North Carolina Competition

[Atomsmashers634]

My name is Albert McGraw, and I am captain of FTC Team 634 [Previously known as Team 1180] and we are currently At the North Carolina regional competition. I just have a few comments to add:

This has to be the WORST competition ever affiliated with FIRST that I have ever been to. There are multiple crystals in the limited selection of competition crystals that are fried. Radio reception is either very erratic or non-existent at point blank range. I have my doubts as to weather or not the REF's are actually counting autonomous as a bonus period, and there are atleast 4-5 robots here who break rules as to robot design / construction [IE using more than 10 #32 size rubber bands, using approx 3-4 feet of no slip, etc.]. Also, both fields are constructed so that the "lip" on the perimeter is facing toward the middle of the field.

Also, I would like to point out that the competition template on the FIRST website is incorrectly coded. The autonomous for the FTC competition is only supposed to last 20 sec, whereas the "UlTime" variable for the autonomous in the template that www.usfirst.org leads you to is set at 45 sec, and the field controller does NOT override that time. We were fortunate to receive a copy of a template that is correctly coded, but not until after we went 25 sec in a timed match with no control of the robot.

All in all, this has to be the worst overall experience I have ever had working in the FIRST Robotics Competition and the FIRST Tech Challenge. In my past three years as a member of a FIRST related team, I have come to associate FIRST with quality, honesty, and professionalism. This competition is the exact opposite of all the previously mentioned descriptions.

-A grieving team in a very unorganized competition,
-Team 634