Championship 2007 - Atlanta - What Needs To Be Improved

[kawelch]

The weather needs to be better.

And my team needs to qualify.

[Joe Matt]

1.) Team wrap-party. Lets not kid ourselves guys, the awards/finals WILL NEVER END AT 6PM. Face it. Schedule it for 7pm when it always gets done by, and have the guests lined up.

2.) Was it just me or were there a lot less people than previous years?

3.) VEX Opening Ceremonies at noon.

[Bongle]

Originally Posted by Joe Matt

2.) Was it just me or were there a lot less people than previous years?

There were just as many FRC teams as 2006, so perhaps teams could afford to bring fewer people this year. A cyclic downturn in sponsorship revenues, perhaps? Another possibility is that your own pit/field combination gave you routes that exposed you to less people. Someone walking from the furthest end of the pit to the farthest field will think there's a lot more people than someone walking from the near side to the near field.

Since I only watched the webcast, the only thing I could think of to improve would be to increase the capabilities of the webcast director. Apparently during finals on Newton (I was watching Galileo) they trotted out split-screen so that both autonomouses could be viewed close-up. Keep working on that so that it is available to all fields and regionals, and that'd be great. Too many times I missed something exciting on one end of the field when the webcast was centered on another exciting thing.

Otherwise, the webcast was pretty good.

[Koko Ed]

In the HOF I would like to see the bios of the Woodie Flowers Award winners displayed so we can hear thier stories.

[Philimator]

At this years FRC championship it seemed like there were things missing, Such as those sweet hats they give to the seeded alliances, this year they had a first hat with duct tape on them. Also, the confeti they had last year? gone, I know that the 3 years i have been there there has been more of a show with Dave Verbruggie (sorry if i slaughtered his name). The championship was a little disappointing this year but nonetheless the most fun I've ever had!

[Bongle]

Originally Posted by Philimator

At this years FRC championship it seemed like there were things missing, Such as those sweet hats they give to the seeded alliances, this year they had a first hat with duct tape on them. Also, the confeti they had last year? gone, I know that the 3 years i have been there there has been more of a show with Dave Verbruggie (sorry if i slaughtered his name). The championship was a little disappointing this year but nonetheless the most fun I've ever had!

The confetti last year was super-annoying because the balloons it was stored in obscured most of the field for some people in the upper level. I'm happy to hear it is gone. The whole time I was thinking "those balloons had better be REALLY important, because I can't see the near goal or half the field".

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by Bongle

they trotted out split-screen so that both autonomouses could be viewed close-up. <snip> Otherwise, the webcast was pretty good.

[OffTopic] What's the plural of autonomous? Autonomi?[/OffTopic]

I too only watched via the webcast, and was disappointed at the image quality, to the point where I could not read the team numbers most of the time - everything looked like team 1888. If there was a possibility of a higher quality feed - I have plenty of bandwidth - that would've been nice.

I second the idea of starting Vex a bit later

On the match results screen, it would've been nice to have the match numbers instead of just the time. It would also have been nice if the schedule was posted somewhere.

What was good will be posted elsewhere.

Don

[dangerousdave]

I was very disappointed in the few thousand people that got up and left the dome following the finals last match Saturday night. That was disrespectful of the teams that competed and had not yet received their trophy's and very disrespectful of the 37 teams competing for the Chairmans award. These people were making a lot of noise while they exited and could easily be heard in the stands during the ceremony. Perhaps First should have mentioned not to leave following the last match but most everyone should have known this. There was only an additional 15 minutes of awards following the finals last match

The individual screens on each field showing the video of the game and the scores are very difficult to read the team numbers and scores.

Originally Posted by kawelch

The weather needs to be better.

Perhaps a little more info here? While the weather was not perfect, I saw hundreds of people sunning themselves, playing Frisbee and enjoying themselves in the area between the pits and the dome all 3 days when it reached the low 70's each day. Yes the mornings were chilly but there was no rain until after the awards ceremony Saturday night.

Originally Posted by Bongle

The confetti last year was super-annoying because the balloons it was stored in obscured most of the field for some people in the upper level. I'm happy to hear it is gone. The whole time I was thinking "those balloons had better be REALLY important, because I can't see the near goal or half the field".

This actually appears to be a positive observation and maybe in the wrong thread?
Dave

[Bongle]

Originally Posted by dangerousdave

This actually appears to be a positive observation and maybe in the wrong thread?
Dave

I was showing how the lack of confetti might not be a negative thing. Otherwise you'd have a 2006 negatives thread where I posted about how the confetti balloons were annoying, followed by a 2007 negatives thread where someone said they wished there was confetti. Poor FIRST would be all confused.

I too only watched via the webcast, and was disappointed at the image quality, to the point where I could not read the team numbers most of the time

Seconding this. The only way I could figure out the team numbers most of the time was to consult with the schedule with the digits I was sure of. 6's REALLY look like 8's when the compression is on. NASA has lots of bandwidth, surely they could up the bitrate a bit.

...which reminds me:
It would be really nice to have the match schedules posted in such a way that we don't have to pester poor dangerousdave all friday to get our team's schedule. If you're going to have a webcast, the schedules should be online.

