Drivers: Who listens to the anouncers?

[Kevin A]

Hello,

For the drivers out there, who listens to the field announcer for help? Things like time, what other robots are doing, and whos having problems? At first I didn't, but I have grown to depend on them...

Kevin Antaki
Team 481

IM Me: xpalendocious

[rbayer]

I never listened to the announcer, just my "coach", who was actually just another student. He told me everything from how much time we had left to which stacks I should go knock down, all of which allowed me to concentrate on the actual driving and forget about strategy. Honestly, I didn't even hear the crowd, much less the announcer, during matches.

--Rob

[sanddrag]

I listened when they said we sheared off our arm because I didn't even see it happen. But don't let that make you worry about our robot. It is one of the most robust in the crowd. I also listened when the anouncer said "And the Circuit Breakers are doing their happy dance on top of the platform!" Those were a couple of great matches. Everyone else was either flipped or disabled in some way so we just spun around on the ramp waving our arms for the last 30 seconds. Does anyone have video of that?

[Archon]

As one of those "coaches" I can say fairly confidentely that the driver is paying far too much attention to what he is doing to listen to the announcer. This isn't neccessarily a bad thing, that's what I'm there for.

[Halon]

I usually only listened to the announcer when I couldn't see what I was doing or when we were fighting for the ramp. Another thing that helped me out when my robot was on the other side of the field was looking at the huge screen instead of the playing field. It was much easier to drive like that when the boxes hadn't been knocked down in auto mode because the screen usually showed the whole playing field. I usually have our operator read out the time to me.

[Kevin A]

I am the operator, and only once has my drive team given me good information. The annoucer is usually accurate, so that helps. And as for not paying attn to the crowd, i think thats because you cant hear them. We blew a gear box, and our robot was making horrific ringing/grinding/dieing noises. Or so i was told. I couldnt hear it behing the plexi

[KevK]

When im behind the glass, i ignore everything else besides my drive team. My coach tells me what to do, i do it. I lot of times, i don;t even realzie something big has happened till after the match, when we go pick up the robot.

[Jeff Waegelin]

I never listen to the announcers. In my mind, they're entirely blanked out. I've glanced at the screen once or twice, though. Between me and Steph, our coach, we keep track of the whole match on our own.

[Austin]

I ususally only listen to Andy (the coach)who calls out strategy and DJ (our human player) who calls out time, and Clark (Operator) who tells me what state our "Puck" control is in. Very rarely do i listen to the announcer, but every once in a while i hear a short little phrase!

[Joel J]

This is a weird answer.. During any given match, I am only concious of what is said by the other members of my drive team. But after the match, I remember what the announcer and our partner were saying while the match was in progress. Our partner always yells to us their current status, and what they need help with, and I react to it. But I don't really hear what they said until after the match.. yeah, I am contradicting myself, but I'm saying it exactly like it is. Zoning out is the word I guess, and it happens automatically to drivers, I would hope. Whatever.

[ryanspensley]

When I drive I usually block everything out, except for the other driver mostly. I know what my mission is and I complete it while checking with my alliance partner. I do listen to some comments from the coaches, but usually they dont have that much to say except tracking the score. When I run out of things to do and am sitting at the top of the ramp, thats usually when i listen to my team.

[tenfour]

I just try to black it out except our strategy guy, Punar and our driver, Sanddrag. Otherwise, I don't listen unless the match gets really boring or they say something really surprising (like that we sheared off our arm)!

[Powers]

I have never listened to the announcers, even though i am the one driving the arm and am thus not doing very much, i am usually too busy watching our robot run around and trying to see if we are winning.

[David Lantz]

Most of the time I'm in my "zone". This means that if you yell something unrelated into my ear I'm liable to look at you and blink, then continue to play. I usually end up so wrapped up in the game that its hard to realize that its over even though I was to one yelling: Get on top!!!!!! Get on top!!!!! 3!!!..2!!!..1!!!..

[Matt Brinza]

Hey, Matt here from team #16, Baxter Bomb Squad. I'm one of the human players for our team this year, and even I don't notice the announcer. I stay focused on calculating the score and suggesting strategy options to our coach... I don't pay much attention to anything else.

Some of the commentary provided by the announcer is rather interesting, though. Watching videos of our matches, I was rather surprised how informational the commentary really was.