Championship 2011 - St Louis - Your Thoughts Please?

[Tristan Lall]

One additional observation: unless I wasn't paying enough attention, they basically ignored the plight of 781 during the Einstein finals. I hypothesize that this was a personal decision on the announcer's part to avoid a potentially embarrassing situation: one robot wasn't moving during the two most critical matches of the world championship, and perhaps he felt the less said of it the better.

(Incidentally, has anyone got the backstory about 781's robot? What was wrong with it, and what prompted them not to call for the backup?)

[BrendanB]

Originally Posted by Karibou

-BrendanB, I ended up being the recipient of the paper plane that you threw during the finals matches. I texted the number, but never got a response. I probably didn't type it into my phone right. Just thought you'd like to know in case you didn't get the text or can't

If ANYONE got one of those it wasn't from me! Some of our students were suprised by how many people I knew so they started writing my name on paper planes and sending them out so I have no idea how many there are in the dome with my name on them! I do not know what phone number was sent out!

The good:
Short pit walk.
Pits fields weren't too bad.
It was nice being within walking distance
There were a several great places for food within walking distance but the lack at the dome wasn't so good.

The bad:
Load in. This seemed very poor and maybe next year they can allow some teams who arrive earlier have a coach pre check in with the bands. FTC leaving at the same time we were enetering was very bad and was a traffic nightmare. We didn't get into our pit until 6ish.

Pit stands were far from sufficient.

The pits I found were very unsafe especially in the rookie rows. We had teams minibot poles in the aisles, tables, robots getting tested in the aisles, large groups of people who didn't move when you asked them to move they just starred at you, some teams took up half the row to work on a part, and it was just a nightmare trying to get through because they just wouldn't listen and some safety people walked right by most if not all of the occurrences.

No music on Einstein was really sad, the energy was just gone from the dome and you'd never expect we were in the finals.

I personally thought the Einstein background was rather cheesy and FIRST could have done a lot better especially with some of the multi colors and funky designs put up. It also doesn't do their sponsors justice since you can't read most of the logos they put up.

I was told by several quers on Thursday morning that we only had two matches PERIOD no matter if we were fully inspected or not and one man made us get out of the fast lane.

I'm still iffy on the concert, it was fun but I felt it ruined the event by announcing chairmans and it was still that giant curtain throughout the entire weekend.

I did find it sad when more people cheered for Jack Black and Morgan Freeman than Dean Kamen, the Dean's list, or the Chairmans award.

I loved how to stay on time we had to carry live robots onto the field!

I wish they could outlaw wheeled vehicles in the pits. Segways are one thing but several kids were on scooters or long boards.

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by Karibou

This isn't FIRST's fault at all, and I don't know how it could have been avoided (it's a personal discipline issue).

Really? It's not FIRST's fault? When the door to opportunity is opened, those who open that door should have precautionary measures set in place to help protect their clients and their volunteers.

Jane

[cpeister]

Originally Posted by Tristan Lall

One additional observation: unless I wasn't paying enough attention, they basically ignored the plight of 781 during the Einstein finals. I hypothesize that this was a personal decision on the announcer's part to avoid a potentially embarrassing situation: one robot wasn't moving during the two most critical matches of the world championship, and perhaps he felt the less said of it the better.

(Incidentally, has anyone got the backstory about 781's robot? What was wrong with it, and what prompted them not to call for the backup?)

After the first failure of our bot, the drive team tethered it up and tested it, and everything seemed to be working fine. From what I understand, they fully expected the robot to be functioning in the next match, and therefore did not call in a backup bot.

Evidently, our problems were not solved and we experienced a near identical failure in the next match.

On the way home last night we believed that the digital sidecar had failed. This could have been the result of 4 events worth of wear and tear, as well as playing our first defense of the season, with some heavy hits.

Then, biancs15 from Team 610 brought this to our attention today, regarding the banebots motor on our arm.

At this point we don't know the cause of our problems, but we will be looking into it in the coming days.

Although what happened was disappointing, we are still very excited to have gone as far as we did. 2016 and 177, sorry we couldn't perform for you guys in the end.

[Debbie]

Originally Posted by fuzzwaz

-I think the number is 52? 52 teams compete for the chairmans award at the world championship? (or 50, 51, correct me please). I don't know how many of those teams knew about this rumor, if any. My team knew just solely because a ref of a team friend, and warned us to go. I heard a few other teams heard about it, and I also heard a lot of people did not hear about it. FIRST threw a concert so students could enjoy their time at the championship, but announcing to 51 other teams that they lost an award in the middle of a concert seemed kind of harsh to me.

