Registration 2012

[Mark McLeod]

You probably know where I'm going with this...

Just some basic data to get us started. We're all pretty active on opening day.
As it was last year, it looks like Michigan and Seattle won't be publishing their team lists right away.

The perennially late event schedule was posted two days before registration opening this year.
69 events comprised of:

(1) Championship
(2) FRC Region Championships
(14) Districts
(52) RegionalsThat's an estimated 3429 slots, not counting the Region or World Championships. An increase in capacity of 437 over last season.
Last season we had ~242 unclaimed open slots at regional/district events.
To put it in perspective there was a net gain last season of 257 teams. Similar growth this year would give us 293 new teams for those new slots.


According to Bill's Blog on 9/23/11, 341 FRC teams completed the pre-registration in TIMS almost a week before real registration opens.
A week earlier (9/15) 195 teams had completed pre-registration and 69 rookies had entered the system.
As of Tuesday (9/20) I've seen temporary rookie numbers as high as 2012152 (reportedly starting at 2012000), meaning at least 153 rookies are already raring to get going.

What will the lowest rookie team # be?
And the Answer is: rookie team #3925

[rsisk]

Now I know the 2012 season has officially begun. Thanks for doing this thread every year Mark.

[Phyrxes]

I wonder if the rookie teams this year will start the 4000's or will they be split between 3900 and 4000s?

[Akash Rastogi]

Hey Mark, will you be able to update us as to who signed up for what MAR event? I couldn't find a list anywhere. It wasn't on the list of regionals last night

Edit Nvm they are posted now.

[Mark McLeod]

In the first 45 minutes, 330 teams have negotiated the clogged TIMS to register for events.
429 by 1:00

The response of FIRST's servers appear to be under performing last year, or that many more teams are interfering with one another.

BAE was full by the end of the first hour.

The graph has the early returns on total # teams. Blue was 2011, Red is 2012. (graph updated at the end of the first day of registration)
The slower rush might be due to the holidays observed in some areas.

[Ken Streeter]

I don't know if it was the first tournament to fill up, but the BAE Systems Granite State Regional was full (before the wait list) with 40 teams at 12:53 ET.

[Mark McLeod]

BAE was indeed the first to fill, closely followed a few minutes later by WPI, although WPI only opened for half the number of teams that BAE did.

The top early leaders are:
40 ----- BAE Systems/Granite State Regional (at initial capacity)
23 ----- Silicon Valley Regional
22 ----- WPI Regional (at initial capacity)
20 ----- Greater Kansas City Regional
19 ----- SBPLI Long Island Regional
19 ----- Oklahoma Regional
18 ----- Autodesk Oregon Regional
18 ----- Pittsburgh Regional
18 ----- Boilermaker Regional
18 ----- Boston Regional
17 ----- Midwest Regional
16 ----- Orlando Regional
15 ----- Hatboro-Horsham M.A.R. FRC Qualifying Event


or looked at another way, here is subscription as a % of initial capacity:

% capacity --- Event
100.0% ---- BAE Systems/Granite State Regional
100.0% ---- WPI Regional
62.1% ----- Pittsburgh Regional
60.0% ----- Boilermaker Regional
54.8% ----- Silicon Valley Regional
50.0% ----- Hatboro-Horsham M.A.R. FRC Qualifying Event
48.7% ----- SBPLI Long Island Regional
46.7% ----- Lenape M.A.R. FRC Qualifying Event
46.2% ----- Chestnut Hill M.A.R. FRC Qualifying Event
43.8% ----- Mount Olive M.A.R. Qualifying Event
41.9% ----- Boston Regional
40.5% ----- Midwest Regional
37.5% ----- Rutgers M.A.R. FRC Qualifying Event
37.0% ----- Greater Kansas City Regional
35.2% ----- Oklahoma Regional
35.0% ----- Finger Lakes Regional
33.3% ----- Autodesk Oregon Regional
32.7% ----- Orlando Regional
31.8% ----- Utah Regional

[JamesCH95]

I don't know if it was the first tournament to fill up, but the BAE Systems Granite State Regional was full (before the wait list) with 40 teams at 12:53 ET.

Ken, did your team make it in?

[Alan Anderson]

Ken, did your team make it in?

For person-to-person communication such as this, sending a Private Message is usually better than posting in a forum thread.

For this particular question, however, the answer is readily found by looking at the list of teams registered for the BAE Systems Granite State Regional. Team 1519 is indeed on the list.

[DonRotolo]

Mark,
We all know you're a data junkie, but thanks anyway for posting this thread.

[jwfoss]

It's interesting to see which teams are making longer trips this year...

Noteably 229 and 1511 making the trip down from Upstate NY, and 118 making the trip all the way from Texas to play over here in New England at the Connecticut Regional

[dodar]

Its also nice to see Team 190 coming down to play in Florida week 5 at FAU.

[Mark McLeod]

Pittsburgh is also now full (with fine print).

[Travis Hoffman]

Pittsburgh is also now full (with fine print).

Yeah, buddy. Looking forward to Pittsburgh once again.

Nice to see 176 continue their affinity for Canadian events by signing up at Montreal.

[O'Sancheski]

Yeah, buddy. Looking forward to Pittsburgh once again.

Nice to see 176 continue their affinity for Canadian events by signing up at Montreal.

Yes. We are looking forward to going over the boarder once again.

[1986titans]

I wonder if the rookie teams this year will start the 4000's or will they be split between 3900 and 4000s?

Looks like they started at 3925 (http://frclinks.com/t/3925).

[Chris is me]

Yes. We are looking forward to going over the boarder once again.

