MAR SCH Event

[dmorewood]

Thank you everyone that came for making the event so much fun. We had an amazing weekend and hope to see everyone again soon at Westtown and MAR Champs. Congratulations on 11, 225, and 423 for their win. Also congratulations to 321 for their Chairmans win.

Another thing I was hoping to bring up was our schedule. We were able to get all 62 qualification matches done on Saturday and then go straight to alliance selection and playoffs on Sunday morning. We were done the event and the awards ceremony by 2 on Sunday. How did everyone like this? Do you think that this should be the new format for MAR District events?

[Ben Martin]

225 had a fantastic time at SCH. There was a top-notch team experience for everyone. Thank you to the MAR event staff and 1218 for putting on such a great event.

Thanks to 11 and 423 for playing with us. It was a blast working with you guys.

Congratulations to 321 for another Chairman's award!

Additional shout-outs to 1218 and 708 for improving even further on their performances of their first event, and 5404 for building one of the best high goal scoring machines at SCH. We're looking forward to playing with all of you at Westtown in two weeks.

I can't speak for others on my team, but I liked the change in format.

[Foster]

What was the start and end time on Saturday?

[Ben Martin]

Originally Posted by Foster

What was the start and end time on Saturday?

We started at 8AM. Matches started at 10:30AM. There were 2 30 minute breaks for lunch and dinner, and matches ended around 8:10PM. Pits closed at 9PM.

For most of the event, they were ahead of schedule.

[dmorewood]

Originally Posted by Foster

What was the start and end time on Saturday?

Pits opened at 8 AM and we had quals going by 9. Quals ended by 8:15 and pits closed at 9 PM. The field was actually running ahead of schedule by 15 minutes at one point. Yes an FRC event ran ahead of schedule.

[M.O'Reilly]

The BambiBotz thank the event coordinators for putting on a silky-smooth event. Nice work.

Our girls had a great time at SCH this year. It was our first time as an alliance captain. Definitely learned the hard way that connections must be VERY secure, and sometimes Al rivets just don't hold up in this game. Lots of room for improvement.

Looking forward to Westtown. Anyone from the SCH coordinators helping reproduce the success in Westtown- a new venue?

[Lil' Lavery]

This was one of the most challenging events I've had during my time as a FRC participant. But ultimately, 1712 pulled through. We have plenty of lessons learned from a slew of errors that haunted all morning and into the early afternoon on Saturday. Dawgma would simply not have been able to compete without the aid of several other teams in the event, particularly in terms of spare parts. We experienced failures in areas we did not anticipate (or in one case, far more failures than anticipated running us out of the spares we already had, prompting a Sunday morning redesign). Gigantic thanks to teams 708 (for all sorts of tools and the dustpan), 225 (for the event-saving 14 tooth gear), 4342 (for the shaft adapters), and 3974 (for the latest firmware). Also huge props to the volunteers and field staff, and particularly Ron for his FTA/CSA support in aiding us solving our roboRIO issues from our first couple matches.

And of course thank you to 4637 for seeing past our Saturday morning issues to select us for your elimination alliance, and to 103 for being a gracious alliance partner as always. I know the matches didn't work out as we had planned, but we're looking forwards to playing with both of you again in the future.

With regards to the schedule changes, I have some mixed feelings. The positive was that I had some recovery time on Sunday to be ready for work today. Normally Saturday/Sunday events are a nightmare the following Monday. However, the issues we experience were certainly exacerbated by having to run all 12 qualification matches in a single day. After shearing our drive gear in Q24, we were very fortunate that 225 had a replacement 14 tooth gear, otherwise we would have been immobile for the remainder of the event. At a typical 2-day event, we would have had more time to fully rebuild our drivetrain prior to Sunday morning qualification matches. Not to mention Saturday was a generally exhausting experience. 13 straight hours of FRC is a whole lot.

[rrossbach]

Originally Posted by Ben Martin

We started at 8AM. Matches started at 10:30AM. There were 2 30 minute breaks for lunch and dinner, and matches ended around 8:10PM. Pits closed at 9PM.

For most of the event, they were ahead of schedule.

Originally Posted by dmorewood

Pits opened at 8 AM and we had quals going by 9. Quals ended by 8:15 and pits closed at 9 PM. The field was actually running ahead of schedule by 15 minutes at one point. Yes an FRC event ran ahead of schedule.

