As a veteran team that has attended ten Championship Events, we were disappointed to find that our experience this past weekend in Atlanta was not all that we had hoped. There are several improvements that could be made to better the experience for all teams:
The team eagerly entered the event to share this year’s efforts. However, we were saddened to receive little attention from the judges. Regardless of the awards that we have previously won, including the Championship Chairman’s in 2003, we feel that equal attention should be paid to all attendees – not just those who are in the running for this year’s Chairman’s or those who have not yet won awards. Spending thousands of hours throughout the year manufacturing a robot, creating a business plan, website, animation, Inventor site, and other entries just like all the teams, members worked extremely hard to develop the submissions and fundraise enough money to attend. We should not receive either more or less attention after induction to the Hall of Fame. The distribution of the attention of the judges needs to be equal so all teams have a fair chance. Though we had prepared to share our accomplishments, only two judges arrived to listen, for a minimal amount of time. It is tough to see some teams surrounded by judges when others team are rarely visited. One solution might be to increase the judging staff so that all teams are able to speak with FIRST personnel and share products that the team worked so hard to achieve.
The second disappointment was the way the qualifying matches were organized. It is known that people have figured out the algorithm that selects the alliances for the matches. This limits the competitiveness of the event, as teams are able to scout their alliances before the competition. The part of the algorithm that allies veteran teams with newer teams can remain; however, the pairing of the teams should be more random.
Thirdly, the divisions are too large. Having more divisions (i.e. six divisions) would lessen the amount of teams in each division and allow each team to participate in more matches. Scouting would be more manageable for less experienced teams. This year, there were six or seven regionals occurring simultaneously each week. Next year there will be 41 regionals in five weeks, averaging to over 8 fields a week. At least one week will require 9 fields. Thus, FIRST will have enough fields for each of the 6 divisions, two practice fields, and the Einstein field.
Another topic that needs to be addressed is about teams standing when their robot is on the field. Being continuously told to remain seated was extremely discouraging – especially since members from other teams were standing with no confrontation. A universal ruling needs to be made regarding this issue so that everyone is clear and members can support the drivers.
Finally, the venue and location are suboptimal. The Georgia Dome venue is impersonal compared to most regionals. The large distances between the stands, fields, and pits fragment teams. The city of Atlanta is not an appropriate location for several reasons. This year, the team witnessed several crimes. A week before the Championship Event, a shooting occurred at the CNN Center, where some teams stayed. On Wednesday, one of our team parents witnessed a drug bust outside of our hotel, the Marriott Renaissance. On Thursday, an armed man was shot by World Conference Center police in Centennial Park, the planned site for the FIRST Finale Party, which was also witnessed by a team engineer. On Friday, police chased a robber/murderer through the lobby of our hotel and we had to remain on lock down for several hours. We also witnessed several crimes on the MARTA rail line (drug deals, theft, etc.). All of these situations put all teams at risk.
Hopefully these issues will be considered by the FIRST administration in order to make future Championship Events as rewarding as possible for all participating teams.
Sincerely,
Nate Thomas
President
Corey Koenig
President, Treasurer
Bobby Trotta
Vice President, Driver