Championship 2011 - St Louis - Your Thoughts Please?

[Clayton Yocom]

I personally had a great time as St. Louis even though our team had problems with penalties for several reasons, we all had fun. We had a lot of fun at the talent show giving Andy Baker a standing ovation because of his excellent MC'ing, and I was told that several members of our team had even more fun stalking him after the talent show This was my first year at a championship, and, as I was in the pit almost the entire time, it was different than that of the rest of the team.

Pros -
-Dome fields were easy to view
-Walk from Pits to Dome (to watch games) was quick
-The Dome is near quite a few hotels, and eateries, so walking to and from the dome was completely viable.
-The Concert was a lot of fun
-The walk to and from the pit fields our pit was convenient
-Paper airplanes.
-Paper airplanes with names and phone numbers.
-The talent show
-The "First Conversation" show, I was the second guy of the "guys in the blue shirts" to talk, it was very interesting as a "do'er" to hear what Amir said about getting the bureaucrats to agree with doing more mentor based education in public schools. For those who weren't there, the answer to the question, "How did you get the bureaucrats...to agree," was, (paraphrased) See, That's the interesting part...I didn't...I did it, then basically challenged them to tell me that what I was doing wasn't the answer to the problem at hand, and my school has now embraced FIRST into the culture as much as, if not more than, any other sport.

Cons-
-Pit fields. Everything about them other than the walk there as someone who knew where they were going was bad, in my opinion. Trying to get family who didn't know/understand the pit rules into the pits and to the fields was atrocious. The seating was horrid, we only had our scouts in the stands during our matches, unless teams were gracious enough to harbor us for 5-6 minutes (thanks to the team from mexico that let me and a few of our pit crew sit with them during some of the qualification matches).
-Hard to find standing screens
-Lack of room in pit isles
-The walk from the pits to the dome was impossible to explain unless you had someone show you the route (or you took the elevator)
-Load-in. The lady who was in charge of the gate we were at was misinformed or something, as she kept telling all the teams that they could only bring in what they could carry, (aka, no rolling tables, carts, etc. etc.) and even after we were given our wrist bands we were told that we had to go through the small entrance carrying what we could, so that the lady could count us off her list. After about 30-45 minutes all of this was sorted out, and the lady in charge was very nice in-the end, but some of the handling of the event was quite unprofessional. Also, finding an inch or two of water in our electrical crate was very concerning.
-ROBOT! - I'm a supporter of people yelling robot ONCE if there is a large group of people in front of you and you are behind on queing, I am not okay with you yelling robot every 10 seconds when there is an obvious clear lane in front of you.
-Even though I think it is awesome that we are getting the word of FIRST out there, I think the Concert was a disappointment due to the lack of seating in reasonable places (section 405 was like watching a bunch of ants move around on the floor) and some of our team felt like the show was more for TV than it was for us.
-Chairman's Award at the Concert - I feel I am obliged to agree with everyone else on this, and restate their claims, this was a serious oversight to the people who were planning this.
-The volume of the pit announcer was way too loud. You could not yell over the PA unless you were yelling into the person's ear next to you.
-Crates. Trying to get our crate at the end of the day was way to hard. Trying to get them to take the crate away was way to hard. (actually didn't happen until after we left Wednesday night, and some pit lanes were completely blocked off by so many robot crates
-Pit layout. Unless you looked at the image before-hand, it was really hard to determine if some of the teams in Galileo were in Galileo or in Archimedes. The Curie/Archimedes inspection tables were very confusing at first as well. The stickers on the floor needed to be much more visible for people with robot carts, or just people in general to see.

These were just what I could come up with at 10:30pm at night, I felt like I had a good time. The cons really do detract from the experience though, and the pit fields were almost as bad as I had thought. Hopefully they can see some of the feedback on CD and improve next year.
PS- Sorry for the wall-of-text :/

[Peyton Yeung]

Clayton we have school tomorrow so nighty-night.
For the most part I agree. One of my biggest disappointments was that the lanes between pits were tiny...in some cases a robot could just fit. Most of this was due to too many spectators in the pit but overall many of the lanes were too small. If they have a similar concert to next year then they should get a better seating arrangement or make sure the lights aren't constantly shining in the eyes of us in the nose-bleeds.

I seem to prefer Atlanta over St. Louis but for their FIRST time with this (pun intended) it wasn't bad.

[Novi Hopper]

Originally Posted by Debbie

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).

Thinking back, there were three off-duty judges that came to our pit that wanted to see us, but we had to deal with a medical issue that came up with one of our mentors and we apologized to them that we couldn't talk at the moment. However, if they were there to tell us about the concert and wish us good luck, that was still pretty late in the day- roughly at 5 or 6. Also, when I had talked to some of the students on 359 after we saw the three judges, they were not aware of the rumored announcement themselves. Our FLL team who was in the running for the Champion's Award was not informed either.

