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Unread 29-04-2013, 00:25
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Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive

Quote:
Originally Posted by MARS_James View Post
Not sure what you mean since they are referring to 2012 & 2011 having similar game pieces to 2006 & 2007 respectively
Yeah that is what I meant. I didn't clarify.
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Unread 29-04-2013, 02:54
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Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive

I have been really impressed with Frank this year, and his willingness to bring the greater good has been amazing. In fact, while we were at the airport he actually came up to a group of us and started asking what we though of the event, what was good, and what could be improved on. He really does care what teams think and wants to improve the experience for all teams.
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Unread 29-04-2013, 08:31
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Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive

Overall:

The conferences being free and open to all! Such a great change.

99% of the volunteers that I talked to were AMAZING. They all had great attitudes, were having fun and worked their butts off. (Big shout-out especially to Jess Boucher, who I saw managing volunteers with a constant big smile on her face. Thanks for everything that you did this weekend, Jess!)

The game was my favorite. The GDC did a fantastic job. It was fun to watch and easy to understand. Very engaging for an audience who may have never seen anything like FIRST before.

Personal:

Volunteering for FLL was the best choice I made for my Worlds experience. The FLL volunteers are outstanding! And the kids were wonderful. It made my volunteer experience at Worlds way better than last year.
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Unread 29-04-2013, 08:37
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Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive

Like others, I echo a lot of what was good this year already presented. The volunteers were AWESOME (WPI Regional especially, dealing with the winter BLAST and teams not able to show up!), the game was a slam-dunk from a playability perspective (i'll touch on the logistical in the negative thread), even though I was not able to partake in the joys of the Wildcard system, I love the concept, and I, for one, welcome our new perimiter overlords.
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Unread 29-04-2013, 08:57
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Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive

There were so many things first did right, I will just focus on the Championship for this post while the thoughts are fresh.

I worked with the folks in Archimedes:

The perimeter rule sped up the initial weigh-in and sizing a bit. This in general kept the line down other than end of the day Wednesday when about 30 teams decided to get weighted 40 minutes before pits close (note to teams, do this as soon as you possibly can in the future).

The field crew was top notch, and I noticed that there was a lot less "rushing" of teams. In general most of the volunteers around queing were a lot more cordial.

I also liked on Archimedes that a couple of times, when ahead of schedule, the FTAs allowed for a little extra time for teams to attempt to get their bots going. This helped 2 young teams make their matches. A third young team had a wiring issue, that was just un-solvable in the 5 minute window they had, but the FTAs made a real effort to try and help them play.

The treatment of Volunteers was outstanding. Great food, easy check-in. 2 t-shirts for those of us doing 4 days!

Overall, a great time.
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Unread 29-04-2013, 09:41
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Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive

Using a GoPro to record/webcast matches.

Full field match footage is hard to come by and I would like to see this used at more events next year. I like the instant upload technique by 2337. Having no recorded footage for events is frustrating. Full field footage is the best and archiving event footage is something that needs to happen more often. I will be looking into using the link below to record Peachtree next year.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...64&postcount=9
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Unread 29-04-2013, 10:10
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Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive

This is probably my favorite game I've been a part of, just barely ahead of 2007 and 2009.

Offense was very diverse and prominent, but defense was still very playable and noticeably had a factor in the outcome of playoff games. Some pretty sick collisions and block, some that I haven't seen the likes of since before the days of mandated bumpers. Very physical gameplay, yet still finesse scoring.

The biggest improvement this year from the past 3 imo was the tactful use of restricted zones. Well used this year (not overdone like '11 or '12), no zone limitations (like '10), and did not inhibit gameplay or maneuverability.
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Unread 29-04-2013, 11:15
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Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive

The game this year was fun to watch, and broad enough to encourage diversity in robot designs. This made wandering around the pits a lot more fun.

I was very impressed with the level of attention the FTA's gave to isolating our comm issues on Galileo and Einstein. They were able to tell us it wasn't the Crio resetting, and had us focus on the radio instead. After checking and re-checking power connections for several matches with similar random cutouts, they brought a new DC-DC converter to us and helped us reinstall it. And this seemed to solve the problem!

There was a First representative at champs dedicated to helping international teams with shipping their crates home. He was extremely helpful and thorough, and made shipping a lot smoother than previous years.

As many have already said, the wildcards are a huge improvement. In the past the only way we could hope to qualify was to travel out of country.

The bumper and frame rules keep getting better.
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Unread 29-04-2013, 12:09
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Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive

Ultimate Ascent was a very fun game, with very achievable goals for rookie teams and challenging goals for veterans. It was fun to watch, and fun to play, and overall I think this year was a great success.

