Mayhem in Merrimack 2016

[Dan Petrovic]

Thank you all for the kind words and thank you to the teams coming out to join us last weekend! We're happy to hear that teams had such a good time.

Originally Posted by kstl99

Thanks to 166 Chop Shop for a great event. Jay, Brandon and Adam did a fine job as MC/Announcers. I figure that to be one of the harder jobs in FIRST and you guys nailed it.

Yes, Jay O'Donnell, Brandon, and Adam were excellent this weekend. I look forward to seeing them volunteer at official events in the future!

And yes, it is definitely a difficult job, but the person with the most challenging job this weekend that we cannot thank enough was our FTA, Matt McQuaid. He had a rather stressful weekend (including set-up) with some FMS faults. He was also very flexible when working with us to implement our rule changes.

Originally Posted by Aboudy Dairi

I had loads of fun driving at this event for a second time, the double bracket elims meant a lot of pressure fighting through the losers bracket. It was also fun to play with 9319, that alone brought plenty of laughs.

1768 may have found itself at the top of my "Favorite Teams" list after that selection. For those that don't know the whole story, 9319 was assigned to a potential practice robot brought by 319 (we also had 9519 and 9467 ready). However, none of these practice robots were available so we had to turn to the robot our team members had been preparing for the last few weeks in order to fill up the 24th spot on the team list.

This robot was made from the chassis of our 2015 machine and a pneumatic catapult that wound up not being nearly strong enough to score. This robot could only cross the low bar and couldn't carry a ball under the low bar, much less pick one up off the floor. Its bumpers were made from old t-shirts Saturday morning (2015 was bumper-less, remember?).

Despite all of this, 1768 selected this robot as their second pick for fun. 1768, 811, and 9319 (aka Teh Simbots, High Rollers, and other teams that Adam decided to mention) actually wound up eliminating our own Stronghold robot later in the tournament. 9319 couldn't score, but they could play some punishing defense.

Any idea when match videos will be up? TBA has no records of the matches either. I was told there was a qual where we scored 9 high goals, thats definitely something Id like to watch again.

Francis told me that we can expect videos to be uploaded to our Youtube channel tonight, but I can't make any guarantees on his behalf. I'm not sure how the match data will get added to TBA since we used an irregular playoff structure. Francis might have a better answer.

The food was awesome, too!

Again, thank you for the kind words. We have many dedicated parents that run the concessions and they have been doing a great job at various events throughout the year for a very long time!

[plnyyanks]

Originally Posted by Dan Petrovic

Francis told me that we can expect videos to be uploaded to our Youtube channel tonight, but I can't make any guarantees on his behalf. I'm not sure how the match data will get added to TBA since we used an irregular playoff structure. Francis might have a better answer.

We're trying to support more nonstandard playoff types on TBA - if someone (Francis?) has the data, I'd be happy to help work with them to get everything represented accurately on TBA. We can tweak how we display some events, as well (it's a benefit of being open source ) Match data for all!

[Francis-134]

Originally Posted by plnyyanks

We're trying to support more nonstandard playoff types on TBA - if someone (Francis?) has the data, I'd be happy to help work with them to get everything represented accurately on TBA. We can tweak how we display some events, as well (it's a benefit of being open source ) Match data for all!

I will have some data real soon I promise! I'm in the middle of getting ready for the NASA Sample Return Robot Challenge here at WPI, but in my downtime, I'll get the videos split and up on the YouTube.

EDIT: Good news! I got the quals matches on YouTube. Check out the playlist here.

[ZeroGAdam]

Now that I've got my voice back and made it safely back to PA after a lovely 6 hour drive, I'll chime in with my thoughts & thanks from my first Mayhem.

Originally Posted by Dan Petrovic

Yes, Jay O'Donnell, Brandon, and Adam were excellent this weekend. I look forward to seeing them volunteer at official events in the future!

Thank you for such kind words! It's been a wild season Game Announcing 3 districts, BattleCry, and now playing double duty GA/MC @ MiM. I think I might be done for a while, but that's what I said all the way back during week 4 at Rhode Island

Originally Posted by Dan Petrovic

the person with the most challenging job this weekend that we cannot thank enough was our FTA, Matt McQuaid.

Couldn't agree more! Matt had a lot to stay on top of and it definitely didn't help with all of the field faults that occurred. My hat goes off to him for keeping things running all of Saturday!

Originally Posted by Dan Petrovic

Despite all of this, 1768 selected this robot as their second pick for fun. 1768, 811, and 9319 (aka Teh Simbots, High Rollers, and other teams that Adam decided to mention) actually wound up eliminating our own Stronghold robot later in the tournament. 9319 couldn't score, but they could play some punishing defense.

I can't take the credit for those little plugs. The drive team was hysterical and provided all of the inspiration. They changed it every single match. Like I said, seeing that robot run around the field was one of the most entertaining things I had seen all season!

Originally Posted by Jay O'Donnell

Thanks to everyone for making Mayhem in Merrimack 2016 an awesome event! Chop Shop did a great job as always running the event, and I had a blast MCing and Game Announcing with Brandon and Adam.

It was great to work with both you & Brandon, Jay. I'm definitely looking forward to announcing with y'all again soon!

I had a great time at Mayhem and hope to be back again for the next one! Thanks again to 166/9319 and congrats to 133,1519, & 4906 for the win!

[Dan Petrovic]

Hey everyone,

I've put together a very quick survey to collect feedback on Mayhem in Merrimack 2016. You can find it right here.

We've already gotten a few great responses (one was exceptionally sweet and I wish I knew wrote it ) and we'd love to have more responses from those who attended. The more feedback we receive, the better we can make future competitions!

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by Dan Petrovic

Hey everyone,

I've put together a very quick survey to collect feedback on Mayhem in Merrimack 2016. You can find it right here.

We've already gotten a few great responses (one was exceptionally sweet and I wish I knew wrote it ) and we'd love to have more responses from those who attended. The more feedback we receive, the better we can make future competitions!

Dan, I can't fill out the survey as I was there solely as a spectator BUT I'm going to share some bits of feedback.

Merrimack - always a solid venue for an off season, my only real complaint is that it's inconvenient to get to from my house... but I am going to blame the state of New Hampshire for that so I won't hold it against you

Visibility from the stands was pretty solid. But, the score display was very washed out and hard to read but that's mostly a minor irritation. The part I was happy with was that the sound seemed appropriate for the venue. Too often I see events with the sound turned either too high or too low. So, kudos on that.

Actually, I'll shorten this up, really my only problems with Mayhem this year were:

1) I had no idea what the playoff structure was - could have been my fault for showing up late. Probably was, wouldn't worry about this.

2) Unbearably hot - I actually had to leave the event because I was overheating in the stands. I get that it was a really warm outside but some moving air would have gone a long way to making it feel bearable in there.

But seriously, if the air circulation is the only thing I can complain about at an event it was pretty awesome. Can't wait to watch robots there next year.

[Dan Petrovic]

Andrew,

Thanks for the honest response.

As a matter of fact, others have shared the same concerns as you. We are discussing acquiring a new projector screen and possibly a new projector for next year.

I admit that the playoff structure was poorly communicated and it doesn't help that it was difficult to read our Excel bracket off of our projector. We haven't yet discussed better ways to communicate the playoff structure and how it all works, but that will certainly a point of emphasis when we start planning for next year.

[BenBernard]

We really enjoyed Mayhem, and wouldn't change the structure. I was among those confused by the playoffs--but luckily I had a student who got it and explained it to me. We're looking forward to Week 0 next winter (sincerely hoping you host again!) and Mayhem next spring! Thanks for all you do in NE!