2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive

[Chris Fultz]

Great game, because it forced you to choose between several successful design options. The point structure for options (discs, climb, pyramid discs) was well balanced.

Good call to change the HP throwing of white discs. I think this made a better game and a safer game.

Wild Card system that gives top teams from events a spot at the CHP.

[IndySam]

KOP vouchers rock, including the kit chassis in the system this year was a great choice. The reduction in waste and allowing teams more choices works.

The GDC hit the game out of the park. A diverse game that had many way to play that gave every team down to the most resource challenged a chance to be competitive.

Wildcards a good idea and a nice addition, just needs a little tweaking.

[Steven Donow]

Kit voucher was awesome, obviously.

And although we didn't use it, seeing the teams that did use it, the kitbot this year was REALLY REALLY REALLY good.

Love defining FP by perimeter, not dimensions

Awesome awesome game that made prethinking your overall strategy/approach to the game a difficult, intricate decision.

I'm sure there are plenty other positives I'll think of later.

[Koko Ed]

I also have to say this was the first year I actually regret having to leave St. Louis. The city put on a good show (no scare me to death weather events helped alot. The floods never affected me) and the event was great.
This was probably my favorite year I've ever had in FIRST.

[hiyou102]

I have to say FIRST and the GDC really knocked the game out of the park this year. They created a game that fun to watch and encourages a variety of strategies. The game was made so that no team could full court, climb and dump, and 7 disk in auto. This made everybody's robots very different. Additionally, they made it fairly simple for a rookie team to score points by making the default shooter easy to do.

[EricH]

More echoes...

+1 to the game being a really good one. I haven't seen this much strategy in what to build since... wait for it... 2004. (2007 comes close, though.)
+1 to Frank being, well, frank--if the reasoning is given, it's a lot easier to understand a "Why is this done this way, this is dumb" call.

The higher numbers were competitive in force this year. (1477 is now the highest numbered team to win Einstein, with 1241 as #2 on that list, as I recall.)

+1 to frame perimeter. Sometimes, you just have to think outside the box.

Not nearly as many threads complaining about "mentor-built robots" is a definite plus.

+1 to the wild-card system. Kinks? Sure. But it worked pretty well.

[Mike Marandola]

-I like games with a high rate of fire so this game was very entertaining to watch.
-The game piece was different.
-The game was pretty easy to describe to people who were unfamiliar with FIRST
-There were multiple strategies that could prove to be very successful
-The game was balanced
-Karthik's seminar was amazing. I wish I didn't have to leave when he moved outside

[lorem3k]

I love how the GDC managed to make a game that was challenging, but still allowed inexperienced teams to do well. I can't think of a game that would've been a better year for FIRST to blow up in Calgary.

[Travis Hoffman]

Wildcards - Great. (do need to address lack of wildcard options at early-season events to encourage "outsider" teams to attend them)

Game Design - Great.

FRC-specific Championship planning and execution - Great. (no input on Finale or other program levels)

AndyMark PDV - Great.

Rookie Kitbot - Great.

Frank Merrick - Great.

[GaryVoshol]

I'd like to congratulate the GDC for a well formed game. Aside from not realizing how incredibly terrible human players would be at throwing discs and keeping them on the field.

There's not much that needs changing in the rules. I've created rule changes for off-seasons here in MI, and I don't have any changes to suggest this year.

While there were some subjective elements - what's "consequential"? - it was a relatively easy game to referee. And exciting to watch.

[hiyou102]

Originally Posted by marandola316

-The game piece was different.

I'm pretty sure that's a given (unless you count FIRST Frenzy).

[cadandcookies]

Designing and building a robot for this year's challenge was a blast, and incredibly useful from a student perspective of learning about actual tradeoffs in design.

Dean's List finalists getting those headphones (a friend of mine was a finalist, she listened to them all the way back to Minnesota). Those things are seriously pretty.

Full match schedule on Galileo. I know some people probably weren't a fan of this, but as a spectator, it was an absolute blast seeing all those matches played. Watching 2169 hit almost every shot from cross court was one of my match highlights this season.

Better information for the Dean's List Ceremony-- it wasn't in a freaking bunker this year!

Karthik getting to talk for a long time after the official presentation ended. This was seriously my absolute favorite part of championships. I've never learned so much from one person in so little time.

The obscene amount of swag getting handed out in from the companies with booths (seriously, a friend of mine got a desktop tool carousel-y thing).

Overall, an incredible season. I can't wait to see how FIRST improves on things next year.

[Kevin Leonard]

Originally Posted by sentientfungus

Karthik getting to talk for a long time after the official presentation ended. This was seriously my absolute favorite part of championships. I've never learned so much from one person in so little time.

This.
I was excited to see Karthik's talk, because I had only seen his last year's talk through the recording with poor audio.
What was awesome was after they finally kicked him out of the presentation room, he continued presenting out in the hallway without his Powerpoint or anything!
Thanks to both the event for letting that happen, and Karthik for both presenting such a good presentation that was informative, inspiring, and downright entertaining, as well as being so committed to improving the competitiveness of the FIRST community that he continued his presentation out in the hall like that.

[MARS_James]

Originally Posted by hiyou102

I'm pretty sure that's a given (unless you count FIRST Frenzy).

Not sure what you mean since they are referring to 2012 & 2011 having similar game pieces to 2006 & 2007 respectively

[Mike Marandola]

Originally Posted by MARS_James

Not sure what you mean since they are referring to 2012 & 2011 having similar game pieces to 2006 & 2007 respectively

Yeah that is what I meant. I didn't clarify.