Re: UCF Regional Competition

[MRL180YTL2002]

UCF was a blast! My congratualations goes out to everybody.

But there was a lot that could be improved/changed. I have a lot of complaints about it.

$2.00 for water! Come on! at school from the machines its $1.00 and the same size. Its monoplozied. Not that I didn't mind the change of venue but NASA didn't try to sucker away our money.

The Pit...out in the tent

1) The was holes in the "roof" and the sides were not flush with the ground and the "roof" letting water in. That ruins equipment. (386 on Friday was under at least and inch of water) In 180's pit we had a leak above our table that had a personal lathe and milling machine on it.

2) Humidity....from that to AC = condensation, meaning there may have been problems with bot that were out in the pit tent. I think that one of the problems with our robot.

3) A pit and it slopes....not that its major problem but its easier not to have the cart with the robot on sliding down towards the back of the pit when you're trying to fix it.

4) The back gate being closed for one its a fire hazard, two its more convienent to go out the back as many teams parked on that side of the arena.

Furthermore a few teams should have been disqualified, for violating DQ Rule 5 (the one that deals with intentionally damaging the playing field/its compents) and ramming other robots which I saw in the few matches that I watched.

[katie86]

i showed up to the pit on friday to find two of our boxes with about 6 inches of water in them.

the first box only had paper towels and a few steel rods.

but the second case had all of our extra speed controllers, drill motors and transmissions, and a few spikes.

i really enjoyed using a hair dryer to dry out the drill motor transmissions and opening all our spikes to pour out the water.

and i almost had a heart attack when i saw our oscilloscope half covered in water.

[Ryan Albright]

ya i feel bad fo rall of you in the tent it wasnt that nice theyu should of put of a better tent. For the wood floors terrible. AT least the inside pits where nice But overall i like ucf better the ksc

[Sophey Chan]

Well, I was one of the Teams being blessed with being inside the building, but yea, I think the teams on the outside has the most problems, I believe Bosch and Heatwave were so close to the outside it was ridiculous, they only put a longer peice up to "stop the rain." On the other end wa Swamp Thing and 176 (excuse me for not remembering the name, I am sorry) and 6 on the other side, but at least that closed all the way.


The prices for food were outragous, they should of let outside food be allowed for the crew, but that be it. I don't know, leaking was bad, the boxes outside were pretty bad when it did rain, and they were under the walkways...ickness. I don't know, field damage was pretyt bad, and I mean HP falling, I still have to say, don't start the robot while we are in the field!!! They need to make that a rule, I feared for my life when I fell that one time..but we won't get into that...

Originally posted by katie86
and i almost had a heart attack when i saw our oscilloscope half covered in water.

Just curious, but why do you take an oscilloscope to competitions?

[Powers]

176 is Aces High, and 6 got knocked out of most of their matches due to the rain, i know this b/c i was against them, what about 3 times that day. It was good to see that they got the problems fixed by our third match and got selected for the alliances. I was not envious of any of you out in that tent of yours.

[Madison]

Originally posted by Sophey Chan
and I mean HP falling, I still have to say, don't start the robot while we are in the field!!! They need to make that a rule, I feared for my life when I fell that one time..but we won't get into that...

The robots cannot move while there are human players on the field. The Arena Controller system doesn't allow it.

All four pressure mats need to be activated at the same time to begin autonomous mode, and there's a 3 second delay between when that first happens and when the robots begin moving.

[Sophey Chan]

Originally posted by M. Krass
The robots cannot move while there are human players on the field. The Arena Controller system doesn't allow it.

I asked the refs the macth before I fell about it, and they said that they still continue matches even if a HP is injured or on the field, cause I asked, just your Auto don't go, but if I didn't make it back, there is still 3 other autos to go, my robot isn't the one by where I fell, creepy type thing, but over all you have liek 18 seconds...so it is nice...if you can crawl...

[miketwalker]

I felt bad for Cogsquad since we were next to them and just to see that they couldn't run 3/4 of the day because of all that water stunk. I'm glad they did get going again, but now they need to pay for replacement parts it seems. They really needed a better system for the outside tents. We were near one of the AC units and in our pits and Cogsquad's when you stood up it was like being in a freezer, they had them pointing straight out at your pits, and when it rained out it sucked the rain in and blew it all over everything. I also agree that the cost of water and food was extremly ridiculous. However, I did really like the field setup. It was easier to see the field than at KSC. Some of the lower rows (where we sat) were hard to see because of all of the people, but from higher in the stands it was an awesome view, at KSC it was really hard to see the field.

