What event is your team registering for first?

[Brian Maher]

With First Regional/District Event registration less than a week away, what event do you plan on registering for?

2791 will most likely be signing up for one of the downstate NY regionals first, though we're not certain on which one yet.

[SoftwareBug2.0]

The one we host.

[cad321]

McMaster university for Ontario districts.

[bobbysq]

Probably Iowa unless they hold our spot again. The 2nd regional is still left to be decided, and it sadly probably won't be GKC or CIR due to being back to back with Iowa.

[JohnFogarty]

The Rocket City Regional

[MikLast]

West Valley District Event.

[EricH]

TBD... but L.A. area teams know that if you want to go to the L.A. Regional, you need to be online and registering at 12:00:01 PM in order to get in.

[Jay O'Donnell]

Due to certain upstate scheduling and the fact that 229 has to travel no matter what, we're looking at Long Island for initial registration.

[Type]

I believe we will be attending the St Joe event in FiM due to it being our local event, we have always gone there since the first year they started that event.

[Sperkowsky]

Long Island. I see 229 is signing up for it. Going to be cool to have them there.

[hutchMN]

I can't say for sure, but I would be highly surprised if 10k wasn't 2502's first event.

[billbo911]

Easy, Sacramento.

[frcguy]

The one and only Silicon Valley Regional.

[Chief Hedgehog]

For four seasons North Star has been good to us...

Not sure where we will end up for the second event - Duluth, Iowa, Wisconsin, and LaCrosse are possibilities.

We will see!

[Cothron Theiss]

Smoky Mountains Regional, considering it's our home Regional. Hopefully we'll also sign up for Palmetto.

[dirtbikerxz]

Bayou Regional (It's the local regional).

We aren't certain on our second regional yet. We generally go to lonestar, but this year bayou and lonestar are back to back weeks, and we def don't want to do that. The school would not be happy, and also we just want time to build/improve something we might have found a flaw in at our first regional.

[SenorZ]

TBD... but L.A. area teams know that if you want to go to the L.A. Regional, you need to be online and registering at 12:00:01 PM in order to get in.

9:00:01 AM Pacific time, right?

99% going Orange Country Regional
1% chance of Los Angeles

[Daler99]

We're planning on registering for WPI first because we loved the venue and quality of the event last season. :)

[Jay O'Donnell]

We're planning on registering for WPI first because we loved the venue and quality of the event last season. :)

I have a feeling you'll have no problem getting in due to the fact that it's a Thursday-Friday event. It's unfortunate that the best 4 venues in NE aren't having events this year and one of the best left is on a weird time frame.

[Chris is me]

228's doing Waterbury first.

[Daler99]

I have a feeling you'll have no problem getting in due to the fact that it's a Thursday-Friday event. It's unfortunate that the best 4 venues in NE aren't having events this year and one of the best left is on a weird time frame.

Yeah, it is unfortunate. The time frame for WPI is weird, but we are willing to work with it. Just out of curiosity, what do you consider the best 4 venues in NE?

[Jay O'Donnell]

Yeah, it is unfortunate. The time frame for WPI is weird, but we are willing to work with it. Just out of curiosity, what do you consider the best 4 venues in NE?

Agganis Arena (BU)
Matthews Arena (Northeastern)
XL Center (Hartford)
Verizon Wireless Arena (Manchester NH)

Verizon hasn't hosted an event since 2013, and now both Boston venues are being replaced by revere high school.

Ultimately my only worry from the change over to districts 3 years ago is starting to happen, which is loss of quality venues. The last few years proved me wrong, but it's a pretty bad group of venues for 2017.

[Daler99]

Agganis Arena (BU)
Matthews Arena (Northeastern)
XL Center (Hartford)
Verizon Wireless Arena (Manchester NH)

Verizon hasn't hosted an event since 2013, and now both Boston venues are being replaced by revere high school.

Ultimately my only worry from the change over to districts 3 years ago is starting to happen, which is loss of quality venues. The last few years proved me wrong, but it's a pretty bad group of venues for 2017.

Those venues are really good. It's kind of a shame that both Boston venues are going to Revere High School, but Revere High School is still a fine venue. Do you know what events 1058 plans to attend? 5813 is planning to go to WPI and SNH.

