POLL - Penalties

[Steve W]

I am trying to get a general reaction to points made earlier about penalties being/not being announced. This week at Pittsburgh I had the head ref give me the penalties, team team number and penalty points for all infractions. I then announced before the score were given. What are your feelings, should this become a FIRST standard, leave it up to the regional or not do it any more?

[Alex Cormier]

Originally Posted by Steve W

I am trying to get a general reaction to points made earlier about penalties being/not being announced. This week at Pittsburgh I had the head ref give me the penalties, team team number and penalty points for all infractions. I then announced before the score were given. What are your feelings, should this become a FIRST standard, leave it up to the regional or not do it any more?

" i like it like that"

it makes it more like football. in the stands i always heard who caused the penalty!!!!? this is a great way to make the audience more into it. also can have an affect on the scouting and picking of a team for elimination rounds if you knew they caused penalties, just a thought.

[Yan Wang]

Steve, that's a great idea. Many times after matches at FLR, my coach and I looked at each other in confusion wondering how we got a penalty. And then we would have to talk to each of our partners to find out what happened and sometimes they weren't even sure. If it can be this confusing for the people playing the game, it must be a horror for the spectators. I would love to see this system of announcing how the penalties were committed to be used at GTR.

edit - The above makes it sound like 639 committed a lot of penalties. We committed only one 10-pt penalty in competition.

[KTorak]

I want as much information on the penalty so we know how to prevent it from re occuring. Actually, we were penalty free all weekend at GLR! But I still want to know information about it so it doesn't happen to us at all.

[Jack Jones]

Originally Posted by KTorak

I want as much information on the penalty so we know how to prevent it from re occuring. Actually, we were penalty free all weekend at GLR! But I still want to know information about it so it doesn't happen to us at all.

Darn - so you were the one that got away with something>

Originally Posted by Bill Moore

...Some penalties are easily defined,...

Take a look at <S05> Some penalties are easily defined, but the definition doesn't make any sense, unless a bot is programed to speak, then goes and talks mean to a human player.

[Mr MOE]

Steve:

I wholeheartedly agree with this practice becoming standard. PLEASE see that other announcers for the remaining regionals do this across the board. As Woodie says "we get what we celebrate." By announcing that there were no penalties in a match and that we all should try to set a record for number of matches played in a row without penalties, you are raising the bar and setting expectations.

Not that we are competitive or anything...

Great job!!!!!

[Swan217]

Originally Posted by Mr MOE

Steve:

I wholeheartedly agree with this practice becoming standard. PLEASE see that other announcers for the remaining regionals do this across the board. As Woodie says "we get what we celebrate." By announcing that there were no penalties in a match and that we all should try to set a record for number of matches played in a row without penalties, you are raising the bar and setting expectations.

Not that we are competitive or anything...

Great job!!!!!

Paul Copioli announced the penalties at Great Lakes as well, which as any (unbiased) observer would tell you made the game a whole lot better (Better than Finger Lakes scoring, definately). Better yet, he'd highlight that "We have had ANOTHER penalty FREE match!!!" and sometimes why there WASN'T a penalty on a play.

I'm confident that Steve and Dave Verbrugge will make sure this continues at Detroit and Cleveland for the benifit of the spectators

[Bill Moore]

Take a look at <S05> Some penalties are easily defined, but the definition doesn't make any sense, unless a bot is programed to speak, then goes and talks mean to a human player.

[OFF TOPIC]
A few years back (2002?) at PARC, my son took a turn at being a human player during practice rounds. He tried to shoot a ball about 3/4 the distance of the field, and it nailed a robot dead center. He was a bit embarrassed, so he shot at goals that were nearer for a while. Getting more confidence though, he again attempted to do another long distance shot. BAM!! Another direct hit on the same robot. So, just before the practice round ended, the robot, loaded with balls comes over to the player station where my son was shooting from and starts throwing the balls over the barrier and onto him. Funniest thing I ever saw at a competition. Robot may have been 222 Tigertrons.

[dlavery]

The practice of announcing the penalties, along with the points assessed and the team that made the violation, was used during week 1 in Richmond, and in week 2 at St Louis. The refs in St Louis took an additional step that worked very well. The referees had all worked for the week before the event to develop a set of very visible hand signals to correspond to the common violations. They also all had whistles. During a match, if a violation occured they would blow their whistle as they threw the penalty flag, and use the hand signal to indicate the violation (agressive play, human player outside the loading box, robot not in loading zone, etc.). The teams could adjust their play style during the course of the match in response, and avoid more penalties. It also helped the audience keep up with what was happening, and made the games even more fun to watch.

-dave

[Swan217]

Originally Posted by dlavery

The referees had all worked for the week before the event to develop a set of very visible hand signals to correspond to the common violations. They also all had whistles. During a match, if a violation occured they would blow their whistle as they threw the penalty flag, and use the hand signal to indicate the violation (agressive play, human player outside the loading box, robot not in loading zone, etc.).
-dave

Originally Posted by Rule 7.4

No loud music, audio systems, whistles, banging sticks, blow horns, etc.
They interfere with announcements. They prevent teams from hearing
important announcements, can be annoying, and can cause hearing loss.
Power may be shut off and/or radio/cd player, noise makers confiscated.

Looks like the referees were in violation of Rule 7.4. They should have had those whistles confiscated by the proper authorities.

[dlavery]

Originally Posted by Dan Swando

Looks like the referees were in violation of Rule 7.4. They should have had those whistles confiscated by the proper authorities.

They were. The Head Referee confiscated the whistle from the Assistant Referee. The Assistant Referee confiscated the whistle from the Red Line Referee. The Red Line Referee confiscated the whistle from the Blue Line Referee. The Blue Line Referee confiscated the whistle from the Blue Loading Zone Referee. The Blue Loading Zone Referee confiscated the whistle from the Red Loading Zone Referee. The Red Loading Zone Referee confiscated the whistle from the Red Human Player Referee. The Red Human Player Referee confiscated the whistle from the Blue Human Player Referee. The Blue Human Player Referee confiscated the confiscated whistle from the Head Referee. Then the Head Referee confiscated the confiscated whistle from the Assistant Referee, and the Assistant Referee confiscated the confiscated whistle from ...... (you get the idea)

-dave

[pyroslev]

Anouncing the penalties was a good idea. I preferred it over not knowing. It allowed us to know what we did wrong without having to filter through the video. I hope the tradition is continued.

[nightrenegade00]

announcing helps for a lot of people. it helps the scouters get info about teams and what penalties they might cause in the future. it also helps the team penalized to know what not to do next time and it helps the other teams by giving them something to look out for. keep up the announcing MCs.

-Crash

[XtremeEagle04]

THe announcments about pealtys help us coach our drivers better and help our scouting team rate the robots better, b/c you can have the best bot in the place but if your drivers keep geting penaltys for the same thing then you arn't going to get picked for the finals.

[i_am_Doug]

i got a penilty for just haveing one foot in the manul loading zone and thay docked us 10 points; i was fully in the square exept my other foot was off the ground in the box... it sucked!


but you got to under stand that the reffs are stressed too with calling what happen and all that fun stuff... thanks for reading my rambleingness
(sound out the word ramble-ing-ness) thanks!