2013 Lessons Learned: The Negative

[Basel A]

This is not a new problem; in fact, it's been around for as long as I've been in FRC: The rankings at the Championship were sub-optimal. I don't think anyone approves of 5-way ties for 1st place (Galileo) or 7-way ties for 2nd (Arch, New). Rankings could be improved in two obvious ways: fewer teams and more matches per team. Having fewer teams addresses both of those two ways. I would not complain about 60 team divisions, let alone 80.

Webcast quality. Frankly, it's pathetic. There's a few places where the webcast quality is great (Canada, for example), but far too many where the webcasts are unwatchable. It's time to standardize the webcasts by including webcasting equipment with the fields and assigning an official volunteer to maintaining it.

If you feel obligated to qualify XXX teams to the Championship, qualify more of them via wild card and less of them via waitlist. Eliminate the bias in the system against early-season regionals. I kinda understand why you don't want to qualify a team based on a Chairman's team's slot, but even the current solution doesn't solve that problem entirely. Winner-then-CA doesn't open a slot, but CA-then-Winner does open a slot. If the goal is bringing more competitive teams to the Championship, then this year was good. But next year, bring even more more competitive teams.

Game pieces should not overflow the goals. This did not happen often, but it did happen and it shouldn't. Make the goals much larger than you think they need to be. Shots bouncing out isn't cool either.