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#91
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Re: Championship 2007 - Atlanta - What Needs To Be Improved
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#92
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Re: Championship 2007 - Atlanta - What Needs To Be Improved
I too agree with the leaving of people before the awards completed.
I think FIRST should not have told people they were going to give out tubes. This caused A HUGE rush for the field. And i think the people that rushed the fields were very disrespectful to the teams trying to listen to the rest of the ceremony and the teams that were receiving their trophies at the time. I know FIRST tried their best with the black wrist bands to make sure teams only had 2 people in the student representative seats....but i still saw a team with 5 students....5!! ![]() |
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#93
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Re: Championship 2007 - Atlanta - What Needs To Be Improved
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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. |
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#94
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Re: Championship 2007 - Atlanta - What Needs To Be Improved
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I say this on behalf of all of Team 2228 because unfortunally we were one of the teams that had to leave early. You guys know how much we love MOE. I know you believe me when I say we were excited for you when we found out at the train station that you guys won. Congratulations again, we couldn't be happier for team MOE. Just a note on us having to leave early. We planned our trip according to the FIRST schedule. We knew our departure was going to cut it close but we thought we would be able to see it all. As I've read from other posts, the finals run long every year. If so, I think it should reflect in the schedule so if possible, teams can plan accordingly. We left our seats in front of Galileo during one of the dancing intermissions and tried to do so as quickly and quietly as possible. My apology’s if we were too noisy or in the way. Just some things I as a first time attendee think can be improved. *MORE QUALIFICAION MATCHES One of the things my team discussed on the way back home was the price vs game time. Going to Championships is an enormous amount to only play 7 qualification matches. With more and more regionals being added, this number is only going to get lower. We are considering limiting the number of times we go to once every four years max, regardless of weather we qualify or not. Even just 3 more qualification matches could justify this price tag a bit more. There are two ways I can see to increase the number of matches. One is to add a fifth field. I think it would be great if the side seats were taken advantage of by adding a field on the side opposite the pit entrance. If that makes sense to anyone. From what I saw, there should be enough space to fit another field. The other limitation would be volunteer and tech personal, to which supply I cannot speak to. The other would be to extend the competition into Wednesday. Maybe change weds morn to uncrating, weds afternoon to working and practice matches, Thursday morning more practice, Thursday aft to sat morning qualification rounds. Even though this would drive the price tag up, I think it would make Championships a much more wholesome and cost worthy experience. *GRACIOUS PROFESSIONALISM Although FIRST cannot do anything about these issue's, I think they need to be brought up anyways. One lack of GP occurred on Friday morning. On Thursday, our team got to the dome early and got front row seats to Galileo right next to the pit entrance. On Friday we got the dome even earlier hoping to get the same seats. When we got there on Friday the dome staff had it roped off because of leaking water. We dealt with this by sending most of the team to sit on the other side of the pit entrance and leaving some members at the top of the stairs with the official so that we could get those seats then send the rest of the team over. What happened was a team jumped the caution tape, sat down, and then when told by the dome staff that they had to move, blatantly refused. From what I heard (at this point I was in the pits getting ready for qual rounds) the dome staff was yelling at this team demanding that they move, and this team completely ignored them. Not only is this unfair to teams that listened to the officials, it gives a bad impression to the entire dome staff about the type of people who compete in FIRST Robotics. In the end this worked out best for us because we were able to cheer for other teams much more effectively (giving everyone high fives as they walk out is awesome) even if our view of our field was pretty bad. Another occurrence might not necessarily be a lack of GP, but we kind of expected from what we have heard from other teams, and from what we have experienced with other teams. Twice during the competition our bot ended up with our wheels in the air, not by our own actions. Both times neither team talked to us. In practice rounds, when our forklifts fell off while playing defense against 191 (completely our fault), they came right over after the match and said, 'did you caught in something? can it be fixed? is there a way we can help?' I don't expect this from a team every time something goes wrong, but when our bot is disabled, it would be nice to at least get a, 'hey guys, our bad.' I don’t want to make it sound like I’m whining, but from I had been told to expect from FIRST teams, especially low number FIRST teams, this is below the bar of expectations. *PENALTY CONSISTANCEY I know the refs are hard working people and I appreciate all they do, and this has been addressed already so all I'll say is that it is extremely disheartening to get tipped and have no penalty called, and then seeing later a disqualification right away on Einstein for the same thing. Overall it was a great experience but I think with some changes that it can be much better. Last edited by triggerhappy336 : 16-04-2007 at 13:29. |
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#95
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Re: Championship 2007 - Atlanta - What Needs To Be Improved
FVC needs to be a three-day event next year! With the rate at which the FIRST Vex Challenge has been growing, and with the relative small number of four qualification rounds for each competing team, adding another day (Saturday) onto the FVC competition is a much needed and deserved addition to the Championships.
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#96
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Re: Championship 2007 - Atlanta - What Needs To Be Improved
Some things here reflect our experiences at regional events, but echo some of what others have been saying about Atlanta, as well.
I think these are small things, all considered, and the event is run well. It's just not... exciting. This is the second year that we've had members that felt like the Championship is less fun and less worthwhile than the regional events. |
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#97
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Re: Championship 2007 - Atlanta - What Needs To Be Improved
There needs to be more things to do after the competition is over for the day, more places to eat, other than Papa John's, and better weather too...lol....there are also alot of little things that are wrong with Atlanta itself, like trans. and sanitation....
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#98
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Re: Championship 2007 - Atlanta - What Needs To Be Improved
I agree with everyone about the consistency of ref calls. While I was only on Galileo, I noticed inconsistency on not only the same calls within the matches we competed, but in the other matches on the field, and even from many of the divisions to einstein.
