2013 Lessons Learned: The Negative

[DampRobot]

IMO 30 point climbing either should have been easier or worth more points. Is telling that only one team out of 16 on Einstein could 30 point climb

[jbsmithtx]

I'm ready for texas to move to a district system. There were so many great teams in texas that we never even got to see, such as the world champion texas torque, or the (expected champion) robonauts. If I heard right from an MC, Texas has the 4th most teams (142), behind California (216), Michigan (211), and Minnesota (181). Why shouldn't we and several other states have our own district system? It would make championships simple and easier. Which also means that championships should expand a bit. I believe in the 6 division system, which might be easier in the long run. There are lots of teams which don't get recognition, and are truly great.

However, FIRST truly did get everything else right this year. This is only a small complaint, as this season was challenging and exciting. Already looking forward to another good season.

[treffk]

Originally Posted by Donut

The sooner we get everyone to Districts the better off all of FIRST will be. I hope they come up with a good system to handle those of us in remote areas (maybe read some of the threads on CD for a few ideas ) but I'm willing to be inconvenienced on what competitions we can attend short term for the huge economic benefits. Plus I think forcing the system may be the best way to spur growth in the areas that haven't seen it.

I do agree with the other comment, determining the districts is not an easy task. As you have sort of touched there are some remote areas. This is caused both by high concentrations of teams in certain states and by low numbers of FRC teams in a particular state.Between Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Iowa there were 17 teams for the 2013 game. Add Colorado, Kansas and Missiouri to that number and you are only up to 147 teams. Then if you include New Mexico, Oklahoma and Arkansas you reach 218, this is 7 more teams than in Michigan.

That is a huge expanse of land to get a high quanity of teams. How do you arrange the the district competitions let alone determine where the "State" tournament is without making it to where certain teams have to raise a large amount more than normal to even compete? I'm not saying that some of these teams don't already have to travel a distance to get to a regional but that what if it would cause them to have to raise more money than a normal season.

I feel that because of this, as much as districts currently seem like the best thing for everyone FIRST has not grown enough in certain areas to make it a viable solution for everyone.

[Mark Sheridan]

I am struggling at thinking of negatives. I only got obvious big stuff and trivial.

The obvious big stuff:
1) more districts
2) more qualification matches for championships
3) more competitive teams

The trivial
1) keep the sound systems quieter. I went to vex world champs, the sound level was much more comfortable and had all the emotional impact.
2) Why can't more Safety judges be like the Las Vegas ones? They were polite, kind and caring. I was having a good time and so were they. I trusted their opinion completely. I think some other judges feel like they need to constantly catch people not being safe, resulting in some very trivial calls.
3) stop using the 54" (or whatever dimension) cylinder rule. Make it a square or something easier.
4) Can we start getting each regional/district to have its own youtube channel (or equivalent) to post recorded matches? Maybe make it a committee person who primary responsibility is this.

[Tetraman]

Needed Improvements:

1) A design overhaul to the on-screen graphics. For the real-time-scoring bar at the bottom of the screen, no one can easily see the team numbers unless you're watching a webcast. The Alliance Selection screen does have a limit to the number of team numbers visible, and the Elimination Bracket is impossible to read - even on a webcast. These graphics have been around for years and its time to change these graphics. Someone make a call to ESPN and get in contact with some interns.

2) ...

..uh..

Well I'm done!

[CalTran]

This may not be something easily fixable, and probably not a problem for other people, but for those of us on the upper concourse (the 400 section nosebleed seats), the lights scaffolding for Einstein is placed exactly so you cannot see the score.

[holygrail]

Personally, I liked this year's game, but as with all thimgs, there was room for improvement.
Champs:
The match schedule had far too much impact on team standings. The rankings were all over the place, and it seems that a great scheduling system would create a situation where the best rise to the top and the not best settle to the bottom. Maybe it was because there were only 8 matches.

I would also like to see screens that show matches on all fields in the dome as well as in the pits. I personally wanted to get a glimpse of other fields and I found myself walking in circles around the dome a lot.

There are a couple other small things, but generally, our team had a great experience overall this year.

