Championship 2007 - Atlanta - What Needs To Be Improved

[tyron256]

Originally Posted by Zyik

-moved from other thread-

I vote for more dancing. Honestly, watching that webcast, we need to dance more. The people in the stands dancing looked to be obsurcing veiws as well, not that this was a big deal as they looked to only standup at the breaks.

Ok in all honestly I do meen that, at SVR and Davis there were areas for dancing team-members, there should be one per divison at championships to. However, space in the dome makes this unlikely, but dancing allows the teams that arn't on the feild to still participate, move around, jump up and down, etc. allows them to keep the adrenaline going. I think that if this was in place, the crowd might be even more responsive. *shrug* just my two bits. I don't even know if non-crazy-california regionals have alot of dancing.

I definately agree with this one. i believe that it is part of FIRST that keeps the energy up when everyone is jet lagged. essentially, it shows team spirit and makes things more fun.

[pythagoras]

the only thing that I had major problems with, was poor judging. For example, while in the semi-finals on curie their was a lot of commotion near the rack and 1114's arm was broken, we only got a 10-point penalty. Later on Einstein 71 got knocked over and the refs declared a red card. I have seen issues similar to this one and would just like some clarification on the topic.

[s_forbes]

Being one of those who is only able to watch matches from a dorm room, I'd really like to see an improvement in the webcasts. The quality doesn't bother me as much as the camara choice; it seems that whenever a robot is disabled and not moving the camara has an urge to zoom in on it while robot X on the other side of the field does a backflip and scores 5000 points. I'd really like to see some better choices in camara angles next year.

[ebarker]

interlacing the awards with the matches is a great idea. It saves a ton of time because you don't sit there doing nothing waiting for the next match and then having to start the awards from scratch.

Signs need to be posted and people reminded that the FIRST protocol is NOT to save seats. I went to Newton and there were a ridiculous number of seats claimed with no one in them. We only needed a few seats for a short period of time to watch our match and leave. I talked to a woman that was trying to guard 50 seats and their team wasn't in sight when I arrived and later when I left.

So please everyone be a little respectful and take it easy on the seats.

[DougW]

On Curie, if there is not a match or the score posted there are commercials, the same ones played over and over. I would rather see my kids setting up the robot or there team in the stands cheering for them. Most of the time they don't make it back to the match before announcing the teams and you miss seeing the kids all together.

jw

[Caio]

one of the perhaps most frustrating occurrences during the competition was that at one point they were AHEAD of schedule on Friday. It was very awkward when we showed up 15 minutes before our scheduled match time, and nearly missed our match. We had to run out onto the field. When you have that much noise in the pits, and an announcement about things being ahead of schedule is known to just be considered white noise, they shouldn't do that. I'm all for being on time, or ahead, but they should have sent someone to our pits and told us "we are ahead by 10 minutes, be out there extra early..."

but hey, they were trying not to run late, but they should be careful about making people almost miss their matches, especially when you only get 7 of them.

[Luckyfish05]

Originally Posted by DougW

On Curie, if there is not a match or the score posted there are commercials, the same ones played over and over. I would rather see my kids setting up the robot or there team in the stands cheering for them. Most of the time they don't make it back to the match before announcing the teams and you miss seeing the kids all together.

jw

That is totally agreed! I understand the need for the commercials! But get some crowd shots!!!! It's just as much about those kids in the crowd as the robots on the field!

[Weepy]

All the issues that I would've said have already been noted in this thread except for one...

Now, 2047 is just a rookie team and I'm a senior, so this is my first and last year here as student (hopefully becoming a mentor next year). The matches were amazing, we met amazing people, and the whole event made my whole FIRST experience feel like my life was a comic book.

However, we really didn't enjoy Championships as much as any of the regionals we went to this year. We didn't see nearly as much team spirit or activity in the Newton stands as much as we did in Milwaukee or Chicago, and it was hard to be motivated when we only knew the 10-ish teams that qualified from the regionals we attended plus the handful of other teams we made personal friendships with.

I'm not sure what can be done about it, it's just our setup. Between emergencies, scouting, finding parts, ordering food, and two broken vans, and only 20 people on our team, it's not like we could afford to wander far from where we needed to be. It was a blessing that many of the friends I did make through FIRST had time to come to the pit to talk to me while we were working (I love you, Team C.O.R.E.!).

I dunno, I feel like I would've enjoyed this event 100x more if we actually KNEW the other teams. Scouting was hard to do since everyone else was equally bogged down by the goings.

If FIRST could organize some after-Thursday events such as Ultimate Frisbee Competitions, trivia shows, or maybe some video game tournaments, that would allow everyone in their own division to recognize each other. Small little prizes could be given out like t-shirts too.