[Jay O'Donnell]

Those venues are really good. It's kind of a shame that both Boston venues are going to Revere High School, but Revere High School is still a fine venue. Do you know what events 1058 plans to attend? 5813 is planning to go to WPI and SNH.

You would have to ask one of their current members on that one.

[jayred1127]

New York City Regional. And then after we are looking at Hudson valley or SBLI

[Andrew Schreiber]

Agganis Arena (BU)
Matthews Arena (Northeastern)
XL Center (Hartford)
Verizon Wireless Arena (Manchester NH)

Verizon hasn't hosted an event since 2013, and now both Boston venues are being replaced by revere high school.

Ultimately my only worry from the change over to districts 3 years ago is starting to happen, which is loss of quality venues. The last few years proved me wrong, but it's a pretty bad group of venues for 2017.

Having been involved with several events at BU and NEU as well as Revere... for a district I think the Revere High School is a better venue. The free parking lowers team costs and he lower venue cost lowers event costs letting them focus on other things. Now, if Revere was hosting the DCMP I'd have more complaints, but I think locations like BU, Verizon Wireless, and XL Center are simply too large to host districts and should instead be used for DCMP. [1] About the only real downside Revere has over the BU/NEU venues is that the food options are slightly more limited in that teams can't just walk across the street and find a half dozen places to eat.


EDIT: In the interest of not dragging this thread off topic, please feel free to tell me I'm an idiot via PM.


[1] Matthews is the oddball here, while I think it might actually be the same size (for our purposes) as BU it doesn't feel nearly as big. I like Matthews and think it's an awesome and historic venue but it doesn't feel as awe inspiring as the others.

[Koko Ed]

FLR. We always go to FLR.

[Hitchhiker 42]

We're probably doing Waterbury and Hartford in NE again - always great events! Not sure which one we'll register first for though, but probably Hartford.

[Abdul Compton]

Does anyone know where I can find the accurate listings of the current regionals? The Blue Alliance isn't as updated as I think it should be, it does not mention alot of the regionals that have been confirmed here. The regionals in California in particular. Thanks.

[Brian Maher]

Does anyone know where I can find the accurate listings of the current regionals? The Blue Alliance isn't as updated as I think it should be, it does not mention alot of the regionals that have been confirmed here. The regionals in California in particular. Thanks.

https://my.usfirst.org/myarea/index.lasso?event_type=FRC&year=2017

[Abdul Compton]

https://my.usfirst.org/myarea/index.lasso?event_type=FRC&year=2017

Thanks! Look's like FIRST finally got a website! Very excited...

[Tyler Olds]

Central Illnois Regional.

[Caleb Sykes]

10K Lakes, we'll win gold there eventually...

[Daniel4547]

Greater Pittsburgh Regional (home regional) and then hopefully Palmetto, everyone on my team loved it last year.

[BronzeStallion]

10K Lakes, we'll win gold there eventually...

My team fully understands, hopefully this year will change that. Except that's what we said last year, and the year before that...

Central Illnois Regional.

Hopefully we'll see you there.:D

[Connor McBride]

Not sure in what order of registration but we are planning on WPI week 2 and Pinetree week 5

[edesirim]

Easy, Sacramento.

Same! We are going to our "home" regional, Sacramento.

[Caleb Sykes]

My team fully understands, hopefully this year will change that. Except that's what we said last year, and the year before that...

Good to know that Evan has the same motivations to win as the rest of 4536. He'll just have to help us win so that he can show off his medal to you guys when he goes back home. ;)

[Christopher149]

Michigan and its guaranteed home district events makes this kind of boring, but: Escanaba.

[logank013]

What date does registration open? I'm sort of behind on that. Thanks.

[Jay O'Donnell]

What date does registration open? I'm sort of behind on that. Thanks.

Registation for your first event is this upcoming Thursday the 22nd, at 12pm est.

[Taylor]

IN District - Perry Meridian Event for 3487.

[mastachyra]

2781 RoboPride will be registering for the Midwest Regional.

[Chief Hedgehog]

Registation for your first event is this upcoming Thursday the 22nd, at 12pm est.

I am assuming that it will pop up on the www.firstinspires.org (http://www.firstinspires.org) dashboard - but do we know how it will look? I checked the FRC Blog as well - but nothing there. Let me know if you know - can't wait to shake things up a bit!

[Golfer4646]

Central Illnois Regional.

