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#1
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How can we improve awards?
After going to a few competitions this year, I've noticed that there is quite a lot of confusion and various issues regarding awards on a number of levels. First off, let me say that every award I've seen given this season is 100% deserved by the team that got it and this post is in no way an insult to those who have or have not won awards this season.
However, I am seeing some issues with a number of awards and I'm curious as to the CD Hivemind's opinion on them and how they can be fixed. I could make this into a number of posts but I'd rather not clutter up this subforum and I think they all fit under the common umbrella. 1. I don't think anyone who's been to a couple regional's won't notice that once you win one award, you can't win another. This is never stated in the manual, it is an unwritten rule. This is a complex and major issue because on one hand you don't want one team going home with all the hardware but on the other hand it just doesn't feel right to watch a team become downcast winning an award. Just this weekend, I watched my and another's team's spirits drop when they won a Friday award because it meant that our chances of qualifying for Championships with another award just got that much smaller. It seems ungrateful but it is true, and I don't know if there is a solution to this. Maybe the district based points system could help? 2. The 'Team Spirit Award' has some huge issues in how it is judged and how it is interpreted at competitions. When we won it for a second time in a season, we decided to look it up in the manual. We were shocked to find out that it was in fact, not an award for cheering and having spirit at competition but for "...extraordinary enthusiasm and spirit through exceptional partnership and teamwork to further the objectives of FIRST." There's nothing in there about cheering at the competition. However, the MC's at most regional's make a big deal about the team that wins it being loud and coming down to lead cheers. This does not make sense, especially because there were certainly more spirited teams than us at the competitions we attended. Are the judges judging based on the criteria of the colloquial definition of team spirit or the manual one? Is it the 'Friday Third Place Chairman's'? I think this award could use a lot more clarity. 3. Engineering Inspiration is another interesting and amorphous award. It is given to the team that has "outstanding efforts in advancing respect/appreciation for engineering and engineers, both within their school and their community." Does anyone know precisely what that means? The teams that receive it always fit the bill and are deserving of such the award but I've never known exactly how it is judged. Is it the super-prestigious judges award and ticket to St. Louis? Is it the second place Chairman's award? Do the Chairman's judges have a say in the judging of EI? One other oddity with EI is that the team that won it at Championships the preceding year is automatically invited to Championships the next and but is not precluded from winning it at a regional level. I would propose that FIRST makes it like the CCA: if you win it at Championships, you can't apply in the next x years but are invited back automatically for the duration. For EI, one year seems to make sense. What do you guys think? Last edited by Grim Tuesday : 01-04-2013 at 20:45. 
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#2
01-04-2013, 20:50
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Re: How can we improve awards?
Right off the bat...there are many counterexamples to #1, at least at events I've been to.
Perhaps a current or former regional judge could comment, but I suspect that most awards are determined individually with others not taken into account.
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#3
01-04-2013, 20:56
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Re: How can we improve awards?
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Dean's List/WFFA and some other award, relatively common. Non-technical and technical, less common, but still happens frequently. Two non-technical awards, I've seen at least one this year. Two technical awards, I've never seen. Non-technical and RCA or EI, somewhat common, but not terribly. A sample that I remember for one team a couple years back: Website, something technical, won the event. I think they won RCA at another event, along with a technical/event or something like that. I think what is actually happening is that there are two or three large groups of judges. One handles the technical awards, one handles the "lesser" non-technical awards, and if there's a third they handle the "larger" non-technical awards. Safety and performance-based awards have their own judges (safety judges and the refs, respectively). Within a group, the same team will typically only win one award, but one team could win awards from all the groups.
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#4
01-04-2013, 20:56
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Re: How can we improve awards?
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I guess my sample size for #1 only includes the 8 events I've visited so it is a very limited number. Eric - I think you're correct on your estimation of how the judges work. However for the regional's I've attended I have never seen a team win both a 'team award' and EI. Maybe it opens up the new question of whether or not this should be standardized among events? Maybe it is and I'm just ignorant to it. Last edited by Grim Tuesday : 01-04-2013 at 21:05.
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#5
06-04-2013, 21:39
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Re: How can we improve awards?
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2011 Dallas - 418 wins Engineering Excellence and EI 2011 Lone Star - 1429 wins Entrepreneurship, Website, WFFA, AND RCA 2006 + 2007 Lone Star - 922 wins Entrepreneurship and RCA. Yes, back-to-back 2013 Palmetto - 836 wins Entrepreneurship and RCA 2013 Hub City - 932 wins Innovation in Controls and EI 2013 GTR East - 1241 wins Imagery, Deans List, and EI 2013 San Diego - 1622 wins Engineering Excellence and RCA 2013 WPI - 1100 wins Innovation in Controls and RCA 2013 Lake Superior - 537 wins Entrepreneurship and RCA 2013 Boilermaker - 1741 wins Innovation and RCA I got tired of proving you wrong at about that point. Honestly, can you actually imagine a judge or judge advisor uttering the following: "Well we already gave 57 Team Spirit, so we can't give them EI even though they're the best fit for it, that's too many awards."
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#6
06-04-2013, 22:34
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Re: How can we improve awards?
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I would do away with the safety award. Many people have pointed out that it's more about how safe you seem (i.e. how loudly you yell "robot," how many people on your team are wearing orange vests and hard hats, how many signs you put up at events, etc.). Being safe has almost nothing to do with it anymore, so long as you can put on the biggest show. Someone (I honestly forget who) called this "safety theater," which is exactly what it is.
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#7
06-04-2013, 22:48
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Re: How can we improve awards?
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#8
07-04-2013, 03:29
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Re: How can we improve awards?
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To play the devil's advocate, I DO think judges and judge advisers sometimes utter the following: "Well we already gave Team X Engineering Excellence, so we can't give them Industrial Design/Innovation in Control/Quality/Creativity even though they're the best fit for it, that's too many awards." Similarly for Rookie All-Star and Inspiration (unless only one Rookie Team shows up at a competition), or for RCA and EI (has any team ever won both at an event?). Simon's original suggestion that team's can't win two awards doesn't appear to hold water... ...HOWEVER... I do feel that there ARE some "unwritten rules" when it comes to handing out multiple awards to the same team. Some award combinations are NOT likely to happen, while others are quite common. Even so, these "unwritten rules" probably vary from one regional to the next. I think it would be an interesting exercise for us to try and come up with all the "unwritten rules" on handing our multiple awards to the same team, and see if there is any kind of consensus.
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#9
07-04-2013, 08:32
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Re: How can we improve awards?
Is there a big database with all of the award winners in it? It would be fun to pick through the data, and it would also be cool to merge that with Ed Law's data from 2008-2013.
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#10
07-04-2013, 10:36
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Re: How can we improve awards?
There are judges that do "utter" those words, but that depends on who the judges are and each regional has their own obviously.
The main reason we never entered RCA in Hawaii after 2009, was based on comments made to me directly from a judge after the 2009 Hawaii event. Just yesterday evening, another similar conversation was made concerning another set of awards. Judges can "spread the wealth" if they wish, as it doesn't stray from what's important about the learning experiences the current student members gain from participation in FRC.
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#11
07-04-2013, 14:17
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Re: How can we improve awards?
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