2015 Dallas Regional

[Cory]

Originally Posted by Michael Corsetto

I wonder how much Dean liked watching one of the best robots this year get disabled before the tie-breaker final match...

Another reason to look forward to Chezy Champs. The event where referees work to give teams the best experience possible. Not work against them.

-Mike

I believe 987 was also disabled in a previous elims match as well (unofficial explanation I saw was taking too long to set up). Same match 148 wasn't even on the field (apparently they took too long to get to the field). 118 missed a match in semis due to not getting a timeout in on time (but with these refs...who knows what "on time" actually meant?).

Obviously Dallas was EXTREMELY behind schedule, but it's absurd that three of the best teams in FIRST were not allowed on the field or were disabled for a combined 4 matches in eliminations.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by Michael Corsetto

I wonder how much Dean liked watching one of the best robots this year get disabled before the tie-breaker final match...

Another reason to look forward to Chezy Champs. The event where referees work to give teams the best experience possible. Not work against them.

-Mike

Dean left before the elims.

[billylo]

148/987, 118/624 put on an amazing display of robot awesomeness for all fans. Thank you and well done. I look forward to seeing 148-Alfred.

The robots and the teams are the stars of each event. Let them shine the brightest.

Here are a few suggestions (Frank and team, I am sure you look for feedback from CD too!):

1. Instil transparency: Transparency will help the overall experience when tough calls are made. Imagine NFL refs do not announce what the penalties were. Yes, it costs a few seconds; but it informs the crowd and at the same time, hold the tournament organizer accountable. Mistakes do happen. Both organizers and teams are human. This teaches the kids accountability.

2. Recognize well run events that put the students/teams first: How about some free corndogs for the organizing committees?

3. Awesome idea to bring the Cowboys mascot into Dallas Regional. Maybe we need to invite Carlton (Toronto Maple Leafs mascot) for a visit when we play in the former Maple Leafs Garden next week at GTRC.

Can't wait for our first event next week. Go #610.

[thatprogrammer]

Any recorded videos of matches? The website does not seem to have any archived videos up.

[Boltman]

Originally Posted by thatprogrammer

Any recorded videos of matches? The website does not seem to have any archived videos up.

http://new.livestream.com/accounts/6...events/3832663

Watch it over there

[JVN]

Thank you to everyone who made Dallas an amazing experience for our team!

I have posted a response to some of the "strangeness" on behalf of 148's students and mentors: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...&postcount=114

[pilum40]

Greetings from 3355-The Purple Vipers! We were one of those "mid-table" teams this year! We actually achieved our main goals and dang it...I'm very proud of my all sophomore team!!! It has been the best team hands down I've had since starting to coach/mentor/facilitate FRC in 2010. When we had any issues, they swarmed like ants to work the problem and fix the solution. Our main goals this year were:
1. Have serious fun at the Regionals-enjoy the moment!
2. Make EVERY match-Thursday through Saturday afternoon!
3. Work on coop points in every match...don't be greedy...it doesn't help
4. Get as much information about how other teams operate as possible to make our team better for next season!
5. Make sure our robot was simple, robust and elegant!

We're a very small team with limited technology resources and no mechanical engineer mentors. I'm just an AP teacher so my main job is to manage egos, logistics, and recommend solutions. When I walked the pits; I was deflated. The really cool designs, multi-piece robots, custom parts, cool powder coatings just made me sit down. I had not even thought about any of these things. Frankly, these ideas were beyond my scope-freely admitted. I'm not whining-just stating fact from a different perspective. I'm sure y'all have all been in a similar place.

Did we achieve our objectives? That's the important part right?
Yes:
1. We did not miss a match the entire competition/practice day included
2. We were mechanically robust enough to play with the "great teams"
3. We actually scored the first coop points in the tournament. Hats off to my team!
4. I do think we were the only robot to rescue another robot in the round that had fallen over. Don't know if we got points for it or not. My drive team got a big high five from me for what THAT'S worth. That shows the team character in my book!
5. We had fun! Our team was very very tired by Saturday noon but no griping, whining, or slacking was to be heard nor found in the pit area.

What did we learn?
1. Winning is great. Winning and working through disappointment is better!
2. We need to step up about 10 levels technologically speaking. We need a smarter mentor....I'm not it. This year showed me where my expertise wall was located. Did all I could do...wasn't enough.
3. Big funding is great. Using what we have is better. We built our robot for less than 2K. It didn't have the "coolness factors" but it worked and worked well.
4. We need to expand our support base in our school organization. We work in 1/2 of a weight room. This must change if we are to move forward.

Would I do this again? H@#$ yeah! Would my sophomores do this again? I do think so! Thanks to the folks that put on the Dallas Regionals. Y'all "done good"

[stens987]

Originally Posted by Boltman

Too tall added attachment without re-inspect

EDIT too high just becuse at the time it was too high way arm was positioned

We didn't modify or change the bot- it was the same not we brought to every other match.

[Michael Corsetto]

Originally Posted by JVN

Thank you to everyone who made Dallas an amazing experience for our team!

I have posted a response to some of the "strangeness" on behalf of 148's students and mentors: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...&postcount=114

Thanks for the post JVN.

At the end of the day, every adult in FRC (Mentors, Inspectors, Judges, Refs, RD's, Frank) needs to ask themselves why they're here. Why are they volunteering their time to this program. If they're answer isn't FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) then you will likely have groups of people that actively work against teams, refuse to give teams the benefit of the doubt, and make decisions like some of the "strangeness" at Dallas.

I come across a wide spectrum of FRC Volunteer quality every year. Consistently, the best volunteers put the teams first and bend over backwards to make each teams experience incredible. Conversely, the worst volunteers actively find or seek out ways to punish teams for either imaginary offenses or minor mistakes. I argue the former understand why they are there. The latter do not.