Hear you might be bringing some friends along. :)

[waialua359]

There is definitely a team that will travel the farthest across the continent to Hawaii. Not official yet though.:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

[O'Sancheski]

There is definitely a team that will travel the farthest across the continent to Hawaii. Not official yet though.:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Hmmmmmm. Who could that be?:p

[Akash Rastogi]

Right now of the 5 MAR events, Mount Olive (woot hometown love) looks to be the toughest to play in. The other 4 look to be at a fairly even level of competition. The powerhouses spread out decently enough, I think.

https://my.usfirst.org/myarea/index.lasso?page=event_teamlist&omit_searchform=1&results_size=250&-session=myarea:C77D640516b5303D71QKvnF39497

Cannot wait for this season to start. We'll be playing at Chesnut Hill and Mt. Olive. Should be sick!

[thefro526]

It seems like there may be some sort of Glitch in the MAR Registration. Two teams managed to register outside of MAR for Regional Events.

Weird.

[Alan Anderson]

It seems like there may be some sort of Glitch in the MAR Registration. Two teams managed to register outside of MAR for Regional Events.

Weird.

That's not a problem, is it? I didn't think there was a restriction on who could attend non-FIM/non-MAR Regional competitions.

[Akash Rastogi]

That's not a problem, is it? I didn't think there was a restriction on who could attend non-FIM/non-MAR Regional competitions.

The restriction we were told of the night prior to registration is that any team who chooses to attend an event otside MAR MUST wait until second event registration opens for all teams.

[Mark McLeod]

Did they give a rational for asking MAR teams to wait?

On the surface it wouldn't seem to matter, since on the whole MAR events are guaranteed. Although you may not get your choice by choosing late, none of the events are very far from each other (unlike a MI UP team attending a Detroit District).

It would give the MAR teams an advantage over Regional-only teams I suppose to have your home spots guaranteed.

[thefro526]

That's not a problem, is it? I didn't think there was a restriction on who could attend non-FIM/non-MAR Regional competitions.

Technically, MAR teams aren't allowed to register for outside regional events until October 27th. It was a bit strange to see two MAR teams registered for outside Regional Events and no MAR events.

Maybe it won't be an issue in the grand scheme of things, it's just a little troubling for those of us who will be biting our fingers for the next 4 weeks hoping that our Travel Regional won't fill. (Many teams are in the position that only one regional works with budgets, time, MAR schedule, Testing, etc.)

[Akash Rastogi]

Did they give a rational for asking MAR teams to wait?

On the surface it wouldn't seem to matter, since on the whole MAR events are guaranteed. Although you may not get your choice by choosing late, none of the events are very far from each other (unlike a MI UP team attending a Detroit District).

It would give the MAR teams an advantage over Regional-only teams I suppose to have your home spots guaranteed.

I'm not sure of the rationale, but it is justified to have MAR teams wait until second event registration opens for all because MAR teams were allowed to pick TWO MAR events already. It seems fair enough.

Whatever the rationale, I just want every team to abide by the same rule regardless of even if it was an error on TIMS's part.

[Brandon Holley]

From an outsiders perspective...

When we're deciding on our regionals, like everyone else, its a tough call to choose which one we register at first. We may be able to guarantee a spot at our travel regional, but it would be at the risk of being boxed out of our home regional. For this reason, we always register for the Boston regional first. Some teams philosophy may differ, but for us, its the way we do things. If however, we were guaranteed registration to an event nearby, it would make choosing which regional to register for first a no brainer; go for the travel first knowing our home competition is more or less guaranteed.

The other side of the coin is obviously that the MAR teams do not have a choice right now, they have to sign up for home first. If the choice was up to the MAR teams however, I feel they would be at a slight advantage when it came to registration. IF they had a choice, they could sign up for a travel comp knowing their home comps would still be available (and also closed off to a large portion of FRC teams).

Thats just the way I see it from an outsider's perspective. I certainly understand the concern Dustin and Akash have because some teams may be taking advantage of this "loophole" (for lack of a better term).

-Brando

[waialua359]

From an outsiders perspective...

When we're deciding on our regionals, like everyone else, its a tough call to choose which one we register at first. We may be able to guarantee a spot at our travel regional, but it would be at the risk of being boxed out of our home regional. For this reason, we always register for the Boston regional first. Some teams philosophy may differ, but for us, its the way we do things. If however, we were guaranteed registration to an event nearby, it would make choosing which regional to register for first a no brainer; go for the travel first knowing our home competition is more or less guaranteed.

The other side of the coin is obviously that the MAR teams do not have a choice right now, they have to sign up for home first. If the choice was up to the MAR teams however, I feel they would be at a slight advantage when it came to registration. IF they had a choice, they could sign up for a travel comp knowing their home comps would still be available (and also closed off to a large portion of FRC teams).

Thats just the way I see it from an outsider's perspective. I certainly understand the concern Dustin and Akash have because some teams may be taking advantage of this "loophole" (for lack of a better term).

-Brando

For HI teams, they are pretty much guaranteed a spot at their own home regional. That's why we and other HI teams usually sign up for the mainland regional 1st, ensuring that whatever travel plans/reservations were done in advance, wouldnt have to be cancelled due to registration being closed.

[Mark McLeod]

Ladies & Gentlemen
We have reached the 1000 team mark.

These are teams registered openly for events (so not including MI-except for the single odd team 66 apparently playing alone in Northville :))
That’s 4 days earlier than the last two years and almost half the teams that played last year.
(Although, to be a fair comparison with last year it's more like 3 days earlier, since 35 WA teams would have to be subtracted.)
The graph compares 2011 to past years back to 2007. (Ignore the dates at the bottom. They are normalized across the years to match up the graphs for comparison.)

