2011 Lesson Learned: The Negative

[Jared Russell]

THE CHAMPIONSHIP:

1. Putting FRC fields in the pits in order to showcase FTC. Just a horrible idea. Maybe work on making FTC into a competitive and cost-effective product instead of relegating your premier program to cramped bleachers.

2. There were still issues with things like minibot poles and field timer displays.

3. The fields in the domes (at least Galileo/Newton) were too close to the seats - those higher up had a poor view angle of the near side of the field.

4. The Saturday night boxed dinner was readily available, but of extremely poor quality (IMO).

5. They may as well have put the Hall of Fame in the basement, seeing how remote it was from anything else FRC.

6. The Chairman's Award presentation was inferior to the old format. We never even got to see their video!

7. All in all, I loved the venue. But to nitpick, it seemed like there were far fewer men's rooms for such a venue than one would have expected, and too few stalls in each.

EVERYTHING ELSE:

1. The game's primary challenge was one that we had already done recently, leading to a ton of 2007 clone robots.

2. 1:50 teleop + 0:15 autonomous gameplay with a 120 lb. robot could be nullified by 2 seconds of gameplay with a 2.5 lb. robot. The end game was worth way, way, way too much.

3. BaneBots. Their motors were case shorted. Their gearboxes were unavailable and of inferior quality to the options available for other motors.

4. The constant patching of rules through team updates to try and remove defense from the game. The end result was rules with a lot of gray, and referees having to infer the intent of the robots on the field in order to hand out red cards. Interpretation varied WILDLY from event to event. What was a red card at the Philadelphia Regional was a 3 point penalty on Einstein. This NEEDS to be fixed.

5. The season of the over-inflated innertube. FIRST provided little guidance on the proper use of the jig inflation guide, and as a result, I witnessed enormous tubes being forced into the jig.