FRC Blog - 2014 Championship Pros & Cons

[Jared Russell]

Considering that FIRST releases a cloud of confetti over all of Einstein as soon as the winner is announced, I am not overly concerned about the littering aspect. (I'm a little more concerned about wasting paper, but I think most of those scouting sheets are getting tossed anyhow.)

I like the idea of a designated paper air plane throwing time. Put a trash can on the field and see who can hit it. Afterwards, I'd like to think that teams can police their areas of the stands.

[Tom Line]

I'm sure I wasn't the only one who noticed - but one team who shall remain nameless chose to dump about 200 loose-leaf sheets off the upper level. Literally just 'threw' them off and let them fall in the stands below. Totally classless and non-GP.

That said, the paper airplanes are a neat idea but poor execution. It's really neat to see the ones that get out in the air currents and go super far. So here is my suggestion. Make it a competition. Each team gets 1. Set up some time for a single team member to release that team's plane - lunch, or whenever. Announce the team number, then let 'er rip, and keep track of which plane went the farthest.

Any other paper airplanes that get thrown result in the individual being asked to leave.

[dag0620]

Originally Posted by cgmv123

I'm not sure going around through all of the divisions hunting for all the Hall of Fame teams is something the average Championship attendee is going to do.

Put the HOF teams' pits together? A little inconvenient on the operations side of house for the actual competition, but I think that would be better then having their displays split up throughout the pits.

[Robby Unruh]

Originally Posted by Tom Line

I'm sure I wasn't the only one who noticed - but one team who shall remain nameless chose to dump about 200 loose-leaf sheets off the upper level. Literally just 'threw' them off and let them fall in the stands below. Totally classless and non-GP.

There were even teams throwing wadded up paper balls at people. My dad and I got hit by a few, and we were sitting in the nose-bleeds. I can only imagine how much worse it must have been in the lower seating areas where there were more teams.

[Taylor]

For those promoting a paper airplane competition - there already is one. At the Boeing booth.
For all others - my five year old recognized that throwing airplanes during an event is disrespectful and silly. If you struggle with the concept of making your grandma proud, then try my son.

The part that frustrates me the most is of all the things to discuss about the Championship Event, paper airplanes are getting the most airtime. pun intended

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by Patrick Flynn

I couldn't agree with Libby more. They are an embarrassment to our program, and I think that anyone who throws an airplane should be removed from the dome, I mean I dare you to throw something on to the field at any professional sports event* and try to stay to watch the rest. You simply won't be able to you will be dragged out by security.

You mean like how Red Wings fans throw octopi on the ice? Or how Cubs fans throw back home runs by the other team? Or the countless videos of little kids throwing back foul balls? Or the several junior and AHL teams that sponsor teddy bear toss events? Or the Florida Panthers' rat toss?

Your post is ridiculous fearmongering.

[Michael Hill]

I'd disagree that it's not a tradition. Just because some don't like it doesn't mean it's tradition. I definitely remember them in Atlanta in 2004. I have no idea how much longer they were there before that since that was my first year, but they were definitely there. I'd say after 10 years, it's probably safe to say that it's a tradition.

Edit: and to back up my point, a quote from a 2004 thread:

Originally Posted by Bryan D

Hey, I was wondering if anyone out there had any video footage of the time between I believe the divisional and finals when people were throwing paper airplanes and all sorts of things off of the 2nd floor..

[Mike Marandola]

Like others have said, I think the only problem with the paper airplanes is when they are thrown during matches and when someone is speaking. I know that Will.i.am had to speak over the cheering for a plane atleast once.

[Taylor]

Originally Posted by Mike Marandola

I know that Will.i.am had to speak over the cheering for a plane at least once.

It was so distracting, he forgot the lyrics to his own song.

[Libby K]

An addition to the blog (new post, but figured we can throw it in here):

Forgot One!

Blog Date:
Friday, May 2, 2014 - 12:34
I forgot an issue at Championship I wanted to be sure to mention. When the Alliances in the finals were asked to shake hands, the fourth team in the Alliance was excluded. This was not good. We wanted to make sure all teams on the Alliance were treated as equally as possible, and this was a miss on our part. We’ll get this fixed for next year. All four teams on each Alliance will be invited to shake hands with the other Alliance.

