Lesson Learned: The Negative

[waialua359]

Room for improvements:
Since I am not on the GDC, its easier to criticize than to be on the committee trying to foresee how things will pan out. So just a few things:
1. We hated being in driver station 1 and 3. Our driver team had such a hard time seeing the opposite quadrant of the field. Driver stations should be located in a position that allows the drive team the best view or a field setup to allow them to see the whole field clearly. Practice is obviously a solution, but many teams dont have the capabilities to create a field conducive for practice, especially with hybrid. This was a common complaint of the rookie teams we talked to.
2. Teams should be allowed to stay near their controllers during hybrid. I witnessed so many controllers falling. How do you anticipate a controller falling during hybrid and stepping into the box in case you need to when robots are moving so fast and may just turn all of a sudden. Have refs instead watch if teams touch their control system controls instead. i.e. Teams stand really close so they dont fall to the ground. Obviously, velcro didnt work.
3. Andy Baker was the best corner referee! He explained to our alliance why there were penalties or the non-calls so we all knew why in every match we played. Many times, teams didnt know why penalties were called. Sometimes they announced it, sometimes they didnt during our regionals. If teams are to try and adjust and correct mistakes, they should be made aware of it instead of just moving on to the next match.
4. Parts of the pit areas at CMP were not lighted. Why? Having to use a flashlight to see inside your robot electronics area was frustrating. Other neighboring teams complained to pit admin about the same thing. Result: Nothing happened.