Hopefully we'll see you there.:D
Also hope we'll see both of you there! :]

[mathking]

I am assuming that it will pop up on the www.firstinspires.org (http://www.firstinspires.org) dashboard - but do we know how it will look? I checked the FRC Blog as well - but nothing there. Let me know if you know - can't wait to shake things up a bit!

I have been wondering the same thing, and wondering how many people will have a freak out moment when registration opens and they are wondering where the registration link will be.

[Kevin Leonard]

Long Island. I see 229 is signing up for it. Going to be cool to have them there.

Sounds like LI is going to be a very different event than it has been in previous years...

[waialua359]

I have been wondering the same thing, and wondering how many people will have a freak out moment when registration opens and they are wondering where the registration link will be.
This will definitely affect some regionals where it fills up in a matter of a couple minutes.

FIRST should explain exactly how to register for an event.

[Jardanium]

After much discussion and strategic planning, 2500 decided to apply for the MN 10,000 Lakes Regional first round.

I can't wait to be competing back at our home regional this year!

[BrendanB]

You would have to ask one of their current members on that one.

Haha we don't know! It will be discussed at our meeting tomorrow night but I feel there is a high chance Bedford Week 4 will be one of them but we haven't nailed anything down.

The schedule this year isn't ideal but we have a few combinations we can easily do it just depends what kind of schedule we want and the impact that has on our build season strategy. We are big fans of the Reading District hosted by 4761 but it falling in Week 3 makes it tricky.

I'm curious how many NE teams will get to three events this year with the scheduling. Settling on two is looking hard for us so I doubt we'll attempt three with the condensed scheduling.

[NCMata]

There's a document at http://www.firstinspires.org/resource-library/frc/2017-first-event-registration-help that explains where and how to do registration on Thursday.

[maxnz]

2855 will be registering for the 10000 Lakes Regional first like we have every year in our history except 2012.
We hope to go to another regional this year, and champs via winning or the waitlist, but we have to see how our budget pans out.

[Mama Hill]

If you follow link on NCMata post, and click on the Register box, it states you can't register yet, but there is an EVENT link and it will take you to a list of the events and ACTUALLY show you how many teams can sign up for each event!! Why did FIRST decide to bury these numbers in this website??? New questions are why does Central Illinois say its capacity is 30?? and why do others say 0?

[Mark McLeod]

The listed unrestricted slots don't directly reflect how large an event will be.
Those are just what remains open for any team, anywhere in the world to register for without restriction.
After these open slots get taken, teams are added to a waitlist and many if not most will get added to the event later.
If you end up on a waitlist it's important to communicate with the responsible Regional Director or District Committee to follow the progress of your teams' request.
These are why it's important to register for your favorite event as soon as possible.

Each event typically reserves ~10 slots for late registering new rookie teams.
Unclaimed rookie reserved lots will eventually get assigned to waitlisted teams.
Rookie teams typically finalize their organization during the Fall school semester and about two thirds are not ready in time for a late September registration.

In addition, especially when an event is very popular, the Regional Director may ask FIRST to reserve additional slots, over and above the rookie reservations, for late registering local veteran teams. Some veteran teams my be changing Main Contacts, reorganizing, or those who need school board approval that doesn't come until later in the semester.

Events with zero open slots include World and District Championship events where teams must qualify by points earned during regular qualifying events.
Also events where teams go immediately to the waitlist where a vetting process is required before being admitted to the event, e.g., the Seven Rivers event is restricted to a particular part of the FRC world for Championship logistical reasons, because the event is the last regular season week.

By the way, here is an easier way to see all the remaining open slots at all events: http://173.255.246.196/2017/

[mypie4050]

4050 will be registering for the Greater Pittsburgh Regional

[logank013]

Is anyone concerned for Indiana? We have 3 events with 34 spots each. That equates to 102 total spots.

Last year, Indiana had 49 teams. That means that these 49 teams will take up 98 of 102 spots. This will leave only 4 slots for rookie teams, IN teams wanting to go to 3 events in IN, and inter district play teams. Maybe they'll increase event capacity as event spots get scarce?

Thanks. Just wondering.

[Christopher149]

Is anyone concerned for Indiana? We have 3 events with 34 spots each. That equates to 102 total spots.