Sure, 'socializing' isn't as much a concern as the safety issues and overall logistic issues that were posted in this thread earlier, but it would have totally changed my team's experience at Championships.

(100 secret EXP points to whoever read this all)

[Richard Wallace]

Originally Posted by Weepy

(100 secret EXP points to whoever read this all)

Claimed.

I understand your frustration; it has always been much harder for me to enjoy the Championship. I still prefer regionals. Neglecting hiatus years this is my ninth FRC season, and I've been to about twice as many regionals as Championships. I am only now starting to really have a good time at the Championship, and it requires conscious effort to circumvent frustration.

[whytheheckme]

IMHO, pushing/pinning penalties were not called evenly on Galileo during the Eliminations. During Qualifying matches, there was 1 or 2 refs in particular that would be SCREAMING the count for how long one bot had been pinning another (which is fine... This is the rule.) Then, during the Eliminations, a bot would be pushing another one for 8 or 9 seconds, and the ref(s) had not even started the count. It would be up to 15 or 20 seconds before one bot let go of the other, which calls for a penalty according to the rules. Perhaps the refs were distracted with looking at other calls, but in my opinion, this is huge (BTW, I'm not complaining because my team got screwed by it (which we didn't), I'm just saying it doesn't seem fair.)

Other than that, I felt like the end of the Final Finals could have been a bit more exciting (confetti perhaps, although I have read all about the evil balloons), or perhaps fireworks, or something. But I've never attended champs, so I don't have anything to compare it to.

Having to walk to the GWCC from the floor to get up to the stands was annoying; Perhaps they could take a section on the side of the fields where no-one was sitting and open the stairs there. Seeing 1-3 hour breaks between matches, and our pit crew being able to handle our bot, it was annoying, not to mention tiring, for drivers to have to walk for half an hour each way to just sit with the team.

Perhaps color-coordinating the operator badges by division (and then FVC and FLL) would have been helpful. Not sure what difference this would have made, but when in the tunnel to get over to the dome, it would have been nice to know if a bot was in your division, so that you could pay a bit more attention to the design, drivers, etc.

Parking price reduction. Not sure how. But I had some friends in the ATL area (within an hour away) that were turned off by coming to simply watch the event because of parking prices. I think that offering some kind of compensation would increase outside spectator participation.

Covered already, but the LED displays were horrendous. It was painful to watch the screen, let alone tell what was being displayed on it.

Audio on fields. Seemed like the music on Newton was really loud (good in my opinion), while on Galileo, it was barely audible. There should be some kind of standard between the fields. Or play one song throughout the whole venue, really loudly.

Tube supply. Was really confused by this. Why were so many Keepers blown up ... Seemed to me that very few of these were popped/cut away, but it seemed like every time I was in queue, there was someone on one of the fields blowing Keepers up. Not really a complaint. Just confused.

Queueing time announcement. The people in the pits emphasized that we leave our pit AT LEAST 40 minutes prior to a match, and then when we got to the dome, the queuer looked at us funny because we were 6 matches early. And then we sat. I guess if you knew not to listen to the people at pit admin, you would have been OK, but as a rookie team, we followed this every time.

I know I shouldn't complain about this, but my sister was just bugging me about it. The Food. I will now quote her. "It tasted like someone threw it up, and they refried it, and served it to you in a cardboard box." That's all I'll say. I personally was not offended by this venue food (I have seen worse.)

That's about it for now. I know I started off saying that I didn't have too much to complain about, but I guess I really thought about it. I was EXTREMELY happy with the event. Just suggestions for improvement.

Jacob

[JackN]

I have a handful of complaints for this year's championship.

1. Consistency in Calls-The consistency in reffing was very strange. What was a penalty at regionals was not at Championship and what was a penalty on one field was no problem on another. It is impossible for two fields to make the same calls, but things that are called on one should be called on another.

2. Chairman's Presentation-I can understand not putting the balloons up, but we need something to go along with the presentation. Fireworks, confetti for the ceiling, the band playing, something. I love to hear the Chairmans finalists, and for them to get rid of it is upsetting. Would you rather finish second or not at all. Maybe the three judges awards become Chairmans finalist awards, just a suggestion.

3. Signs on Sticks-People, having spirit is great, showing off your team is sweet, and showing love to your drivers is fun, but during the match put down your big signs and sit down. It makes it easier to see the field and watch the competition.

4. Alliance Draft-This is a two part problem. I hate to see an even field. No more serpentine draft please. Two eight seeds won in the first round, something that should rarely happen. The Number one seed has only a marginal advantage, when everyone is even. My other problem was with teams showing up late. If you are in the top eight, be there extra early, please to get through the process.

