Championship 2007 - Atlanta - What Needs To Be Improved

[Daniel Brim]

Originally Posted by jill399

3- Projection in pits. It usually took me 3 times to read the seeds in Newton because of the lack of quality. One time, after standing for 10 minutes, i gave up trying to find where my team was because i couldnt distinguish an 8 from a 9 or a 6 from a 3. Also, Newton and Curie had two different systems for showing the seeds. Newton showed two pages of scores that divided the 86 teams in half. This is good for teams that know where abouts theyre seeded but when you have 3 seconds a shot to find your team number out of 43, it tends to take a while. But, in Curie, they were showing the seeds one team at a time. Although this gave more time to find your team, it took forever to go back to a number that you may have missed.

Agreed entirely. The list of seedings was nearly impossible to read. In addition, the way it scrolled, it was even nearer to impossible to determine who the number 1 seed was, because it was gone in an instant. I liked the way it was displayed last year much better.

Originally Posted by shawger

If FIRST came up with a way of ranking teams from highest to lowest ability in perfect order I think the game would lose an entire dimension of strategy.

It's not going to be in perfect order with any system (see: Aces High last year), but it is the most fair to all teams to make the matches completely random. I don't think that any other system can come remotely close to matching that.

[Kit Gerhart]

I'm probably in the minority on this, but why is the P.A. so loud? Anyone who cares about preserving their hearing needs to use ear plugs, but if the sound weren't so loud, we wouldn't need ear plugs.

[Mike Martus]

Many great accurate suggestions I hope FIRST is looking at these....

I would also add the "Free Tubes" major error.

I would add one that has not been mentioned:

Sundial - could be great - if it would work. Many problems with it crashing.
There were many teams violating FIRST rules by operating a wireless network. They were asked to shut down but did not. We were told it was all the networks that were causing the problems with Sundial.

Remember an event this massive will always have issues and areas to improve upon.

[Jeremiah Johnson]

Originally Posted by Mike Martus

Many great accurate suggestions I hope FIRST is looking at these....

I would also add the "Free Tubes" major error.

I would add one that has not been mentioned:

Sundial - could be great - if it would work. Many problems with it crashing.
There were many teams violating FIRST rules by operating a wireless network. They were asked to shut down but did not. We were told it was all the networks that were causing the problems with Sundial.

Remember an event this massive will always have issues and areas to improve upon.

I agree with all of this, but the bold part the most. Our team got a crap load of deflated tubes, but not because FIRST handed them out but because my not-so-smart brother jumped over the ledge (at least 8ft drop) right after they announced that people could go down to get them. They didn't say anything about getting tubes after the matches were done until after the fact (when only the Einstein stairway was open). This was a potential safety hazard for people in the stands. I'm glad to have not seen anyone else jump over the ledge to get down there. I do blame my brother for him jumping and not FIRST, I yelled at him a lot. He was our Safety Captain and worked hard on promoting safety in the pits but he did stupid stuff like jumping over the ledge and not wearing safety glasses on the floor.

I also think that the walk from the stands to the pits has been greatly improved since the last time I was there in 2004. My feet still hurt though, I made several trips from the stands to the playing field in less than 15 minutes without running... that was a chore.


Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I was kicked off of the side of the Archimedes field during eliminations because I was not a member of any teams on the field at that time. However, I had been walking around the ENTIRE stadium taking photos of all teams the entire weekend. It just so happened that I celebrated with members of 107 ("sister team") when they had made it to the finals. That's pretty much my only personal complaint...

Then there's the problem with my FIRST Behind the Design book getting stolen from my seat on Thursday... that wasn't funny.

[Alan Anderson]

The Alliance Algorithm of Doom seems to have done exactly what it was intended to do. I hope we never see it again.

The sound system at the wrap party doesn't need to be turned up so high when the stage is indoors. I could barely carry on a conversation with the person next to me, much less hear anyone across the table.

Did they actually make DS&K perform "on schedule" after the finals and award ceremony were going overtime??? That's unforgivable.

I got complained at by several ungracious adults who were hoarding multiple rows of seats for team members who never appeared while I was watching our team's matches. What part of "do not save seats" is unclear? (My successful strategy for the situation: agree in advance to give up the seats when those students need them.)

[Dave Scheck]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

Did they actually make DS&K perform "on schedule" after the finals and award ceremony were going overtime??? That's unforgivable.

Yes, that was the case. They were told to be ready to go at about 6:00 because there were teams lining up outside. They eventually were told that they were going to start at 6:15 and had until 6:45 to play. As they were taking the stage, there was a power failure on one half of the stage. While they were fixing this, the hypnotist walked on stage and started doing his sound check (which, by the way was scheduled for prior to 5:30). This put the band about 10-15 minutes behind. They were then told that they had to cut their set to 15 minutes to maintain the schedule. They negotiated to have a 20 minute set. When they finally did start playing, the doors were barely open. As they were about to start their final song, the production crew signaled that time was up and that they had to keep their schedule.

I think that it was wrong to open the doors to the team party before the competition was complete. It was very disrespectful to the teams playing on Einstein as well as the teams that won awards. A "wrap party" should celebrate the conclusion of an event, and not begin before all activities are complete.

