2014 Waterloo Regional

[RallyJeff]

Originally Posted by Karthik

When I'm MCing, part of my job is to be as unbiased as possible. I'd like to think I've done that for the past 10 years. But I guess I'm not doing a good enough job. That's why I made the decision yesterday to never MC again in Ontario. I'm sure this will make your team very happy; whichever anonymous team that is.

Karthik, I hope you reconsider.

I wasn't in Waterloo. Everything I've heard about it came nth-hand, so I don't know what exactly went on, but I do know that both you and John have done a tremendous amount of work to make FIRST grow and thrive in Ontario. I have great respect for both of you. I sincerely hope that whatever the issues are between you, they can be resolved.

You've done an amazing job as an MC. Your energy and passion are contagious, and I know that you've had a huge positive impact on countless kids.

... and on me, too. Looking back, I think that the attitude I saw you express toward FIRST at my first few events was a big part of what made me realize just how important FIRST is, which has informed my approach first to robot inspection and now to refereeing.

If you want to talk privately, feel free to message me on Facebook. I just wanted to say this publicly so that you and everyone else knows that the FIRST community in Ontario appreciates you and thinks you've done an awesome job.

[magnets]

Originally Posted by cadandcookies

Maybe all you Ontario people are seeing this differently, but what I'm seeing as a remote observer is Ontario losing one of the best emcees in FIRST over how the community is acting.

That's a sad, sad thing to see.

I'm with you completely. Karthik is probably the most influential team mentor I know. He's a member of a Hall of Fame team that also happens to be one of the most competitive, yet helpful, teams I've ever seen. His strategy presentations are watched by our team members each year, and are always referenced during brainstorming. It's a terrible shame that, IMO, the best MC in FIRST feels that he needs to step down because of how the community is reacting.

[Abhishek R]

Originally Posted by RallyJeff

Karthik, I hope you reconsider.

I wasn't in Waterloo. Everything I've heard about it came nth-hand, so I don't know what exactly went on, but I do know that both you and John have done a tremendous amount of work to make FIRST grow and thrive in Ontario. I have great respect for both of you. I sincerely hope that whatever the issues are between you, they can be resolved.

You've done an amazing job as an MC. Your energy and passion are contagious, and I know that you've had a huge positive impact on countless kids.

I agree. I wouldn't let this one incident/regional/season hang over you, 1114 is and will still continue to perform as they always do all the way through Champs and afterwards.

[FIRST_Parent]

Originally Posted by Karthik

Actually, I'm not. I'm a proud member of Team 1114 and merely a FIRST volunteer. John on the other hand is a FIRST Regional Director and is held to a much higher standard.

When I'm MCing, part of my job is to be as unbiased as possible. I'd like to think I've done that for the past 10 years. But I guess I'm not doing a good enough job. That's why I made the decision yesterday to never MC again in Ontario. I'm sure this will make your team very happy; whichever anonymous team that is.



I stand firmly by my original comment.



I'm sorry to disappoint both of you and your anonymous teams. If these students looked up to me, I would hope it was because of my passion, my fire, and my unwavering belief that people should stand up against hypocrisy and for what they believe in. To any of those I let down, I do apologize. It was never my intent to disappoint you. I'm sorry.

This is a sad day for First Robotics in Ontario, and First for the entire organization, if you hold true to this decision. Karthik, you have been the focal point and visual point of First in Canada, not only as a solid mentor of 1114, but as a spot light in Ontario Regional competitions as an extraordinary emcee and amazing knowledgeable presence. I know for a fact that you have "inspired" and "encouraged" countless young First enthusiast's (my son included) to go beyond the gracious professionalism that First encourages. Don't let this one criticism stop you from what you have been doing for the past countless years you have dedicated to becoming the "Karthik" we all know and expect, and love. Everyone, and I do mean everyone is entitled to an opinion, good, bad, or indifferent. I would whole heartedly ask you to reconsider your decision not to represent First as an extraordinary representative of First.

FIRST_Parent.

[Yipyapper]

Originally Posted by magnets

I'm with you completely. Karthik is probably the most influential team mentor I know. He's a member of a Hall of Fame team that also happens to be one of the most competitive, yet helpful, teams I've ever seen. His strategy presentations are watched by our team members each year, and are always referenced during brainstorming. It's a terrible shame that, IMO, the best MC in FIRST feels that he needs to step down because of how the community is reacting.

