Lessons Learned - The Negative

[Billfred]

-G14. It's my least favorite rule in six years of FRC. I don't like the concept of teams being handicapped for success in competition--and I say that as a mentor of teams that have been whooped pretty hard in some matches over the years. Outside of the GTR finals, where 188's absence caused them to try to double-G14 their opponents for the third match, there wasn't any real strategy to it either. The concept might work in other sports--victory ballast in auto racing comes to mind--but not here.
-On Q&A, the only ruling (battery panic aside--it was resolved in time) that really caused me to grumble was that of the IFI Kitbot's legality. If I've got an old kit part that is still commercially available and otherwise legal, let me put down the cost on the BoM and move on. It's reminiscent of the "grip tape" versus "safety tread" debacle of 2007.
-On the pit displays, the blue alliance was a little too blue--so much so that it became hard to read the team numbers at times. A little lighter shade of blue would make it much more readable.
-At the Championship, we were a backup on Curie. We were stymied a little bit during lunch because we didn't know to pick up pit crew badges from the scoring table before going back. Announcing that next time would help greatly--it's not quick to get those badges back to the pits!
-The Driver's Station woes leave me a little uneasy for the off-season. I'm sure, however, that if FIRST isn't working on it already, they're starting as soon as they can get the trucks unloaded and breathe for a split-second.
-I'm sure others will harp on the open-trailer-equals-death matter here, but I'm neutral about it. It's always been hard, sometimes nearly impossible, to win a round with a dead or missing robot; this year was just more pronounced.

For the most part, I enjoyed this season. On to 2010!