Dear FIRST HQ, Let's talk about the playoff pits.

[Alex Cormier]

While we being #1 seed, our pit was placed on the outside and against the wall next to the field. I felt as if it was a huge safety factor. Not only were we being yelled at constantly to get every robot, person, part within the small area, if we so much took one foot out of the box we got in trouble. How come we push so much for safety, yet when it matters the most we throw it to the wayside? I was told too bad, you guys have too much stuff in your area, get back in there.

It's the biggest stage, the final showdown and all. How do you not expect teams to bring anything they think they need and obviously their tool boxes as well? You have 4 robots, 4 sets of 6-9 people, 4 teams worth of tools and spares and you cram them all into one space?

There's only so much time between matches to get prepared and ready for the next one. How can we safely test the robot and prepare for matches when it is very crammed? At times, I had to stop working/prep on my robot so the others could run their tests safely. This is ridiculous.

Thankfully, when it came time to Einstein, our area grew tremendously.

I really hope FIRST looks at this thread and gets it addressed properly. It was unacceptable.