For events:
MAR team 1168 got pulled back from Chesapeake.
For MAR it looks like a little less than half the NJ teams aren't signed up yet, and a quarter of eastern PA teams haven't yet registered. All of DE (2) have registered.
All MAR events have single-digit initial openings remaining.
Other single-digit Regionals remaining are:(4) Boilermaker
(6) Silicon Valley
(9) SBPLI
67 rookies total, so 6.7% of the registered teams.
There's a slew of Montreal rookies.

[Mark McLeod]

Team number 4000 is from Corpus Christi, TX

And the Michigan team list has been released, with an initial 101 teams showing as registered.
Looks like each team has been assigned to only one event to start.

At 1200 teams now (1:45pm, 10/3)

Representatives from:
9 Countries (US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Israel, Chile, Germany, Turkey, UK)
50 US States/districts/territories (missing: NE & SD)SBPLI is full

[SteveGPage]

I am curious to see what kind of impact there is to regionals around the same geographical area of the new MAR. Is there data about the impact the MI regionals had, initially, to ones near the MI Regionals? DC and Chesapeake, at least from what I recall last year, seem to be down somewhat. In the case of MI, regionals just outside of the state, did they experience a smaller number of teams, and if so, how long did it take for them to recover?

How do you gather this data? I would love to do some analysis on the data, as well.

Thanks!

Steve

[IndySam]

I am curious to see what kind of impact there is to regionals around the same geographical area of the new MAR. Is there data about the impact the MI regionals had, initially, to ones near the MI Regionals? DC and Chesapeake, at least from what I recall last year, seem to be down somewhat. In the case of MI, regionals just outside of the state, did they experience a smaller number of teams, and if so, how long did it take for them to recover?

How do you gather this data? I would love to do some analysis on the data, as well.

Thanks!

Steve
The Boilermaker regional experienced just the opposite. When the Michigan regionals were closed to non-Michigan teams that removed a great deal of choice for other teams in the Midwest.

Boilermaker went from 28 teams with lots of open spots to selling out early and waitlisting teams.

[dodar]

I cant wait to see how the 2nd round of regional picking will do to the South Florida Regional. We already have 2 northern teams going and I'm just curious to see if any others will get in seeing as most Florida teams going to orlando will try to sign up for it.

[Mark McLeod]

I'd have to look more closely, but DC filled faster last year (25 vs. 11), while MD filled half as slowly last year(13 vs. 21)- both of these are as of this point in the registration process. Reasons can vary from date changes to new team growth to MAR taking teams away or forcing outside teams away from the PA/NJ events, but it's probably easiest to just look at who attended the last two years and compare who hasn't registered or yet registered this season.
I can take a poke at that analysis later for both MAR and FiM, but I have a rookie team meeting today that I'm taking off the afternoon for.

Some of the data is directly available from FIRST (http://usfirst.org/whatsgoingon), such as, current registration numbers and who attended each regional last year. I also have a spreadsheet with past attendance info. (http://www.team358.org/files/frc_records/FRC-EventLists.xls) That can be used to figure out what teams MD & DC will lose this season.
That's from my FRC Statistics (http://www.team358.org/files/frc_records/index.php) page, which also has other stuff for you to play with if you like.

Other data, like how many teams were registered on such-and-such a date in 2007, I only have, because I collected it at the time. FIRST doesn't keep daily/weekly records like that. That's also on the FRC Statistics site, but isn't all directly linked. There are too many variations that only I find useful. For instance, I've taken random snapshots of regional team counts throughout the registration process each year. You can get to last years record directly using: http://www.team358.org/files/frc_records/RegionalRegistration2011.xls


I am curious to see what kind of impact there is to regionals around the same geographical area of the new MAR. Is there data about the impact the MI regionals had, initially, to ones near the MI Regionals? DC and Chesapeake, at least from what I recall last year, seem to be down somewhat. In the case of MI, regionals just outside of the state, did they experience a smaller number of teams, and if so, how long did it take for them to recover?

How do you gather this data? I would love to do some analysis on the data, as well.

[Phyrxes]

Something else to consider with MD/DC/VA is the weeks of the events. In glancing through sign ups a number of MD/DC/VA teams that have competed in two events in the past have signed up for a distant events or MD for weeks 1-3 and I suspect they will sign up for VA or DC for week 4 or 5 when permitted.

[RoboMom]

Yikes, they've been working hard in Quebec!

[Travis Hoffman]

I am curious to see what kind of impact there is to regionals around the same geographical area of the new MAR. Is there data about the impact the MI regionals had, initially, to ones near the MI Regionals?

No analysis, but I did use Mark's spreadsheet to tabulate the team counts for most of the regionals "near" Michigan. See the attachment. The transition from old school (2008) to Michigan districts (2009) is highlighted.

[Mark McLeod]

As of this morning 1428 teams are registered for the 2012 FRC Game

This morning there were roughly 1258 (+/- 6 based on when this morning) teams listed leaving ~170 +/- 6 waitlisted teams.
There are only 3 full Regional events this morning that will have waitlists, so Michigan or MAR might have some hidden teams. Where else could they be hidden on a waitlist?
MAR is quite open and we seem to be seeing every team, Michigan has released 101 slots and can currently accommodate 79 more. None of that accounts for 170 teams sitting around waiting for something to happen.

P.S.
Maybe he included pre-registered teams that hadn't picked an event yet (or got check marks for all the required pre-registration items).

