2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive

[Chris is me]

This was an absolutely excellent year overall. Great job FIRST.

• The most balanced and diverse game in the FIRST 3v3 era.
• Rigid, consistent game piece was far easier to shoot, yet game design still allowed for "stretch" shooting tasks (FCS)
• Game challenge allowed for tasks of varying difficulty for any level of team experience.
• Any robot archetype could be competitive if designed and played correctly.
• FIRST has been more transparent than it has ever been before. Frank's blog posts in particular are a breath of fresh air, and the organization is clearly more than willing to admit mistakes and explain the "why" behind decisions.
• Robot in 3 Days made FRC as a whole dramatically more competitive.
• Motor selection was FANTASTIC. No hard choices to make between reliability, power, ease of gearing, etc. I hope the mini-CIM never leaves FRC.
• MULTIPLE ROBOT ARCHETYPES!!! I can't tell you how long I've been waiting for a game that was more than a "one task wonder" that forced every team in FRC to make tough decisions.
• Our regionals weren't decided by the control system this year.