Frank

[MechEng83]

A few things:

First, I'm glad that Frank takes the time to give a post-event analysis. It's a good example for how teams should wrap up their season and look to maintain the good and improve the bad.

Paper Airplanes:
It's fun. Kids are bored. Endless speeches by people in suits is boring. Waiting for long periods of time is boring. To my knowledge, nothing official from FIRST has ever come out about throwing planes until today. The only commentary I ever recall is the Air Force general in 2011 stating he had a job for whoever threw the plane all the way to the stage.
Now that there is something official about stopping the planes, that will reduce the number, but it won't stop it. There have been official rules for a while about saving seats, yet year after year teams do not follow this. Enforcement is really the only way to ensure this stops. FIRST hasn't been good about enforcing off-field rules. It seems they believe FIRST students/adults are better and will self-police and act with GP. This is not the case. We're all people. Some people follow rules, some ignore them.

[Hallry]

Cons

• Einstein feed on NASA TV cut out before the last match – NASA TV broadcasts are automated, and there was no practical way for us to ask for a few more minutes because we were running late, but we’ll see what we can do next year

Not only this, but also webcast quality. All of the webcasts for the PNW events this year were extraordinarily better than the NASA streams at WCMP, and from what I heard, the PNW webcasts were all student-ran. FIRST should take a look at what PNW is doing and make that the standard for their streams, especially those at the prestigious World Championship. PNW camera operators also were familiar with the game and were able to focus in on the actual action, rather than simply zooming in to the part of the field where the most robots were, which is what FIRST told the WCMP operators to do. The WCMP also had a lot of weird camera angles, especially on Einstein. However, all of the divisions need improvement for their respective streams.

For comparison, here is a PNW match, and here is an Einstein match.

It also seems like PNW was able to cut up the match footage into the individual matches and upload them quite quickly, while last year, FIRST simply uploaded blocks of footage from WCMP, a few weeks after the event.

[Joe Ross]

Originally Posted by Libby K

Except it's NOT a tradition. The first time I remember it was in St. Louis, maybe 2011. Three years out of twenty-three seasons of FRC, is not a tradition. The crowd clearly doesn't know when to stop - because they never should have started at all.

I've seen references to Paper Airplanes as far back as 2004. However, you are correct that it is much worse in St Louis.

[Patrick Flynn]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

You mean like how Red Wings fans throw octopi on the ice? Or how Cubs fans throw back home runs by the other team? Or the countless videos of little kids throwing back foul balls? Or the several junior and AHL teams that sponsor teddy bear toss events? Or the Florida Panthers' rat toss?

Your post is ridiculous fearmongering.

Okay your right. I should refine my post. You will be kicked out of any professional event for throwing anything on the ice or field that is not, an official sponsored event. A teddy bear toss, or puck toss really? There's no connection between these and our paper airplanes, those are official team events they clear the ice and say go and everyone throws.

The rat toss or octopi? Those are actually traditions that have been around for longer than FIRST and the venue has official staff to clean up after them and they happen during a set time not disrespectfully during the nation anthem, or Deans speech.

[Chris_Ely]

The paper airplanes was one of my least favorite parts of champs when I went in 2013. I was one of my team's representatives that got to sit down on the floor during Einstein. By the end of the ceremonies, the floor was covered in paper. I left feeling very sorry for the event staff that had to stay and clean up the mess, as well as ashamed that the members of an organization which normally holds itself to such high values would leave the place that hosts their championship so trashed. It is disrespectful to the speakers, Einstein teams, people below you, environment, and clean-up staff. Just because something is "a tradition" does not mean it should continue.
Making it an official event won't solve the fact that it makes a huge mess, waists a lot of paper, and is a danger to the people in the lower seats. I fail to see much engineering going into most of the planes people make. Having yet another contest to see who cleans up them most won't do much. Teams are already in a rush to either get to the finale or their hotels.
I hope that next year FIRST makes it known to the teams that they don't endorse this "tradition", and will enforce some sort of policy to stop it.