Another thing: The ads on the non-galileo fields were kind of annoying. They were like someone else channel surfing during a show you want to watch. You're never sure if they're going to get back to the field in time to catch the start of the match. The ads during lunch and breaks were fine and pretty interesting because they weren't obscuring something you wanted to watch. Potential solution: keep the ads, but have a little picture-in-picture in the corner showing the current status of the field so that people don't freak out.

[rfolea]

Originally Posted by dangerousdave

I was very disappointed in the few thousand people that got up and left the dome following the finals last match Saturday night. That was disrespectful of the teams that competed and had not yet received their trophy's and very disrespectful of the 37 teams competing for the Chairmans award. These people were making a lot of noise while they exited and could easily be heard in the stands during the ceremony. Perhaps First should have mentioned not to leave following the last match but most everyone should have known this.

Dave

Suggestion: They should do the Chairmans award BEFORE the last match, and finish on time (or at least let folks know the doors won't be opend until the event is over). While it is disrespectful for people to leave early, it is equally disrespectful to take 1 hour away from a 4 hour party the folks paid a lot of money for... respect works both ways ...

[chaoticprout]

My biggest complaint was the announcement of the free for all for the tubes on the field right before the chairmans award. Many people ran for it and didn't come back to see it and it really took away from the importance of the award.

[Billfred]

Some of the things I saw:

1) Something needs to be done about opening and closing ceremonies for FVC. Opening ceremonies are during the FRC lunch break, which is marginally passable from a noise standpoint, but closing ceremonies during FRC matches is just not as awesome.

2) The FVC World Championship as it sits could benefit greatly from being extended or split into its own divisions. With four matches, one bad match could kill a team entirely. (Granted, a truly great scout would catch a team with promise regardless of one bad match.)

3) It would be nice if there was a way to scratch FVC teams that did not show up for the competition, as one of the teams from China did. Not so much for the teams that don't show as the teams who're playing with them.

4) Branding. You've got the Rack 'N Roll logo on DaVinci, folks in FLL shirts on FRC fields, yellow representing both FIRST and FRC in the Championship program (with FLL in blue and FVC in red), and so on. Give each competition and the Championship at large a color, and don't switch them around--this can also be quite useful for other things, such as signs that only apply to one competition. Make the crew shirts intentionally non-competition-specific while you're at it (and perhaps do something with the backs--they don't have that visual appeal that the FRC regional shirts do).

4a) I recall the FRC-specific logo being introduced right around Kickoff, so this year, just as when FIRST changed logos in 2005, I'm not griping much about the signage with the FIRST logo and "ROBOTICS COMPETITION" below it (even if it does push the logo standards). But in the interest of keeping things matched between the three competitions, it would be nice to have FRC-specific signs receive the FRC logo and FIRST signs get the FIRST logo.

5) I agree, I miss the visual flair for the Chairman's Award winners. However, skipping the balloons this year was an improvement for the sake of those up in the stands.

6) To go back to FVC in a way, I was confused a bit with the change in meaning of dots on the operator badges. (For those who weren't on DaVinci, badges with dots were used for drivers, while coaches did not receive the dot.) This became a bit more of an issue when those who coach for both FVC and FRC came out wearing both badges--with the visual distinction between the two limited to black text on a purple badge, it was tricky to distinguish. Keeping this parallel across competitions (and perhaps changing the badge color across competitions) would be lovely.

That's all I can think of, mostly of a nit-picky nature. Overall, I highly enjoyed it--and I can't wait for next year!

[Chuck Glick]

Originally Posted by Billfred

2) The FVC World Championship as it sits could benefit greatly from being extended or split into its own divisions. With four matches, one bad match could kill a team entirely. (Granted, a truly great scout would catch a team with promise regardless of one bad match.)

I agree with Billfred here. 100 teams could be split into 2 divisions of 50 easily(there are already two fields...so ONE field per division, like FRC, wouldn't be that bad.). Since teams only got 4 matches, as Billfred mentioned, teams with one loss (like 1114*) would plummet in rankings, killing their chances to get picked due to lack of scouting (something that should be fiixed). However this wasn't the case for the 3-1-0 team 1114 who still was picked, but the 4-0-0 (with 2 replays and wins of the same match coming to a 6-0-0) team 1712 was NOT picked.... something I still don't understand. Splitting the field into 2 divisions would give teams more matches, and really make the teams that perform stand out.

If divisions isn't the way to go, then have both fields play at once! Alternating fields draws attention to one game at once, but also cuts the amount of matches each team gets.

And if that idea isn't liked, then follow the FRC route, start earlier and play for 3 days. I think that most vex teams weren't watching the FRC championships, so where were they then? The social! If they were to continue playing at the same time as FRC then the whole keep EVERYONE at the dome till matches and awards are done would be easily done.

* I do not mean to be hostile towards fvc1114, you guys and gals have a great team and deserved the win.

[Don Knight]

Originally Posted by chaoticprout

My biggest complaint was the announcement of the free for all for the tubes on the field right before the chairmans award. Many people ran for it and didn't come back to see it and it really took away from the importance of the award.

That was a my bad.. .. I was given direction to do so, but...... I do agree I should have said no and waited until after the Chairmans Award was announced. I did make another announcement asking team to wait but by then the flood gates had opened. My apologies to MOE.

[yodameister]

Originally Posted by chaoticprout

My biggest complaint was the announcement of the free for all for the tubes on the field right before the chairmans award. Many people ran for it and didn't come back to see it and it really took away from the importance of the award.

Ditto