-

I can tell you that JUDGES came to our pit and told us that they were announcing Chairman's at the concert! I am not sure if they went to all pits, or just Chairman's candidates, but they did try to inform that it was happening. It did modify some of our parent's plans, but on the other hand, it was pretty neat to be a part of it and pretty special for the team that won, to have it broadcast on the television special (at least I am assuming so).

As for the event as a whole, I would say it was great! There were only 2 major issues I had...

1- being the pit fields... and the fact that people saved seats so that if you didn't save seats, you didn't get to watch your team play...despite repeated announcements from pit admin about not saving seats and letting others watch matches. I was able to sit and watch 2 of the 4 matches we played in the pit field. My team did not get to sit together for any of the 4 matches. THAT was majorly disappointing to me!!!!!! I also like having the fields close, but didn't like that it loses the feeling of "worlds" in the pit instead of being on the dome floor.. feels more like a regular regional...

and 2 -

the pre-ordered food was dangerous... Finding MOLD in 10 of my team's turkey wraps was highly unsettling.. the fact that after we returned our wraps they continued passing them out was highly disturbing to me... To pay TEN DOLLARS a meal for that meal which at best contained brown lettuce and hard cheese, and at worst.. mold.. was unacceptable... 2 of my team members got sick and I have to question if it came from the food. Most of my team did not eat the meals after the mold instance, which sadly was noticed on Saturday and not Thursday! The Finale party food was sitting in unrefrigerated crates for how long? Dangerous.. and I won't be ordering food there again, unless a new caterer is brought in.. missed the food spread at the finale party in Atlanta and the fireworks!!!!!


But.. on the good side... I liked the pit layout.. liked having all programs close.. liked having the scholarship row expanded and in there with us... liked the displays that were brought in and all of the "real life" robots that were displayed from the Air Force, and others, liked our hotel, the advertising around the city (even bookmarks in union station), liked the closer walk to the arena(though missed the outside walk and sunshine), liked the HOF teams being close by us and I could go on ...

I really appreciate all that has been done for us and it was another great FIRST experience! We met some new friends, said hi to some old friends, learned a lot and are already looking forward to next year!

Thanks to everyone for making it such a great program!

[Karibou]

Originally Posted by JaneYoung

Really? It's not FIRST's fault? When the door to opportunity is opened, those who open that door should have precautionary measures set in place to help protect their clients and their volunteers.

Jane

What I meant was that there was no real way to control it. I'm sure that FIRST could have explicitly said "no crowd surfing," but they did not, and even if they had, I'm sure that it still would have happened.

However, they did make several pit announcements saying that we would not be allowed to take pictures of the event, and that was not enforced in the slightest.

Originally Posted by BrendanB

If ANYONE got one of those it wasn't from me! Some of our students were suprised by how many people I knew so they started writing my name on paper planes and sending them out so I have no idea how many there are in the dome with my name on them! I do not know what phone number was sent out!

Awwww XD I still think that it's pretty funny that at least one made it to someone who was actually on CD, though...

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by Karibou

What I meant was that there was no real way to control it. I'm sure that FIRST could have explicitly said "no crowd surfing," but they did not, and even if they had, I'm sure that it still would have happened.

However, they did make several pit announcements saying that we would not be allowed to take pictures of the event, and that was not enforced in the slightest.

I know, Kara. And - I was happy to look at photos that were being posted on FB. Some were beautiful. Most were blurry and you couldn't really tell what was what.

If it is true and FIRST hopes to have events like this in the future, then these are things that either they need to address or the teams and volunteers will have to suck up and get used to.

Jane

[FirstFan2011]

The t-shirt stand was a total failure. Way too many logo choices, way too many options on type and color of clothing, nothing preprinted, order taking process way too slow, numerous orders late and messed up. Need I go on?
People were p*ssed off!!!!!!!!!

[cpeister]

Originally Posted by FirstFan2011

The t-shirt stand was a total failure. Way too many logo choices, way too many options on type and color of clothing, nothing preprinted, order taking process way too slow, numerous orders late and messed up. Need I go on?
People were p*ssed off!!!!!!!!!

I was quite surprised at the sheer number of choices available. This I have no problem with, although it made decision making harder.

The lack of preprinted shirts did surprise me, but it didn't bother me either.

I can speak to the messed up orders though. I ordered a Tshirt and a sweater. When I went to pick up my order, the Tshirt was missing and the sweater had the wrong logo. No big deal for me, but I am glad that I checked. I returned a couple of hours later to get my updated order and tye tshirt was present but the sweatshirt had the same wrong logo again. I checked my order form against the codes on the display i wanted and they were identical. The lady at the pickup counter was great about it though. She grabbed one of the logo loc guys and I went over and showed them what it was I wanted. They asked me to wait 5 minutes and then it was ready.

