2013 Buckeye Regional

[Gamepad3496]

Originally Posted by BoilerMentor

Unfortunately, we will not be attending Buckeye again until the event is officiated by a different head referee. This is not because of the obvious liberties taken with the rules (which so many teams complained about), but because I have never seen an FIRST volunteer behave so inappropriately in their interaction with students. He ignored the drive team member standing in the question box for at minimum a single match. He would not allow them to show him the rule in question. He was standing uncomfortably close to our driver, speaking loudly, with an angry tone (I won't say yelling). When another student team member tried to diffuse the situation politely he was told to, "Step back". I observed the interaction and I'm proud of the way that my students handled themselves. They were polite, professional, and did not escalate the situation. The bottom line is that I will not allow my students to be treated in this manner.

It was great seeing you at the competition. I completely agree with what you are saying here. I noticed this as well, even when I personally talked to him about a foul. He was rude and only responded to me by saying "G30" and sent me on my way. The ref was a total bully.

[Grim Tuesday]

Originally Posted by synth3tk

As a volunteer from this year's event, I will pass on some of the remarks. However, I hope that you all will contact the coordinator yourselves to voice your opinions. I'm extremely sorry that some of you have had bad experiences, but I hope that you will try to make the event better instead of simply leaving. That will only hurt the program. It's breaking my heart to see so many teams vowing to never attend the regional over one person.

Regarding the early queuing, I apologize. Pit admin has no control over when to queue people. We're given a list of matches and we call it out. We worked with the queuing volunteers to slow it down eventually.

Don't worry about it, it wasn't a major problem. Pit Admin was one of the bright parts of the event to me, you guys were always friendly and willing to help. In fact, synth3tk, I think I remember you in particular coming over to our pit and being really concerned about us not being queued for a match that we were late to and thinking it was really nice that you were doing that.

As for the Head Ref being bad, it certainly seems to be agreed upon in this thread. The thing is, if any other volunteer were not friendly, it would not have had a huge effect on the event. However, the Head Referee is the "ultimate source of authority in the arena". It isn't really the fault of the Buckeye regional but FIRST for choosing to train him as a Head Ref and giving him that power.

[Robby Unruh]

Originally Posted by pfreivald

The wonderful folks at 3266 are working diligently to get all the matches uploaded. They're up to Q-46. So I imagine some time in the next day or three it'll be on the Tube of Yous.

Really sorry guys! We're moving at a sluggish 80 minutes per match video... I would compress them down to a smaller file type but that would take just as long to do each one. I promise we're getting 'em up as fast as we can. (but in the mean time if you guys really want SF2-1/2 up I can upload that one out of order no problemo)

edit: SF2-1 will be here when it's done uploading.

[Gregor]

Originally Posted by Robby Unruh

Really sorry guys! We're moving at a sluggish 80 minutes per match video... I would compress them down to a smaller file type but that would take just as long to do each one. I promise we're getting 'em up as fast as we can. (but in the mean time if you guys really want SF2-1/2 up I can upload that one out of order no problemo)

Keep in mind you're doing everyone a favour, so no apologizing.

[GCentola]

Originally Posted by Grim Tuesday

Our team took video of all matches we were in (which this one we were). I'll see if I can get them uploaded to Youtube.

I would like to take the time to say, however that it doesn't feel good to win a match due to a penalty. Please understand that it is just as painful for us to see bad officiating on the 'winning' side of it as it was for the teams on the losing side of it.

Like when you are then told that you may play a 3rd match and then decides "nope."

I usually try to stay out of these things, but I feel like I may as well say something.

My first interaction with the head referee was in 2011 when I was the drive coach for 1126. I got a bad impression from the Driver's meeting on Thursday, but I do recall people being able to ask questions. Throughout those three days, I dreaded interacting with him because it was generally unpleasant. This year, I made a road trip on Saturday to cheer on 1126 as well as catch up with some friends, seeing as a good portion of Finger Lakes teams were also attending. I was sad to see that things had not really changed, and had apparently gotten worse. Although I did not interact with any volunteers, it was frustrating to see bad officiating, especially when it was negatively affecting my friends. This subject, I feel, has been beaten to death, but I still do not think it is okay.

These opinions are my own, and I cannot say all that much because I was there for one day and did not interact with many of the volunteers. I am glad that there are great volunteers that were there this weekend, but there were some things that did not seem to go as smoothly as they did during week 1. It is really amazing how much of a difference having a great field crew makes (shameless plug for Finger Lakes).

I had a great time, but it is unfortunate when some of that is diminished because the quality of the regional just isn't where (I have heard, I wasn't there) it used to be.

[Lydia Yeckley]

I will full heartedly agree that the head ref wasn't performing at his best. To bring attention to a specific example, as Justin had, would probably have to be one of our last qualifying matches on Saturday. During the match, as we were driving to the pyramid to shoot off our load of disks, the carpet flew up. However, behind the glass, we couldn't tell, so we pushed again. This resulted in the entire front portion of the carpet surrounding the pyramid folding up upon itself. In the heat of the moment, we moved around it, and willingly accepted the penalty, expecting it to just blow over.

