Team update 16

[Radical Pi]

Originally Posted by Tetraman

I'd like to propose that we make Preseason events official FIRST events, for the sole purpose for FIRST, teams, the GDC to evaluate the game and it's rules so that Week 1 Regional Competitions will no longer carry the stigma.

Agreed. Being the victim of Week 1 field problems this year, I say a full official field should be offered to FIRST approved preseason events to work out the bugs in the system before full events

[Tom Bottiglieri]

Here's a task for a student with some free time:

Take last weekends match results (from TBA/twitter/wherever), and recalculate the rankings incorporating this new bonus.

This is NOT to see what teams would have been ranked higher/lower, but rather to see how (15 * num matches) points injected into the total seeding points pool can affect the overall rankings.

[Martinez]

I'm not as convinced as others that this will elimnate the 6v0 or 3v0 stradigies... However it is a serious step in the right direction. Personally, this is alot better than what I was expecting which was ether a penalty for a own goal or those goals not being counted (or something to that effect).

I am surprised with a +5 bonus for winning (along with the 2x multiplier), and having the losing alliance keeping the winners score. Clearly the GDC must be either mostly happy with the results or don't want to shake things up to much.

Thank you GDC for listening and making your fans happy.

[Wildcat]

with the new +5 to the winning alliance this should make things much better and much more understandable

[pfreivald]

Thank you, thank you, thank you, GDC, for these changes. It's a wonderful day in the world of FIRST.

[Billfred]

Best. Team. Update. Ever.

[qwertyuiop[]\]

Originally Posted by Madison

Remind me again why anyone, my team included, is stupid enough to keep going to week 1 events?

Stupid? I wouldnt be so rash in your wording. My team, which only goes to one regional, period (no atlanta either), sees week one events as more fair because it puts us at less of a disadvantage. no other teams have had actual experience in playing the game in week one as opposed to in week six where teams are coming back for the 2nd or 3rd regional. I would call it a SMART move for smaller low budget teams that only go to one regional to go to a Week 1. we are already at enough of a disadvantage to teams that are fortunate enough to have a full scale practice field, and a second robot to practice with after ship date.

EDIT: BTW, gdc nice revision on the rules

[XaulZan11]

Originally Posted by Billfred

Best. Team. Update. Ever.

Couldn't agree more. With my team's first competition this week I was losing sleep hoping balls would never get jammed at the mouth of the ball counter. Thankfully, now we can use the end of the trident!

I guess the 5 points is an ok rule, I guess...

[GaryVoshol]

Thank you GDC. This (the +5 for a win) is a major change; I can't remember anything similar in the last 6 years. There is no comparison to earlier rules changes like no pre-match stacking and no-you-cant-yes-you-can have bandsaws.

Given that average match scores on Friday were less than 5 points, the difference is a significant game-changer.

[pacoliketaco]

well first off, thank you GDC for fixing these two problems with the game that i saw last weekend. i think that a lot of matches were shutouts, or even 0-0, because of the three inch rule, enforced even if a team was pushed onto a ball (or flipped onto one, as happened a few times). so that fix is great, as is the other, as our team would probably have finished much higher, as a great deal of our matches were shutouts, so a 7-2 record placed us 19th. kinda annoying to change the rule after week 1, as has been said, but at least now everyone else gets to play the game as it should have been. so good luck to everyone else for the rest of the season

[Coach Norm]

The coach is me likes this update very much. It brings back the strategy to both alliances. If you are willing to gamble either way, you can.

Originally Posted by qwertyuiop[]\

Stupid? I wouldnt be so rash in your wording. My team, which only goes to one regional, period (no atlanta either), sees week one events as more fair because it puts us at less of a disadvantage. no other teams have had actual experience in playing the game in week one as opposed to in week six where teams are coming back for the 2nd or 3rd regional. I would call it a SMART move for smaller low budget teams that only go to one regional to go to a Week 1. we are already at enough of a disadvantage to teams that are fortunate enough to have a full scale practice field, and a second robot to practice with after ship date.

EDIT: BTW, gdc nice revision on the rules

We are a third year team here at 2468 and we went to a first week regional last year in OKC. I have to agree that the field seemed more level since it was the first week for all teams to attend. In addition, to a young team it was very important for us to get to more than one regional so we could get more experience.

[Chuck Glick]

Thank you GDC.

You have managed to fix so much with one simple update. Teams now can see the advantages of playing 3v3 to WIN (while close to maximize points) and not 6v0 for just ranking. Also thank you for addressing the accidental 3" incursion penalties. This will help EVERYONE after watching how many teams were receiving these penalties (accidentally or due to negligence in design).



Side note: This will effectively end most 6v0 matches, but I bet we see one or two depending on what teams we see playing.

[Richard Wallace]

Thank you, Game Design Committee.

When something is not quite working as designed, the right move is to tweak it. I think these changes will, by this time next week, be seen as well-judged tweaks to a system that was nearly right to begin with.

For the record, my team was at a Week 1 event. And I was volunteering at a different Week 1 event. For several years I advocated within my regional planning committee to hold our event during Week 1. In spite of, and even because of, the challenges that FIRST encounters year after year I still say, "Week 1 this year, Week 1 next year, Week 1 forever!"

[Daniel_LaFleur]

Thanks GDC, I love being a guinea pig.

//walks away frustrated//

[sgreco]

Thank you GDC.

This is a great update. Now I feel as though playing the match to win is obviously in the best interest of the teams and not much iffy ground is left inbetween. That said, the coopertition has not been eliminated so you still want high scores coopertively. So the intent of the cooperation is intact, but now winning is definitely a benefit as opposed to the 6v0.

People may complain about this being late, but I appreciate the fact that they found a problem and fixed it. Better now than never.