[falconmaster]

Since consistency in complaints does indicate the seriousness of the issue, I am going to put in my part. The Chairman competitors would really like to know where they stand. The Honorable mention really did that. We too did not get any post evaluation documents indicating where we were weak or where we were strong. We did not even know there were going to be no honorable mentions. We were kind of stunned but we will get over it. Thats all I want to chime in on. Thanks

PS does anyone know why there is no honorable mentions any more?

[Alex Cormier]

Originally Posted by FreedomForce

i want to hear someone on the DRIVE TEAM from 48 speak out about this match.... i was on the field with a media badge, and so were others, and they heard some things that the 48 mentors said that the ref should have heard as well, bc if the refs did, there should have a red flag on 48, no doubt (note, thats what i heard from other media personal, i wonder if they recorded it, well the audio anyways.)

on other topics

CANADA GOT SHAFTED IN THE AWARD CERMONIES
The tubes should have been till last, (did someone get a video of the stampede?) they should have taken all those excess ringers and tossed them down instead of confetti or balloons, (if the game piece is soft enough, make it interesting...)
1732 DIDN"T DESERVE 1ST SEED
do the closing ceremonies/finals later, have that start at a fixed time, like 8PM (prime time spotlight for TV maybe...) and have multiple plans ready just in case matches go to 3 games.
1114 GOT SHAFTED, AND IM NOT HAPPY
have alliance selections done a little differently at nationals, for those of you who don't know the winning alliance was a 8 SEED alliance, not to be taking anything away from them, but that SHOULDN'T happen, go back to the old system, and get rid of this serpentine system for Championships
1732 SHOWED THEY WERE A WIMP BY DOING WHAT THEY DID DURING ALLIANCE SELECTIONS
well, thats all i got...

I see 95% of your post disrespectful and totally not needed here on the forums. If you have a problem with a certian team, PM someone on that team and keep it private.

At no point shall anyone bash a team for being 1st seed, that is totally wrong and i am surprised this is coming from a MENTOR. Hiding it in white is childish and also not smart at all.

Also on the topic of 48 and 1114, if you're not on either teams, what right do you have to worry about it? Im sure you don't know all the logistics of what went down, which you stated in your post, once again PM a person on the team and keep it private.


$.02, wish i was worth more.

[ICE MAN]

Hey,


I was just wondering since i heard no offical mention of where the championships will be held next year. Does anybody know of the offical location of the 2008 Championships will be held at.

Thanks for your time,
-Cory

[dangerousdave]

Originally Posted by ICE MAN

Hey,


I was just wondering since i heard no offical mention of where the championships will be held next year. Does anybody know of the offical location of the 2008 Championships will be held at.

Thanks for your time,
-Cory

Atlanta April 16-19, 2008 and I hope Roswell and Wheeler are back there again in 2008!

[dangerousdave]

Concerning the post by FreedomForce at 1:12AM EDT April 16.

Originally Posted by Alex Cormier

I see 95% of your post disrespectful and totally not needed here on the forums. If you have a problem with a certian team, PM someone on that team and keep it private.

At no point shall anyone bash a team for being 1st seed, that is totally wrong and i am surprised this is coming from a MENTOR. Hiding it in white is childish and also not smart at all.

Agreed, those headings and most of the content should not have been posted and it was worse doing it subliminally. As Alex said, if you had to say it you should have said it in a PM.
Dave

[John Wanninger]

Originally Posted by Daniel Brim

The Algorithm
... I miss the days of the 2005/2006 finals, where it was a clash of the titans. The most deserving team got the #1 seed, and then picked who they thought was second best. Now it's normally a random team at #1, who will either pick a begrudging team that deserved to be #1, or will pick several of the best teams, who will decline (Newton 2006, Curie 2007 are examples, although the former didn't have the algorithm of doom)....

Ouch.

[GRaduns340]

Not having been in the stands for much of the competition I don't know how things went out there, but I do agree that the algorithm really hurt a lot of teams. Just an example, team 316 was the second seed alliance at FLR this year, a well-deserved spot. Then at Championship they didn't win a single match and came in dead last. I might not know the whole story there, but that seemed more than a little unfair.

There were also 86 teams in the division. There should be no need for any team to play with or against another team twice. As it was I think we played with 1657 twice and against them once, against 49 twice, with 1885 twice, and with 1230 once and against them once. There may even be more that I'm missing. That's four other teams that we should have been able to see in our matches.

[Shelbo]

[quote=GRaduns340;617558]Not having been in the stands for much of the competition I don't know how things went out there, but I do agree that the algorithm really hurt a lot of teams. Just an example, team 316 was the second seed alliance at FLR this year, a well-deserved spot. Then at Championship they didn't win a single match and came in dead last. I might not know the whole story there, but that seemed more than a little unfair.

QUOTE]
Thank you for the kind words...they mean a lot.

We should have enountered 35 different robots on the field; we only encountered 29 due to duplications/repeats.
Suggestion: have a human look over the match sheets once the computer generates them.

-Shelbo's Mom

How about adding a scout only area. Pass out a number of badges per team, 6 to 10. This would allow unobstructed views for the scouts and everyone else could go crazy, dance stand up and basically act like fools with impunity. It would also allow for a bit more collaboration among teams since you will be sitting with other people who have the same goals as you.

I noticed the view from the second tier was outstanding and perfect for taking full field video and scouting, but no one is allowed up there until the awards ceremony. That might be a good place for the scouting section. Bring your binoculars though if you want to read the numbers on the robots.

Chris