However, upon further consultation from team members and friends around the event, the head ref was looking at a bump exactly where we hit that was torn up at the conclusion of the match prior, yet decided to leave it be. Not to mention that after our match concluded, we inspected the field to see the damage we thought we caused. By this time, the carpet had returned to its natural state, and it was realized that the area the tape covered on the ground was hardly touching the carpet near the pyramid. Our coach decided to pose a question about the penalty, but the decision was inconclusive.

At the end of it all, we were more or less confused, but didn't pose a huge fuss about it.

[JRader]

As coach of 3496 My teams will never be going back to the Buckeye again.
This has been our (home) since 2003.

I am so glad we went to cinc,i it was a pleasure to work with a High Quality ref.

I can truly say that our alliance was stopped short due to a head and a female ref. They were constintly arguing. I feel we wasted our $4000.00 on this trip
Students that work this hard deserve to be treated better and fairly. Iwill stop here.

[IndySam]

Originally Posted by Grim Tuesday

It isn't really the fault of the Buckeye regional but FIRST for choosing to train him as a Head Ref and giving him that power.

FIRST does not determine volunteers, the regional committee does.

If you have a complaint (and it sounds like a lot of teams do) it would be important to contact the volunteer coordinator. Also contact FIRST, they do not determine who the head ref is but they can and have banned people from the role.

[Grim Tuesday]

Originally Posted by IndySam

FIRST does not determine volunteers, the regional committee does.

If you have a complaint (and it sounds like a lot of teams do) it would be important to contact the volunteer coordinator. Also contact FIRST, they do not determine who the head ref is but they can and have banned people from the role.

I didn't know that. How does the selection of Head Ref actually work? Is there no additional qualification other than being chosen by the regional planners?

[Deetman]

Originally Posted by Grim Tuesday

I didn't know that. How does the selection of Head Ref actually work? Is there no additional qualification other than being chosen by the regional planners?

Reference http://www.usfirst.org/community/vol...s/head-referee

[Yipyapper]

Originally Posted by Gregor

Is there video of the match in question?

Sorry for not answering, but I'm guessing that your question was already answered.

[pfreivald]

Originally Posted by Grim Tuesday

I would like to take the time to say, however that it doesn't feel good to win a match due to a penalty. Please understand that it is just as painful for us to see bad officiating on the 'winning' side of it as it was for the teams on the losing side of it.

Hey guys, take the win and be proud of your performance. Sometimes bad calls change game outcomes -- it happens in football and elsewhere, too -- and we'd all rather that not happen*, but when it does, don't let it belittle your accomplishments.

A win's a win, and you won that blue banner. And I was glad to see you do it. 639 has always been a class act and a great, motivated, dedicated team. You're also fun to hang around with in the pits!



*I've already spoken my piece about the officiating on the official FIRST week five survey, so I'll not do so here.

[FIXIT]

Originally Posted by eddie12390

Regarding the quality of the event, I was personally extremely disappointed with a few things in comparison to the event that we have attended in Pittsburgh for the past few years. To start off the event, we ran into a lot of issues with our pit. When we attempted to fit through the door provided for loading in, our pit setup was about a half of an inch too wide to fit through. We were initially told by the security guard stationed at the entrance that we could take our pit through the loading dock and that it would not be an issue. When we arrived at the loading dock, we were berated and yelled at by two of the security guards for a few minutes about how we were in the wrong place and that we had no right to bring our pit down there. Although I realize that they may have not wanted us to use the loading dock, there was no reason at all to be so rude especially when we had just been told by another security guard that it would just fine if we brought our pit in through the loading dock.

We had a simular experience while trying to leave. We found the CSU security to be rude and obnoxious. While we were waiting to load our trailer they told us they called a “HOOKER” to tow it away because we were not supposed to be in that area. That was after another security person told us to go to gate “C” for loading. The security staff is not prepared and definitely not trained to handle a FIRST load-in and load-out process. In the future I would recommend a FIRST experienced person handle the process.

[BoilerMentor]

Originally Posted by pfreivald

*I've already spoken my piece about the officiating on the official FIRST week five survey, so I'll not do so here.

You should consider contacting the Volunteer Coordinator and FIRST as should everyone who has complaints about the behavior of the Head Referee.

[Solidstate89]

Originally Posted by LeelandS

Can I just say, as soon as you guys picked up 2834, I was dumbfounded. I couldn't even fathom has they had fallen so far in the draft. Props to you guys, Simon, as it tells me you did your homework where others did not.

Congrats on joining the group of Finger Lakes teams who qualified for champs! I look forward to seeing you guys out there!

If they hadn't picked them, we were going to.

On-topic though, I would just like to thank everyone on our Alliance from 706's excellent offensive capabilities to 3260's excellent all around offensive and defensive play and finally to 4121 who tried admirably to fill in for us.

It's sad to hear about such horrible encounters with the head referee. I was only at the regional on Saturday so I wasn't aware of such issues with the officiating, but it's disconcerting all the same.

Congratulations to all of the winners and especially the Chairman's Award winner. Regardless of any issues there might have been with the Refs, it was a very fun Regional and I'm glad I took the time to come down to see FLR: Part Deux.