone who almost had a heart attack when she saw him get off a balancing device (this time a segway) and actual WALK on dry land. Thought that was kinda funny.

KA-108

[Aaron Lussier]

Originally posted by soap108
I was standing next to someone who almost had a heart attack when she saw him get off a balancing device (this time a segway) and actual WALK on dry land. Thought that was kinda funny.

KA-108

When we saw that are whole team cheered and gave him a standing ovation for walking up the stairs with out a segway

[xavior06]

why did FIRST put so much emphasis on winning this year?

i always liked how first wasnt like any other type of competition i.e. basketball(final 4), football (superbowl), soccer (world cup).

having the teams run out onto the field and be announced was cool this year but i think if they keep doing it more and more dramatic it will only hurt the true meaning of FIRST.

[Ken Patton]

From the standpoint of someone who was on the field, it was actually nice to have additional time between matches. It gave all the teams time to cool down and be ready for the next match. I'll bet robot reliability improved - even though wear and tear did take a toll.

The biggest improvements imho were no blazing sun and full stands.

The worst part down on the field is that you can't really hear the speakers unless you concentrate. And thats not really a good alternative when you can listen to the Wildstang guys strategize instead....

[Pin Man]

I like the old way... Just do the finals and then do the awards... But if I were a driver I would like to have the extra time to let the bot cool down and possibly make a quick stratedgy...