G10, The Dallas Disable & Crickets Chirping in Manchester

[Paul Copioli]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

I prefer to think of myself, my students, and all the other teams as the customer... because you know, the giant stacks of cash we give FIRST every year.

The "Team Experience" is very important, and the fact that we pay so much to compete makes it harder to let things slide.

^THIS^

Frank gets it; Team Experience. If the volunteers think that the Team Experience will be enhanced by counting the timer at some arbitrary time and counting 60 seconds, then they don't get it. I hope the week 2 volunteer leaders at each event are smarter than this.

If not, then I have some questions:

1. When does the 2 minutes start?
2. What if field reset people are in the way?
3. What if the person timing the 60 seconds isn't using a stop watch?
4. What if my robot doesn't get on the field until 30 seconds after your robot? When does the time start then? Are there multiple time keepers?

We are asked to understand the intent of a rule so I ask the same of the volunteers. We do not want unnecessary delays because of setting up potentially gangly robots. A stop watch is not necessary.

I am really interested in what Frank and the rest of the GDC intended for this rule.

Someone really needs to go through match footage and look at how much time teams took last year. I bet the average was more than 1 minute from the time the robot broke the plane of the field border and the time the last drive team member left the field.

Paul