2012 Lessons Learned :The Positive

[Libby K]

Originally Posted by IKE

With 1114 winning the Chairman's Award, a lot of myths were "busted". Yes an international team can win. No you don't need a team of 100 students (I think 1114 is around 24). Yes field competitive teams are role models too.

Never judge a book by its cover. When Kareem Abdul Jabar was invited to be an honored guest, there a few vocal people against hero worship of pro-atheletes, only to find out KAJ is a huge supporter of STEM complete with even writing a book targeted to get middle school kids excited about inventors.

Both of these, x1000.

Originally Posted by Carol

I challenge everyone to make The Positive thread longer than The Negative thread.

Seconded.

When I'm not in the middle of finals, I will certainly add my few cents to this thread.

[1986titans]

1. The scoring. Both the instant nature of it and the points were balanced this year so it was hard for teams to "run away" and kept the scores close.

2. Understanding what the game is. "Shooting basketballs and balancing on a teeter-totter" is a lot easier for someone outside of FIRST to understand compared to "hanging specific-shaped inner tubes in a specific place on a rack and having a smaller robot climb a pole" (nothing against Logomotion for the game itself, as it was still a fun game).

3. The end game. It seemed like a lot of teams were able to accomplish it this year.

[IndySam]

The coop bridge was great. It made teams not only strategies with their own alliance but with the other as well. The extra interaction was a nice addition.

The absolute GP way all of the teams at Einstein behaved. With the field troubles the way these teams acted should be an inspiration to us all.

[omalleyj]

Originally Posted by IndySam

The coop bridge was great. It made teams not only strategies with their own alliance but with the other as well. The extra interaction was a nice addition.

The absolute GP way all of the teams at Einstein behaved. With the field troubles the way these teams acted should be an inspiration to us all.

Definitely to both.

And the bridges in general really engaged the audience. You could watch the body language, whole sections tilting their heads, or shifting to one side as if they could influence the balance remotely. And the universal cheer, or expulsion of held breath, when a last second teetering succeeded.. or failed.

[Alan Anderson]

Many cheers for the smooth-scrolling ranking displays!

[rsisk]

Originally Posted by IndySam

The absolute GP way all of the teams at Einstein behaved. With the field troubles the way these teams acted should be an inspiration to us all.

Quoted again because it really needs to emphasized!

Wooodie's remarks during kickoff. They were the best.

[LeelandS]

Things I liked about this year:

The match turn around. FIRST really had it with Real Time Scoring this year. Not only were penalties and baskets pretty much instantly assessed, but one the match was over, the score was ready to be displayed within a minute, except under extenuating circumstances. While I admit I miss the climactic wait for the score presentation in the elimination matches, it was nice to have a much shorter match turnaround.

While a lot of people are hating on the Kinect, I thought it was a really cool aspect of the game. While I didn't think it was cool or useful enough to spend time implementing it on a robot, I thought it was a nice element to add to the game (especially considering it was optional). If nothing else, teams got a nice camera. I think, with a little refinement, it could be an awesome addition to the game.

Game versatility. In the past, there has been pretty much one thing you can do, and that's pretty much it. Here, you could have a shooter and a specialized bridge mechanism to be competitive, plus you could choose what baskets you want to score on. I think this game brought the most intense/interested end game in a good while, as well as numerous possible scoring designs for shooting.

The Coop bridge, in my mind, was a great addition to the game. The introduction of the coopertition award last year with minibot sharing was a good step, but incorporating an active game mechanism with it was a great way to demonstrate the ideals of FIRST. Though some teams may have 'abused' it, for the most part, it was still a great game element.

Bridge and bumps. The bridge's and bumps were a unique design challenge. It was kinda like the bumps in 2010, except a bit more interesting. I really liked it because I liked to see what teams came up with to overcome it. From the 1986 talons to the 148 stinger, from 16's drop down system to the many teams who had slides on their drive system, I thought it was a great way to see what teams come up with what.

[RoboMom]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

The response to the call for lots of experienced robot inspectors was fantastic. Among other things, I don't think any teams had to wait to unbag their robots due to a lack of an authorized person to "unlock" the bag.

A shout out to Big Al, Ed Sparks and all the inspectors at CMP this year. What a great group this was to work with. (I was on the N & G side, but on the C & A last year). The inspectors were full of wisdom, humor and most of all, common sense.

After 2 years, I believe having dedicated people to "manage" the inspectors and process is a valuable addition to keeping the train moving to benefit all the teams.

I am hoping there is a way to sign up for this specific position in the VIMS in the coming season, as to not turn off volunteers who might be good at it. I worked with 2 volunteers who were new to the position, but who were so good at it I wasn't needed and was able to move to another position.

[Jon Stratis]

You know it's a successful game when people come into the venue looking confused and a conversation like this happens:

- Can I help you?
- I'm looking for the robotics event.
- Well, you're in the right place! The field is right down there.
- No, I'm not looking for the basketball game, I want to see the robots!
- ... I understand your confusion. The robots are the ones playing basketball!


