St. Louis - A Definite Practice in the Ideals of FIRST

[DougHogg]

Originally posted by amandabean
This regional was, most definately, a lesson on both what FIRST should and should not be.

Well done to your team for persisting and also for not allowing those people who were jeering to bring your team down to their level.

I guess there should be some printed material on the philosophy of FIRST, written in simple english, to hand out to new FIRST participants each year with a place on the bottom for them to sign that they pledge to uphold the values of FIRST. Also I think that we should hand all spectators a pamphlet with the FIRST philosophy and some rules of behavior as they arrive at competitions.

As to teams seeking to inflate their scores by working out deals with their opponents, maybe the above would help, but I think it is also time to do away with a system of scoring that would reward such behavior with high scores. As Dean says, a society gets what it celebrates. It is time to do away with a scoring system which rewards the winner for giving the looser points during a match. It doesn't occur in sports in this country, and it certainly doesn't occur in industry. It is also causing oddities in the elimination rounds if both teams win a match. As an example, here are some scores from the St. Louis Semi Finals. Based on the scores, who do you think should advance from this semi-final round, blue or red?

Alliance Team SCORE

__Elim SF2.1
_ _Blue 525 _ 71 Cedar Falls HS
_ _Blue 16 71 Baxter & Mt. Home HS
_ _Red _ 877 _ 10 NASA/Cub Robotics
_ _Red _ 1178 10 Ursuline/DeSmet
_
__Elim SF2.2
_ _Blue 525 _ 30 Cedar Falls HS
_ _Blue _ 16 30 Baxter & Mt. Home HS
_ _Red _ 877 64 NASA/Cub Robotics
_ _Red _ 1178 64 Ursuline/DeSmet

Here is how it looks with Qualifying Points:

Alliance Team SCORE QP

__Elim SF2.1
_ _Blue 525 71 91 Cedar Falls HS
_ _Blue 16 71 91 Baxter & Mt. Home HS
_ _Red _ 877 10 10 NASA/Cub Robotics
_ _Red 1178 10 10 Ursuline/DeSmet
_
__Elim SF2.2
_ _Blue 525 30 30 Cedar Falls HS
_ _Blue 16 30 30 Baxter & Mt. Home HS
_ _Red 877 64 124 NASA/Cub Robotics
_ _Red 1178 64 124 Ursuline/DeSmet

The red team advanced. That is contrary to the way life works. I do understand that we don't want experienced teams to demolish the rookies and demoralize them, but the current system is akin to letting your child win at Monopoly so he won't cry. I say let's get real. We should find other ways to help rookies do better. This year's kit of parts was excellent in that regard.

Speaking of a society getting what it celebrates, we need to celebrate the teams who helped out other teams in the pits. They need to be honored for representing the best of FIRST, especially those teams who were having their own problems like Team 45. Congratulations on showing what gracious professionalism is all about.