[Mark McLeod]

Oregon and Boilermaker have reached their initial quotas and are now waitlisting.
Along with the MAR Rutgers district event.

Here's where event registration now stands at 9am.

40% of the available event slots have been taken - 1385 event slots spoken for.
~56% (estimated) of the teams we'll probably end up with this year are represented - 1320 teams registered.
~13% over this time last year (adjusted for last year's later MI & WA team list releases). Registration has set a brisk pace as you can see by the attached comparison chart with past years.red means initial capacity has been reached (usually meaning there are 10 hidden reserved slots for waitlisters -rookies probably get priority).
Events that are close to initial capacity are labeled in green too.

54 ----- Autodesk Oregon Regional
42 ----- Oklahoma Regional
40 ----- Greater Kansas City Regional
40 ----- BAE Systems/Granite State Regional
39 ----- SBPLI Long Island Regional
37 ----- Los Angeles Regional
37 ----- Silicon Valley Regional (5 left)
35 ----- Midwest Regional (7 left)
33 ----- Orlando Regional
33 ----- Lake Superior Regional
33 ----- Boston Regional
32 ----- Festivale de Robotique FRC a Montreal Regional
32 ----- Rutgers M.A.R. FRC Qualifying Event
31 ----- San Diego Regional
30 ----- Boilermaker Regional
29 ----- Pittsburgh Regional
29 ----- West Michigan FiM FRC Qualifying Event (1 left)
29 ----- Lenape M.A.R. FRC Qualifying Event (1 left)
28 ----- Smoky Mountain Regional
28 ----- Finger Lakes Regional
28 ----- Mount Olive M.A.R. Qualifying Event (4 left)
27 ----- Virginia Regional
27 ----- Minnesota 10000 Lakes Regional
27 ----- Hatboro-Horsham M.A.R. FRC Qualifying Event (3 left)
25 ----- Alamo Regional
25 ----- Seattle Cascade Regional
25 ----- Minnesota North Star Regional
24 ----- Northeast Utilities FIRST Connecticut Regional
22 ----- WPI Regional
22 ----- Peachtree Regional
21 ----- Chesapeake Regional
21 ----- Arizona Regional
20 ----- Kettering University FiM FRC Qualifying Event
20 ----- Chestnut Hill M.A.R. FRC Qualifying Event (6 left)
19 ----- Wisconsin Regional
18 ----- New York City Regional
18 ----- Colorado Regional
17 ----- North Carolina Regional
17 ----- Lone Star Regional
16 ----- Buckeye Regional
15 ----- Sacramento Regional
15 ----- Bayou Regional
14 ----- Seattle Olympic Regional
14 ----- South Florida Regional
13 ----- Utah Regional (capacity revised upwards)
13 ----- Palmetto Regional
13 ----- Greater Toronto West Regional
13 ----- Spokane Regional
13 ----- Traverse City FiM FRC Qualifying Event
12 ----- Washington DC Regional
11 ----- St. Louis Regional
11 ----- Queen City Regional
11 ----- Detroit FiM FRC Qualifying Event
11 ----- Troy FiM FRC Qualifying Event
10 ----- Livonia FiM FRC Qualifying Event
8 ------ Hawaii Regional
8 ------ Dallas West Regional
8 ------ Waterford FiM FRC Qualifying Event
7 ------ Waterloo Regional
7 ------ Northville FiM FRC Qualifying Event
6 ------ Dallas East Regional
6 ------ Las Vegas Regional
4 ------ Israel Regional
4 ------ Greater Toronto East Regional
4 ------ Central Valley Regional
4 ------ Niles FiM FRC Qualifying Event

[Mr. Van]

Does the Utah regional really have only 22 spaces open for initial registration?

(That's not enough teams for an 8-alliance elimination and at any given time, only three teams would be in the pits - all others would be in the queue, on deck or on the field!)

Did I miss something?

- Mr. Van
Coach, Robodox

[AcesPease]

Does the Utah regional really have only 22 spaces open for initial registration?

(That's not enough teams for an 8-alliance elimination and at any given time, only three teams would be in the pits - all others would be in the queue, on deck or on the field!)

Did I miss something?

- Mr. Van
Coach, Robodox

WPI is full at 22, but if the typical reserve is 10, then they really mean to allow 32.

[mwibbels]

Does the Utah regional really have only 22 spaces open for initial registration?

(That's not enough teams for an 8-alliance elimination and at any given time, only three teams would be in the pits - all others would be in the queue, on deck or on the field!)

Did I miss something?

- Mr. Van
Coach, Robodox

Utah was reset to 44 teams yesterday. Am looking forward to the new venue at the Maverick center (the location used for the hockey events at the Salt Lake Olympics)

[Mark McLeod]

We've broken 100 registered rookies.
7 resurrected veteran teams (sat out 1 or 2 years)
1 new "vet" team (2093 from Portland, OR)WPI is full at 22, but if the typical reserve is 10, then they really mean to allow 32.

As a general rule FIRST HQ makes Regional Directors reserve at least 10 slots. A few venues play with their numbers a bit during registration (like Utah), and in a pinch many can squeeze in a few more teams by reducing and rearranging the pit footprints. For my own accounting I usually assume the highest # of previous year teams at the same venue or the stated capacity+10 as the upper limit.

I think WPI can actually take 36 teams elbow-to-elbow.
Can't wait for the new facility to open for 2013, then we won't have the low overhead pits to contend with.

