Ontario Provincial’s 2022 was a complete disaster to say the least. It’s clear to say that canSTEAM had no idea what they were doing, the head ref was rude to the teams and their own volunteers, the whole day was 4 hours off schedule, the fields kept disconnecting etc. On the Vex IQ Skills Fields they lost all of the scores and teams had to redo their matches. I’m sure none of the teams were happy with how things were running, but EPs have ignored all complaints. St.Catherine’s and Brampton Robotics should run 2023 Ontario Provincials. Loved the whole warehouse aesthetics though, the lights really brought out the beauty of Ottawa.
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I’m sorry to hear that. It must have been a frustrating day for the Event Partner, referees, and other participants. 
I think a lot of regions are struggling to recover from the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, and a couple of years without large events.
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I feel bad for the volunteers, because the head ref was really rude to them and basically all the teams.
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I can understand frustrations at how events can be run, but I don’t think going the public route with complaints and bashing is the most fruitful.
A more targeted, reflective, and thoughtful email to the Event Region Championship EP and the EEM with your concerns would be the best way to address this.
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Like the Colorado topic - I would recommend teams take a pause on posting here and instead engage in constructive conversations with EP and ReCF Regional Support team
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Yep, can’t say we haven’t tried.
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Yeah, we’ve contacted them but their responses were more of shifting the blame then helpful.
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On behalf of CanSTEAM Foundation and VEX Ontario 2022 Provincial Championship committee, I would like to apologize some of the experiences the participants had during the VEX Ontario 2022 Provincial Championship. Here are some of the challenges we had gone through to make it happen for all Ontario VEX teams,
- Venue. We have contacted all major venues in the GTA areas, school boards, regional community centers from October 2021 trying to secure a venue to host provincial championship in late February and early March. They are either not accepting any booking, not available or cost prohibitive to run such event and keep it at a reasonable cost.
- With hosting an event in Ottawa, far away from 90% of VEX teams in Ontario, it does bring tremendous challenges in terms of finding qualified key volunteers. Initially, we have secured a head referee for VRC who has been VEX Worlds referee for many years. However, due to last minutes emergency from him, we had to switch the VRC referee 2 days before the event.
- Traditionally, all referees go through several local qualifiers to get familiar with the tournament, and some of the controversial rulings throughout the season. By the time provincial championship is run, referees and volunteers are fully prepared to run the event. However, due to all the COVID restrictions we have had this year, the ONLY in person tournament we all have had in Ontario is the provincial championship.
- Schedule delay. Due to unforeseen circumstances, several VRC teams couldn’t make to provincials due to bus break down. The schedule must be regenerated several times because such instance. That has caused the initial delay and confusion of the event. On the VIQC side, event finishes only 30 minutes late than initial published agenda on both ES and MS.
Finally, I would like to thank all volunteers who has spent countless hours getting the Ontario Provincial Championship done. We all know there are a lot of improvements to be made, I have already talked to several teams, coaches, volunteers trying to gather some constructive suggestions that how we can run the event better in the future. I’m fully confident that when things are slowly getting back to normal pace, we will be able to run events much smoother and gave all teams better experiences in season 2022-2023. If you would like to share some of your experiences you had on VEX Ontario Provincial Championship, please feel free to message me directly. Any suggestions that could help us making the event better experiences for all VEX Ontario teams are very welcome.
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We have no problems with the volunteers and most of the referees and appreciate their contribution to the community, it must’ve been incredibly hard for them on Saturday especially under those working conditions. With all the covid stuff happening, it’s understandable to have problems with the venues and raising prices from $200 to $300 (VRC) and from $100 to $300 (VIQC) is not that big of a deal. Schedule delays happen often as well and 4-5 hours late is not the main issue.
I think the problem with most of the teams is the unprofessionalism of the head ref, most notably his unprompted rudeness towards most teams and even the volunteers. Along with that, when the EPs and event partners were approached with criticism or questions they responded with hostility and they were negligent to their responsibilities as the hosts of a provincial level event. Yes, we understand that no one has had an in-person tournament in a while and referees not updated on rules is understandable given the conditions. If canSTEAM is to host provincials in 2023, we would hope for some level of professionalism or at least to not be met with this level of aggression from the head ref and EPs.
Also, just treat your volunteers better. Like, come on, they don’t get paid anyway, just be nicer to them. * (ꈍ ꒳ ꈍ✿)
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Guys why is this flagged?
Are you asking about AnthonyBots post? I’d guess 1) it didn’t seem to be adding any value to the conversation and 2) it was more of a plug for a discord.
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I feel that the Discord link is constructive as it is a place to connect with locals and continue the discussion privately. I do believe that if he had phrased the post differently it would not have been flagged.
