Lessons Learned - The Positive

[Koko Ed]

What happened this year that you thought deserved special recognition?

[MrForbes]

I met Koko Ed!

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by squirrel

I met Koko Ed!

and you got cool swag from IFI at the Webhug!

[MrForbes]

thanks IFI! vex stuff for our summer camps...yeah!

Best part is I have nothing at all for the "negative" thread

[Alan Anderson]

The WPA key setup procedure was nicely streamlined.

The match preparation sequence seems to have been worked out perfectly, with the DS and cRIO boot times not really causing a noticeable delay.

The pit layout wasn't quite as cramped as it looked like it was going to be.

The corner pit entrance by the escalators was an official and always open path to and from the Dome. (I recall uniformed people standing there in prior years letting people exit the pit, but sometimes making everyone go all the way around to the "main" pit entrance to get in.)

The pit announcements were unexpectedly easy to hear and understand.

The recorded welcome playing at the Dome entrance finally stopped saying "FIRST national championship". It said "international" this time.

[artdutra04]

The fireworks at the end of the Wrap Party (smaller, yet synchronized to music) were much better than the larger ones used in previous years that were just fired off seemingly at random.

[BuddyB309]

This year Was the first year I actually had to go to the First Aid center. The dry air in the pits caused a nastiest bloody nose I ever had. The people were nice even though I was bleeding everywhere.

[Uberbots]

Originally Posted by BuddyB309

This year Was the first year I actually had to go to the First Aid center. The dry air in the pits caused a nastiest bloody nose I ever had. The people were nice even though I was bleeding everywhere.

funny how you cite that as a positive experience

[blaxbb]

Originally Posted by Uberbots

funny how you cite that as a positive experience

well i guess it could have been worse without a first aid stand

[rsisk]

The combination of Nasa feeds and Twitter made the Championships a blast for all of us #NoATL people ;>

I have lots of ways to add features to the Regional Twitter Accounts for next year

[johnr]

Since this was under general heading and asked about the year, i'm going to say that the Michigan districts were the most positive thing to me. Yes,they need some fine tuning but overall i feel it was successful. I hope we never have to go back to the old way and that in some form it could spread out across the country. Well ,atleast the money saving part of it.

[Richard Wallace]

The webcast was excellent. Especially on Archimedes.

I didn't catch the name of the Game Announcer on Arch, but he is clearly among the best in FIRST. Having Tyler Olds beside him for color commentary really added to the entertainment value. As MC Mark Leon said, those two made FIRST sound like Monday Night Football.

I still missed being there with my team.

[Billfred]

-Lunacy forced everyone to take a step back and think about their drive systems. A lot of (but not all) of a team's dogma and secret sauce took a back seat this year. It was rather refreshing.
-Having human players all around the field made the game more interesting, particularly when players were smart about their usage of balls. Having nowhere to hide kept the match moving...usually.
-The cRIO switch went pretty well. There are definitely places to improve, but neither of my teams had any issues this season.
-Q&A was pretty straightforward after the normal first week tomfoolery. The battery-as-withholding-allowance ruling was a little rough, but I applaud FIRST for altering the call before it impacted a week of events. All told, I only recall one or two decisions that induced groans out of me. (More on that in the other thread.)
-The effects of G14 were expressed very clearly on-screen.
-I applaud FIRST for at least trying to select a game piece that could be found locally for many teams. They got burned on it this year, since Wal-Mart decided to discontinue the orbit ball just before Kickoff, but I can't fault FIRST for that.
-I liked the Chairman's video component. It seemed that the teams who won handled it well.
-It seemed that the nature of the game led to fewer breakages among robots. There was still a rash of no-show-itis among teams at Bayou in qualifying, but I can't think of any event where an alternate was called in (much to my personal chagrin, as Backup #2 on Curie).

I'm sure I'll think of more.

[Doug G]

1) The "district" model has proven to be quite successful and should expand in the upcoming years. We spent $10000 on reg fees to play 21 matches (17 Qualifiying, 4 elims). FiM teams spend $5000 for 24 qualifying matches ($5500 for 36). I know the experience of a regional is different from a district event, but it's a direction that could greatly help FIRST expand in areas where cost is a major factor. OK more of this in the FiM Threads

2) 40 lb allowance was great, THANK YOU!! However, 6 week build season now becomes an 8-10 week season for some and since some teams basically redesigned and rebuilt devices between events; we are treading into more sticky situations in future years if this continues. I attended 3 events (2 as a coach, and one as a spectator) and none of them enforced / checked the 40 lb allowances. I know GP was in place and can't think of any exceptions, but I know the GP boundaries will be pushed further in the future if this continues.

3) I loved how the GDC changed the playing surface this year and forced teams to be innovative. Overdrive would have been a hoot with this surface. Steps, ramps, different surfaces - BRING IT ON!!

4) The transition to the cRIO was a lot smoother than I thought and at all events I attended, robots were moving in autonomous which was important and I didn't think I'd see it.

[ebmonon36]

-40 lb. withholding allowance was nice

-Control system roll out seemed smoother than I expected. I liked all of the different examples to help teams understand how to use the various function blocks in LabVIEW. Now if only they could get us the CAN bus stuff to play with over the summer....

-The game. Between the floor and that pesky trailer, it kept the build and game interesting. I'm sure it brought many teams out of their comfort zones.

Eric