Boring Game

[Valley Raider]

This is my first year as an alumni and i wad looking forward to watching my team on the web casts. However upon doing so I found it was not exciting.

From a distance most of the robots look the same, i found the numbers on the bumpers harder to read than in past years, making recognizing teams really hard, and the ranking system made the scores of the match meaningless.

Then i realized that that i never saw a single shot made from more than two feet, or a hang (there were only like 2 or 3 in the whole portland regional, i have watch some other highlights of hangs sense). I recognize that there probably were shots made from longer range and the web feeds don't catch everything, but i would say most points are scored from herding ball in from two feet away.

My conclusion was that this year game is just boring. I don't see two robots going at it, fighting to hang a ringer on the rack to double the alliance score at the last second to win. Thats what makes FIRST exciting.

So my question is, do people who watch the game live think it is exciting? Are there really cool designs across the board or are them really mostly the same? Is this year game just boring, or is it just the web casts?

[BrendanB]

I think it was very exciting! I am not surprised that you are seeing this since most of the teams are new. What I really like about it is that when a team kicks the ball, you know there is a good chance it will bounce out which makes moving balls more of a suspense to watch and such an excitement to watch.

I personally like this years game.

[Valley Raider]

Originally Posted by BrendanB

I think it was very exciting! Notice, you are from Oregon so you must be talking about the rookie regional up there are you not? I am not surprised that you are seeing this since most of the teams are new. What I really like about it is that when a team kicks the ball, you know there is a good chance it will bounce out which makes moving balls more of a suspense to watch and such an excitement to watch.

I personally like this years game.

Yes there were a number of Rookie Teams but the Portland Oregon Regional has been around for years, there are a number of vets who always show up, yes there are no national powerhouses but in past years I have found the competition very exciting.

[Vikesrock]

I watched the finals of KC which were quite good (IMO) and from what I've read the finals of Peachtree were quite good as well.

I highly recommend watching the KC finals between 2410, 1625, 16 and 525, 931, 2345, and see if that changes your opinion on the game at all.

Those matches are already archived and available:
http://www.more.net/content/2010-fir...-final-matches

[Duncan Macdonald]

It is not that bad. Webcasts aren't as exciting as attending an event because you never see the whole field and the team you want to watch is always off camera.

A mentor on our team came up with the system of multiplying all scores by 10 and results of 70-30 just felt more like a first game.

[dtengineering]

Webcast < Being there

Just wait another decade or so and we'll get our webcasts in 3D HD, with mulitple feeds so we can watch the robots and not the artfully selected close-ups of the drivers.

Jason

[MagiChau]

We had an exciting competition in Traverse City. It was an awesome first robotics competition for me There was full field goal shots and some nice mid field shots. This one team even got two balls in with one kick. We also had battle bots! Teams were constantly trying to tip over other robots.

[RobertG]

I found that my enjoyment of the game correlated significantly with the quality of the webcast. The high quality webcasts (KS and DC), I found very fun to watch as I could clearly the team numbers and all of the action. Other webcasts, however,(all of the U-Stream's) were barely watchable, and I had to depend on the announcer to follow the game.

Overall, I found this game much more interesting to watch because it was easy to tell a robot's alliance and the score.

[sanddrag]

On Friday in San Diego, I stood fieldside, and found most of the matches rather boring. I can remember three teams I saw hang, two of them multiple times. But other than that, and the occasional tipping, nothing too exciting. No real head to head action (yet) in this game. Everyone just seems to do their own thing. Were finals better I hope?

[BEEKMAN]

Originally Posted by BrendanB

I think it was very exciting! I am not surprised that you are seeing this since most of the teams are new. What I really like about it is that when a team kicks the ball, you know there is a good chance it will bounce out which makes moving balls more of a suspense to watch and such an excitement to watch.

I personally like this years game.

I agree, as an operator I can say that the crowd loved when anybody was scoring from zones 2 and 3. (yes it did happen...quite a bit). I agree however that alot of robots are similar in look, but in design and function, there is great diversity.

[IKE]

Its funny. The scores were right where I was expecting them for week 1. You know there will be problems, you know the scores will be low, and you know there will not be a lot of strategy at first. While reading through the rules the first time, we could tell penalties would play a huge role. All this in mind, like Chris said, the game felt very slow on Friday.

After a nights rest though, everything changed. Saturday quals, the scores ratcheted up and the game was much better. Strategies began to be deployed, and defense was starting to be played.
Elims at Kettering were great. Although they went the traditional seeding order, they were still a blast to watch.

[UCGL_Guy]

After 11 years of participating this by far is the least exciting game yet. Even underpassing the infamous 4 on 0 year.

[V_Chip]

I think you should change the thread title to "Really Boring Game"

It just doesn't excite me very much (make that at all).

The only match that I found exciting was the final- FTW.
IMHO this year's game and seeding point system makes this season look. . .
"Bad"

They should revive recent years' games.

They're beginning to Breakaway from the fun.

[IndySam]

Week one play is usually boring until eliminations start. This year is no exception.

[Stephen of REX]

Its still week 1! The final match at DC ended up being 5 goals to 5 goals, with a two point hang, making the score 7 - 5. I'd imagine that as the season progresses, more teams will increase their capabilities, and the real stars will begin to shine.