I'd like to give a shout-out here to the field supervisors Brian & Kara and all the field reset crew, who did an absolutely awesome job cycling the defenses. The experiences learned during week 1 were also put to exceptional use, and prevented any major issues with the defenses. Everyone had an exhausting day on Saturday but it was amazing to be a part of.

Lots of other congrats are in order, trouble is I'm afraid of missing people if I start listing too many. But I do have to shout-out to the volunteer & event coordinators (Tom and Allie) who really inspire excellence in everyone around them, and of course Peter & James and all of 1218 who are always fantastic hosts.

It was great seeing and working with all the teams this weekend! Can't wait for Westtown and Lehigh.

[M.O'Reilly]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

With regards to the schedule changes, I have some mixed feelings.

I will definitely echo that...

Nice to have the extra time Sunday afternoon, and makes sitting through awards a little easier when you're on a smaller team with limited resources.

However, Saturday was soooo so difficult. For those not aware... because of the threat of snow on Sunday, all qualification matches were played on Saturday. In a 31 team event with 12 matches per team, the average match turnaround was ~5 (imagine the stress of the elimination match schedule all weekend). If something broke (which happened almost every match), it could be 2, 3, or more matches before fully repaired. There was also very little time for the practice field and autonomous tweaking.

I must conclude that spreading the matches out as much as possible is definitely the best way forward, no matter how much I like my Sunday afternoon.

That was my only complaint, but the event staff executed their plans flawlessly.

[dmorewood]

Originally Posted by M.O'Reilly

The BambiBotz thank the event coordinators for putting on a silky-smooth event. Nice work.

Our girls had a great time at SCH this year. It was our first time as an alliance captain. Definitely learned the hard way that connections must be VERY secure, and sometimes Al rivets just don't hold up in this game. Lots of room for improvement.

Looking forward to Westtown. Anyone from the SCH coordinators helping reproduce the success in Westtown- a new venue?

We have talked to one of the host teams, 1640, a little bit about how we run our events. I believe Metal MOOSE is also a co - hosting team and they were at our event to watch how we set up our schedule to be done so early.

[Cam877]

I think I can speak on behalf of everyone on my team when I say that MORT had an amazing time at Chestnut Hill. The event was incredibly run, even with the change of schedule(which I did enjoy. Having all the data sooner gave us a lot more time to make a full pick list for alliance selections). Of course, a HUGE thank you goes out to our amazing alliance partners, 225 and 423. You guys were amazing to work with and we can't wait to see you guys at MAR Champs.

Also, a big thank you goes out to 1218 and of course 225, who both helped supply us with versaplanetary stages to fix our intake gearbox after it sheared near the end of qualifications. We don't know what we would have done without that, and we are incredibly grateful.

Overall, it was a beautifully run event, with many great teams and great robots to go with them Good luck to everyone, and hope to see you all in Lehigh!

[PayneTrain]

Wonder what people would think about going down to ten matches per event if it meant you got in and out in 1.5 days? Turnaround match count is hectic but the field reset time slows down?

I'm a total zombie today after getting home at 1am last night and midnight last Sunday. I could quite literally thank God for Easter forcing us into a Friday/Saturday event.

[Ari423]

As you might expect, we were very happy with the entire event. Other than a few mix-ups with our busses, everything went wonderfully. On behalf of the Simple Machines, I want to thank 11 and 225 for picking us to be on their alliance. We had a lot of fun competing with you and learned valuable lessons in what it takes to succeed in competition. I look forward to working with both teams at Lehigh.

I also want to thank 11, 433, 708, and 1218 for lending us parts, 1218 for helping us rebuild our arm when it broke, and 11 for helping us add colored poles to see past the tall defenses. We couldn't have done it without you. Can't wait to see many of you again at Westtown, and then Lehigh.

No longer speaking for my team. Personally, I was fine with the abbreviated schedule because of the weather. However, under normal circumstances, I would rather the regular schedule. When our arm broke, we were out for two or three matches, which we normally wouldn't be. Also, the normal schedule would have given us two extra matches, and more matches are (almost) always better.

[Deetman]

Originally Posted by Ari423

Also, the normal schedule would have given us two extra matches, and more matches are (almost) always better.

All teams were scheduled for 12 qualification matches, which is standard for all MAR events.

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by Deetman

All teams were scheduled for 12 qualification matches, which is standard for all MAR events.

I believe he's referring to the fact SCH competitors only got one practice match, as opposed to the 2-3 we might expect at a longer event.