Match Play Problems

[BrendanB]

Good evening!

This weekend I have been volunteering at the first Granite State District Competition. So far for New England's first district event it has gone well however there are several issues that I have noticed regarding game play that I feel will be detrimental to an alliance.

The two issues that I am seeing are not on the field, but off the field.

To start off with the communication between the referees and field crew who funnel balls along the sides of the field. This weekend I was volunteering as an inspector however during this afternoon when all inspections were complete, several of us were brought in to help fill in positions on the field to help move balls around the field. The concept seems very straight forward: scored blue balls get moved back to the blue drivers station and the same for red. Where things started to get crazy was when a ball exited the field. Most of the time when the ball exited the field a referee quickly moved the ball to the closet human player (as per the rules). In a few instances the ball exited the field where no referee was stationed (over the drivers station or directly in the corners of the field). In some of these moments the field crew was directed to move the ball back down to the drivers station as if the ball were scored. Now when this happened it took several seconds for someone to realize what hapened and by the time the the field crew was notified where the ball needed to go it was already brought back to the drivers station and had to be brought back around to the closest human player. Where things really got harder was when a human player zone was left unoccupied causing more confusion as to where the ball needed to go.

This is a HUGE detriment to an alliance. Typically it would take 20-30 seconds before the ball was put back where it needed to go and a lot can happen in that time (especially if it is the end of a match). It appeared that the official field crew volunteers were trained as to what the appropriate actions were, however as the day wore on and breaks were given people like myself were switched into these positions with little to no communication as to what happens to stray balls.

The second issue that came up was when an alliance had scored the last ball on the field (either the last ball leftover from autonomous or the only ball from a cycle later in the match) the pedestal did NOT light up and the assist LED indicators were still showing on the goal. Similar to the above this killed a LOT of time as the alliance was trying to get the attention of the referees but at one portion this happened with 20 seconds left in the match and the alliance never got a new ball into play. Thankfully they had won the match however if this were to happen in a tight qualification match or worse during eliminations that has the ability to sway who wins the event.

Now before I go further, the event staff and referees at GSD have been doing a fantastic job so I hope this isn't taken out of context. GSD just happens to be the event I am attending and I'm sure this is happening elsewhere around the country. The above issues are two major flaws I see in this year's game as a whole when it plays out not with our event specifically. It is week one of a new game that is very different compared to what we have played in the past so problems will arise, I just hope they get remedied as I would hate to hear of a team who is drastically affected by a field fault.

The volunteers who work the field need to be in sync with the referees so they know when and where to move a ball. There also needs to be a solid method of communication DURING the match so members of an alliance can quickly notify the field staff of an error or problem with the game play/ball movement.

Any thoughts from other events around the country?