Central WA: The Best Worst Day Ever

[Racer26]

I haven't seen anybody mention this aspect of it yet:

The miscounted frisbee was a colored frisbee. It was likely a human player on the red alliance that won them the regional.

[tickspe15]

I think the red disk was shot by 1425 as they ran out of disks

[Bob Steele]

I wanted to speak from the perspective of one of the Red Alliance teams.
It was, indeed, a very bittersweet win for us. i certainly applaud and appreciate the blue alliance teams for their grace after the announcement but I wanted to also say that the red alliance teams were also subdued and gracious in their response.

It was not pleasant for anyone... but it was necessary.
i know some of my younger team members started to stand up and cheer and that the older veteran members tried to restrain them... when we were announced as the winner.

The Blue Alliance teams are our friends...they sat right in front of us..we simply could not add to their disappointment by cheering a hard fought victory. It is tough to see your friends so disappointed and in emotional pain. The sweetness of victory certainly was lost and can't be regained.
I had a discussion with some members of the team and Kevin Ross came over and talked with them too. We could not help but feel that it was somehow our fault that our friends were hurt. We wanted to take the hurt away but we couldn't. Kevin was very good and explained that it was not our fault...

It was exceedlngly difficult to figure out how to act. I still don't feel right about it and it will take a long time for that to leave. We want to get over it.. but FIRST is a big family and 3 teams from our family were hurt.

Now, I didn't say this to make anyone feel bad. Mistakes are made and I am not blaming anyone... I think I just had to type it out to get some closure. It was easy to miss seeing the frisbee... and yes indeed it was a human player that threw it in... In fact right after the match, our human player told me he had hit a two pointer... It was very hard to see the red disk ... but it was found and seen by a number of people.
I know because I got several messages from the stands asking me about it. Evidently it was easier to see from the stands.

After I got the information I pondered the situation for a minute and then decided that I needed to talk to the Alliance Captain about it and the alliance captain went over to the Referees and asked about the frisbee that some thought had been missed. I honestly thought that he would come back and tell me that they had counted it and nothing would be changed.
I had no idea that this would happen.

It was really unfortunate and I don't blame anyone for anything. The referees and score keepers did their best all during the tournament and everything was perfectly fine. We had a great time and everyone was wonderful. For a new regional, everything ran remarkably smoothly.

Again, I apologize for the length of this post... but I had to say something about how proud I was of the Red Alliance (Teams 1425, 753 and 1983)... No one came down from the stands and celebrated... all three teams acted with a subdued joy of victory. During the medal ceremonies .. the teams (both alliances) showed grace and professionalism in their respect for each other as we have always done. I was very proud of every single one of them

thank you all for reading.
I hope this doesn't happen again...

[Bob Steele]

Originally Posted by Racer26

I haven't seen anybody mention this aspect of it yet:

The miscounted frisbee was a colored frisbee. It was likely a human player on the red alliance that won them the regional.

It was thrown in by a human player. 1425 was shooting at the three point goal and if they had been shooting at the 2 point goal there would have been several disks in the goal and there would have been no issue with a single disk in the goal.

Our human player threw it in at the end... I high-fived him for doing it.
It was the only points our team scored during the 3rd match...the spike for our compressor had malfunctioned before the first match and we had played without a compressor for all three finals matches. We had enough air left in our tanks to shoot four in during autonomous in the 2nd match but during the 3rd match we had no autonomous and we could not shoot.

We could only play defense against two very good shooters (360 and 2557)
1425 did the long range scoring...753 helped them stay clear..

[Racer26]

Hearing that 1983's human player effectively won the regional under such circumstances really stinks.

Ordinarily, a tight fought round of finals decided by a single human-player thrown disc would be grounds for great celebration and excitement, but because of the miscount its been tainted.

Don't get me wrong, I think its great that the referees have righted the wrong and done the right thing, and THAT should be celebrated, as several times in relatively recent memory, regionals have been decided by blown calls, its just a shame the miscount happened at all.

[Jin Hayashi]

I appreciated the posts that detail the events that led to the decision.
A human player making a last second shot with a colored frisbee in a colored goal explains how the error was made.

I also want to commend both the blue and red alliance for their response to the announcement of the reversal of the Regional Championship award.
All teams involved showed nothing but gracious professionalism. It only shows why these teams are champions in more ways than winning on the field. My respect for them has only increased.

[Jeffrafa]

As Bob mentioned, it was a disc thrown by 1983's human player - the last colored disc as far as I can tell. You can see it hit the 2 point goal in this video from our robot (about 2:12). It was the only disc scored in that goal, and along with the red color on a red background it is understandable that it was missed in the count.

The last two matches were incredibly close, and were very hard fought with 1983's compressor out. We were fortunate that they had enough stored air left to nail their 4-disc autonomous in the 2nd match, after that our alliance's strategy was all about defense, and sneaking full-court shots in over 3789's blocker.

It is unfortunate that the disc was missed and the final round score was overturned after the winners were announced. It was a difficult situation for all those involved, but I commend the volunteers in the field crew, the referees, and the scorekeepers for addressing the situation as thoroughly and as quickly as possible. I also commend 360, 2557, and 3789 for handling the announcement as gracefully as they did.