Einstein 2012

[frdrake]

233 software mentor here. I was down on the field for part of it and in the stands for part. Whether we won or lost we didn't want to play like this. We have absolutely no problem with losing cause you're beat by a better robot, but win or lose these matches just were not how we wanted to play the game. There were several problems with our opponents and while they were not so obvious, in the finals matches there were flickers of connectivity issues with some of our bots have longer bouts of "sudden" connection issues (233 in F1 and 987 in F2). I watched our robots more but I also heard there were issues with 180 in F2.

To the comment about sucking the excitement out of the air, it really did. The general feeling was that the entire crowd was pumped and everyone felt a real tingle of excitement after each divisional elimination match. After the Einstein matches though there wasn't rampant cheering, there were no exciting rallies or awesome blocks. It just felt hollow, because everyone knew that no matter who won or lost, it probably wasn't going to be based on robot design or driver skill or strategy.

As a mentor I feel bad for how it ended, but I feel even worse for how it ended for our students. Mentors can come back next year and go again but we had a good number of students that are seniors that this was their last go at it, this is the last feeling they're going to get from FIRST unless they decide to come back in the future and be mentors themselves.

As far as the issues themselves, I'm not sure what caused it, but I will say that Pink went through divisional matches and never had any period of connectivity issues, this was the first it appeared. I don't know they could have done anything differently, I think they knew it was a raw deal all the way around and all the EI teams I think recognize it. I just hope they can fix the causes of it and we can move on.

So congrats again to 16, 25 and 180, I know I talked to most of you there. All of the EI alliances were fierce competitors and I think we all want to be remembered for our performances in our division finals instead of what came out of the EI matches.

[Mark Holschuh]

I would like to congratulate teams 16, 25 and 180. Your alliance played great!

I would also like to thank our alliance partners 118 and 548. Both teams are well organized, highly disciplined, and extremely talented. It was a lot of fun developing strategies and playing with you. Who knows how far our alliance would have gotten if not for the communications issues on the Einstein field. A special shout out to their scouting teams, as the information you provided was absolutely the best I have ever seen.

I don’t know if we will ever know what was really causing teams to lose communications at the Championships. I know our team struggled with them at the Wisconsin Regional, and found the root cause to be a number of electrical issues with the robot.

Lastly we would also like to thank all of the dedicated volunteers at the Championship. You are the reason why FIRST is so great!

[qzrrbz]

While Einstein dead robot issues were obvious to the whole crowd, how many of the divisional elims had similar problems?

Pretty sure 1717/469/2471 would have rather have played all their matches with all guns firing! Were there others?

[EricH]

Originally Posted by qzrrbz

Pretty sure 1717/469/2471 would have rather have played all their matches with all guns firing! Were there others?

Pretty sure I can say the same thing about 330 and 68--both had extended time periods where they were immobile. Kept the division semis close...

[qzrrbz]

Originally Posted by EricH

Pretty sure I can say the same thing about 330 and 68--both had extended time periods where they were immobile. Kept the division semis close...

Didn't realize alliance 3 was sitting still, too -- the "luxury" of viewing remotely and being a slave to what the cameramen thought "interesting" at the time. That makes this whole result even more disheartening.

There's always IRI...

[EricH]

Originally Posted by qzrrbz

Didn't realize alliance 3 was sitting still, too -- the "luxury" of viewing remotely and being a slave to what the cameramen thought "interesting" at the time. That makes this whole result even more disheartening.

Watching the webcast, there was at least one time when both 330 and 1717 weren't moving at the same time, same area of the field (Red's scoring side). Not fun. In another match (F-1, I think), 68 spent much of the match immobile.

(For those not paying attention, this particular set of matches was Newton Semi 2, 1717/469/2471 against 68/330/639.)

And agreed on IRI. I think that IRI needs to have two sets of "special" matches: MAR champs/MSC champs and Einstein Revisited. Single elimination, comm issues are an immediate match reset.

[qzrrbz]

OK, that's Newton #1 (on Einstein), #2, #3 all immobile at some point or other.

How about the other divisions?

[Botwoon]

Originally Posted by qzrrbz

OK, that's Newton #1 (on Einstein), #2, #3 all immobile at some point or other.

How about the other divisions?

The Curie alliance was fine on comms on our field.

[George Nishimura]

So what happens at the end of this hypothetical "Einstein revisited"? Especially if 180/16/25 don't win, what exactly does it achieve? The winners won't become World Champions [especially because the conditions are different, you can't claim that this result is what would have happened on Einstein].

If it's for fun, and everyone's good-natured about it, and all teams are willing to participate, I'd be all for it.

But I fear it's not going to end well, and it's not going to bring any justice to proceedings.

[Nick Lawrence]

Originally Posted by qzrrbz

OK, that's Newton #1 (on Einstein), #2, #3 all immobile at some point or other.

How about the other divisions?

Alliance 7 also had issues on Newton. Both 488 and 610 had comms issues in the quarter finals.

-Nick

[Nawaid Ladak]

I figure i'd throw my hat into the ring and have added my thoughts here