These are just things that bugged me all weekend. It was still a great competition and I am excited for next year.

[ScoutingNerd175]

Originally Posted by 1derboy

2. Chairman's Presentation-I can understand not putting the balloons up, but we need something to go along with the presentation. Fireworks, confetti for the ceiling, the band playing, something. I love to hear the Chairmans finalists, and for them to get rid of it is upsetting. Would you rather finish second or not at all. Maybe the three judges awards become Chairmans finalist awards, just a suggestion.

I agree. I was watching on the webcast and the award felt totally anticlimactic. Firstly because I was wondering about honorable mentions, and secondly because there was almost no production. I realize that the balloons bothered people, so that should not be repeated, but there were fireworks in 2005 when HOT won, and that didn't make it hard for anyone to see. The chairman's announcement is my favorite part of the year, and my team isn't even in the running for it. But this was just not exciting.

On that note, considering that EI is supposed to be the 2nd highest award in FIRST, I don't think that it should be wedged in between matches. I think that they should finish the matches, then do EI, then CA. Although I do understand the time constraints and I like that awards are done in between, I don't think that EI should be.

The commercials on the web cast were definitely an issue. I wanted to see teams cheering and people dancing and teams setting up their robots. Instead I got to see the same commercials over and over, and I couldn't even hear them. Not to mention missing part of the match. I agree with those who suggested split camera angles. During one match, my team scored in auto, but I couldn't see it because the cameras were focusing on the other alliance, which didn't even move.

[wheeler]

My biggest issue is with the FVC competition
They were late with the match list anyway so why did they not remove the no show so that teams in a Championship competition where left solo. I know at our qualifier they ran the match lists about 30 min before the start of the matches to assure that everyteam was at least present.
For the awards you could not hear a thing because of the FRC fields.
They could have allowed the teams to play one more match each then do eliminations and awards on Friday night. Our team had both FRC and FVC so during awards most of our team was split between the two instead of celebrating the team that was ending their competition.

[sovierr]

Originally Posted by wheeler

My biggest issue is with the FVC competition
They were late with the match list anyway so why did they not remove the no show so that teams in a Championship competition where left solo. I know at our qualifier they ran the match lists about 30 min before the start of the matches to assure that everyteam was at least present.
For the awards you could not hear a thing because of the FRC fields.
They could have allowed the teams to play one more match each then do eliminations and awards on Friday night. Our team had both FRC and FVC so during awards most of our team was split between the two instead of celebrating the team that was ending their competition.

I can't believe we only had 4 qualifying matches. When undefeated teams are not alliance captains, there are needs to be more qualification matches! I don't know if any undefeated teams were left unpicked for eliminations, but that would be a lousy situation if it did happen.

The should have had moderators on the practice fields too. We had serious issues testing autonomous codes because we needed 1/2 the field. There were seldom times where 4 or 5 teams were not out at the same time. On the field with the field controls, the controls were never used since there was nobody to coordinate it.

I felt like this was still an FRC event with a Vex competition squeezed in the middle. They should try to coordinate this as 3 major events together. How about the openning ceremony being done for all 3 events together before any begin. Also, the lack of qualifying matches was explained as a way to not have Vex intefere with FRC on Saturday. This reinforces that FRC is king and Vex/LEGO must bend around FRC.

One last odditiy (not exactly a complaint)...why does FRC do alliance selections 1-8 in the first round then 8-1 in the second round and FVC does 1-8 in both rounds?

All in all, I had a great time, and I know that the Vex crew does a tremendous amount to put in this event. I just think some improvements can make it as special of an event as the FRC Championship.

[MGoelz]

I think the only improvements that I suggest are made are:
1. Explanation of the penalties. There were times on Curie when the match results weren't even shown. I know it only happened a couple of times, but if you aren't able to hear well, it is vital to see who won. And there were quite a few penalties that I had no clue as to why they were called. Just a little explanation, especially for those who aren't directly involved in FIRST, and don't know the rule book inside and out.

2. I also think that they should not have even made the announcement about the tubes until after the Chairman's Award. It caused a lot of commotion, and even when they went back and said to wait, there were still people running down to get them.

3. Maybe show a quick schedule in between finals matches on the screen to show what awards will be given, and between which matches... and so on. And the Chairman's could be in much larger font, bold, and underlined for emphasis on its importance. Or something so that teams wait and the winners can experience the true feeling of winning this prestigious award surrounded by teams that know exactly what you've been working for and can appreciate your win with respect.