That said, a few other positives:
- The GDC is assembling a knowledgeable team to look at the bumper rules and make them clearer and more consistent for next year
- There were no horrible issues for any teams at both of the events I inspected at, and we managed to get everyone to their first match on Friday.
- The new rule distribution system seemed to work out well (onliine content management versus the old PDF's), and the rules were kept a bit shorter than in the past, which makes it easier to get through.

[Bob Steele]

Our team had a great experience at CMP this year.
The FINALE, even though it was raining.... was terrific!!
We got to go to the Science Center and the food was really good..I just wish we got there earlier so we could see more!!

I thought the volunteers were also terrific.... whenever we had a question it was answered to the best of the volunteer's ability and they went out of their way to find the right answer.

The field crews were quick and helpful.
We had plenty of room in the pits...

Being on the floor for all of our matches was also very nice.
Last year we only got one day there... this was much better!!

All in all, I think this was our best experience at CMP since our team started to go. We have been lucky enough to qualify for the past six years in a row and this was the best.

I guess the best thing about CMP is getting to know the other teams and we had great fun both on and off the field.

We hope to see you all next year!!!

[rsisk]

Madstream's webcast aggregator was the best.

[vhcook]

Originally Posted by RoboMom

After 2 years, I believe having dedicated people to "manage" the inspectors and process is a valuable addition to keeping the train moving to benefit all the teams.

I am hoping there is a way to sign up for this specific position in the VIMS in the coming season, as to not turn off volunteers who might be good at it. I worked with 2 volunteers who were new to the position, but who were so good at it I wasn't needed and was able to move to another position.

Perhaps we could call them "Inspector Wranglers"?

I loved the game this year -- good balance of scoring between the game phases, exciting, easy to explain, wide variety of successful designs, and a generally thrilling endgame.

The KC and OKC regionals were well-run as usual, and MOREnet did their usual awesome job on the KC webcast and archiving.

Having the HOF positioned right up front and center by the pit entrance at Championships was much better.

On the build front, the KOP was lovely this year. I liked the new motor selection and the FIRST Choice options. It took us a bit to figure out how to use the ARA program, but that was also nifty.

[Tetraman]

Originally Posted by Carol

I challenge everyone to make The Positive thread longer than The Negative thread.

Though in name the threads are about positives and negatives, the general idea is "Things to work on" and "Things to build upon." Only natural for the 'things to work on' thread to be longer.


That said, I've got two.

1. Real-Time scoring will be key for all future FIRST games.
The ability for the drive team to calculate in their minds that they only need one robot on a bridge to secure victory rather than two can save valuable seconds (and something I did actually witness being behind a driver station and listening to drive teams) All other FIRST games from now on should see real-time scoring a priority. Having 5-second wait time for scores isn't that important, but it was really nice touch and should happen any time it can.

2. Shorter Opening Ceremonies = Good
I don't know if only the events I saw had shorter opening ceremonies, but I noticed that it was about 15-20 minutes shorter. This is a good thing. Condense opening ceremonies and keep some of the more valuable speeches till closing ceremonies or before alliance selection. It makes for a much more evened out day.

[Chris is me]

The game was basically fantastic to play and watch, with a variety of successful strategies and plenty of opportunities for intelligent play. The scores were balanced pretty evenly between hybrid / teleop / bridges.

The autonomous mode had multiple tiers - easy (2 point dump, even 1 point was worth SOMETHING), average (top row scoring) and something a little extra (each bridge for extra points). This is a good standard to set for the future.

The end game could be completed by basically anyone who could drive, even if they couldn't push the bridge down themselves.

[Steven Donow]

I'm happy to say that I think I have more positives than negatives this year...

The game this year was amazing. Fun to watch, fun to play, fun to design. No absurd rules that ruined defensive strategies and no rules that refs called excessively (such as lane violations)

MAR: Upon finding out that NJ/Eastern PA/Delaware would be moving to the district system, I was pretty skeptical and unsure about it. I was afraid to miss the flair of traditional regionals and to just end up with dull, uneventful, lame events that felt like offseasons. Boy was I wrong. Not once did I feel that way. Everything was planned out perfectly, and it feels like FIRST gave MAR some nice leeway towards doing things on their own (Ed Petrillo gave a great analogy at Rutgers, comparing it to a 17 year old being handed a driver's license and keys to a car...that one was personal for me ). I can't wait for next season; I'm sure the few flaws of MAR will be fixed and it'll get better and better every year. And of course, how can you NOT love a water jug in the pits?

The actual format of the manual: The new, online manual was nice to have. It felt a whole lot easier to search through than in past years. It's easier to just click around than having to CTRL+F through a huge PDF document. Sure, the content had its flaws, but the format of it was great.

Instant scoring and instant penalties: No more thinking, "well, the score shows we won, but I'm not sure if there were any penalties". And I was skeptical about the loss of the dramatic wait to find out the final score, but having the instant score was awesome and a welcome change.

KOP: Motors, motors, motors. Add that to vouchers and FIRST Choice and it was awesome.

This is all I can think of now, I'm sure I'll come up with more later. Overall, many great things were done this great season*.

Of course, Dean's List Finalist is always a healthy ego boost