[BB]: News and News

[dlavery]

Originally Posted by Karibou

To me, these Coopertition bonus points sound like something similar to safety tokens. Instead of being given for safe practices, they might be points awarded by the judges based on how much a team....*insert verb for coopertition here*

...cooperts. (maybe. at least, based on the suggestions from this thread)


-dave


.-

[Andrew Schreiber]

Yay, the Autodesk awards didn't change too badly! I wonder what us Michiganders who don't have the cash to compete at MSC or CMP are going to do. I wonder if there is any chance that District events could show the submissions of the teams attending during lunch.

Originally Posted by rsisk

That would make it very similar to the GP award. It's gotta be something different. And it can't be based just on an element of this year's game, what would it be given for next year if it was?

It COULD be based on a game element, perhaps the next couple games will include a Coopertition score. I hope not though. Something like that begs to bring up people complaining about calls.

I propose that the Coopertition award will go to whatever team helps rsisk across the road. This would put an end to speculation as to why 217 crossed the road.

[Whosurdady]

"FIRST does not celebrate being an incompetent jerk."
This was on the introduction, i thought it was pretty funny

[Lil' Lavery]

Note how it says see section 9 (The Tournament) for details on how to earn coopertition bonus points.

[rsisk]

Note how it says see section 9 (The Tournament) for details on how to earn coopertition bonus points.

Not nearly as much fun as rampant speculation.

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by rsisk

Not nearly as much fun as rampant speculation.

I didn't say you shouldn't speculate, I just offered up some context to be used. If I remember correctly, safety tokens weren't mentioned in the tournament section in the past, making this seemingly different from them. And if it was points directly related to the game, it would be mentioned in that section instead of the tournament section.

So... what are they?

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

So... what are they?

cooperks...

[EricH]

Bill has posted that he is aware that Section 5 has some errors. They are fixing them.

[bduddy]

I hate to be a spoilsport, and I am all for "coopertition"... but am I the only one that has sort of a bad feeling about this? For some reason I'm imagining the GDC discussing the smashing success of <G14> from last year, high-fiving each other, and deciding to give a new prize to whichever team best follows its equivilant rule this year. And then laughing evilly, for some reason (hey, my dreams never make much sense). I want and expect to be proved wrong, but still...

[Paul Copioli]

I can tell you for certain that there is no plans for a division award for WFA. Nothing has changed from last year for the WFA.

FIRST already is aware of the typo and will fix it shortly.

[Chris Fultz]

New in Section 4 Robot Shipping:
As part of this effort, FRC has decided to raise the overage fees for teams whose crates are heavier than the 400 pound limit. We hope that this will provide even more incentive to keep crate weight down and not have FRC exceed the FedEx shipping donation. Pack carefully.

At each of our events last year, we were declared "overweight" by as much as 80 pounds. We were surprised because we made an aluminum and lexan crate, and only had the robot inside - no tools, no batteries, just a robot and 4 tie down straps.

Before we opened the crate, we asked for a weight check. Each time, we were under 400 pounds and the extra charges were removed.

So, have a good idea of your total weight if you can, and be sure the uncrating group knows not to open the crate if you have an overweight sticker and want to get it checked. As soon as you open the crate, you cannot challenge the posted weight.

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by bduddy

I hate to be a spoilsport, and I am all for "coopertition"... but am I the only one that has sort of a bad feeling about this? For some reason I'm imagining the GDC discussing the smashing success of <G14> from last year, high-fiving each other, and deciding to give a new prize to whichever team best follows its equivilant rule this year. And then laughing evilly, for some reason (hey, my dreams never make much sense). I want and expect to be proved wrong, but still...

Not to jump on you, but how do you know the intent of G14 was to "encourage coopertition"? Is scoring on yourself an example of "coopertition"? Who considers it so? Does anyone?

All assumptions about the intent of the 2009 and 2010 season aside, I'd bet any amount of money that the GDC is fully aware that many did not like G14. I mean, I heard there were some GDC members at the IRI talent show...

[Jessica Boucher]

It's too bad that there is talk that this is a typo. It solves multiple things in one fell swoop:

1.) Cuts down award time on Einstein. Although the awards do serve as a natural breakup of the speeches, we are typically on the tightest of schedules and carving out some leeway could be useful.

2.) Clearly shows the best of the division. I don't really care that the best on Curie may or may not be better than Newton, since we're going to spend the rest of the offseason discussing it no matter how the decision fell. I would rather see more teams be recognized for their work then wondering why one team actually won it over another division's team.

3.) Growth, growth, and growth. More national-level WFAs mean more areas of the country they can be locally associated with, means more growth for the award and the mission. There's tons of great deserving people out there - and like #2, more in this case isn't a terrible thing.

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by Jessica Boucher

It's too bad that there is talk that this is a typo. It solves multiple things in one fell swoop:

1.) Cuts down award time on Einstein. Although the awards do serve as a natural breakup of the speeches, we are typically on the tightest of schedules and carving out some leeway could be useful.

(Optimistic) Maybe this year FIRST isn't going to pretend finals won't go longer than 2 hours? Perhaps?

[TKM.368]

4.7.3.1. US Teams Shipping to a "Mainland" Event
Teams will receive up to two (2) FedEx Express AIRBILLS to ship your robot to the mainland event and home. Shipping between events will not be covered under the donation.

Shucks. It looks like Hawaii teams participating at both a mainland regional and the Hawaii Regional will have a relatively useless second AIRBILL. Team 368 for example will use one AIRBILL to get our bot to the Portland Regional. The second AIRBILL would not be able to bring our bot back to the Hawaii Regional since "shipping between events will not be covered" and even though the Hawaii Regional is practically in our backyard, it is not technically 'home'. We would then try to use the second AIRBILL to have our bot driven back to our school...?

I hope that's an oversight as well