The Dow Red Stick Rumble - A Report

[EricH]

Originally Posted by MysterE

I will be honest. I referred them - as I believe is standard policy - back to the FTA and FTAA to discuss the changes in alliance selection.

Just as a note:

As far as I am aware, at most offseason events, it is the event committee, or such members as are actually present, who are responsible for determining the alliance selection to be used. While the FTA/FTAA may be on that committee, the responsibility generally falls on the committee as a whole--and more particularly on the spokesperson for that committee--to determine, and especially announce, decisions of this nature.




As another note, I am aware of at least one event with no less than FOUR plans for playoffs/eliminations, all publicly posted, covering any number of teams starting at 12 and going up to "so how many showed up this year?". (On the other hand, I have seen that event modify on the fly because time was not their friend--but they'll announce to all teams, and it's because of time not number of teams.)

[craigcd]

If you want to attend the locally supported and the only off season event in Southern Louisiana the Red Stick Rumble is for you.
If you want to compete on an official First field, playing timed matches with referee's the Red Stick Rumble is for you.
If you want to give you rookie drivers a chance to play against other teams in a realistic game environment the Red Stick Rumble is for you.
If you want to preview the 2015 FLL game and ask the Regional Director and the Event Coordinator for the Louisiana tournament questions the Red Stick Rumble is for you.
If you want the play this years FTC game and ask questions to teams that competed then the Red Stick Rumble is for you.
If you want good food and ice cream and make friends from the teams that you have played against then the Red Stick Rumble is for you.
If you want to be inflexible and rigid and not able to adapt then good luck.
If you want to complain and think you can do better then start your own off season event.

I will admit that the Red Stick this year was a little rough. Knowing all the rule changes from the official game would have been nice to know upfront but to me that is not a show stopper. I like the rule about the first five teams not being able to pick in the top five. This event can and will get better. My team will be back next year and thanks to First Team 3337 for all the time and effort that you have put in.

[bowmanb]

Originally Posted by craigcd

If you want to attend the locally supported and the only off season event in Southern Louisiana the Red Stick Rumble is for you.
If you want to compete on an official First field, playing timed matches with referee's the Red Stick Rumble is for you.
If you want to give you rookie drivers a chance to play against other teams in a realistic game environment the Red Stick Rumble is for you.
If you want to preview the 2015 FLL game and ask the Regional Director and the Event Coordinator for the Louisiana tournament questions the Red Stick Rumble is for you.
If you want the play this years FTC game and ask questions to teams that competed then the Red Stick Rumble is for you.
If you want good food and ice cream and make friends from the teams that you have played against then the Red Stick Rumble is for you.
If you want to be inflexible and rigid and not able to adapt then good luck.
If you want to complain and think you can do better then start your own off season event.

I will admit that the Red Stick this year was a little rough. Knowing all the rule changes from the official game would have been nice to know upfront but to me that is not a show stopper. I like the rule about the first five teams not being able to pick in the top five. This event can and will get better. My team will be back next year and thanks to First Team 3337 for all the time and effort that you have put in.

craigcd says it perfectly. Our team accomplished exactly what we set out to do, which was introduce new members to the joys of FRC and work on the composition of our new drive team after graduating. RSR allowed us to do this in a low pressure environment. Thank you Daniel and Panthrobotics for all your hard work and persistence in putting this event on.

[bowmanb]

And another thing, I like the No Pick Captains rule, especially with this game were there is such a huge spread in robot capabilities. Without it you get results like we witnessed at Lone Star in Houston this year where Robonauts and Kryptonite combined to wipe the floor with all comers. They were so far above the rest of the field that they didn't even allow the third robot on the field!

We all would have been better served at that event if the talent had been better distributed. As it was, the end result was a foregone conclusion before the first match was played.

At Champs where the teams are more evenly matched, the picking down-alliance makes more sense.

[jee7s]

Off-seasons are a funny thing because they are interpreted so differently by so many teams. And, oddly enough, paying a modest sum of money seems to be at the core of the differences.

Some teams approach it as "well, it's a little money so we can get a field to play on and have some fun." While, for others, it's a "dang it, we paid for this and it should be better" attitude.

As the TRR Competition Coordinator (i.e. the guy who oversees all the rules changes, enforcement, etc), I've found myself tackling the same issues Daniel had to this past weekend. So many teams will register, but not all will show up. Some will register late, some will register early. It's just such a game of chance, and it's one where those of us who run these events need to deal with hard questions about the health of our events.

Take for example this year's TRR. We were planning on 4 team alliances for eliminations. But, we had so many no-shows that we ended up with only 27 teams. The decision is "easy" (quotes very much intended): just go to 3 team alliances. But, that means that three teams need to sit out. That can be hard to explain to people who paid good money to attend the event.

Or, go back to 2013 TRR, when our volunteers (particularly our referees) were downright worn down by teams wanting to win. We went 5 matches straight with the question mark box full for questions during eliminations. Our head ref that year, who is an excellent person, just couldn't handle the onslaught of teams pressing their questions out of their drive to win. We had to remind mentors around the field to not yell at the referees who are just human beings trying to do a good job. I don't blame those teams for wanting to win. But, when you get a volunteer crew that normally works one event, and decides to help you out through the goodness of their heart, and then has to deal with championship level stress after the AC fails in August in Texas, well, it's tough to retain all of them.

For the past three years running, we've had a World Champion team in the field at TRR. Oddly enough, for all of the arguments relating to "competitive" teams, we've found these teams and pretty much all the others at TRR to be nothing less than professional.

The thing about growing an event it just that: you need to grow it. It takes years, it takes effort, it takes both consistency and situations that are stable enough to make that consistency apparent. When things go wrong, you and your volunteers will take it on the chin. When things go right, some people will thank you, but it's not like a chorus of cheers. Registration will go up, registration will go down, you'll falter and you'll succeed. It takes time to establish the character of your event. But, sticking with it means a better community for you, your team, your state, and your region.

So, Daniel and the rest of the Red Stick organizers, keep up the good work. Don't let this year's perfect mis-alignment of the stars stop you from trying again next year.

[AdamHeard]

It takes a lot of volunteer effort, know how and institutional inertia to get a good (closer to season competition) offseason event going.

California is in a pretty good spot now for offseasons, but for a long time most of the events were similar to the Red Stick Rumble.

In many ways, that's GOOD for the kids if you mentally frame it right. It being so low key and low pressure allows students that might not have felt ready to drive, be pit crew, etc.. for a "competitive" team to have a chance to experience such roles without fear of letting themselves or anyone else down.

It's nice if you're able to do both lower key and higher level off season events, but if the lower key ones are your only option embrace it and go.

Certainly, don't expect a low key offseason to run like IRI and then hold the people running the event personally accountable for the mismatch in expectations in you framed in your mind.