2014 Lessons Learned: The positive

[Chris Hibner]

Originally Posted by XaulZan11

While the strategy may have surprised the #1 alliance, the #8 alliance weren't the first ones to use it. I'm not sure who was the first team to use the strategy, but 2771 did is several times at the Michigan State Championship. 1918 used a variation of the strategy in QF 2.3 at the state championship, too.

And it was no coincidence that an alliance captain from Michigan selected 1918. If we wanted to beat an amazing #1 alliance, we had to get a little out of the box and we knew all of the capabilities of 1918. When our time to pick came around and our two picks were still on the board, we couldn't believe it.

Even without that strategy (i.e. playing a more "normal" strategy), 1918 was one of the best robots and team on Archimedes. Those guys are great.

On to the topic:

- The awards at the divisional level + streamlined Closing Ceremonies / Einstein matches was awesome. This made it my favorite championship event ever.

- The game was one of the best I have ever seen from a spectator standpoint. The assist rules were a little weird for a first time spectator, but after two matches everyone seemed to catch on. Elimination matches at MSC and CMP were some of the most exciting FIRST matches I've ever witnessed. There were some negatives about this game, but this thread is not the place for that. I've long said that the main focus of a good game should be making it spectator friendly, so I think that this game is a success overall.

- Frank has really changed FIRST for the better. FIRST is really becoming a customer focused organization and that comes from the top down. Nothing is perfect, but they seem to be striving for it.

- The human player involvement for this year was almost perfect. A great team needed a great HP and without that component, a great robot did not equal a great team. But at the same time, the HP didn't take focus away from the robots like in 2004.