Video Review Needs to Happen Now

[gblake]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

I know this is another Opinion / Hot Take post, and it does echo some themes in the thread, but essentially the problem instant replay solves can be solved in other ways - but instant replay is probably the only way that we as event planning volunteers can make an impact.

The "right" way to solve the problem is in game design. ...

Chris,

I broadly agree with your comments about game design, but I agree far less with the assertion about off-season event hosts being left with (probably) only video replay in their bag of tricks for making things better.

Off-season events can and do change rules every year, and not just the rule about using video. Changes other than video are definitely on the table.

One option that doesn't require changing any game rules would be to simply scrounge up 6 volunteers from the crowd and give them the job of watching one robot apiece (there are details to be dealt with, but you get my point).

[/EDIT]
When I wrote the two paragraphs above, my brain was stuck in a thinking-about-off-season-events/experiments rut; and it just dawned on me that Chris was almost certainly thinking about regular-season events. Doh!

That said, the bigger picture point is that if off-season experiments such as getting teams attending events to supply a small handful of students/adults to do a few low-skill scorekeeping tasks (or rule tweaks, or ...), create a dramatic error reduction during off-season events, the GDC would probably notice (notice both the errors and the simple(ish) way to treat the root cause's symptom).
[/EDIT]

I'm not saying in this post that using video evidence it's bad or good, wise or foolish, etc.

I'm also not saying in this post whether or not I think there is a difference between inspiring someone to try something new, and that person later on being excited or depressed by they way an FRC competition unfolds.

I am saying that I don't think video is the only lever that can be pulled.

Now, I'm going back to waiting for the "hard" data posts.

Blake

PS: The one time I got to spend some time with an FRC GDC, they seemed like nice people . I think they would welcome well-organized feedback from event organizers; especially if it took the form of a video-based, post-mortem of a game's rules.

I'm thinking about the sort of review and analysis that would use a large number of hours of video from multiple events to identify the sorts of calls/rules that are hardest for humans to make/enforce correctly.

That sort of info could definitely influence future games (and treat a cause instead of a symptom), especially if could be put into a simple checklist of things to avoid, or do.

Maybe a pro-video person reading this thread will contact the GDC in order to volunteer to do that for the next 1-3 seasons?