Suggestions about champs?

[Paul H]

I agree with all that has been said, but how about this: More fields? There was plenty of space on the floor for at least 2 more fields. Teams only played 6 matches. This means that if they lost 3 of them, they were likely to be in the lower half of seeding. Or they could always keep the matches the same and allow more teams to come down. Either way, I think there should be more fields.

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by Paul H

I agree with all that has been said, but how about this: More fields? There was plenty of space on the floor for at least 2 more fields. Teams only played 6 matches. This means that if they lost 3 of them, they were likely to be in the lower half of seeding. Or they could always keep the matches the same and allow more teams to come down. Either way, I think there should be more fields.

I think the one thing holding this back is frequencies. There are only enough to have four (maybe five, I can't remember) fields.

Personally, I saw (more like heard) a few folks on Archimedes bend/break/set aflame the noisemakers rule...if we're gonna enforce it, we've gotta enforce it.

Although I will agree with the idea to give out three non-driver badges to teams. Kinda like the team support badges in eliminations--12 more warm bodies around the field won't hurt a thing...as long as they don't block my view of the red goals, of course.

[Phil 33]

First I gotta say, Atlanta was great. However.....

Many people are making comments about the venue, especially the long walk between the pits and the stands. This was a big problem in Houston last year that had to be fixed. What amazed me this year was how close the pits and stands actually were. But it seemed FIRST (or the Georgia Dome management and staff) went out of their way to make the trip even longer. Think about it. How many exits were blocked off? Remember the elevators we loaded stuff into the pits through on thursday morning? Why did they need to close them? That alone would have cut the trip in half. There were at least half a dozen exits that would've made the trip much shorter that were blocked off for no apparent reason. Even though they were blocked, many people were using them. They also blocked off the main doors to the Georgia dome and made everybody take the outside escalator down to the lower level to get in. They blocked off another entrance and said it was for FLL only. Again, why do this? Why not have several possible routes to take?

The route the robots and drive team took were the shortest by far. Here's a question, why limit their access for only drive team and robots? Remember in Houston last year, people and robots took the same route all the way until they reached the stadium and then separated. Why couldn't the short route have been open to all. Then before the entrance to the stadium floor have a gate for robots and drive team only, then route all the other people up to the main levels. This alone would have made the trip a ton shorter. Having several routes open would have controlled the crowds better. It's a lot of walking, and not every one of us has a Segway.

I am glad FIRST issued stickers which allowed a team's pit crew to get to the main floor during the finals. That was a necessity, and I'm glad FIRST recognized that. But even for the regular matches, allowing 3 extra people per team to enter won't hurt much, and it will save a ton of walking.

[AmyPrib]

Originally Posted by Phil 33

The route the robots and drive team took were the shortest by far. Here's a question, why limit their access for only drive team and robots? Remember in Houston last year, people and robots took the same route all the way until they reached the stadium and then separated. Why couldn't the short route have been open to all. Then before the entrance to the stadium floor have a gate for robots and drive team only, then route all the other people up to the main levels. This alone would have made the trip a ton shorter. Having several routes open would have controlled the crowds better. It's a lot of walking, and not every one of us has a Segway.

Maybe they can consider allowing only spectators with team shirts (i.e. the team members) to take the shorter path into the stands, splitting the path so robots don't have to fight for room. This can help the scouts and other team members get back and forth for matches/pit work. But I still stand by allowing 3 pit crew to go to the field.

If the Dome has a shorter path for all people, that would be great. I don't know the facility or what type of "way" up to the stands they have other than the skinny stairs up the wall inside the dome.
I noticed in the "end zones" there were no spectators, so maybe they could add those mobile stairs to a few of those openings up to the stands.

The only issue I could see with having the robot and spectator path be the same as the short robot walk is that it's not a hugely wide area. Robots and driveteams need to move quickly, and pass each other in opposite direction, and they should not be late or slowed down by thousands of people going to the stands. If they were to do that, they would need to enforce and split that path into clearly marked sides - one side for robots only - like they have elsewhere.
However, I could easily see that short path getting way more people congested than the escalators did. There would be less room for the people to be spread out, plus it might encourage people to go back and forth a lot more which adds to the congestion.

If they can solve the problem of getting pit crew and some other team members back and forth quicker, that would be a huge improvement, I think that's the biggest issue. While the extra spectators are important, I don't think we need to cramp the robot path with them, because I don't think they need to be back and forth as often.

I think this horse has been beaten dead, unless there are fresh ideas of how to traffic the people, but they don't need any more complaints about it. What are other constructive suggestions besides the long walk?