What happened at IRI?

[JAlpert]

Team 469 would like to extend a huge thank you to all of the teams at IRI. Once again, we had a great time and feel very fortunate we could participate in the competition.

We would especially like to thank the 71-111-93 alliance for their gracious professionallism in the final match.

Also a special thank you to our alliance partners teams 201 (The FEDS) and 998 (The Lady Thunder). We have teamed up with the FEDS before, and they always make a great alliance partner. The Lady Thunder did an awesome job and were incredible under the pressure of their first competition ever. They have a great career ahead of them.

Thank you to all who participated at the Indiana Robotics Invitiational!

Team 469

PS With all this talk of robot problems, I can't help but feel greatful for the time we were given to fix our robot before the final matches. Hacksaws in hand, we looked on to the field at the end of the semi-finals in horror, hearing whispers of "hey, I don't think the gripper is supposed to bend that way." So, thank you for letting us play.

[SGopwani]

In my opinion the 111-71-93 alliance were the true winners in their gracious proffesionallism. I think they really cared about getting out there and having a fun, exciting match, and giving everybody what they came for, a lot more then they cared about winning. Had it not been for there amazing FIRST spirits, we would likely not had even the opportunity to play in the final matches. Though nobody is happy with way things ended, and I'm sure many people on our team would rather have lost as opposed to winning in such a contraversial way, I also want to say that Andy Baker and the other refs had the toughest jobs in the entire building, and I have a great deal of respect for that they made the tough calls when they had to, and followed the letter of the rules.

[Mike Soukup]

Wildstang had its share of problems, starting from the first match. Because the IRI balls were inflated more than the FIRST balls we (and a few other teams) had problems with balls jamming on Friday. We removed some spacers and the field crew let some air out of the balls and our jamming problem was solved by Saturday morning. In our match against 308 we had a violent collision with something (probably another bot) that broke the pot that senses our wheel position, so we were unable to turn for most of the match. In our final qual match against Beatty the wire that powers our ball shooter came loose when we initially hit the goal and we couldn't score any balls.

Despite all the problems we caught a few breaks and had some high scores on Saturday and ended up 2nd seed.

My favorite memory from IRI was our first match of the semis: 111 & 71 vs 65 & 308. As expected, 308 & 71 attacked the goals, but 308 missed and their grabbers broke. 71 had all 3 goals and shuffled them into the scoring zone while 65 tried to stop the slow crawl. I'm not sure how it happened, but 308 got caught up in our front goal grabber and couldn't get away, so we lowered our tank and dragged them into our home zone. The drivers from 111 & 71 didn't touch their controls for the last 30 secs of the match while 65 & 308 struggled in vein to move 111 & 71. Final score 60-10.

I won't say much about the DQs because I won't change anyone's mind and no one will change mine. I thought there were too many and I think the last one was a bad call. But I respect Andy's decision and I accept it, even though it is hard.

Thanks SGopwani & JAlpert for your kind words, and thanks to Brett and others I talked to after the final decision.

Instead of faulting the refs at IRI, I think we should fault FIRST for not defining entanglement. I looked through the rules and couldn't find a good explination. The rules prohibit deliberate entanglement and there is a lengthy passage on extensions, but no robot-robot entanglement. If it was a black & white rule and not a judgement call for the refs, there would be no need for discussion. FIRST needs to fix this for next year.

On a lighter note, I am proud to say that I successfully stole Sean's flag, just as I promised. Now only if I kept it until after the finals were over, then we couldn't have been DQ'd

Mike

[Clark Gilbert]

My brother has one of Sean's flags, but i think he gave it to him...lol

[Andy Baker]

First and foremost, I want to thank everyone for attending and playing hard at the IRI. Thanks to Cyberblue, team 234, for leading the way and thanks to team 393, Full Metal Jackets for helping along side the TechnoKats in putting on a great comp.

There are many memories from this year's IRI. All are good, believe it or not.

As for the DQs and the entanglement call, the other 4 referees and I did our best. I'm not going to say much about this, except for these things:

1. There would still be controversy if the entanglement call of the last match was not made. Ideally, we all wish that 201 would have never gotten tangled up on 71's winch cord and all the refs had to do was tally the score.

2. Many suggestions were made at the time of the call to simply replay the match. I understand this mentality. However, FIRST has never re-ran a match in this sort of situation where people have disagreed with the referee's call. We made a decision and stuck with it.

3. Everyone who has given me feedback about the entanglement call has either supported the call or they have simply disagreed without getting personal. Everyone showed class and GP.

All in all, I totally agree with Mike Soukup about these two things:
There were too many DQs
This shows that FIRST really needs to define their rules better.

He is right about both, but if a rule is written, then we should follow it. Also, some of the rules definitely need better explaination. An entanglement to some was not entanglement to others, and it is up to interpretation. Stuff like this needs more specific details on what is allowed and not allowed.

It is good that the IRI took place only 10 days before the FIRST Forum, so that these issues of carpet damage and entanglement are fresh in our minds. We as a FIRST community should come up with positive suggestions and pose them to FIRST as possible solutions.

In my mind, I hope that this one unfortuneate incident of the last match entanglement is not the main thing remembered from the 2002 IRI. I hope that the teamwork shown between teams 393, 234 and 45 is what is remembered along with the spirit and inspiration is what lives on in each attending team.

Sincerely,
Andy B.

[Nate Smith]

Just so everybody knows, unfortunately, there will be no posting of the event results from IRI from the scoring system. My hard drive had "issues" on the way home from Indianapolis, and I was forced to reformat to get things up and running again....I think it's just about time to retire my old 20GB drive...

Originally posted by Nate Smith
Just so everybody knows, unfortunately, there will be no posting of the event results from IRI from the scoring system. My hard drive had "issues" on the way home from Indianapolis, and I was forced to reformat to get things up and running again....I think it's just about time to retire my old 20GB drive...

Does this mean IRI never really occured? It was a figment of my imagination?


Wow that was quite a nightmare

[Ryan Dognaux]

Originally posted by D.J. Fluck

Does this mean IRI never really occured? It was a figment of my imagination?

IRI?? What's this I-R-I you speak of?

[Raul]

I accept the calls made based on the explanations of rules interpretation and give credit to Andy for making a tough call and sticking with it. I felt worse for Andy that he had to make a call then I did that the call was made against us.

Anyway, the reason I took the time to write this is to say how good this competition was.
The thing I like the most was the set up of the field in relation to the pits. It was so cool to be able to work in the pits and at the last second run to the back side of the field (under the score board) to see the current match.
Also, in my opinion, the number of good robots at this competition made it more competitive than any other regional or division this year.

Finally, I cannot express how bad I felt that team 330 could not get their robot running properly the entire competition.

Raul