Granite State District event

[Abrakadabra]

Between the failed webcast and the lack of any real-time score updates from FIRST or Twitter, this event was probably the worst in recent memory for folks trying to follow it remotely. I certainly hope future NE FIRST events can do a much better job of this.

So now that it looks like the FIRST Match Result page has been filled in (did someone end up doing it by hand?), FRC Spyder and FRC Tracker are finally happy, but we still don't have the per-match data on Autonomous, Teleop, and most importantly - Foul Points - that would have been provided by a properly working Twitter feed.

Because it would be very useful for scouting purposes, does anyone know where or how this data can be obtained now that the event is over?

<tinfoilhat> Or is someone trying to hide the ridiculous amount of match result-changing G40s that were handed out at this event? </tinfoilhat>

[Nathan Streeter]

Huge congratulations to 811 on Chairmans', 2648 on Engineering Inspiration, and 4909 on Rookie All-Star! 811 and 2648 have been doing wonderful things for FIRST for years... very deserving wins! One didn't need to look long at 4909 to see they have some great things going on - particularly for a rookie! Again, very well-deserved.

A big congratulations to the winning alliance of 138, 177, and 3323! You guys beat us fair and square - as a FIRSTer, it was a thing of beauty watching your speedy inbound, truss, catch, high goal cycles!

A huge thanks to our partners 131 and 1786... you guys were a tremendous pleasure to work with... it really felt like we were all just one big team in our strategy meetings! We're really disappointed about our team's inconsistencies with autonomous in the finals... we'll be working hard on those and other issues.

Originally Posted by Abrakadabra

So now that it looks like the FIRST Match Result page has been filled in (did someone end up doing it by hand?), FRC Spyder and FRC Tracker are finally happy, but we still don't have the per-match data on Autonomous, Teleop, and most importantly - Foul Points - that would have been provided by a properly working Twitter feed.

I'd like to know this too... My concern is that "it's just gone," but I'm hopeful there's some way to pull the fouls out of the scores for statistical reasons.

The OPR data looks like junk. I have three guesses as to why it's bad... first, there's the overwhelming number of large fouls... second, there's the fact that OPR treats a team's contribution as a constant, and week 1 performances are usually anything but constant... third, this game may be as bad for OPR as people have been predicting (although I'd like to see at least the first issue removed before coming to this conclusion). Personally, I'm not yet sold on "OPR's horrible for Aerial Assist" if the fouls can be factored out.

Does anyone know if any of the OPR calculators still use the Twitter feed? I know it's had well-documented issues...

[kstl99]

Originally Posted by engunneer

I'm uploading my raw footage from some of the late matches and early QFs now. They will be live as soon as youtube processes them. http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...qtkZMtFruoBV9Q

Just out of curiosity is there a reason that they are not going to the Blue Alliance also? Is it a difficult process? I have never done it so I do not know. I do wish there was one place I could go and find all the available videos.

[underdog1924]

Originally Posted by Nathan Streeter

Huge congratulations to 811 on Chairmans', 2648 on Engineering Inspiration, and 4909 on Rookie All-Star! 811 and 2648 have been doing wonderful things for FIRST for years... very deserving wins! One didn't need to look long at 4909 to see they have some great things going on - particularly for a rookie! Again, very well-deserved.

Thank you for the kind words; we were equally surprised by our play. Your team and machine are very inspiring and we hope to get to your level one day. We also need to give a HUGE thanks to 3467 for all the time they've put in to helping us get to where we are.

We're going to look at finding a way to load the ball faster so we can help with faster cycles. Hopefully we can keep it going at WPI.

[plnyyanks]

Originally Posted by kstl99

Just out of curiosity is there a reason that they are not going to the Blue Alliance also? Is it a difficult process? I have never done it so I do not know. I do wish there was one place I could go and find all the available videos.

I've got a python script that can split up YouTube playlists and output something you can put into the Blue Alliance spreadsheet. I ran it, so those videos will be on the TBA pages as soon as they import the next batch of YouTube videos

[velcro]

Originally Posted by plnyyanks

Does anyone know if the video that would have been webcast is saved anywhere?

A Team 177 alum recorded some of our matches and posted on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...iVWwqiGET7qxXD

[Zuelu562]

As a queuer for this event, I'd like to thank and congratulate all the teams for their hard work both on their robots, the matches, time in the pits and your communities. It was a pleasure to work with all of you, although you may have not have been happy to see us every time () and I look forward to seeing some of you at upcoming events and District Championships.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank the event planning committee, volunteers and sponsors for this event. You all did one heck of job, and we got it done without too many hitches.

See (some of) you at WPI!

[MikeE]

Originally Posted by PVCpirate

This event was having problems with the webcast well before Ustream apparently crashed, starting yesterday. I'm just wondering if anyone has any other information.

NE FIRST just addressed this on their blog

[lf3307]

What a great event. Hats off to all!