That and he was a Woodie Flowers finalist in 2005(?) or some year around there. Just more fuel to showcase his influence as a team mentor and a valuable member of the FIRST community.

[Andy Grady]

Originally Posted by plnyyanks

As an outsider - that's terrible, Ontario is losing a great emcee with this. Your user tag "achievement through enthusiasm;" you and 1114 do both of those things very well and its a shame things like this have to happen.

I'm sure NEFIRST would love to have you, if you want to continue emceeing and ever venture stateside.

Karthik,

I hope you think long and hard about not emceeing and reconsider. I've always said you are one of the best emcees in the game, and that hasn't changed. With that said, you are welcome to come visit New England anytime...I'd love to team up with you.

I bring two points....

1. There have been a rash of posts from anonymous people from anonymous teams on these boards lately. This is neither in the spirit of FIRST nor the spirit of the community which so many of us have worked so hard to build. I may say some idiotic things on these boards or in person from time to time, but I say them representing myself and I hide behind nothing. If you have something to say, own up to it. FIRST is about inspiration, not dismantling the character of other people.

2. Game wise, I hope FIRST reconsiders the point values for fouls and TF's before championships. 50 points its too much in the first place, let lone for a foul that resulted in the incidental breaking of a rule due to something beyond a team's control.

That's all I've got....looks like the event was a wild one. I hope that despite the controversy, all parties involved had a great time.

[Woolly]

I expect that going 20" outside your frame perimeter as a result of damage to your robot will no longer be a penalty as of this Tuesday. Kind of like how the rules were changed the Tuesday after 4522 lost Arkansas due to breaking the plane of the 1 point goal.

Luckily for 1114, they still get to go to St.Louis because they're a hall of fame team. This is because they've proven themselves to work hard towards achieving the goals of FIRST.

Unfortunately, 4039, 4907, 4522, 4090, and 2992 don't get that same luxury. 4039 gets another chance to qualify in New York City, where I wish them the best of luck. 4522, after the heart-breaker in Arkansas got knocked out in the Semis at KC and as of right now aren't signed up for any more regionals, which means a great robot probably won't be making the trip to St.Louis next month.


As far as tempers and emotions go, it's the nature of the "C" part of FRC.

[CLandrum3081]

Originally Posted by cadandcookies

Apparently I can't give anymore reputation to Karthik, so I'll actually have to post instead (what a shame, isn't it?).

Maybe all you Ontario people are seeing this differently, but what I'm seeing as a remote observer is Ontario losing one of the best emcees in FIRST over how the community is acting.

That's a sad, sad thing to see.

Karthik: if you aren't going to be emceeing in Ontario again, feel free to come on over to Minnesota some time. We'd love to have you and your enthusiasm.

+1.

I think we all need to cool down a bit. With all the fun (trust me, this season is still fun, even if its fun quotient is smaller than other years), this year has been frustrating. Week 1 is almost a different game from Week 4, and it won't surprise me if Championships is an ACTUAL dog-and-pony show. 1114 has been victim to two subjective rules that would have been called differently in different regionals, and called without common sense (from my MN vantage point).

I think we expect far too much from anyone from a Hall of Fame team or with a beautiful green reputation bar. We can look up to these people (believe me, I do), but we need to remember we're human. I wouldn't want to be remembered for my immature reaction to the outcome a qualifying match that directly affected our ranking (we lost by three points, and there were three things the referees "didn't see" including the pedestal not lighting up for twenty seconds). Karthik's reaction was honest and mature, and sometimes, that's not easy to take, even when we disagree with it. I wish I could handle disappointment with that much maturity while still managing to express it. We're all human, and HoF teams are made of humans. We should respect each other as such.

I think we need to take a step back. Just because we feel like we're being preyed on by invisible GDC vultures sometimes doesn't give us the right to do the same to others. Open disagreement is fine, but please be mature about it (yes, I realize how hypocritical that sounds when I admit I can be immature, but at least I try not to be). And don't hide behind a puppet account to do it. If you don't want people to know you said something, maybe you shouldn't say it (rare circumstances make anonymity reasonable, but this doesn't).

100% agreed, cadandcookies. Karthik should consider trying MN, though the circumstances causing his departure from MC-ing Ontario would make me less than happy about it. We don't bite, and the cold is somewhat more tolerable.

