FRC Blog - How We’re Doing and FIRST Babies

[Nick Lawrence]

Originally Posted by martin417

I would love to see a survey of a group of people who had no stake in the outcome of any one match, but were absolutely very involved with the play and execution of every match: the referees.

Here is an unbiased group that can let their feelings be known without being accused of sour grapes or team bias.

Why not ask them?

I would wager significant money that their responses would be skewed towards the negative, due to the fact that they were overwhelmed all year. I think that the results would be fair and very indicitative of this game's true colours. If the refs aren't happy and confident, the game just doesn't work, since they directly control match flow. I in no way blame the individual referees. I know many who are some of the best in the business, and even they are overwhelmed.

This year was a very good experiment for the FRC GDC and FIRST as a whole. It showed us how some really great ideas don't translate well into portions of FRC games, with some current team cultures. It also showed the true character of some folks this year, through both their frustration and resilience.

-Nick