[FoleyEngineer]

First, THANK YOU to all the refs, judges, and volunteers. You were all so kind and your work was great and really appreciated! On to suggestions for improvements:

1) Webcasts should be FULL FIELD. When there are 6 robots all playing and with today's technology, a decent resolution full field shot is all we need. Closeups of robots picking up frisbees, joysticks being moved, etc. is extremely frustrating. It's as if the video directors are only used to following ONE game piece (football, basketball, etc.) at a time. With up to 6 flying simultaneously you MUST have a full field view. I love replaying a video of a match 6 times and watching a different robot each time. It's so nice!

2) Agree with the real time scoring being a bad font (especially the match number). Been frustrated with this for years. Also, make the alliance selections and everything fill the screen. There's a LOT of wasted space there.

3) During Einstein, do not blow 5 minutes of our time after every match dancing the hokey pokey or YMCA or whatever while you calculate the score! Just end the match, darken the field a bit, switch over the the podium put in one of the 5 minute speeches while the field is reset and the score is calculated. Otherwise with the 8 matches played there (this year), the day lasted 40 minutes longer than it needed to. Wow, getting out 40 minutes sooner and not cutting one second of speeches out? Why not? Let's do two things at once please.

Thanks again for a great event!

[EricLeifermann]

Originally Posted by IndySam

The Game: I must say that this might have been one of the hardest games for refs this year. I saw refs that I know and trust struggle at times. To many ambiguous rules left to many things open for the head ref to interpret. Also the nets caused sight line problems that were difficult to overcome. The GDC really needs to put more thought on how the game design effects the refs.

Real Time Scoring: need I say more than what's already been said.

The Champs: Too many teams in each division. Less teams attending champs or more divisions, something has too change. For the most part the top 8 teams are determined by luck of the schedule not on field performance. Saturday afternoon = just way to long, speeches go too long as usual. FIRST really needs to do something about this, it really ruins the finals. Seating, the way the dome is arranged there isn't near enough seats for teams during opening ceremonies or Finals. Open the upper decks or arrange the fields like Atlanta.

Einstein is located where it is because of the VIP/hospitality suite there isn't a good location for it on the side of the Jones Dome so they have the current field locations.

My negative for champs was that each field had a different policy on volunteers and VIPs watching the field, while on the floor, as well as each field had a drastically different proximity(just like last year though i didnt think it was a problem till this year) to the stands and robot load in/out procedure. Why can't each field be located in similar locations to the stands as Curie and Galileo and have the same load in/out procedure for the robots?


This isn't a thing FIRST did but what RI3D did. I both loved and disliked the RI3D process. I liked it because it upped the level of game play but I disliked it because it changed the game too much. What I mean by that is if they didn't do what they did, I believe that many many more teams would have been pure climber/dumpers. Would that have made the game better? I don't really know, it just would have been a different game, and I think it would have been the game the GDC designed it to be.

Overall I think this was a good game. Most people have already said my other negatives so I won't repeat.

[Peyton Yeung]

1. Need more qualification matches at Champs.
2. Better realtime scoring.
3. Some regionals didn't have a visible screen for both alliances.
4. Climbing past 10 points were undervalued.

[F22Rapture]

Originally Posted by DampRobot

IMO 30 point climbing either should have been easier or worth more points. Is telling that only one team out of 16 on Einstein could 30 point climb

It seems like all of the 30 point climbers got taken out by falls before they could get to Einstein.

[JohnFogarty]

Why don't they set the fields up like they did in Atlanta. Please someone give me the reason. I thought the domes had the relatively the same size floors.

[EricLeifermann]

Originally Posted by John_1102

Why don't they set the fields up like they did in Atlanta. Please someone give me the reason. I thought the domes had the relatively the same size floors.

See my last post.

[Michael Hill]

Game pieces not being Readily available in massive quantities. This has always been one of my biggest gripes. Quantities are extremely limited and expensive. Give us something that we can get at any national chain of store. Also, while the pyramid was cool, it was pretty unfair to teams with limited build space. Also, the team field drawings for the pyramid were poor at best at simulating the actual pyramid. Make actual field obstacles/goals more affordable for teams with little funding.

[IndySam]

Originally Posted by EricLeifermann

Einstein is located where it is because of the VIP/hospitality suite there isn't a good location for it on the side of the Jones Dome so they have the current field locations.

Prioritizing VIP suite over 25000 team members is a terrible reason to do it. I would bet everyone who was in the VIP/Hospitality area would agree.

That suit is only good for viewing during opening ceremonies and the finals and is not crowded during either.