2004 BeanTown Blitz!

[Petey]

Just got back from Bean Town Blitz.

Well, it was interesting. We found that what we conjectured from the beginning of the season to be very true--our robot does not stand well on its own. Though our robot worked like a charm throughout every match (the only downside being a single instance of discombobulation with autonomous mode) we had some instances where our alliance partners were not able to deliver or where something went wrong with their robot and, in two cases, questionable officiating calls (more on that later). But lady luck was definitely not with our team today--and even went so far as to curse alliance partners sometimes (re: Hyper's radio dying in our match with them).

If I had one beef, it was in the officiating. Now, let me preface this by saying that I have umped in Little League games, so I have not doubts as to the difficulty of any refereeing job. That said--and this is a personal opinion, not meant to represent Team 1073 in any way--I found there to be alarming discrepencies in the refereeing. My team, for existence, was disqualified in a match because a referee said he had seen our coach reach a few inches out of the corral to reach for a ball. Now, our team found this to be accurate when we consulted eyewitnesses along the sides. What we also found to be true, however, was that this type of infraction was extremely common, and yet was not being called. Now, I'm not ratting on my fellow players, because as someone who served in the capacity of human player and coach, I know that sometimes one slips, or a particularly greasy ball slithers out of reach, and such an infraction is an unavoidable occurence. This was the case with out team, and we were called for it.

Then, the next time we were up, the ref who had called us for the "reach" penalty sidled up to the ref who was standing by our player station and started talking to him. He made gestures to our team and said something along the lines of "make sure you watch them". We were then called for several penalties. One of them was correctly given, as I (as coach) stepped across the blue line to yell something to the other coach. However, we ended up losing many points for having our robot go "into the corral". Now, we once again consulted the eyewitnesses on the side, and they said that our robot had twice entered the corral. Such an infraction has a stipulated penalty of ten points for each occurence. But for some indiscernable reason, our team was docked much more than 20 points, even allowing for the line-step. And all I know is that when I asked a ref why there was such a large discrepency in what our final score was an what it should have been, he replied that there had been "many instances of entrance" with a distinct smirk on his face. This was another rule that was, shall we say, enforced selectively.

I'm not saying that we played a flawless game--far from it. But I do know that the refs were distinctly different in their judging style, and didn't necessarily seem to be on the same page. And I don't know why so many more penalties were accrued during the BTB as compared to, say, Manchvegas. Certainly the teams were not as polished, but the difference is almost alarming. I know that several people said they had had a similar impression--that the refereeing was, although commendable by its very nature, not quite up to expectations. I don't mean to start a riot here or anything, I'm just sharing my suggestion, supported by anecdotal evidence, that refereeing is something that could be worked on for next year. I'd like to hear other people's opinions on this.

That said, I had a ton of fun at Bean Town Blitz. Even if our robot finished 32nd out of 33 teams, it was nice to get it out there and give our alternate driving team some opportunities that they'd missed at Manchester. I had fun coaching and playing, and in cheering on some of our old buds from Manchvegas.

On behalf of Team 1073 and myself, I'd like to thank:

Erin, for organizing the whole shebang and putting so much into it. You did a spectacular job.

All of the redshirts and refs who volunteered to help out.

Thanks to Northeastern and Raytheon for providing their support.

Always, eternally, gratefully: Rosie 839, for returning as our cheering partners.

Our assorted alliance partners, for working with us.

Big thanks to Hyper 69 (especially Tom!) for picking us to be their alliance partners behind the Dirty Birds (to whom I also extends thanks and kudos). We managed to make incarnate our dream partnership from Manchvegas, and it was a blast even with the technical difficulties that we suffered in that one match together. You guys had an amazing bot and were really fun to work with, as always. Hopefully, we can meet up some more next year.

Well, I had to leave early due to some previously scheduled engagements, but kudos to whoever ended up winning, and kudos to all the teams that made it into the top 8. One team that comes particularly to mind was Team 222, who had an amazing bot that was knocked out in one of the most exciting matches I've seen in awhile. Also, kudos to WPI for deploying one of the coolest bots that I've seen in awhile.

Oh, and barbecues always make me love places too.

And Boston is, as always, an incredible place to be.

If it is held again next year, I'll definitely try to push my team into returning.

Thanks all,

--Petey
Team 1073