Disappointing Game

[notmattlythgoe]

Originally Posted by yarden.saa

Hi CD,
After week one of competitions is over and the Israeli regional is ended, I definitely can say that the game is not reaching FIRST missions and goals. The game is designed for assists between teams, its clear that FIRST wanted to increase the value of coopertition but it does the opposite.
A good seeded robot is not the best robot in the competitions. A good seeded robot is a robot that does nothing! A good robot that shoots many balls and does assists in one game may lose all what he have done because of a FOUL made by human player mistake.
My team had a situation that can happen to every team, We didn't have good robots in our alliances at the qualification matches (all 10 matches). We were not able to do a single assist because our alliance mates were not able to get a ball and pass it. We had to do our second strategy to take the game on our team and do all the work without any help. Our rank was 18 but our OPR was one of the Highest in the whole regional http://www.thebluealliance.com/event/2014ista
Another team 1574 ranked 25 with second highest OPR.
Both teams didn't have partners for assist
Another problem is that the game can be broke with defence, the is no need to score points. In last years games teams had to build good robots in order to win, what do the kids learn by building a robot that doesn't scoring and preventing others from scoring. The kids needs to build robots that does something and doesn't preventing from others from making. We should buid robots with a positive attitude, not negative. We need to see inspirational robots, teams, students and not a kitbot gladiators war.
I found my self shouting during matches like soccer fans which is not typical to me. If FIRST intention is to provide shiny games that attracts audience it should not reduce the professionalism of the game

There are ways to get assists without your alliance partners being able to pick up a ball and pass it. Try placing the ball in front of the goal and have them push it in. Place the ball along the wall and have your partners push the ball and then pick it back up and shoot it. You don't need to pick the ball up to add to your assist totals.