Frisbees were a particularly fun/intriguing choice as a game piece, and I hope FIRST continues to branch out in new directions. Please let next year not be ball game again. Please.

Championships were a load of fun and supremely energetic, small problems aside.

As an aside, the "positive" thread is only 3 pages long, and the "negative" thread is 8. I admit I am partly at fault for this, but perhaps we can try to fix this?

After all, I'm sure we're all very pleased with FIRST as a whole, right?
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Unread 29-04-2013, 12:24
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Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive

I was impressed how a lot of teams were put on the same level. Powerhouse teams were not automatically winning everything and non-powerhouse teams seemed to have a chance.

Frank's blog was very helpful this year and all he did was superb.

Have to give props to the Wisconsin Regional, you spoil all of us with such an amazing regional. Please keep up the good work!

Getting rid of the Kinect control station area from last year, I feel, was an improvement.

The volunteer shirt color at championships stood out more, so they were easier to find (even if it made the Thunder Chickens much more difficult to isolate ;] ).

Strategy was incredibly important in this year's game. Brute force and a stagnant strategy couldn't cut it like it would be able to in some games, and it was clearly evident from one match to the next how effective a change in strategy was.

Overall, the procedure of taking down the 30 point climbers was executed incredibly well, and after the first week or so did not greatly impact match cycle times nearly as much as I anticipated it would.

The shortened kickoff, though some may complain was too short, was definitely appreciated by new/freshmen members who typically get lost in it as they have not yet been immersed in our FIRST culture.
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Unread 29-04-2013, 12:42
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Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive

Awesome game. I loved that not only was teleop capability tiered (in terms of difficulty-for-payoff), but the endgame was, too. I was skeptical of the hanging points being what they were, but all it all it seemed to work out just great.
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Unread 29-04-2013, 12:44
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Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive

Great game, kept even the best strategists in FRC trying to find the best solution to the game all year round.

Solid game piece. There were very few issues with the game pieces deforming or being damaged and effecting robots (148 at SVR is one of the few that comes to mind). I loved that we know exactly what we would be playing with all year long.

Relatively easy to build field element for at least scoring discs. A PVC goal was all you really needed, or even tape on a wall could get you close.

Simpler bumper and frame rules. More motors & more open pneumatics rules.

The volunteer experience keeps improving at every event and especially championship. I felt like this year they really stepped up and showed that they cared for the volunteers at championship. The food was good, the seating for Einstein was even better (though they might want to make a bit smaller there were several empty seats around me).

The introduction of new COTS items by suppliers seemed to really level field for a lot of teams. VEXpro, AM, and CTRE all are allowing the mid tier teams to play at the same level as that the powerhouse teams have been at for a long time.

FIRST Choice and vouchers are steps in the right direction and the systems will keep improving.

The field videos were great again, they really help teams that don't get a chance to see the field at Kickoff.

Overall the best season of FRC yet. I can't wait till next season.
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Unread 29-04-2013, 12:46
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Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive

Quote:
Originally Posted by AllenGregoryIV View Post
The introduction of new COTS items by suppliers seemed to really level field for a lot of teams. VEXpro, AM, and CTRE all are allowing the mid tier teams to play at the same level as that the powerhouse teams have been at for a long time.
Remove "AM" from that statement, and I agree completely.

We (4464) had some bad experiences with AndyMark hardware this year...
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Unread 29-04-2013, 12:48
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Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive

- This game was a strategist's dream. It was very dynamic at champs, given the variety and depth of types of robots. If you're the #1 seed, simply pick your strategy and go get 'em!

- Integration of more vendors into the Voucher Program.

- More motor controller options

- The rules are getting better
-- Bumper rules were very clear
-- Less restrictive sizing requirements this year

- Given 8 or 9 minute match cycles, FIRST did what they could to give teams more playing time on the field

- Districts are coming to VA/MD/DC in 2015. Can't wait.
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Unread 29-04-2013, 13:11
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Re: 2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive

A lot of great stuff has already been mentioned, this year was a very fun game, accessible to less experienced teams to do well, but allowed plenty of room for great teams to shine.

As a programmer, I liked that autonomous was a big part of the game this year, it has geared me up to do more sensors projects with the programming team in the off season, in the hope that next year they will provide a leg up.

I loved all the cool climbing designs, especially the caterpillar climber (on Newton I think, if anyone knows who that was and has a video or picture, I'd love to see it again, only caught it in passing on the practice field), it's unfortunate climbing wasn't as valuable as it was difficult.
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