Einstein Spectator Experience

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Katie_UPS

I'm highly suspicious this has a lot to do with FIRST's goal to "Make It Loud." They did a similar thing in 2011 with the Will.I.Am concert and announcing the chairman's winner, which if I recall correctly, upset some folk (especially because there was minimal to no communication to teams that this would be the case).

I don't recall them announcing ahead of time that the CCA would be given at that concert. But yes, that whole "there's a concert on Friday" thing definitely could have been handled better that year.

You can "Make It Loud" WITHOUT depriving your CCA, Winner, and Finalist of full cheering sections, folks. It's called "have everybody stay put long enough for the awards".

[dodar]

Originally Posted by EricH

I don't recall them announcing ahead of time that the CCA would be given at that concert. But yes, that whole "there's a concert on Friday" thing definitely could have been handled better that year.

You can "Make It Loud" WITHOUT depriving your CCA, Winner, and Finalist of full cheering sections, folks. It's called "have everybody stay put long enough for the awards".

It would also be better if all 4 teams were given proper shout outs during awards. 1671 had to go down to the field themselves because the MC started thanking everyone and started to tell them to go to the other side of the stadium before they even got recognized.

[AlexD744]

Originally Posted by Pretzel

My only thoughts on the reporter were, "That's great!"

It's a cool idea but the implementation of it could have been a bit better. Most of the questions were along the lines of, "How excited are you right now?", "What is your match strategy?" and "How did that last match go?". The first question will always have an answer of "Very!", the second will never get an honest answer other than "Score lots of points", and the third one would have been more interesting if the reporter didn't say, "That's great!" when 359 told them it all went horribly wrong and had instead listened and asked a little about how they tried to recover from their autonomous troubles.

I think the presentation similar to a sports cast, with the two "color commentators" between matches is something that needs to be done for a major TV network like ESPN to pick up the championship, but it could use some refinement. Maybe pick the emcee's to be the color commentators so that you're hearing the same voices each time, instead of bouncing around to 2 emcee's, 2 people giving the play by play, and 2 people at the sports desk.t

I know and agree... I was making fun of her over use of the word awesome. Roboshow in orlando has pretty good field side interviews. I don't know if the champs interviewer is affiliated with FIRST or not, but it helps if the interviewer knows the game and teams really well. Would've also been good to talk to the 4th alliance memebers and get their perspective, e.g. talking to 900 about the harpoons.

[sanddrag]

Originally Posted by Tom Line

I see no proof of this. Can you please provide proof where FIRST has stated this?

All the proof I needed was waiting for over an hour after Einstein wondering when and where the Chairman's Award presentation was going to take place, while having my ears blasted out by some (quite good sounding) music as I sat amongst garbage.

[magnets]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

All the proof I needed was waiting for over an hour after Einstein wondering when and where the Chairman's Award presentation was going to take place, while having my ears blasted out by some (quite good sounding) music as I sat amongst garbage.

The part I bolded really stood out to me, as somebody sitting in the 200's level. There was a TON of junk that landed on me and my team, including a few hundred glow sticks, toilet paper, and a bunch of sheets of paper. If you're going to litter and throw paper everywhere, at least take the time to fold the paper into an airplane.

The spectator experience full of litter brings a whole new meaning to "Recycle Rush"

[James1902]

Originally Posted by AlexD744

I don't know if the champs interviewer is affiliated with FIRST or not, but it helps if the interviewer knows the game and teams really well. Would've also been good to talk to the 4th alliance memebers and get their perspective, e.g. talking to 900 about the harpoons.

I could be wrong, but I believe she was one of the two commentators from Georgia's GameTime so I think she's a FIRSTer.

To be fair, that sort of interviewing is a tough gig. Usually, if it's the interviewer's first or second time doing it, they'll end up having a catch all filler word that they keep going back to, hers seemed to be "awesome", mine was "fantastic" in the past. This can be trained out of you with enough repetition and experience. For me that took the form of watching past interviews wanting to bang my head against a table because I couldn't believe I said the stupid word "fantastic" AGAIN!

I do think FIRST, or her producers on the floor, should have done a better job prepping her about that catch word. It also probably would have helped to let her do some warm up interviews at a bunch of different fields on Thursday and Friday just to get some practice in before the big show.

[Matt_Boehm_329]

Originally Posted by magnets

The part I bolded really stood out to me, as somebody sitting in the 200's level. There was a TON of junk that landed on me and my team, including a few hundred glow sticks, toilet paper, and a bunch of sheets of paper. If you're going to litter and throw paper everywhere, at least take the time to fold the paper into an airplane.

The spectator experience full of litter brings a whole new meaning to "Recycle Rush"

I personally have no problem with airplanes but entire stacks of paper, paper balls, glow sticks, homemade confetti, and toilet paper is way over the top.