All in all, I think the concert announcement was pretty disheartening. If only Chairman's-eligible teams were the ones informed, then I would have to shake my head at FIRST for thinking that the award and the newly-crowned team should only be celebrated by a chosen few teams and the ones that just wanted to attend the concert. The event, though it will probably look nice on the ABC broadcast, seemed to devalue the Hawaiian Kid's, the FTC team's, and the FLL team's (I sadly can't remember their names) efforts by only giving them a few short sentences before quickly shoving them offstage to give the Black Eyed Peas room. You can make FIRST as loud as you want, but there's a point where you're going to get deaf to the message.

With that being said, I want to congratulate 359 and the FTC and FLL teams on three very well-deserved awards. What you guys have done for FIRST have been astounding and in the case of the Hawaiian Kids it was my pleasure to hear your story when I visited your pit on Friday.

[pathew100]

Originally Posted by BrendanB

The bad:
...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.

I was a volunteer (robot inspector) and I agree completely. FIRST really needs to have a comprehensive safety plan for the event, and someone whose job it is to ensure that plan is implemented (right now it seems this is on the shoulders of the volunteer coordinators who have other jobs to do)

The amount of students RUNNING through the pits was staggering.

Also, pushing the robot carts too fast shouting "ROBOT!" as if that's going to move the crowd.

Sandals/Flip Flops were more an issue with visitors/parents but if rules are rules, then they need a way to enforce this in the pits.

Simply having a handful of volunteers at the entrances handing out safety glasses and trying to stop the improper shoes is not an effective safety plan.

Also, many of the worst offenders of 'bad' safety weren't the teams but the Black Eyed Peas crew, the FIRST production company, building facilities, Suppliers, etc... They simply weren't informed of the rules of the pit or ignored them.

How many people saw the motorized carts driving through the pits without beeping their horns? I personally had forklift cut right in front of me across the hallway from America's Center to the Dome. He never beeped the horn, just cut across the pedestrian path... This was by far the worst event I've been to from a safety perspective.

[MrForbes]

Originally Posted by dangerousdave

Please tell us what you thought about the Championship event this year, the First year in St Louis.

I liked it, and had fun! I got to talk to lots of neat people, spend 4 days with a HOF team (842 Falcons), watch lots of very competitive matches, spend some time in a huge stadium, see a special just-for-us concert, spend 4 days hanging out with my son, and get a lot of exercise.

See you next year!

[BrendanB]

Originally Posted by pathew100

I was a volunteer (robot inspector) and I agree completely. FIRST really needs to have a comprehensive safety plan for the event, and someone whose job it is to ensure that plan is implemented (right now it seems this is on the shoulders of the volunteer coordinators who have other jobs to do)

The amount of students RUNNING through the pits was staggering.

Also, pushing the robot carts too fast shouting "ROBOT!" as if that's going to move the crowd.

Sandals/Flip Flops were more an issue with visitors/parents but if rules are rules, then they need a way to enforce this in the pits.

Simply having a handful of volunteers at the entrances handing out safety glasses and trying to stop the improper shoes is not an effective safety plan.

Also, many of the worst offenders of 'bad' safety weren't the teams but the Black Eyed Peas crew, the FIRST production company, building facilities, Suppliers, etc... They simply weren't informed of the rules of the pit or ignored them.

How many people saw the motorized carts driving through the pits without beeping their horns? I personally had forklift cut right in front of me across the hallway from America's Center to the Dome. He never beeped the horn, just cut across the pedestrian path... This was by far the worst event I've been to from a safety perspective.

Agreed, agreed, AGREED!

We had an issue this weekend where our team was late for a match due to a robot issue I had to grab a tetrix battery and didn't get out of our row before a large group from a team came to the pit next to us to give an award that shut down the row for a few minutes.

I wish that FIRST would come up with a role of 1-3 individuals for each field/regional that would roam the pits occasionally to check that everyones stuff is in their pits and break up the "lets have the entire team stand outside our pit" parties.

The pits are becoming more an more unsafe! The teams testing their robots in the rows really, really set me off but it wasn't impressed at all with many safety people this weekend with what I saw them walk by.

[Karibou]

Originally Posted by BrendanB

I wish that FIRST would come up with a role of 1-3 individuals for each field/regional that would roam the pits occasionally to check that everyones stuff is in their pits and break up the "lets have the entire team stand outside our pit" parties.

Sadly, that's the role that I would expect the student safety captains to play, but their responsibilities is an entirely different matter. Given that this isn't an ideal world, I wouldn't be disappointed if that became a prominent volunteer role (I say "prominent" because wearing a nice polo, like a VC or judge, seems to give the impression of a lot more authority than a white volunteer shirt. A lot of people don't respect the white shirts).

