Gracious Professionalism Violation

[Gui Cavalcanti]

I feel somewhat violated. It seems like one of our Thursday practice matches turned into a one-way BattleBots tournament and there was nothing anyone did about it.

First of all, the match started as a one on one. Two teams didn't show up and we were just messing around with a team who I forget the number of (has little arms that rotate outward and come back in as a shield, made it to the finals I think...), having little pushing contests and maneuvering the goals around. Then a team shows up 2 minutes into the match, tries to get on our alliance's side of the field, is forced by the refs to go to the other side, and starts up on the field.

We were in Einstein division and we were testing out all aspects of the robot during our practice match. The team (number withheld for the sake of gracious professionalism) had a long, 5 foot arm with a pivot around 4 feet in the air that was apparently attached to their tether. They could deploy it backwards or forwards depending on what way the arm was rotated, and it seemed to serve no other purpose.

Well, the team in question deployed their tether in the practice match, stretching from Zone 2 all the way to Zone 5, with two minutes left in the practice round. The mouse in question was a rather large affair, with two of the smaller wheelchair wheels and a small metal chassis. Since this mouse and it's tether were cutting the field in half (we were wary of running a goal over it), we decided to test out our robot's mouse control abilities. We used our low-clearance chassis and the V-cut in the front of the robot to gently (at half speed, making sure they weren't caught on anything) push the mouse all the way back into our endzone (the audience was laughing by now), and then we backed up and signalled we were done. We then cross the tether to get to a goal so we can practice maneuvering.

Apparently at this point the team got pissed off. It seems like I might have bent the bar coming off the back of the mouse a bit, but it appeared to still be functional. They proceeded to pin us against a side of the field and their arm came down rather heavily in the space our electronics would have occupied had I not pulled back quickly. At this point the audience fell silent. I thought that they had accidently triggered it or some such, so I didn't move IT much. They pulled back the arm, however, turned slightly to aim for our electronics, and let it swing again. I moved enough so that the arm came down on one of our protectice panels, but this was really starting to worry me. This continues for 3 more times, until I manage to break free. The refs are doing nothing.

I back up, and then try to go for a goal that they were in front of to continue to maneuver and see if I could salvage the practice match. However, they proceeded to outmaneuver me, repin me with the goal attached, and started swinging again. This time, they not only hit our supports, but they hit the goal we were attached to and scuffed the upper plywood.

We checked out the damage to our robot after the match. The goal grabber was slightly bent, and our support rails and panels had taken a beating. Luckily, our sensitive electronics did not get hit due to some last minute maneuvering, but they had shoved their goal grabber into our chains and warped them slightly. The only thing that really bothered me was that this was all readily apparent (the whole crowd was booing and gasping after the first blow) yet the people running the field did nothing. Apparenty one of the people working on the field was laughing.

We lodged a formal complaint and showed FIRST the video we had of the match, where the aiming is readily apparent. Apparently the team just got a "Do that again and you're DQed" talk, and that was that. I can't help but feel somewhat violated, for myself and for my team... any thoughts on what we should have done differently, or anything else?

[HotWheels2002]

Thats really rough. I almost cant imagine that happened, but I dont doubt it did.
Though not intentional at all as the attack on you obviously was, we also had a problem during a practice match. It was at Rutgers (NJ). We had grabbed a goal using our T-bar primary gripper and began to maneuver around, testing the drive capabilities. Well, a robot (I think it was that Vermont team with the green robot) wanted to get the other side, for a tug-of-war. The tug lasted about 6 seconds, as the longer but obviously weaker T-bar on the VT robot snapped. As the driver, I felt horrible, even though they did request the tug-of-war.
After the incedent, I went over to their pit and offered them the use of any of our machines, tools, or personnel to repair the damage. They did get it all fixed that day.
Anyway, I'm truly dissapointed to hear about that kind of behavior on a FIRST competition field.

[Digo]

During a training match a team kept pushing us all the time, bothering us and hitting our machine many times. And the worst part is that we found out that their driver didn't show up so they put anyone in the controls to have some fun! I won't say the team number because of gracious professionalism and also because they said they were sorry.

[asher]

You are epitomizing everything that is against gracious professionalism and you are acting like a child

When you had the issue with the team you should have worked it out with the team, and in extreme cases you may get an official involved (your situation does not constitute an extreme case in my eyes, matters of human safety although are extreme case).

