2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive

[Mr V]

I have to say the best thing is Frank Merrick, his responsiveness and transparency that he has brought with him.

Please, please, pretty please who ever is in the position to remove the "acting" from his title do it now it is long overdue.

[Travis Hoffman]

Wildcards - Great. (do need to address lack of wildcard options at early-season events to encourage "outsider" teams to attend them)

Game Design - Great.

FRC-specific Championship planning and execution - Great. (no input on Finale or other program levels)

AndyMark PDV - Great.

Rookie Kitbot - Great.

Frank Merrick - Great.

[GaryVoshol]

I'd like to congratulate the GDC for a well formed game. Aside from not realizing how incredibly terrible human players would be at throwing discs and keeping them on the field.

There's not much that needs changing in the rules. I've created rule changes for off-seasons here in MI, and I don't have any changes to suggest this year.

While there were some subjective elements - what's "consequential"? - it was a relatively easy game to referee. And exciting to watch.

[Koko Ed]

Let's see if the positive thread hit a hundred before the negative hits three hundred.

[mschwab013]

This was easily my favorite game since my first year in FIRST (2008). So kudos to the GDC.

Also, why is the negative lessons thread over twice as long as the positive one?! Cmon guys we can do much better than this!! This was a great year for FIRST! Let's tell them the things they did right so they can keep doing them in the future!

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by mschwab013

This was easily my favorite game since my first year in FIRST (2008). So kudos to the GDC.

Also, why is the negative lessons thread over twice as long as the positive one?! Cmon guys we can do much better than this!! This was a great year for FIRST! Let's tell them the things they did right so they can keep doing them in the future!

At least half of it is prolonged debate but CD Denzines do love to complain...

[kaliken]

To get us to 100...

A couple positives.

1) Bumper rules. I think finally we got many of the teams all on the same boat finally...
2) Frisbee... Awesome. We have to train the next group of ultimate Frisbee players.. i mean scientists and engineers. Heck before Central Valley's Pits opened my team was playing ultimate instead just sitting around. A game piece that is fun to play with but difficult to pick up is just classic.
3) Versa Planetary... OMG I love this little gear box. Turns itself into a wonderful COTS solution to many of our driving systems.
4) Central Valley Regional and Week 1. I totally enjoyed the regional and the difficulties of week 1 play. I think all teams to toughen up and play a week 1.
5) Wildcards... To an extent. Good Good Good for late regional events and for teams that didn't qualify that should have... BAD BAD BAD for week 1 regional attendees. begs the questions on why go to week 1? Need a soln for this.
6) Long Beach Regional.. Another great venue put on by an amazing set of volunteers. As our home regional its great to see all the familiar faces and new rookies all the time
7) The rise of Orange County FRC teams. After my 7+ years of FRC experience we are finally seeing FRC in Orange County starting to blossom. Steel will be sharpening steel in So Cal!
8) Bag motors, MiniCIMS and CIMs Oh my!.. loved the new motors
9) Good for us.. but not necessarily AM's bottom line.. But VexPro triggering a price reduction on Motor Controllers.. Hope the prices stay!
10) And finally an overall well put together game. I am bias when saying 2010 was my favorite but this one was memorable

[Kevin Leonard]

Ultimate Ascent is by far my favorite game of all time.
See, half of our FIRST team plays Ultimate Frisbee, and we concluded months before the season began that were the robot required to throw a frisbee, we would go to Einstein. Alas, despite the frisbee game, we failed in our "ultimate" objective.

In addition, the preliminary match schedules and overall accommodating nature of the communications between teams and FIRST HQ was fantastic.
Frank is awesome.

[Moon2020]

From my perspective:

As an Inspection Manager, I loved not having a sizing box to deal with this year. Frame perimeters rock!

I worked with a great team of RI Volunteers at Championship this year: my first MVP was Rob H. from Rochester, NY (Regional LRI) for his trouble shooting and problem solving skills. Matt S. from Sacramento, CA (Regional LRI) was my second MVP for his field communication skills. Big Al receiving Volunteer of the Year was awesome!

Note: We are still seeing bumpers that are not constructed per the rules and/or are not secured properly as my Championship Field RI witnessed several of them falling off during various matches. The Field RI sent me the pictures and notes by text message back to the Inspection Station to ensure the issues were fixed before the next match. Even with the time delay in receiving the text message, this worked out great.

I remember a Volunteer reserved section to watch Einstein when we were still in the Georgia Dome. This time, there was some confusion with the EJD arena staff about the reserved seating in sections 126, 127, and 128 and at what time and which people were allowed to sit in them. there was a huge pile-up on the landing with all the tape still up around the seats. However, all was good in the end. We had a great view. BTW, I usually do not have time to watch any matches until the very end: Einstein was my first time this season watching students feed the game pieces into the robot and shoot them all the way across the field into the goal!

[Gregor]

Originally Posted by Moon2020

I worked with a great team of RI Volunteers at Championship this year: my first MVP was Rob H. from Rochester, NY (Regional LRI) for his trouble shooting and problem solving skills.

I second this. Rob was fantastic. He spent at least half an hour in our pit troubleshooting a code issue, on Thursday, at a week 1 regional when I'm sure there were a 100 other things he could have been doing. Any LRI that goes that much out of their way to help teams is very good at what they do.

[JohnFogarty]

Here, now you have 100.

[Grim Tuesday]

Originally Posted by Gregor

I second this. Rob was fantastic. He spent at least half an hour in our pit troubleshooting a code issue, on Thursday, at a week 1 regional when I'm sure there were a 100 other things he could have been doing. Any LRI that goes that much out of their way to help teams is very good at what they do.

Rob (from 340 I learned this year) is the man. Always knowledgeable and reasonable about inspection, makes me want to volunteer to inspect at a nearby event to my college.

[pfreivald]

Rob Heslin is one of the most technically knowledgeable, helpful, awesome people in all of FIRST -- he's an absolutely fantastic LRI.

[Carolyn_Grace]

Oh! Another positive to add to the party:

Many people may argue with me here, but the green volunteer shirts were pretty great! Last year there were some complaints about volunteers not being easily spotted, and the green certainly solved that issue!

...now, I won't wear green for another two weeks, and I can't seem to stop craving guacamole, but those are minimal side-effects compared to spectators being able to easily spot needed personnel.

[Clinton Bolinger]

Originally Posted by Carolyn_Grace

Oh! Another positive to add to the party:

Many people may argue with me here, but the green volunteer shirts were pretty great! Last year there were some complaints about volunteers not being easily spotted, and the green certainly solved that issue!

...now, I won't wear green for another two weeks, and I can't seem to stop craving guacamole, but those are minimal side-effects compared to spectators being able to easily spot needed personnel.

The only downside is that I thought there were Thunderchickens everywhere!!!

Actually, had a parent ask why there were so many chickens on the field.

-Clinton-