Last year, Indiana had 49 teams. That means that these 49 teams will take up 98 of 102 spots. This will leave only 4 slots for rookie teams, IN teams wanting to go to 3 events in IN, and inter district play teams. Maybe they'll increase event capacity as event spots get scarce?

Thanks. Just wondering.

My guess is the 34 is not the final capacity, but the initial capacity with the difference being for rookie teams. For reference, the events last year had 38, 36, and 33 teams attend.

[freddy123]

My all time favorite event is Troy district, that's the one we always register for first.

[hutchMN]

2855 will be registering for the 10000 Lakes Regional first like we have every year in our history except 2012.
We hope to go to another regional this year, and champs via winning or the waitlist, but we have to see how our budget pans out.

Can't wait to see how you respond to your great season last year. I'll be watching 10k for sure and best of luck.

[the programmer]

2830 is still torn between Seven Rivers and one of the Minneapolis regionals. If anyone from Minnesota has an idea what our chances of getting into North Star/10,000 Lakes would be, that would be great, it always seems to fill up fast.

We're registering for Wisconsin as our second regional.

[hutchMN]

2830 is still torn between Seven Rivers and one of the Minneapolis regionals. If anyone from Minnesota has an idea what our chances of getting into North Star/10,000 Lakes would be, that would be great, it always seems to fill up fast.

We're registering for Wisconsin as our second regional.

You could PM Jon stratis, and he could probably give you a better answer than myself. My understanding is that they're difficult to get into, but that could have changed.

[Bluman56]

Does anyone know if having a balance due in TIMS prior to event registration would impede the ability to register tomorrow?

[SteveB2977]

2830 is still torn between Seven Rivers and one of the Minneapolis regionals. If anyone from Minnesota has an idea what our chances of getting into North Star/10,000 Lakes would be, that would be great, it always seems to fill up fast.

We're registering for Wisconsin as our second regional.


I would vote for Seven Rivers - but I'm a little biased.

MN regionals can be a challenge to get into since there are over 200 teams in the state.

[sanddrag]

For CA Los Angeles, the Walter Pyramid looks small. Does anyone know where the pits will be?

[Billfred]

Does anyone know if having a balance due in TIMS prior to event registration would impede the ability to register tomorrow?

If you haven't paid for the 2017 season, FIRST has said repeatedly you're good. If you somehow owe money from 2016 still, I'd get in contact with FRC Team Support (frcteams@firstinspires.org) to be sure.

As for the original question, it looks like 5402 will be signing up for the Perry Meridian district first. Tippecanoe would follow second. (And then, of course, Indiana State Championship and the St. Louis Bowl.)

[EricH]

For CA Los Angeles, the Walter Pyramid looks small. Does anyone know where the pits will be?
It's a 5-bball-court layout per pictures I've seen: Center, and four around it under the bleachers. All they've got to do would be to raise 2-3 of the bleachers and there's about 3 courts worth of space, with room around them; there's been some events in far smaller venues (IE in 2014 comes to mind).

If I had to guess, they'll lay it out similar to San Diego with the pits across one long side of the venue.

[Ryan Dognaux]

4329 will be signing up for St. Louis first, then hopefully we will make it into the Iowa Regional. We were eyeing it last year but it didn't work with our schedule and this year it's during our school's spring break.

[Brian Maher]

Team 2791 is excited to be registering for the New York City Regional this afternoon! I'm looking forward to finding out where everyone else signs up.

[jweston]

I'm curious how many NE teams will get to three events this year with the scheduling. Settling on two is looking hard for us so I doubt we'll attempt three with the condensed scheduling.

We've reluctantly dropped from 3 to 2 this year due to the condensed schedule and the elimination of Week 3 UMass Dartmouth. It looks like we're going to RI and Waterbury but not Hartford.

[bobbysq]

4329 will be signing up for St. Louis first, then hopefully we will make it into the Iowa Regional. We were eyeing it last year but it didn't work with our schedule and this year it's during our school's spring break.

We hope you can get to the IA regional too! I think 7 rivers will move over some of the MN teams attending, so you should be able to get in.

[tjwolter]

At the moment we are signing up for "none of the above". The system crashed for me at 11:01 Central time. Sigh. We hardware guys have suffered too long at the hands of Software....

[tobymc]

Good to know I'm not the only one who experienced the crash. I'm sure all of us hitting the site every few seconds isn't helping, but I don't know how else to know when it comes up. Does this happen often?