I would also like to appoligize for 229's early departure from the competition, but like 2228 we had to catch a train (the same train) to come all the way up the coast to get back home. It would have made what turned out, because of weather and other issues, to be a longer than expected ride twice as long. And I appoligize if any of this has been said already by another member of our team. -Alex (Coach) |
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#99
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Re: Championship 2007 - Atlanta - What Needs To Be Improved
One thing that I would like to see improved is the way the matches are shot for the screens in the pits. I'm often in the pits for the entire event, and rarely am able to see matches in person. Throughout the day, I go over to the big screen and watch some matches when I get some spare time. It was very frustrating to not be able to see what was going on on the entire field. For example, I was watching one of our matches and we were making an attempt to climb our alliance partner's ramp. Just as we started to drive up it, they switched to a view of the opposite side of the field. They also did some really close up shots that, due to the nature of the rack, made it very hard to see what was going on.
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#100
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Re: Championship 2007 - Atlanta - What Needs To Be Improved
I watched the webcast of Curie for most of the competition, and the lack of audio during alliance selection was a big disappointment.
I would have preferred to see fewer ads and more of the field setup time, particularly since the ads didn't usually make a great deal of sense without the corresponding audio tracks. While I appreciate the need to recognize the sponsors, this wasn't a terribly effective way of doing it. In addition to using split-screen for autonomous mode, it would be nice to do something similar for the endgame so you can see ramping/lifting action at both ends of the field or watch rack scoring by one alliance while the other alliance is ramping. |
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#101
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Re: Championship 2007 - Atlanta - What Needs To Be Improved
Ditto
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#102
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Re: Championship 2007 - Atlanta - What Needs To Be Improved
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#103
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Re: Championship 2007 - Atlanta - What Needs To Be Improved
I would really like if teams stopped posting so many flyers about 'safety'. It's one thing to promote safety, but I feel the amount of these posters all over the pits was a bit too much and was very annoying. Its quite apparent that the only reason people are trying to be safe is to win an award. I feel the original intent of the safety award has been lost, and its existence is hampering the quality of the events.
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#104
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Re: Championship 2007 - Atlanta - What Needs To Be Improved
Probably the same thing our team would've done, play as long as we were in and then hope to god we catch the train. It ended up being delayed an hour so they prob would've made it anyways.
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#105
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Re: Championship 2007 - Atlanta - What Needs To Be Improved
1. Awards Ceremony
This happens every year, the final ceremony always runs longer than expected. When my team saw that it was scheduled from 4:00 to 6:00, we started almost taking bets about how long it would actually go. We had to leave just after 7:00 pm, as a result of a combination of rookies who didn't realise about the Chairman's and the teachers who said we absolutely had to leave after the last match since they'd had enough of the competition and we had told the bus driver that we would be out by 6:00 and wanted to leave before the storm hit the east coast. I would have no problem if FIRST would mark out a longer time for the ceremony, I just think that it would be much fairer to teams who have to leave that night or want to attend the team social. Also, I think its totally hypocritical that FIRST makes such a big deal that we have deadlines to produce the robot, yet they act as if their deadlines are no big deal. Up until that point, the scheduling was fine (the matches were even running ahead of schedule, which was great!), but we produce our most important "product", our robot, on time, and its insane when FIRST consistently produces their most important "product" at Atlanta, the closing ceremonies, late and over time. 2. Judging I was very disappointed by the judging. 342 was not expecting any awards, but we felt very shocked at some of the judges' behaviour (myself especially as team spokesperson, trying to train someone else, as this is my last season as a student). We always invite (politely) all judges to stop by our pit area by offering them a button, introducing ourselves and thanking them for volunteering. Many judges would ignore me and Catharine, walking right past us or glaring at us as we tried to give them a button. The two or three that were assigned to our team, acted like it was almost an afterthought to come by. The safety judges were also as confusing. I saw most of them huddled in corners talking or just walking around. This was very different than in Palmetto, where the judges were always watching. Many teams never yelled "robot coming through!" and I almost got run over probably a couple dozen times, sometimes in full view of the safety judges, who simply didn't seem interested or like they wre paying attention. I was shocked at this, since I figured that safety judges were there not just to judge the competition, but also to help keep people safe. Not really a complaint, but I'd also be curious to hear the experiences foreign teams has had with judging. I know in FLL, translators are provided, but I was wondering if anyone has any problems with judge miscommunications. I just mention this because Friday while asking a safety judge where a team was, I saw him go ballistic on an Israeli mentor (who I don't think spoke English), screaming at him from the entrance of the pit area to wear his safety glasses. The safety signs in different languages were a great idea (although, not taping them to the floor would also be a great idea )I understand if there is a massive judge shortage (I know that was a problem at Palmetto, but the judges still spent a lot of time with each team), and that I do not know how to solve. However, I would suggest FIRST recruting former students and mentors to team up with the professionals, since they would have a different take on teams that perhaps the professional judges that have not participated in FIRST. Otherwise, I had a great time. Other than the walk between the Dome and pits (which I didn't think was that bad, I certainly needed the exercise after eating all the junk food!), I think the location is great. Atlanta is definetly not my favourite city, but FIRST can't do anything about the crime and the Hyatt area seemed rather safe. The event volunteers were saints and I got to meet FLL and FRC teams from all over the planet (thanks to 401 -My deep condolences to all VT students on CD-, 1188, 1574, 2238 and some FLL teams for letting me hang out with them) and, of course, we had a wonderful time as a team in Atlanta. Good luck to everyone next year! |
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