Week 1 Analysis

[Brandon_L]

Originally Posted by pfreivald

We triple-tested our ball intake and shooter with over-inflated balls because we knew they would be. Everything inflatable in FIRST ends up over-inflated, and you have to plan for it.

A sizing standard other then "Eh, that looks alright!" should have been in place anyway, because the balls at Hatboro are rolling around more like hexahedrons then a round ball. What happened to sizing cubes?

It should be planned for, but the specs in the manual are terrible.

Pedestals - Should be a dedicated pedestal lighting guy or something. Heck, there already is! Why can't the guy standing behind the goal catching balls also control the lighting of the pedestal? Refs are way overwhelmed. Countless times dead ball cards have been raised, and it gets ignored for 45 seconds of the match until the entire alliance is banging on the glass with their fists to catch a refs attention so they can legally put another ball in play.

Scorekeeping vs Reffing - Theres a HUGE difference between the two this year. Like I said, Refs are overwhelmed. Refs should Ref. We need scorekeepers. (What about that dandy guy catching the balls behind the alliance station?)

Field Staff - Generally untrained. Wastes time in a match when a ball flies out of bounds and they have to figure out who its supposed to go back to. Why can't we just return it near the point it left the field?

This game places way to much on the people running the event. Props to the head ref at Hatboro for pausing matches midway through and getting it right rather then screwing an alliance because of a volunteer mistake/ped not lighting.