We also use to be really good at not throwing airplanes during matches. Landing on the field waiting for an hour for things to start is one thing but when they land on the field (or hit a robot) during a countdown or while the teams are introduced is a bit much. I still have my tin foil hat theory that the airplane is what busted 1114's can grabbers

Edit: I loved the cheers from our section every time something was AWESOME! and the awws when it was only wonderful

[smistthegreat]

Sitting in section 450, the screen on the right Einstein field (mass) was obscured by the lighting supports. I'm not sure if this was an oversight or a necessary evil, but it made keeping up with the scoring and ranking screens extremely difficult.

[BrendanB]

The audio was two different worlds depending on where you sat. Downstairs it was extremely loud. Upstairs it was very hard to hear.

As it was mentioned before (and I think has been for every single year) the lighting trusses always block the scoreboard and the left field had a speaker blocking right above that. We had to look at the screen on the far side of the arena for scores. If the screen behind the podium had been used during the match this wouldn't have been an issue. Consider larger screens for the Einstein Fields.

The Chairmans Award needs to be handed out during the Einstein matches not forcing teams to stay during the closing ceremonies potentially missing flights/delaying returns home. This is the pinnacle award in FRC let's hand it out as such.

Kudos to the group that made FRC Rhapsody but that really didn't belong on Einstein or the Up Town Funk Dance. We've all been waiting on long enough to get matches started.

Stop showing drivers/HPs during the Einstein broadcast and stop splitting views into tiny boxes on the screen.

So far we've seen two years of the Einstein finals broadcast with more commentary. Last year was good for the first attempt, this year was less than desirable but also can be given a stamp of "good" considering it was some of their first time doing so. A little more forethought/preparation can go a long way but going back up to one of my previous points I didn't hear much of it from upstairs.

FIRST needs to start taking the bull by the horns on the trash throwing at champs. With announcements before/during Einstein and volunteers in the upper deck who have the authority to remove a whole team if their students are caught throwing planes off the upper deck. It keeps getting worse and worse every year with teams just dumping paper off the balcony or at a few moments what looked like long rolls of paper towels/toilet paper. This is a flat out embarrassment to the FRC community and the stands were trashed although I'm not sure how the venue feels about this because it seemed impossible during Einstein to find a trashcan on the concourse that wasn't overflowing.

A late addition but let's be honest overall it was incredibly boring. The only excitement were the brief few seconds when two robots got stuck battling for cans but it was over pretty fast and happened few times since most battles were won before you could react.

[Karthik]

Originally Posted by AlexD744

I know and agree... I was making fun of her over use of the word awesome.

Perhaps you shouldn't be making fun of a volunteer on a public forum. Would you do this to her face?

I understand that once you pick up a microphone you become a target for criticism, but please remember that every speaker/MC/announcer is a person with feelings. Constructive criticism is one thing, but making jokes over word choice is over the top. Maybe I'm rubbed the wrong way by this over the ad hominem criticisms I've received over the years over my performances, but just try and remember that words can have real impacts on people.

[RonnieS]

Originally Posted by Karthik

Perhaps you shouldn't be making fun of a volunteer on a public forum. Would you do this to her face?

I understand that once you pick up a microphone you become a target for criticism, but please remember that every speaker/MC/announcer is a person with feelings. Constructive criticism is one thing, but making jokes over word choice is over the top. Maybe I'm rubbed the wrong way by this over the ad hominem criticisms I've received over the years over my performances, but just try and remember that words can have real impacts on people.

Just to come off of what Karthik said, I had a conversation with Annika and am glad she is taking it so well ( on the outside atleast). I applaud her for that and get pissed at the people who haven't considered how hard it is to talk to multiple teams on different strategies on a game that has 2 main objectives that stay the same for the most part. Steal the cans and make stacks with them.

Side note on it: maybe we could re structure the questions so we do not ask the loosing alliance how it went but rather give them time to digest it because it hurts...been there.

-Ronnie

[ThePancakeMan]

Overall I feel that champs was pretty cool this year. Granted I don't have much experience with it being as I am rather new to FIRST. I had a great time and saw most other people did too. But, please when you have an issue with something in the even please just remember , gracious professionalism. Just take a step back and realize how much work was put into to making this happen. I guess I'm just trying to say, please remember that there are people behind the things you are talking about and they have feelings too. Also I loved how exciting the Einstein field was. I loved the little breaks in between matches and although it has received some criticism I thought that it enhanced the experience and that the passion everyone had was amazing.

One thing that I found annoyed me a little bit was the paper airplanes. I thought this was only a minor imperfection during the event. I understand that it is fun to throw them during the event with everyone else. But imagine how many people are getting hit by them. I witnessed several people get hit in the face with paper airplanes. I have to admit I was a little scared that someone would get hit in the eye. But, overall this is the only negative thing I have to say about my champs experience. It was all amazing ,but next time I would like if people avoided littering the stadium.

[Kevin Kolodziej]

I was spectating from the concourse level seats in Section 406. The view of both fields was good, part of one of the screens was obstructed but there were enough other screens that I found it to be okay.