All in all, I found stuff overpriced, but the employees were helpful which greatly enhanced the experience.

[Shof]

Im a bit surprised that the first store did not have that much items that had St Louis, Mo on it except for a few tshirts. I remember a couple years at the Atlanta first store they had key chains and other things on that had the date Atlanta on it and the dome name on it. Was a bit disappointed with that, since i wanted something that had St Louis on it

[Debbie]

Originally Posted by FirstFan2011

The t-shirt stand was a total failure. Way too many logo choices, way too many options on type and color of clothing, nothing preprinted, order taking process way too slow, numerous orders late and messed up. Need I go on?
People were p*ssed off!!!!!!!!!

I really love how we can pick from so many choices! It allows for many different tastes and we aren't all walking around with the same t-shirt! What I think they lack is enough workers. I tell my team to shop on Thursday or early Friday because it gets crazy there toward the end. They offer great quality with many choices and I really like having them there... just wish they had more help!

Also, they do make mistakes, but they always fix them for you!

[Blackphantom91]

My thoughts

The Good

• The pits- They where Pretty cool to walk around this year for some reason.
• Teams- This year It seemed like teams all over steeped their game up and made the compositions all over the event harder thus even better to enjoy.( would love to see it continue) Congrats to everyone and winners on Einstein.
• Concert- I went into this concerto thinking it was going to be a sham and overrated I was wrong it was extreme fun and I thought it was cool to make it a celebration about the teams. It also helped That some members of the thunderchickens were making me laugh every two seconds. I believe that he wants to help first now im generally convinced.
• Competition overall Fantastic Its a wonderful experience and I loved it this year.

Alright now its time for the bad.
The bad

• The setup- It would have been better if they explained way earlier than what they did by the time I saw it It wasn't bad until we played in the dome then I got lost and was confused on my way back to the pits. (not fun) I liked the pits close to the competition.
• the weather]- Flooding and rain bad combo.
• Lack of Music on Einstein Nuff said!

I really loved championships this year it was fun, Next year I hope is even better Great days of competition great robots and teams on Einstein and in the divisions. Left with a smile and met new people great time! Shout outs to everyone!

[DonRotolo]

See my comments in the "2011 lessons learned" threads.

[BrendanB]

Originally Posted by Karibou

What I meant was that there was no real way to control it. I'm sure that FIRST could have explicitly said "no crowd surfing," but they did not, and even if they had, I'm sure that it still would have happened.

However, they did make several pit announcements saying that we would not be allowed to take pictures of the event, and that was not enforced in the slightest.

This is just one of the sad facts that even though you try to enforce something, make announcments things still happen.

To kinda go along with that I was very disappointed and yet laughed so hard when they announced that teams needed to be considerate in the pit stands so everyone could see!

Wait, they didn't think that would be a problem?!?!!?

Originally Posted by FirstFan2011

The t-shirt stand was a total failure. Way too many logo choices, way too many options on type and color of clothing, nothing preprinted, order taking process way too slow, numerous orders late and messed up. Need I go on?
People were p*ssed off!!!!!!!!!

Yes, I do think that there were too many choices and what made it worse was that there were only two people taking orders and there should have been a line to take orders. I was waiting 30 minutes to make an order before giving up due to how many people would just cut me off when I finally went to order. I'm not the person to get into a fighting match with things like that but it was very annoying especially for someone who works in managing retail!

I will echo that the finale lunch was very poorly planned! It was warm, tasted, "10 minutes shy of going bad", and getting the sandwiches and then getting out was a nightmare! I think what hurts the STL venue is even though there is a number of hotels nearby there isn't the space that Atlanta has with the foyer outside the pits that was great for HOF and the green between buildings.

I was very sad that HOF was such a hike away from it all and not a center of attention!

[Katie_UPS]

All I can say, and I'm going to say this briefly;
The concert was fun. I was a foot-dragger (I was dead tired* and sore all over**) and still liked it. I was glad at the intention of it. And having Curie be ten yards away from my pit was incredibly convenient and made more things possible.

I still wasn't happy with it.

It wasn't the execution or the logistics, but the message it sent: that its okay to "cheapen" a team's championship experience for an entertainer. I mean, when a good chunk of your dome is lost to a performer and you're telling kids that STEM is the important... I'm sure I'm just reading into this too much, but its still doesn't sit well with me. It goes against what Dean says... or what I interpret from his speeches...