I find it horribly sad that you feel you have to make this post and be rude about this issue, you may want to find out what gracious PROFESSIONALISM really is.

We're all in this together and sure things to happen and people do get mad and/or upset, but please just be professional and work it out. I don't think that's too much to ask of anyone.

Ashley

[A. Snodgrass]

Loging a formal complaint is all you can do in that type of situation...that and let it go. The other thing that I can think of that you can do is to talk to the other team after the match...especially if you have damages to your bot.

[Katie Reynolds]

I did see the match Gui was talking about. My team was sitting in the stands because our practice round was up next. Everyone thought what his team was doing was amusing ... but when the other team tried to beat the crap out of them, everyone starting booing. I personally was yelling "what the heck are they doing?!" to my buddy Nick (from 930) who was sitting next to me. I do agree with A. Snodgrass that the only thing you can do is let an official know and let it go. But this also was a pretty extreme case where the refs should have immediately gotten involved after the first hit. It was clear that the other team was intentionally hitting 422's bot. They also hit them more than one time... and at one point it looked like 422 was kind of pinned on the side railing while the other team was hitting them. Anyway, that's just my POV.

** throws in $0.02**

- Katie

Originally posted by asher
You are epitomizing everything that is against gracious professionalism and you are acting like a child

When you had the issue with the team you should have worked it out with the team, and in extreme cases you may get an official involved (your situation does not constitute an extreme case in my eyes, matters of human safety although are extreme case).

I find it horribly sad that you feel you have to make this post and be rude about this issue, you may want to find out what gracious PROFESSIONALISM really is.

We're all in this together and sure things to happen and people do get mad and/or upset, but please just be professional and work it out. I don't think that's too much to ask of anyone.

Ashley

i dont really want to get involved in this, but i thought the original post was a very polite way of depicting a situation, the post did not sound bitter or like an attack, i think the intention was to make the team aware of what they had done and give them a chance to talk it over if they felt the need, and the team number was withheld.....
maybe it was also a warning to other teams not to get carried away with "getting back at someone"

[asher]

I think you missed the point.

If you have an issue with a team TAKE IT UP WITH THE TEAM, or just let it go. Posting some message about "this team that I wont tell you the number but they looked like this" is just silly and childish. I never stated it wasn't polite or whatnot, but the whole idea of it is absurd. Its like preschool where "this kid who I wont tell you who he is but he's wearing train conductor overalls" broke my purple crayon. I had hoped highschool kids would have gotten past that point by now and they could be professional enough to deal with a small issue, at least I hope some of them have.

Ashley

[Sean_330]

I think the best way for a team to resolve a dispute with another team or individual is to confront the team in a gracious manner and explain the problem to them. HOWEVER if that does not work or you feel you are unable to approach them, then the next step is to get a FIRST staff member involved. If you are unsure of who to ask in FIRST, you can ask virtually any crew member and they will hopefully direct you to the correct person to handle the dispute. (most likely the field manager, head referee, or event manager) Letting your anger simmer, and having unresolved disputes is not in the spirit of FIRST or gracious professionalism. Such disputes need to be resolved now. Oftentimes there is only a simple misunderstanding and having a FIRST official there to mediate is all that is needed. The wrong thing to do is complain after the fact, and criticize a team in public because they may not have been trying to damage your robot on purpose.

[Jenni]

I was standing about 5 feet away from the incident in question. I was doing some volunteering near the field, and noticed what the robot was doing. I was standing there for a few seconds wondering first, what i sthe purpose of that stupid thing, and then starting to worry about the man standing right in by thsoe robots, apparantly trying to fix something. I'm glad this came up and that I wasn't the only one who noticed that.

Jenni

let me start by saying i do understand your point, and for the most part the best idea if you have a problem is to go directly to the team. i totally agree with you on that but I dont think the intention of the post was meant to solve the problem though, since it is already over.... there is nothing for the other team to do because the damage is already done

its more like saying "there was a kid with a purple crayon and he hurt another student by doing this" that way nobody gets pointed out or blamed, and everybody keeps in mind not to do what he did

im sure that anybody who has read this post will most likely remember not to behave this way if they are ever in the situation to