[tjwolter]

This is frustration speaking but really this is rather unacceptable. If some can get in and others not it will impact time and money for thousands of people...

[Eric Scheuing]

I hear "Runtime Error" is a popular one this year. Good thing I got in on that right at 12:00!

[kevin.li.rit]

I'm also registered for event 503.

[bobbysq]

We're officially registered for the firstinspires.com Regional! We plan on building a really good defense bot so we can have a Direct Denial of Scoring.

[Trying to Help]

We're officially registered for the firstinspires.com Regional! We plan on building a really good defense bot so we can have a Direct Denial of Scoring.

Probably not the most sympathetic post but darn funny!

back to work!

[frcguy]

We're officially registered for the firstinspires.com Regional! We plan on building a really good defense bot so we can have a Direct Denial of Registration.

FTFY

[Cothron Theiss]

We're officially registered for the firstinspires.com Regional! We plan on building a really good defense bot so we can have a Direct Denial of Scoring.

So would your Direct Denial of Scoring constitute an attack on the other team? Might wanna be careful; FIRST might postpone your match to next week.

[Chief Hedgehog]

To get this thread back on track, after much deliberation and thought - FRC 4607 CIS will be leaving North Star and attending 10000 Lakes. From my understanding there may be a few traditionally strong teams will also join/return to the ranks of those in 10000 Lakes for 2017...

We are excited to compete with former alliance partners 2502 and 2052 as well as other teams we have never worked with before including 4536, 2500, and others!

[Caleb Sykes]

To get this thread back on track, after much deliberation and thought - FRC 4607 CIS will be leaving North Star and attending 10000 Lakes. From my understanding there may be a few traditionally strong teams will also join/return to the ranks of those in 10000 Lakes for 2017...

We are excited to compete with former alliance partners 2502 and 2052 as well as other teams we have never worked with before including 4536, 2500, and others!

YYYYYEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Super excited, would love to partner up with you guys.

[Chief Hedgehog]

YYYYYEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Super excited, would love to partner up with you guys.

Same here. We loved North Star and hate to leave it. However, my goal as the head coach of 4607 is to get our students new experiences and opportunities. We have never been able to work with the likes of 4536, 2500, 2502, and 3313 at a regional competition. So when we sat down at our last Central MN Robotics Hub meeting, we discussed this move at great lengths. It was because of teams such as these (and 2052, 525, etc) that we decided to switch. I cannot speak for all of the CMNRH teams, but the majority will be competing at Williams!

I would like it if 4536 and 4607 (along with 2500, 2502, etc) could meet up at MRI and compare notes/get on page with each other. We are the new guys on the block at 10000 Lakes and we are not sure what to expect.

We are a bit apprehensive leaving North Star (with all the great teams we have made connections with) - but we cannot wait!

[Brian Maher]

This discussion has made me wonder: is it more common for MN teams to attend the same twin regional every year or go back and forth? Are the regionals mostly the same each year or is there significant variance in who goes where?

[Chief Hedgehog]

This discussion has made me wonder: is it more common for MN teams to attend the same twin regional every year or go back and forth? Are the regionals mostly the same each year or is there significant variance in who goes where?

It has remained fairly stagnant in recent years. Some of the powerhouses come and go - but the lower tier teams just sign up for the same Regional as that is what they have 'always done'. I am certain that the same goes for the Duluth Regionals.

[jajabinx124]

To get this thread back on track, after much deliberation and thought - FRC 4607 CIS will be leaving North Star and attending 10000 Lakes. From my understanding there may be a few traditionally strong teams will also join/return to the ranks of those in 10000 Lakes for 2017...

We are excited to compete with former alliance partners 2502 and 2052 as well as other teams we have never worked with before including 4536, 2500, and others!

Wow! The 10,000 lakes regional will be an interesting one in 2017. 4607 will definitely spice up the competition. :ahh:

[Ginger Power]

Not a huge fan of Williams Arena (in terms of brining the robot to the field), but I'm so pumped to work with teams that we haven't had the opportunity to work with before! I love the idea of working with 2052, 2502, 525, 4536, etc. This is definitely a huge move, and an exciting one :D

[LlNUX]

We are going to register first to the Laguna Regional which is the new regional for Mexico. It is great for us since it is only 2 hours away from our city, instead of having to travel 12 hours for the Mexico City Regional.