[rwood359]

Originally Posted by fuzzwaz

-Some teams will not be attending the concert for various reasons. I know of a few teams personally who had scouting meetings or just didn’t want to go. Thankfully I am positive that all of 359 was there to accept the award, otherwise I would have been even more disappointed if they decided to reveal the winner at the concert and the team they choose being nowhere in sight.

We were all present. Sadly one mentor who was unable to stand in the mosh pit for an hour did not get to go on stage to receive the award.

-Besides all the discomfort this may have brought to a few teams, I was also unsure of the benefits this brought to the winning chairmans team. If I recall, no video was ever played, and as I anxiously waited to see excited students raise up that large clock in pure happiness, I never did. The clock was never officially handed to 359. Not to mention, I still am in love with the past's tradition of announcing the award during the finals, with ALL eyes on you. It has always seemed so magical, and everyone could just feel all the hardwork a team as done. Watching 341 stand up and start hugging each other while the crowd went wild was.. amazing to me. I REALLY hope 359 enjoyed themselves and had an amazing time at the concert, but I would not recommend FIRST does that again.

Our Chairman's video was not played at either event.

Enjoyed is a relative term. Four of us are 60+ and music that makes your insides shake doesn't qualify for enjoyed. Being with the team waiting for the announcement and hearing our team called was far beyond enjoyed.

[santosh]

although i have a laundry list of things that I along with many other believe should be changed my real quick thoughts are:
concert on einstein to resume previous pit conformation
there is no green space for kids to screw around on
and dear god put up some signs on where to go for pits and stands (or lack thereof).

[Flalex72]

Originally Posted by Chexposito

the concert had one problem that i thought i never would have seen as happening... crowd surfing started and PEOPLE WERE INJURED. from what I saw, a member of 1305 was crushed by one of these surfers. this was sickening to me because an innocent person was injured due to a concert that they went to that was designed to be a reward to their efforts. i don't know what else to say about this, maybe a no crowd surfing rule? people need to be considerate of those around them? i don't know how to fix it, but i have never heard any good stories about what happens when someone finishes their crowd "surf"...

Pleased to report that although shaken, the 1305 team member was not injured in this incident, aside from a bit of a fall to the floor. Doesn't make this incident any less of an issue though.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by cpeister

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.

I was uninterested in paying $30 for a t-shirt.
What do they think this is the NFL?

[d.courtney]

Originally Posted by cpeister

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.

Cale,

I had a chance to watch most of your qualifying and elimination round matches, and if I am not mistaken the very same incident happened once on Archimedes. It was 781's last match on Thursday, match 57. Team 781 was immobile after slightly moving in autonomous and then unable to move throughout the match resulting in a score of 78-7. The peculiar thing about it all was that you were in Blue 3 that match, like the two finals matches. I wonder if there was something about being at the Blue 3 station that caused a communication issue for your robot, whether it was a hardware/software problem on your end or theirs... It seems weird that tethered wouldn't be a problem, if it was in fact the banebots motor. You only played on Blue 3 5 times, 3 of which resulted in a robot that couldn't move. Now it could just be a coincidence. Does anyone with detailed scouting reports have anything suggesting that it happened to other teams, specifically playing on Blue 3? (Likely an isolated or unrelated problem though). Anywho it would be nice to find out what happened. As amazing as watching your journey was to the finals I felt like 111, 254, 973's alliance would have been victorious regardless, but that is something which can only be speculated. What I personally would love to see is the finalists and champions play another couple matches just for fun at an invitational, like IRI. Obviously it wouldn't be the same as changes may be made to robots between now and then and maybe new drivers etc, but it would be fun!

David

[Hawiian Cadder]

i personally prefer the Georgia dome to saint Louis many times over. most of this has nothing to do with the actual facility, but the area itself.

cons.
there are not nearly enough lunch venues around the dome. the CNN center was excellent for this.

there is no park nearby. my team has a tradition of playing ultimate Frisbee against other teams in Olympic park. it was sorely missed this year.

the stadium part of the dome is almost too big. its is so big that nobody can get a good view of the fields. in Georgia the stands were packed. but even the nosebleeds were not so far away that you couldn't see anything.

the distance from the pit to the stands is unbelievable.

it was far to easy to get lost in saint Louis, the dome is squished in a small plot, and there are no open spaces to get ones bearings.

pro's

saint Louis is a larger venue, i believe that they might be able to open up more team slots.

lighting in the pits was much better.

there is no choke point where one 6 story escalator attempts to keep up with 500 teams coming back from lunch.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by Hawiian Cadder

the distance from the pit to the stands is unbelievable.

The walk from the pits to the floor was a couple of hundred feet where it was a quarter of a mile in Atlanta, if not more.

[Cory]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

The walk from the pits to the floor was a couple of hundred feet where it was a quarter of a mile in Atlanta, if not more.

But how many people had floor access? maybe 1/10 of the people there? If that?