[Madison]

We were told yesterday that there is only space for 2-3 more teams at Oregon. I registered for Seattle first because I hadn't realized there was so much growth in Oregon, so now we've got to find a new second home. Anyone interested in having Xbot come visit? :/

[dodar]

We were told yesterday that there is only space for 2-3 more teams at Oregon. I registered for Seattle first because I hadn't realized there was so much growth in Oregon, so now we've got to find a new second home. Anyone interested in having Xbot come visit? :/

How bout Orlando, Florida? lol Orlando could use some more northern influence.

[EricLeifermann]

We were told yesterday that there is only space for 2-3 more teams at Oregon. I registered for Seattle first because I hadn't realized there was so much growth in Oregon, so now we've got to find a new second home. Anyone interested in having Xbot come visit? :/

Come to DC!

[Chris is me]

Insert Montreal plug here.

[SteveGPage]

Come to DC!

Two votes for DC!

[Mark McLeod]

Okay it has been a week. Here are the where the laid-back laggards are located. These are teams that played last season, but haven't re-upped yet.
With the caviats that Israel always registers later and Michigan customarily has a lot of hidden teams at this point and there are some building waitlists now hiding registered teams. Nothing that registering the first day wouldn't have cured!

missing - location
94 ----- TX
62 ----- MI
58 ----- CA
53 ----- MN
44 ----- Israel
43 ----- NY
40 ----- CANADA-ON
31 ----- VA
27 ----- WA
21 ----- GA
20 ----- NC
20 ----- FL
19 ----- HI
19 ----- AZ
18 ----- OH
18 ----- NJ
18 ----- MO
18 ----- CO
16 ----- LA
13 ----- WI
13 ----- UT
12 ----- PA
11 ----- MD
11 ----- MA
11 ----- DC
9 ------ NV
9 ------ NH
8 ------ SC
8 ------ Mexico
8 ------ IL
7 ------ TN
6 ------ OK
6 ------ KY
6 ------ IN
6 ------ CT
4 ------ MS
4 ------ KS
3 ------ Turkey
3 ------ OR
3 ------ ID
3 ------ Brazil
3 ------ AL
2 ------ MT
1 ------ WV
1 ------ VT
1 ------ UNITED KINGDOM
1 ------ RI
1 ------ PR
1 ------ ND
1 ------ ME
1 ------ Herzegovina
1 ------ CANADA-QC
1 ------ CANADA-AB
1 ------ AR


Same missing teams, but ranked as a % of their total teams last season:
missing ----- location
100.0% ---- Herzegovina
100.0% ---- CANADA-AB
91.7% ----- Israel
81.8% ----- NV
78.6% ----- DC
75.0% ----- Turkey
72.2% ----- UT
66.7% ----- LA
66.7% ----- Mexico
65.3% ----- TX
61.5% ----- CANADA-ON
60.0% ----- Brazil
59.4% ----- HI
58.3% ----- GA
55.6% ----- NC
51.4% ----- CO
51.4% ----- AZ
50.0% ----- KY
50.0% ----- UNITED KINGDOM
50.0% ----- PR
45.6% ----- VA
43.8% ----- TN
41.9% ----- WI
40.5% ----- MN
40.0% ----- MS
38.3% ----- OH
36.4% ----- FL
36.0% ----- MI
34.6% ----- MO
33.9% ----- NY
33.3% ----- MT
33.3% ----- VT
33.3% ----- ND
33.3% ----- AR
33.1% ----- CA
32.9% ----- WA
32.4% ----- MD
32.0% ----- SC
30.0% ----- AL
28.6% ----- NJ
28.1% ----- NH
25.0% ----- PA
23.1% ----- ID
21.1% ----- KS
20.8% ----- MA
20.0% ----- WV
20.0% ----- RI
18.6% ----- IL
17.6% ----- IN
14.3% ----- CT
12.5% ----- OK
12.5% ----- ME
8.6% ------ OR
7.1% ------ CANADA-QC

[TD78]

1 ------ RI



Actually, there are 4 teams in RI! 3 are signed up for Boston and one for NH.

[Mark McLeod]

This is a list of missing teams.
Not teams that successfully registered.

Rhode Island had 5 teams last year, so you're down 1, or missing 20% of your teams (sounds terrible when phrased that way doesn't it).
Team 3280 from Rhode Island is taking it's time and does not show as registered yet.

Here's a visual of the missing teams.

[rabridges]

For the NYC Regional, 21 spaces have been filled and 33 remain.
I have attached a list of the team, out the 21 teams. We have
2 rookies so far.

[GaryVoshol]

... Michigan customarily has a lot of hidden teams at this point ...
Since teams like 27, 33 and 51 don't show up yet, that's a given.

[Mark McLeod]

The rookies are coming, the rookies are coming...

17 ---- Canada-QC
10 ---- CA
10 ---- PA
7 ----- TN
6 ----- FL
4 ----- CANADA-ON
5 ----- NY
4 ----- IN
4 ----- Mexico
3 ----- AR
3 ----- MI
3 ----- TX
3 ----- WA
3 ----- WI
2 ----- AZ
2 ----- GA
2 ----- LA
2 ----- MA
2 ----- MN
2 ----- NC
2 ----- OK
2 ----- VA
1 ----- AL
1 ----- IA
1 ----- IL
1 ----- MD
1 ----- ME
1 ----- MO
1 ----- NH
1 ----- NJ
1 ----- NV
1 ----- OH
1 ----- OR
1 ----- SC
1 ----- UT

[mwibbels]

We were told yesterday that there is only space for 2-3 more teams at Oregon. I registered for Seattle first because I hadn't realized there was so much growth in Oregon, so now we've got to find a new second home. Anyone interested in having Xbot come visit? :/

Madison - week 6 in Spokane/Cheney could be fun - we are thinking about going north in the last week - would love to play with 488 again.