On Saturday I couldn't stand all of the fixed matches. There were like 5 in a row where both teams had 8 high stacks and the robots would work and go right by the stacks, paying them no attention. Our team was even asked by an opponent to "fix" a match. We of course said no, but it was a great disgrace to see so many teams do that, and personally I was quite ashamed. We played the game the best we could, and some matches walked out with 1 point, 6 points, and I believe 8 points. I'm more honored to say I truly recieved 1 point in a match that we tried in, then to see other teams fix their matches and make 300 points. I was quite upset that so many teams would get involved and cheat like that. It completly ruins the spirit of FIRST.

Overall I did like the way the field was setup very much. I just think they need to figure a different way for the pits because of all of the problems outside. I do agree that the food and water were way too expensive, but I think that's just cause of the UCF Arena prices, I don't know if FIRST could change that. As for the fixed matches, that's something FIRST should change by nationals. I'm proud to say that our team didn't play "fixed" matches. I don't see how other teams could do that and then say "Look at us we just went up in the rankings!" and keep a straight face. All-in-all I did think it was an awesome regional even if this post sounds like I'm complaining. A few fix-ups and it'd be perfect.

[George1902]

Originally posted by M. Krass
The robots cannot move while there are human players on the field. The Arena Controller system doesn't allow it.

All four pressure mats need to be activated at the same time to begin autonomous mode, and there's a 3 second delay between when that first happens and when the robots begin moving.

i wish this were always so at ucf, maddie...

some of the auto modes were going even when the HP's didn't get back in time. i know this cause it happened to 108 when we played a match with them. they wanted to disable their auto mode so it didn't conflict with ours, so they had their HP stay off 'til 12 sec. well, he stayed off, but their auto mode went anyway and we collided at the center and stuck together for the first 20 sec of human control.

i've heard similar stories from ucf as well.

to the HP's: stay safe, but please try to get off the field quickly.

[jnatt]

I know there where issues with the arrangements, but consider the 2000 Championship. We had 6 inches of rain over the weekend and instead of a dry nice matting we had an ice ring.

Additionally, we need to consider the arrangements made with the venue. Remember that the location is a College Basketball Arena and they have a few items too.

I know that the FIRST Staff worked hard to resolve issues and the Judges worked hard to be concerned for all the teams safety.

So lets all work together to help this location improve.

Thanks

[Suike]

Originally posted by miketwalker
A few fix-ups and it'd be perfect.

LOL... because you're speaking of all the match fixing and then "fix-up" LOL Ok maybe I'm the only one that found that funny... but anywho... I'd have to agree with the whole match fixing thing being really retarded and all and had you asked me on Saturday morning I could've ranted and raved to you how much I hate it. Also, the outside pits were the "pits" (get it? ) And I didn't really like the whole "you have to keep moving and can't stop" thing when trying to watch a match from the side or even up by the top railling and all... and then having to walk 1/2 mile to get food at the student union... that was pretty bad... but hey it was it's FIRST year and all... when disney openned nothing worked (Jurassic Park ) and so by next year they'll have it all worked out... unfortunately this was my senior year, but I'm going to UCF and I'll be driving back to Tampa every weekend to check up on the bot...

[hixofthehood]

Yeah, most of Saturday was ruined by the rigged matches, but the most disappointing aspect of the Regional for me was not UCF or KSC's fault. The Elimination round scoring system bored me. However, the purpose of this thread is not to talk about EPs, so I'd just like to say that Central Florida was awesome, and that water at our school is 50 cents, not $1.00

[Dan Richardson]

Yeah 710 was inside which was really nice behind the stage.. tho outside in the tents sucked.. I hated to even go out there when scouting bots for our next match lol.. i couldn't have imagined being out there

well i could But it was a lot better inside

[MRL180YTL2002]

Well, the HP mats on the side closest to the stands didn't work right according to a few other teams that I was talking too. But also, it seems the only rule they bothered to enforce was the food and drink rule, not the safety glasses, nor some of the game rules. A few teams should have been disqualified. We know who they are. What's the deal with that? The rules EXPLICITLY say what are the disqualification rules.