SOAP, you rock! This day went forward like clockwork once the stream began to flow. I opened a browser window containing SOAP’s match data from IRI, another containing the team rank scroller, and then finally the LiVE stream of the event.
Anyway, at certain points during the day a match would end and because of some distraction I would miss the score. All I had to do was refresh the match results page and already the match I missed would have its results posted.
At other points during the day I missed whole matches. Normally this would be dealt with as, “tough luck man,” but not today. All I had to do was start downloading the saved version of the matches I missed, because they were already there, compressed and ready to go.
Then, an amazing match would take place, resulting in a really high QP for the winner–there were alot of them today. Eager to see how the match affected the team rankings, I normalized the real player window, and watched as the (already full screen) team rankings scroller cycled through rankings. By the time it circled around to listing the number one seed, the amazing match I had just seen was accounted for and a new seeding order was calculated. wow. Also, because the team rank scroller cycled through the rankings automatically, I didn’t have to stop watching the IRI stream altogether to see the new ranks.
During the entire time I was watching the IRI stream I felt like I was really there, and it felt like I was watching something better than all the competitions I had seen this year.
All I can say now is that “I’m lovin’ it!” As an avid FIRST event web cast viewer, I must say this has been the best experience for me–everything was actually live. Kudos to SOAP, NASA, the IRI officials, and all the others who helped make this web cast possible–you have raised the bar!
PS: Sweet home Indiana? “Hello Hershey, Pennsylvania?” LOL. Those little interludes were really entertaining.
Oh, in other news. Teams 308, 71, 980, and 292 really impressed me today. Team 308 for the “seamless integration” they seem to have with all of their partners; team 71 for the way they are using strategy and robot driving skill to push their way to the top–of the ranks, and also because of how quickly they “righted” themselves after being flipped in autonomous; team 980 for that autonomous mode: it is good; and finally team 292 for being the luckiest team at the event: your matches just kept on ending in your favor. wow.
This is going to be awesome!