Mark

[PayneTrain]

The Quebec Regional is popping up with 17 teams from Quebec coming in as rookies, while only one Ohio team has joined up. (However, I guess I could count the KOI area and say there are 13 teams coming in, but I know none of their locations)

Do rookie events usually spawn rookie teams? I know that a few (like, maybe 10?) popped up when the then-NASA Langley Regional came to Richmond VA, including 422.

[Grim Tuesday]

For the NYC Regional, 21 spaces have been filled and 33 remain.
I have attached a list of the team, out the 21 teams. We have
2 rookies so far.

It seems like a bad idea to schedule NYC on the same week as FLR. Oh well.

[thefro526]

Some interesting MAR info.

We have Three Rookies for 2012: 3929, 3974 and 4035. Two from PA and one from NJ. All three have registered for Chestnut Hill in Week Two.

Three Events are full: Rutgers, Lenape and Mount Olive.

There are currently Three Spots remaining in the MAR system (Not including hidden spots) - one at Hatboro-Horsham in week one and two at Chestnut Hill at week two.

Chestnut Hill currently has 24 teams registered. This will probably be the smallest official events most teams have ever been to. The number of teams could do interesting things to the draft as the serpentine comes back around, not to mention the turn around times will be rough, more than likely somewhere around 20-30 minutes from match to match.

[Chris is me]

Chestnut Hill currently has 24 teams registered. This will probably be the smallest official events most teams have ever been to. The number of teams could do interesting things to the draft as the serpentine comes back around, not to mention the turn around times will be rough, more than likely somewhere around 20-30 minutes from match to match.

With such a small number of teams, match cycles will likely be very long simply because they have no trouble accommodating 12 matches.

[thefro526]

With such a small number of teams, match cycles will likely be very long simply because they have no trouble accommodating 12 matches.

I was thinking the same thing as well, but I wonder how excessive downtime will affect the flow and feel of the event.

I'd much rather have shorter turn around times and more matches then have an excessive amount of downtime and worry about keeping spectators engaged.

Not to mention that C-Hill will be the second event of MAR and they may still be working on getting into the grove of the new structure... Guess we'll know in a few months.

[GaryVoshol]

Chestnut Hill currently has 24 teams registered. This will probably be the smallest official events most teams have ever been to. The number of teams could do interesting things to the draft as the serpentine comes back around, not to mention the turn around times will be rough, more than likely somewhere around 20-30 minutes from match to match.

With such a small number of teams, match cycles will likely be very long simply because they have no trouble accommodating 12 matches.

Assume 30 teams. It would probably work with ~9 minute match cycles and minimum match separation of 3 matches, so you don't keep playing the same teams. Meaning that you as leave the field after match X, teams from match X+1 go on, teams from match X+2 go to on deck, and you are immediately expected back in the queue line for match X+3. Of course some times, you might get a match separation of 6 or 7, average of 4.

[Mark McLeod]

Registration is about 180 teams above this time last year - not quite two weeks ahead of last season. The list is growing at roughly 30-40 teams per weekday. Weekends drop off to a handful per day.
That's a good healthy early increase over the past four years registration rates.
1476 teams
126 rookiesOf the new Regionals, Montreal has proved the most popular, but that might have something to do with the 17 local rookies also brought online. They even attracted a Mexican rookie team.

Lake Superior, new last season, has attracted 3X the number of first choice teams as this same time last year.

Five Regionals have dipped into assigning some of their reserved slots.

I haven't broken out last year's MAR veterans from PA yet (De & NJ are easy). Any of you MAR people done that?

Do rookie events usually spawn rookie teams? I know that a few (like, maybe 10?) popped up when the then-NASA Langley Regional came to Richmond VA, including 422.
Large numbers of rookies aren't always common for new Regionals, but it might tend to follow. Obviously Montreal tied the two together.
There have been others tied together, such as Richmond, in the past. Local events do make it easier to attract schools.
Maybe FIRST could increase FRC enrollment by moving events to a new city every year. :rolleyes:

We'd probably have to look at # rookies gained by a Regional every year to be sure the first year was special. In some cases I looked at it actually climbed higher in subsequent years as FRC caught on locally.
I haven't included regionals that became doubles below, but they also rack up rookies.
Minnesota is the record holder (as far as I looked). Second place is... 1992 in NH. :)

2011
Alamo had 18 rookies their first time
Smoky Mountain = 13
Lake Superior = 92010
WPI = 4 rookies
North Carolina = 10
Utah = 172009
Dallas = 26
DC = 122008
Hawaii = 20
Oklahoma = 27
Minnesota = 302007
Brazil pilot = 8
San Diego = 9
Kansas City = 152006
WI = 9
MA = 142005
Waterloo = 5
Boilermaker = 6
Finger Lakes = 9
Las Vegas = 12
Israel-pilot = 12 (all at the event)

[Brandon Holley]

Large numbers of rookies aren't always common for new Regionals, but obviously Montreal tied the two together.
There have been others tied together, such as Richmond, in the past. Local events do make it easier to attract schools.
Alamo had 18 rookies their first time.
Smokey Mountain had 13.
Lake Superior had 9.

Any idea on what Boston had for rookies it's first year (2006)?

-Brando

[Mark McLeod]

Any idea on what Boston had for rookies it's first year (2006)?

