Suffield Shakedown 2016

[Josh Goodman]

What time are you expecting matches to start?

[MarcD79]

To all those who watch or follow online for the Suffield Shakedown Scrimmage I have a question for you all. Who watches the Shakedown from across the country & who would be upset if it didn't continue. Who would be willing to help out with the arrangements & set-up in the coming years to make sure it continues.
Please leave a response for the question above.

[Peyton Yeung]

Originally Posted by MarcD79

To all those who watch or follow online for the Suffield Shakedown Scrimmage I have a question for you all. Who watches the Shakedown from across the country & who would be upset if it didn't continue. Who would be willing to help out with the arrangements & set-up in the coming years to make sure it continues.
Please leave a response for the question above.

We usually have it streaming in our build area while we scramble to finish our robot. For a decent number of our students, this is one of the first times they see robots interacting on the field. WE'd definitely by saddened if it didn't continue.

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by MarcD79

To all those who watch or follow online for the Suffield Shakedown Scrimmage I have a question for you all. Who watches the Shakedown from across the country & who would be upset if it didn't continue. Who would be willing to help out with the arrangements & set-up in the coming years to make sure it continues.
Please leave a response for the question above.

I watch every season. Will be watching even closely with 228 there

I will gladly help next year.

[ghesla]

we plan to watch it here from brazil

[akmess01]

We are looking to use this to test our scouting system. Would it be possible for the match schedule to be posted online?

[MarcD79]

Originally Posted by akmess01

We are looking to use this to test our scouting system. Would it be possible for the match schedule to be posted online?

I don't know. Gaelhawks team 230 are the one who do the streaming. I'll ask in the morning. We aren't sure if we are going to use FMS lite or just do filler line w/ 5 minutes rounds.

[Steve Horn]

Originally Posted by akmess01

Would it be possible for the match schedule to be posted online?

We do not have a match schedule to post online. Since we are not running full FMS at this event, it is easier to just run a filler line and let teams come to the field when they are ready to play.

[RoboTigers1796]

Originally Posted by Steve Horn

We do not have a match schedule to post online. Since we are not running full FMS at this event, it is easier to just run a filler line and let teams come to the field when they are ready to play.

Last year you guys decided to do extended matches. Will you be doing the same this year?
Look forward to watching!

[Steve Horn]

We did do extended matches this year. The 25 teams that competed had a lot of fun and got to experience the FIRST Stronghold game for the first time this year. The extended matches allowed for teams to test out their robots more on the field and attempt going over various defenses. The top three teams for Suffield Shakedown were determined by their average score - the total number of points they had divided by the total amount of matches they played. Here were the top three teams based on average points:

1: 1099
2: 3461
3: 2067

[alextried]

This was definitely a rough event. There was no hanging bar and quite a few defenses were damaged because they weren't secured, which also made it almost impossible for teams to consistently cross them, instead pushing them all across the field. There was also no holes in the castle wall for boulders, and no way to remove scored boulders, so most HPs were dead in the water. This was definitely an event to look at robots, and not watch performance or practice.

[MarcD79]

For those who didn't help us organize this event, & understand the pitfalls we ran into to even get what we had today, then maybe you can help & volunteer next year. We put a shout-out for help, but nobody stepped forward. It took great effort to get the pieces we had. Don't criticize what you don't know anything about. We graciously do this event to give teams a chance to try their robots before they have to Bag & Tag. We don't make much money for effort we put in. Don't say that other teams pull this off during off-season. They have a lot more time to organize/plan & have ALL the FIRST fields ready. Don't forget, we are building a robot at the same time & have a small team.
Forgive me for ranting, but I just had to get this off my chest. I still love doing the Scrimmage & I don't have to.

[dradel]

My team is beyond grateful for all those that put on the shakedown!! It is an invaluable asset to teams!
We learned a bunch today, and got to reconnect with other teams we haven't seen since last season.
Thank you so much for all you, and you team do to make it happen.

[MarcD79]

Originally Posted by dradel

My team is beyond grateful for all those that put on the shakedown!! It is an invaluable asset to teams!
We learned a bunch today, and got to reconnect with other teams we haven't seen since last season.
Thank you so much for all you, and you team do to make it happen.

As the Field Supervisor, I had an interesting challenge today as you saw. For those who understood & had a great time I am happy I could provide what we did under the circumstances. I did have a great time watching all those fantastic robots today.
With the growing teams throughout the country & internationally & the fact that there are a lot of Game specific field pieces, FIRST just didn't have the pieces available at this time. They won''t be ready until just before week 1. Anything ready prior to this will be shipped to Israel & Australia as they actually start a couple of days before week 1.

Good luck to all teams in this competition!

[Chi Meson]

It's unfortunate that the official field wasn't ready for week 0. Not just because we could try our robot on the actual game pieces (and so it will remain a mystery whether or not our portcullus lifter will work--however we do know that in a pinch we can just drive right through it); but also in past years this was the opportunity for FIRST to discover issues with the field itself.

Now it will fall to the week 1 events to discover the problems of the field.

Although there were issues, the event was extremely useful and important for us, and we extend our gratitude to our hosts.