IRI - Comments, Suggestions,

[Kit Gerhart]

About the only negative I can think of regarding this year's IRI is that our robot lost a drive chain early in the mentor round, spoiling my fun. Oh well.

IRI has become not only the best off-season event going, but in many ways, it is better than the best of the Regionals (IMHO). The level of play is fantastic. The elimination round matches at IRI were much better than what I saw at the regionals I attended. Everyone has had time to work things out, but also, the quality of teams at IRI is exceptional. I was impressed that some excellent teams which had so-so seasons this year made the effort to build new robots or major mechanisms to give themselves another chance to improve their season.

The referee work at IRI is superb. Things were called well, and also, I liked the rule changes that were made from this year's "official" rules regarding alliance selection and corner goal intrusion.

About my only criticism would be that it was too difficult to find information such as the team list, rules changes, dodge ball tournament entry, the webcast, etc. Information was spread out over the indianafirst.org, Team 234, and Chief Delphi web sites, and it took too much searching to find out about the webcast. That's about my only suggestion. Consolidate this info and make it easy to find.

When the Pink Team attended IRI last year, our plan was to attend IRI once, and then go to a different summer off-season like the one in Massachusetts. After winning last year, we decided to return try to defend our championship this year and then maybe go somewhere else next year. It turns out, though, that there is already talk among some of the team about next year, so who knows? The trip from Florida to Indiana is not a lot of fun, so the fact that our team is even considering returning for a third IRI says a lot about the event.

[DeAnnaC]

Just a few observations:

Signs with schedule times and locations would be great for newbies.

Pit area: there should be a way for the row we were in (up against the wall) to get to the exit doors without going deeper into the building for safety reasons.

A monitor with the ratings in the pit area and maybe another on the 2nd level would be nice.

The dinner thing was a nice touch, but needs to be better organized. Our drivers were 4 people from the food when they were called out to drive in their match. They had already been in line for 20 minutes before then. Can the teams go in shifts or have more lines open to accomodate everyone at once?

Our team had a great time at the event. It was nice to see some teams that we had played before and see some other great bots too.

DeAnna

[Masterfork]

well i was the gunner for IRI this year and i was last years arm operator so i had my chance to defend our teams title as champs and i can't say anything else but wow this is an amazing competition definatly harder than any matchs i have ever drove in or anything its so much harder than nats i believe cus it seems that IRI takes all the best teams and puts them under one roof and its amazing. JUST AMAZING and i would love to come again but its up to my team but i just love this competition and the only thing i would want out of it is archived matchs so we can watch them agian cus the matchs at IRI are the best i have ever played in and i couldn't ask for me.

thanks to all who made it happen it has not let me down yet it has actually surprised me as i come bak it just seems to get better every year.

[MissInformation]

My only complaint is the long drive... IRI is perhaps the most amazing event ever, organized by perhaps the most amazing group of people ever, but with all that brain power, one would think you would have created some kind of a time warp or wormhole or something... Now that I've mentioned the possibility of a wormhole, I'll expect one next year...

The mentor round counted?

Heidi

[David Kelly]

Originally Posted by MissInformation

My only complaint is the long drive... IRI is perhaps the most amazing event ever, organized by perhaps the most amazing group of people ever, but with all that brain power, one would think you would have created some kind of a time warp or wormhole or something... Now that I've mentioned the possibility of a wormhole, I'll expect one next year...

The mentor round counted?

Heidi

Of course the mentor rounds counted


Thank you all for the positive comments.

[Jeremiah Johnson]

IRI is by far the best event I have ever attended. Maybe it was b/c I wasn't under any pressure as an operator or coach, but it was immense fun. There was an extreme level of competition that I don't even think is rivaled by The Championship. I've never seen harder fought matches then the semis and finals. Dean should come and learn from IRI.

Now, onto some nitpicks.

1. As pit announcer: I felt that I was under-informed on where and when stuff was, i.e. the talent show was in the auditorium from 12-2, but where was the auditorium? And the VIP pits were next to the playing field and when one of those teams was late to a match, I was unknowingly announcing them eventhough they couldn't hear me until I realized it and informed the person on the other end of the radio that they were out there.

2. As a spectator: I thought the competition was great. I liked the announcers from what I heard of them in the eliminations. I missed Copioli but I did listen to him on the lunch break. Although, the announcers were a bit loud.

I think that's about it. It was a very good competition. The school was perfect for the set-up too.

[BuddyB309]

Please no fire alarms. Wearing a black t-shirt outside is no fun in the hot sun. Also I would have liked a team social afterwards. to say goodbye to all of my friends.

other than its too short, there is nothing that can be changed. that was so much fun.

[Mark Garver]

Originally Posted by Kit Gerhart

About my only criticism would be that it was too difficult to find information such as the team list, rules changes, dodge ball tournament entry, the webcast, etc. Information was spread out over the indianafirst.org, Team 234, and Chief Delphi web sites, and it took too much searching to find out about the webcast. That's about my only suggestion. Consolidate this info and make it easy to find.

Agreed completely. It seemed like the information just wasn't out there like it was last year. Searching the ChiefDelphi site you were able to find a lot of 2005 information on the White Pages but only one or two posts about the 2006 event in the White Pages.

[Chris Fultz]

We did not do a good job of consolidating the information and it was spread between two or three sources and it got buried in threads quickly.

For 2007, we are already planning a dedicated IRI website that will be kept current and will be the official location for information about the event.

Thank you to everyone for the comments, both "positive" and "areas for improvement". We will consider all comments as we plan for next year.

[Beth Sweet]

The one comment that I did hear recently from other participants was that the only place to find information on this event was this site. FIRST's site featured no information on it, and for those not on CD (or those who don't check it religiously as I do), they would be left out of the fantastic time that the competition provides. Perhaps FIRST could send out a blast regarding it?

[Daisy]

a bit of a side note: is there any way to improve the webcasts? It was about a frame a second. The audio, on the other hand, was AMAZING. The announcer, and MC, were fantastic.

Thanks,

Daisy

[Mark Pierce]

I agree with some of the comments about information and layout, but the relative minor level of criticism speaks volumes about how fantastic the event was. I had a great time on my all too short visit on Saturday (only 8 hours!).

I did receive a suggestion from several people that I'll try and work on for next year: However, can having team 85 compete again really add much to such a competitive field? I'm sure my teammates would have a blast!

[Josh Murphy]

This was the best competition that I have ever attended in my 3 years of FIRST, thanks to everyone who made it the experience it was and I am looking forward to next year. It was great don't change a thing.