-Brando

14

I'll add some more years above (below to me :-) )

[Gary Dillard]

I see that 415 team Bosch has registered for Smoky Mountain (note that it is Smoky, not Smokey as it was incorrectly noted on alot of FIRST sites last year, probably still carrying over this year) after a 6 year hiatus. Anyone know the details on their revival? - glad to have them back.

[Brandon Holley]

14

I'll add some more years above (below to me :-) )

Thanks!

-Brando

[Mark McLeod]

(note that it is Smoky, not Smokey as it was incorrectly noted on alot of FIRST sites last year, probably still carrying over this year)
I blindly copied the incorrect spelling off last year's list, but I knew better.
I fixed it in my post.
Thanks

[Akash Rastogi]

I'm very curious about all the teams sprouting this year in Montreal. Who is funding all these teams? How long do these teams expect to gain continued support from the current organization? Is it more than just rookie year support?

I'm sure FIRST Canada (knowing some of the people who are a part of it) have thought of all the teams who might not return if they don't find sponsors. I just wanted to hear about who is the sponsor for these teams and how long we can expect that money to last.

Awesome work FIRST Canada, that is like the insane Washington and MN team growth in the past few years.

[Mark McLeod]

1492 teams
The day after Columbus Day...

[Peter Matteson]

I'm very curious about all the teams sprouting this year in Montreal. Who is funding all these teams? How long do these teams expect to gain continued support from the current organization? Is it more than just rookie year support?

I'm sure FIRST Canada (knowing some of the people who are a part of it) have thought of all the teams who might not return if they don't find sponsors. I just wanted to hear about who is the sponsor for these teams and how long we can expect that money to last.

Awesome work FIRST Canada, that is like the insane Washington and MN team growth in the past few years.

I would bet some of them are sponsored by United Technologies through Pratt & Whitney Canada which is in Montreal (Technically the Mirabel Suburb). Also Bombardier has many facilliteis around the city for their various divisions including their airframe division that mkes the Canadair Regional Jets and will make the C-Series planes.

[Mark McLeod]

Youth Fusion (http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/704857/-1-130-000-to-counter-high-school-dropout-rates-youth-fusion-and-first-robotics-quebec-expand-reach-within-quebec) seems to be behind most of the new Montreal Canadian rookies-a large chunk.
They are supporting not only rookies, but also two- and three-year veteran teams in Quebec.

Several Quebec-based businesses and institutions (including the J. Armand Bombardier Foundation, CAE, Université de Sherbrooke, BMO Financial Group, Hydro-Québec, Future Electronics, Pratt & Whitney Canada, CSDM, Bombardier Inc., Bell Business Markets and Vigilant Futures) have invested more than $355,000 to enable participation by 13 Quebec schools in the FIRST robotics international competition.
Including the two companies Peter guessed.

[Mark McLeod]

Registration for Championships has opened and there are:

54 teams (out of 142 open slots) signed up in the first 5 minutes.
70 teams registered by the 12:30 mark - about half the open slots are now taken.
80 teams in the first hour. At first this is progressing at the same rate as last year.
In 2010 there were 78 registered at the end of an hour vs. 80 in 2012.
Last year it took four days to fill this number (142) of Championship open slots.

P.S.
Picking up a little speed in the late afternoon, open slots remaining are going fast.
There are only:
18 at 4:40pm EST
16 at 5:05
13 at 5:10
11 at 5:20
2 at 7:30
1 at 8:14
0 and we are done at 8:158 hours to register 142 teams, whereas last year the same number took 4 days.
The first 3 hours were just like last year, but after school let out things really took off - starting about 3:30pm EST.
-----------------------------
Final accounting:

(1) team from Brazil
(2) teams from CanadaStates (including non-US):
MI ---- 16
CA ---- 15
NY ---- 10
FL ----- 9
CT ----- 8
IL ----- 7
IN ----- 7
NJ ----- 7
PA ----- 6
MA ----- 5
OH ----- 5
VA ----- 5
NH ----- 4
TX ----- 4
WA ----- 3
DC ----- 2
HI ----- 2
MD ----- 2
MN ----- 2
MO ----- 2
OK ----- 2
ON ----- 2
OR ----- 2
WI ----- 2
AK ----- 1
AR ----- 1
AZ ----- 1
CO ----- 1
DE ----- 1
GA ----- 1
KS ----- 1
ME ----- 1
MS ----- 1
RI ----- 1
RS ----- 1
SC ----- 1
WY ----- 1

[~Cory~]

Is it possible to register for a filled event if teams drop out?

EDIT:
erm I mean what is the process to take a vacated spot?

[Mark McLeod]

After the first-come/first-served open slots are all taken the events maintain a small discretionary waitlist of teams registered as wanting to attend.
Each event has 10 or more reserved slots, usually kept for rookies as first choice, but available for waitlisted teams if rookies don't appear to take them. Some events have already begun to dip into their reserved slots and assign them to rookies, so you can't just add 10 to the visible number of teams + remaining slots. You have to have been watching all along, or if an event's at the same venue, then you can probably use last year's # of teams as a guide.

If teams on the event list drop out, then they will be replaced by a team from the waitlist at the Regional Director's discretion. Slots are non-transferable, so you can't give yours up for a friend-no scalping. RD's determine their own priorities, for instance one RD may assign to rookies, then teams in need/struggling, followed by stalwart regional fundraisers/supporters, teams that bring diversity, or the order teams signed up.