As to the match data, I attach a spreadsheet with total and penalty scores in 73 of the 78 matches.

I missed the true score in Match 62, and then had to miss the last few to go work with scouts on drafting order (wishful thinking, but also going through the drill) for the drive team at the end.

So I was able to get back to true points scored and allowed by red/blue in each match. On the summary tab, I then calculated averages by team: offense points, defense points, and differential. Note that rookie team 4909 was at the top if O and D rankings were simply given equal weighting!

It is my hope that others will post similar data for other NE events!

Team 885 also has a lot of video, but I have not yet checked the quality... We'll see if any is worth posting. It looks like the Blue Alliance site is welcoming uploads.

Already looking forward to WPI!


Dan H.

[Jessica Boucher]

Originally Posted by Abrakadabra

Between the failed webcast and the lack of any real-time score updates from FIRST or Twitter, this event was probably the worst in recent memory for folks trying to follow it remotely. I certainly hope future NE FIRST events can do a much better job of this.

I'll answer this one directly as I have been a major proponent of a solid "outside view" for the NE events. A solid webcast is hugely important for us - and I know it is for you too! We had 1600 page views and 150 active viewers on LiveStream in Practice Match FOUR. Let that sink in - we know it's a big deal and now we have the numbers to prove it. This is why we spent the money to give a great visual experience.

I won't get into the details as to what happened, but I will say that there are a few event committees where I know they can handle everything just short of nuclear fallout - and probably that too. The GSD crew is one of them. They handled this with grace and did the very best to get it back up and running. Even with the best laid plans, things happen. The FMS, even without internet, records scores and are exported before the field is packed up. NE FIRST has a copy and sent a copy to HQ to fill out the event pages. Rankings should be going up on schedule.

I will say that I had a dual experience with this event: Day 1 at home, I thought, "everything is awful!", because from the outside, it looked that way. Day 2, when I arrived on site, I thought, "everything is awesome!" because truly, the teams were having a great experience...and in the end that's what matters most.

We will get this right. Thanks for your patience and we hope to be able to wow you in the future.

[Abrakadabra]

Jess -
Thank you very much for the insider view. I know that you and the entire NE FIRST team work very hard to provide the best experience possible, and despite all the moaning we all do, I hope that you understand that we really do appreciate it.

Your impressions of the two days are interesting - I was a "live" attendee on both days, and I had pretty much the same feelings as you. On Friday, it was obvious that many teams had not yet read or did not understand the game rules, so that, combined with the zealous enforcement of the controversial G40 and other penalties, made for some very frustrating matches. In a way, I'm kind of glad that the webcast was down and that the "outside public" did not have those matches serve as their first exposure to Aerial Assault!

On Saturday, however, it appeared that the knowledgable teams were doing a good job of educating their less-informed alliance partners, and the true "Assisting" began. While penalties still weighed a little too heavy (IMHO), the result-changing ones were not as frequent as the day before, and by Elims, we were seeing what the game is really supposed to be.

We're excited to see what Week 2 brings - with new Rules clarifications from HQ, a few sheets of polycarb, and the experiences of Week 1 as a guide, things are really looking up!

[Abrakadabra]

Originally Posted by lf3307

As to the match data, I attach a spreadsheet with total and penalty scores in 73 of the 78 matches.

Dan H.

Dan - Thanks for the data!

In case anyone is wondering, penalties affected the match outcome in 22.97% of the cases. Just sayin'...

[MikeE]

Originally Posted by Abrakadabra

Dan - Thanks for the data!

In case anyone is wondering, penalties affected the match outcome in 22.97% of the cases. Just sayin'...

Thanks Dan!

Almost all of those cases at GSD were Day 1 where ~30% of matches swung on penalties whereas Day 2 had just 1 case out of 19 matches based on Dan's spreadsheet. As expected, Day 2 also saw higher average scores and lower average penalties as teams got better at playing the game.

I checked last year's full season data with the expectation that around 10% of qualification matches would have had different winners without penalties. It was actually just 3.5% over the season and basically the same at 3.2% during 2013 week 1.

The impact of penalties during Day 2 quals at GSD appears to be comparable to last season.

[Pault]

The staff for this event really went above and beyond. Sure there were all the week 1 issues, and the webcast was down, but I honestly didn't expect a district event in a high school gym to be so high quality.

On another note, does anybody have a recording of Dean Kamen's speech at the award ceremony? I particularly liked it, and I want to have it on record. I know this might sound insane, but I actually want to listen to a Dean Kamen speech twice.

[petercooperjr]

I was running Camera 1 at the event (the camera right by the field), and the video production people said that they were saving the entire thing, even though the Internet for the school district stopped working. So, all of the matches, plus things like Dean's speech, should in theory be on a hard drive somewhere, and I expect they'll manage to get them all up on the Internet eventually.