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It was simply a way to get those who were at the event and looking at this post to get into the discord. I attempted to get all the team’s discords but couldn’t. I was just trying to be able to talk to them if they so wanted. I don’t get anything from people adding to the discord.
How many people from your organization volunteered at this event? These things are entirely run by volunteers. No one gets paid. If you really want to guarantee a well run tournament at any level, please provide volunteers. Be part of the solution instead of being part of the problem. Plus, as others have pointed out, post-covid, a little compassion goes a long way.
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I am somewhat sympathetic as it has been a couple years since last “normal” or more. those connections to have teams step up might not be present two years after global shutdown.
Tip of the hat (yea Danbury Mad Hatters) to all the teams who stepped up to help out this past weekend of HS regional championship matches.
I am truly amazed by all teams from CT, MA and RI coming together to make this weekend work out!
Good luck to all teams from the region heading to Worlds (wait!!! come this weekend to help advance middle school teams to Worlds!!!)
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Calling for more teams to send volunteers is a good message, but I think it might be a little far to tell a team they are “part of the problem”. The event was stated by the EP to have been far away from 90% of VRC teams in Ontario, and had a registration cost of $300CAD. Teams have limited budget for travel, and bringing along extra people as volunteers could be a significant cost for teams. I’m not very familiar with the VRC situation in Ontario, but maybe it would be easier to get volunteers if the regional championship were held somewhere more centrally located and closer to the majority of teams. In AZ we’ve previously had similar issues, with the state championship being held at a university in northern AZ away from 95% of teams making it difficult to get volunteers. In recent years, the state championship has been in the Phoenix area, and volunteers have been much easier to come by.
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I think the underlying message of this (and last two years) give grace …
We are all doing the best we can as EPs. Step up, even last minute… we welcome teams giving back.
Really, this year has been a challenge. and as was year before!
I am impressed with the resiliency teams have exhibited this season!
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I don’t believe most of the teams had a problem with the volunteers and we are in fact sympathetic to their work conditions and understand what they do is free. There were about 100 teams from VRC and VIQC at provincials for $300 per team so other then the cost for location, fields and tables the rest of the money went to canSTEAM. A lot of teams there don’t have organizations and work in their own basements so there’s not much they can do.
Again, our problems are with the event partners who ignored all criticism privately. Contacting them has not lead to any resolutions but only shifting the blame. I feel bad for the volunteers, the head ref wasn’t really nice to them. (っ＾▿＾)۶:cocktail:
٩(˘◡˘ )
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I completely agree. A few referees and organizers at the VEX Provincial Championship competition were extremely rude and could not take any form of constructive criticism or sensible feedback even when they unfamiliar with the rules.
Although the technical complications were completely understandable for running a competition of this size for the first time during Covid, the attitudes of the leading referees were definitely not. The issue isn’t the delays, disconnections or controversial rulings, but certain referees’ unmannered actions and inability to receive feedback. For instance, a certain referee believed that you could not enter the opponent’s half of the field at all in the last 30 seconds (you just can’t touch the platform) and was yelling aggressively at a team. All of the other refs were called over to the field and they all corrected him, but he ended up shouting at them.
The way they interacted with participants and other volunteers were completely unacceptable for any form of event or public setting, especially one for high school students. Additionally the refs’ constant profanity and unnecessary shouting at teams certainly does not represent the spirit of the competition. This is not an attack against the volunteers. The majority of them, such as the skills refs, judges and organizers were extremely friendly and understanding but a few individuals, lowered the quality of the event significantly.
If CanSteam were to set up an event again, I strongly suggest they improve their volunteer selection to prevent this from occurring again. Thank you
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Completely agree with what was mentioned above.
Aside from that, I hope that in the future provincials will be better event wise. At previous provincial competitions in Ontario, the competition actually felt more fun. There was a commentator for matches, good seating for watching matches, a place to eat lunch, music, good lighting, etc. This year all we got was a warehouse setting with dim lighting, no commentator, and no music. While some of these things can be expected due to Covid 19, a $300 event should at least include some of those. Compared to the $200 provincial events hosted before, this one seemed to be lacking. It was really less than fun this year from an event and venue perspective, and also because of the extreme 4 hour delay which meant we arrived at 7:30 in the morning and left at 11 at night. The no outside food rule also meant our team had to eat outside in the cold in the car, and the people at the door event prevented us from brining a bag of snacks inside… The large projector was also quite hard to read which meant our team had to constantly run back to the other side of the warehouse to see the TV for matches.
Overall though, I hope that in the future if CanSTEAM was to run provincials again, these would be included in the event without raising the price… Previous provincial event runners seemed to be very good, not sure why a switch had to be made.
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