[Citrus Dad]

Originally Posted by Racer26

While I agree Karthik's comment was a bit off-colour, I don't think making that accusation while hiding behind a sock puppet account serves anyone.

I'm fairly certain that his overreaction is nothing more than an artifact of his passion for this program and frustration at watching his team be eliminated from two events by a foul resulting in him getting a bit carried away.

It appears that you're revealing as much information at RobotParent. Hmmmm.

More importantly, it is not easy participating on Chief Delphi--it is not user friendly. I recently spent 15 minutes trying to figure out how to change my user settings (and I've been working on computers since 1985). Asking a parent who may not be as familiar with various Internet forums in general and Chief Delphi in particular is too harsh. More often than not it's not that someone is trying to hide here, but rather it's too difficult to figure how to reveal themselves. Please withhold your judgement.

[pluto7443]

Originally Posted by Bongle

Those eliminations were crazy fun to watch, and this was probably the hardest regional I've ever been at. Our robot was temperamental, the qualifying pace was _insane_ (about 30 minutes between matches. Thanks to a replay, we had 11 matches in a single day, and I think one of our alliance partners in our replay had 12 matches in a day), and the field was super-deep. With an average of 5 matches between each robot going up, it meant that most matches contained a veritable powerhouse (254/1114/2056), and due to the crazy depth at Waterloo, the rest of the matches contained a robot that'd be a thread to win any other regional on the planet. 3683, 4678, 781 pre-damage, 1241, 1285, 4917, and probably others I'm forgetting would all be big threats anywhere.

Outsider review: I had a friend come who had never heard of the game (or FIRST), and she thought the game was quite followable and was cheering at all the right spots. Granted these eliminations were among the best I've seen after 11 years going to competitions, so that may have played into it too. The (what felt like) 40-50-minute ref delay after the 4039/3683 semifinal was reviewed as pretty annoying, but overall she thought the game and event was pretty good. Looking at the match results it looks like it was only a 18-minute delay, but it felt _much_ longer.

As a member of 4917, thanks for putting us on that list! This was our first regional as a team. We are going to Windsor, and because we got the rookie all-star, we get to go to World's too! In the elimination rounds in Waterloo, we were captain of the #3 alliance. Looking back, we would have picked 3683 over 1285. Another thing I was wondering about in the rules: would a shot that went over the truss and into a low goal count as an 11 point shot?

[Kpchem]

Originally Posted by pluto7443

Another thing I was wondering about in the rules: would a shot that went over the truss and into a low goal count as an 11 point shot?

No, because of Rule 3.1.4 in the manual

2014 Game Manual - Rule 3.1.4

A BALL is considered SCORED in an ALLIANCE’S GOAL if

• A. a ROBOT causes one (1) of their ALLIANCE’S BALLS to cross completely and remain completely through the opening(s) of one (1) of their ALLIANCE’S GOALS without intervening TEAM member contact
• B. the ALLIANCE ROBOT last in contact with the BALL was entirely between the TRUSS and their ALLIANCE’S HIGH GOALS, and
• C. the BALL is not in contact with any ROBOT from that ALLIANCE.

Emphasis mine. If you are making a valid truss shot, your robot is not entirely between the truss and your alliance's high goals.

Good luck at Windsor and Championship!

[PayneTrain]

Glad to see we are all still playing nice in Ontario.

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by Karthik

I'm sorry to disappoint both of you and your anonymous teams. If these students looked up to me, I would hope it was because of my passion, my fire, and my unwavering belief that people should stand up against hypocrisy and for what they believe in. To any of those I let down, I do apologize. It was never my intent to disappoint you. I'm sorry.

I can respect someone who is willing to make statements that might upset others publicly with their full name and reputation behind it. You've got my support.

[Bochek]

While I don't wish to comment on the last few pages of this thread, I did get a few minutes to start running the GoPro footage from the event through handbrake.

Because its the most viewed video of the week, I did Semi Final 1-3 first, you can view it here.

The rest will be available in the next day or so.

[nuclearnerd]

Originally Posted by Woolly

Luckily for 1114, they still get to go to St.Louis because they're a hall of fame team...Unfortunately, 4039, 4907, 4522, 4090, and 2992 don't get that same luxury.

4039 would have earned (at least) the wild card to World's had the match not been overturned. I'm still proud of the team's #1 seed, but it is disappointing after playing so well during quals.

OTOH, Team 3583 got the wildcard instead, and they're deserving too - a really great team and bot.