Are 8 play regional reasonable?

[Jon Stratis]

Originally Posted by BrendanB

Sorry to jump back a few pages I didn't have the time to post until now.

Do you think it would be worthwhile to create a video on the inspection process to walk teams through the checklist? For the most part it stays the same from year to year with new additions due to updated games/rules but a lot of the big issues like weight, size, and bumpers have been pretty consistent with a few small changes.

I know for a newbie in FIRST the inspection process was a mysterious part of competition until you go through it the first time. Sending a video like that with the inspection sheet a week before bag (if it can be made available that early) to teams could help them catch problems they might not have seen until then.

Imagine a field tour video but of a robot going through inspection.

It might help, but it's also difficult to give good advice without the robot sitting in front of you. As an example, the 8" bumper rule has been really rough this year, but what can we do other than repeat the rule in such a video? If someone didn't understand it while reading the rules during the season, they won't understand it while having the rule read to them. And I personally won't release a video that contains anything that could be labeled as an "interpretation" of the rule. Interpretations are just too malleable. For example, take a look at the issue over Velcro on bumpers this year, or the question of legal pressure regulators. In both cases, my interpretation of the rule was changed twice in mid season, due to what I was told by HQ and the Q&A. I would support HQ doing such a video, but wouldn't want to do one all by myself, on my own initiative.

What we do already for teams, however, is offer inspection services during the build season. We have inspectors at the week-0 events (and usually an LRI at each of them!) performing inspections. I've driven to teams build spaces (up to an hour or so away) to perform inspections on them and their neighboring teams. We have inspection presentations at all of our December training events (led by an LRI) that informs teams of the biggest issues we see year to year, and covers most of the rules that generally don't change. I get emails and phone calls all season long about the Robot Rules, asking if something is legal or not, and am able to point those people to the specific rules that are most applicable, or recommend they get on the Q&A if it really is something ambiguous. All of that helps. I know there were teams competing in Minnesota that avoided serious issues at competition because those issues were identified in week-0, when they still had some time to fix them.