The good:
+Two fields brought all of the teams close at one point.
+It appeared each division had a "garage" behind the fields for their pits. The curtain was raised slightly to accommodate this.
+I applaud FIRSTs efforts to make Einstein more sports like. Its not quite ready for primetime yet but the match commentary and sideline reporting was interesting - just needs a little refinement.
+The production of Einstein was great - I loved the lighting and how the fields were highlighted
+Bad Lip Reading was the best "fun" moment of any Einstein I can recall.

Room for improvement:
- I don't know if it was related to my location but there was a very bad echo on the sound for the first 10-15 minutes of matches and announcing. It was corrected though so I think it was an open mic somewhere perhaps.
- Mentors need to control their students when it comes to airplanes. FIRST could be proactive and have an "airplain time" on the screen or something, but it all comes down to the mentors setting the tone for their teams. It needs to stop once the ceremony and matches start. I was hit by over a dozen wads of paper, not airplains, and I turned around to yell at the section behind me to please stop throwing things. During a match I was filming and had a student squeeze between myself and who I was sitting next to to pick up an airplane (there were plenty behind me) to throw it again. Also, several of the airplanes had students phone numbers on them. Blair even started to read one phone number on a plane that landed by him while he was doing commentary.
- There was an extreme LACK of communication about how Saturday afternoon would be handled, especially to spectators*. Starting Einstein nearly an hour late and then starting with unnecessary dances and songs was not good. Not communicating the change of Chairman's was not good. Telling people to leave before Championship awards were handed out was not good. They did WFA before matches and so I expected Chairman's to be done as well...but nope. Chairman's was handed out at 8:30 pm. That is unacceptable.**
- I didn't stay for much of the finale but before I left, most of the 8 finalist and winners had left the floor area to go pack up their pits. This left maybe 100 people on the floor and LOTS of people in the stands wanting to go on the floor for the concert. I don't know if they were ever allowed to go on the floor, but the lack of communication about what to expect at the finale, who gets to go where, what will happen, etc, was very disappointing.
- I remember when each division would make a short video introducing their teams and/or the emcee from the division would walk out with their teams to introduce them to everyone. I miss this. While the teams were introduced when they played on the field, there was no fanfare, nothing to produce an ovation from their division in the audience, and nothing to make it feel any different from a normal match aside from a larger crowd. Teams and robots used to be paraded out in front of everyone and introduced to everyone at the start of Einstein. Bring that back.
- Moving Dave to the commentary position rather than emcee of Einstein detracted a little bit I think. I'm not saying the emcees on Einstein didn't do a good job, but Dave always gave histories and connections and stories about the teams. He did some of that from the commentator position, but since the commentary was usually about a pair of matches, the time was reduced, and for old timers like me who do care about the history of the sport and do remember who won in years past, it was a nice addition that I was missing this year.

Overall, I think the 600+ team experiment was a success. I am hopeful next year these items will be addressed and the last true championship will be an event not to be missed.

*I was shocked to find people being turned away from the Dome and Pits if they weren't wearing a badge. No where were spectators told they MUST register..the information said registration was required for shuttle bus use and for admission to special events (like the finale). While registration is not a big hassle, it goes against what FIRST has established as free and accessible events. The staff checking for badges were not the most friendly (from what I saw) and may not have clearly directed spectators to the registration boothes.

** in 2011, I don't recall if it was communicated that the Chairman's Award would be given at the concert on Friday, however, RCA teams were given special access to the floor which clued you in that something might be happening.

[Amo10]

Just some background since I worked with Annika at three events this year, Georgia Southern Classic Regional, Peachtree, and a bit on the floor of Einstein. At both GSCR and Peachtree Annika was one of the two commentators of GameTime who preformed interviews with teams about different things they do and provided after match commentary after 3 or 4 matches during the eliminations. There was a team of people behind GameTime constantly watching matches throughout the event and keeping facts on teams. At Championship there wasn't a team of these people behind Annika although there was a team for the match break desk. She would catch someone from one of the teams, the camera guy would do white balance, and within 10 seconds she would be live in front of thousands of people interviewing someone. It was a constant rush and because of the way FRC is it is hard to fix the issue of the speed and depth of the field interviews with the window of time between matches. Luckily she is awesome so she isn't mad about all of the comments. I definitely think that there need to be some improvements to the commentary during Einstein but having worked behind the scenes of 3 commentary shows during this season I can tell you there is a lot more work and logistics than you expect with even simple interviews.
- Andrew

[James1902]

Thanks for the background, I forgot you guys did Peachtree as well this year, and i'm glad to hear she hasn't been put off by the comments. It's a tough job, I'm glad to see that FIRST is making an effort to include at least some of the community productions in the big show.

Originally Posted by Amo10

I can tell you there is a lot more work and logistics than you expect with even simple interviews.

I know that feel man.