I wish FIRST did more QC on this, especially at the Key Volunteer level. But honestly, with incidents like SVR and Orlando last year, it seems even HQ tends not to put teams FIRST.

I look forward to playing in Michigan some day. I talk to key volunteers and organizers in that region. Each of them has a "Teams First" mentality. Guys like Rob Jenkins need to be cloned for the entire FRC community. Volunteers like him truly "get it".

If Frank ever sees this, I hope they consider adding a section to their Key Volunteer training. It would be titled "Putting Teams FIRST".

Until then, prepare for even more disappointment and confusion. Glad both 148 and 987 will be at CMP, but sad their third bot will not.

-Mike

[vhcook]

I wasn't at the event, but I'd like to thank the field tear-down volunteers. With the awards ceremony running to 10PM, they must have been there until the wee hours of the morning. It's a lot of work to get everything disassembled, back into the road cases in the very precise order required, and onto the truck, and I'm sure they were already exhausted after a very long day.

Well done 3355 -- when you helped your alliance partner up, I stood up and cheered while watching the webcast.

[JB987]

Originally Posted by stens987

We didn't modify or change the bot- it was the same not we brought to every other match.

To add to Jenny's comments...we indeed did not change or modify the robot that was passed for inspection. Our can grabbing mechanism was on the bot the whole time but may have been tweeked out of the 78" configuration while practicing some grabs on the practice field. We were certainly not aware of the condition until the referee measured on the field...which was perfectly within his right to do so. We just wish we had been given the chance to correct the circumstance as G7 clearly states we should be allowed to do. 10 seconds at most on to the field to press one small button on our solenoid and the extended arms would drop down to it's retracted transport configuration. No comment about the other circumstances and congratulations to the winners.

[Justin Ridley]

The Robonauts would like to thank everyone at the Dallas regional for a great weekend. We're very glad we made our first trip up here and now wonder why it took us so long.

This was obviously a strange tournament and previous comments in this and the 2v3 thread sum up most of what happened. From our side of the field prior to F3: When putting thier robot on the field for the first time, 2613 was slightly across the white landfill line. The field crew required them to leave the field before this could be corrected (their 60 second setup time was up) and would not allow them back on the field to roll back an inch. I only knew they would be disabled because I was close enough to the ref to hear them say it. I can't say if 987 knew they were about to be disabled as well, but I know they would not have been allowed back on the field to fix the problem. Win or lose, we would have rather had all 6 robots playing that last match and it's as simple as that.

We are extremely thankful for how gracious 148/987/3802 acted after what must have been an incredibly heartbreaking ending. These guys reached out to let our students know they shouldn't feel our win was tainted in any way. It was just another example of how much a class act these teams are. Nobody has really mentioned what an incredible accomplishment it is to show up to a week 1 regional and from the very first match have a polished and incredibly effective robot. Both 148 and 987 did this and it's scary to think of how good they'll be in Las Vegas.

Regarding some questions about how 3rd robots were played. On Friday night our team determined the only way to possibly beat a dominate 148/987 alliance was to get all 4 cans from the step along with 2 robots stacking. This meant getting the 3rd robot pulling cans. All day Saturday we worked on a mechanism we could add to a robot in order to do this. 2613 was the perfect robot to utilize this mechanism. We felt this can pulling strategy would really be needed for the finals should we get there, so the beginning of the tournament was spent getting this working, tested on practice field, and the robot fully reinspected. If my memory is correct, they were ready for SF3.

Using this robot added a lot of risks. The can puller deploys in auto, but would never re-raise, leaving a large portion of the field blocked. We thought there was a chance this could hurt our stacking and considered it our hail-mary attempt in a possible 148/987 matchup.

After scoring more points than 148/987 in SF3 we decided to try again without the added risk. Same story after F1. After losing F2 we decided to give it a shot. 2613 was in the loop for all these play/don't play decisions and we're really impressed with how they handled some major robot mods and their willingness to help in any way they could. After all their hard work we wish they would have been able to play that last match, regardless of the outcome. We hope to work with them more in the future.

Finally we've got to give a huge thanks to 624, Cryptonite. We can't sing praises for how this team performed loud enough. They struggled through their qualification matches but we knew the potential was there. We did not realize just how much potential they had. This year is about consistency, and they performed their tasks to near perfection match after match, even playing by themselves in SF2 while we fixed a major robot issue. They won this regional and we got to come along for the ride.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by vhcook

I wasn't at the event, but I'd like to thank the field tear-down volunteers. With the awards ceremony running to 10PM, they must have been there until the wee hours of the morning. It's a lot of work to get everything disassembled, back into the road cases in the very precise order required, and onto the truck, and I'm sure they were already exhausted after a very long day.

Well done 3355 -- when you helped your alliance partner up, I stood up and cheered while watching the webcast.

We were there til midnight. We had to be out by midnight or get charged more. FRC 457 helped a whole lot.

[CTHP]

There is an equally spirited discussion about the final match in Dallas at this link: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...=135295&page=9

[safiq10]

On behalf of the Devastators we would like to congratulate all competitiors at the competition! You all were amazing competitiors and we are honored to have had the chance to play with you.

Congrats to 987 on your Chairman's win! You guys really inspired us with your video and we are looking forward to seeing your video of your presentation.

Also congrats to Winners and the Finalist! You guys inspired us so much that we may just "borrow" some of your designs for OKC.

Finally thank you to 624 mentors for helping solve some of our connection issues and electrical issues. Without you guys we would have spent the entire competition trying to solve those issues!