Week 1 Observations

[MechEng83]

Originally Posted by Jay O'Donnell

Agreed. One bad match in quarters/semis (whether it is your own fault or a dead robot) kills your average and chances of advancing, but one bad match finals and you still have a chance to win the other two matches.

The advancement structure has created a big problem with red card penalties in eliminations.

Case in point: My team's alliance was given a red card for G14 after our 1st semifinal match because we had back-to-back matches and our alliance partner tethered their robot as many teams have done in the past with back-to-back matches, during the field timeout. We were about to do the same to get log files when the head ref came out to give our alliance the red card.

Now, I'm not disputing the penalty, it's clearly in the rules (though easily overlooked by teams used to previous years). But I feel the consequence of the penalty far outweighs the action. In the past, a red card gave you zero points, and the counter was reset, so you could recover from that. With the advancement structure being average score, you're basically hosed from a single red card, with almost no ability to recover.

So my warning to everyone is: don't tether the robot on the field. Ever.

My plea to FIRST is to change this rule. I understand the safety implications in Frank's written notes about this in the team update, but this is another example of the infamous "beatings will continue until morale improves"