[Mark McLeod]

1620 teams are showing as registered
16.7% ahead of last season's numbers at this same time
154 rookies (9.5% of teams-this number commonly ends up being close to 20% of all teams)
1 "new" vet
10 resurrected vets
1455 returning vets
40,000 students (assuming an average of 25 students per team)
11 events at initial capacity, 12 others with single-digit # slots remaining
10 countries represented - USA, Canada, Mexico, Israel, Brazil, United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Turkey, ChileThese are the places leading in team registrations:

Count - Place
147 ---- CA
147 ---- MI
103 ---- NY
91 ----- MN
75 ----- WA
70 ----- TX
51 ----- PA
50 ----- FL
49 ----- Canada-ON
48 ----- NJ
46 ----- MA
46 ----- OK
46 ----- VA
40 ----- MO
38 ----- CT
38 ----- OR
37 ----- IL
37 ----- OH
35 ----- IN
31 ----- Canada-QC
30 ----- WI
28 ----- MD
27 ----- AZ
26 ----- NH
25 ----- SC
23 ----- CO
22 ----- NC
21 ----- GA
18 ----- HI
17 ----- TN
16 ----- KS
13 ----- LA
12 ----- ID
11 ----- ME
10 ----- Mexico
8 ------ AL
8 ------ DC
8 ------ MS
8 ------ UT
7 ------ AR
7 ------ Israel
7 ------ KY
6 ------ NV
4 ------ IA
4 ------ MT
4 ------ RI
4 ------ WV
3 ------ WY
2 ------ AK
2 ------ Brazil
2 ------ DE
2 ------ ND
2 ------ NM
2 ------ VT
1 ------ Australia
1 ------ Chile
1 ------ Germany
1 ------ GreatBritain
1 ------ PR
1 ------ Turkey

[Karibou]

1 "new" vet
10 resurrected vets


What's the difference between the "new" vet and the resurrected vets?

[Mark McLeod]

The "new" vet is a brand new team given a veteran team number, usually when the new team has more than 5 experienced students. See FIRST's Rookie team criteria (http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/rookie-team-criteria).
In this case it's new team 2093 from Portland, OR.

I consider a team a resurrected veteran whenever the same team number is used after being away for a year or more. For instance, this year team 415 from Anderson, SC has returned after not playing for 6 years.

[Mark McLeod]

Registration past the 2009 mark of 1677 teams before noon today.
It's now 240 teams ahead of last year at this same point in time.

We seem to have gained a team (4091) from the Dominican Republic.

[JohnBoucher]

From today's Bill's Blog

1782 registered teams and counting

[Mark McLeod]

From today's Bill's Blog

1782 registered teams and counting

1700 teams are showing, so that puts the number of waitlisted teams at 82.
Registration is a bit like a yo-yo this morning. It's hit the 1700 team mark three different times (that I noticed) already.

12 events (Regionals & MAR) are at the waitlist stage, plus whatever Michigan may be hiding.
45 events are advertising spots remaining.

[Mark McLeod]

I am curious to see what kind of impact there is to regionals around the same geographical area of the new MAR.

I forgot to post this data earlier.
This is based on 2011 event attendance only, so teams that dropped in at an event for a single season are included. For a better picture I should only have counted teams that attend regularly, e.g., the last two years.
Two MAR teams traveled for every non-MAR team that traveled to the PA/NJ Regionals.
"Travel" is a loose term, since in some cases the distance involved was as short as the width of the Hudson river or the 25 miles from PA to Baltimore.

Mid-Atlantic events will lose 25 outside teams this year (# teams and % of all teams at the event):

(15) - 24.6% of teams who attended the NJ Regional
(10) - 17.9% of teams who attended the PA RegionalOutside events will lose 51 slots formerly filled by MAR teams.
The biggest impact will be from the loss of MAR teams close to NYC and Baltimore:

(16) - 24.2% of all teams at NYC
(12) - 20% at Chesapeake
(8) - 12.7% at DC
(4) - 6.3% at VA
(2) - 3.5% at CT
(2) - 4% at LI
(2) - 3.8% at Midwest
(2) - 3.4% at Orlando
(1) - 2.3% at Finger Lakes
(1) - 1.9% at Boston
(1) - 2.3% at SC

[Mark McLeod]

The 1760 teams showing as registered for 2012 events exactly equals the sum of team years from 1992 to 2001.

Year ----- # ---- Sum
1992 --- 28 ----- 28
1993 --- 25 ----- 53
1994 --- 44 ----- 97
1995 --- 59 ---- 156
1996 --- 94 ---- 250
1997 --- 155 --- 405
1998 --- 199 --- 604
1999 --- 269 --- 873
2000 --- 372 --- 1245
2001 --- 515 --- 1760

It's unlikely that we'll reach the 2002 total team years of 2401 this year, but we're certain to surpass it by next year.

[Mark McLeod]

1800 teams this morning.

Close to 270 teams or three weeks ahead of last year at this time.

P.S.
Michigan moved a bunch of teams into district events.

[Mark McLeod]

It's just about time to open up Regionals to teams as 2nd events.
Here's where the events currently stand.

We're roughly at the 80% mark, so a correspondingly rough guess would place the number of teams this season at ~2270.

At initial capacity (Join Waitlist):

Granite State
San Diego
WPI
Oregon
Pittsburgh
Los Angeles
Boilermaker
Midwest
Seattle Cascade
Silicon Valley
SBPLIAll the MAR events are at similar initial capacities.

Michigan does it's own thing, as they have already begun assigning (~95) 2nd events. Even so most districts or qualifiers are at or close to a similar initial capacity. Niles is the only one with a lot of open spots.

Single-digit openings (Add Event):

Kansas City
Smoky Mountain
Orlando
Finger Lakes
Montreal
Sacramento
Peachtree
Waterloo
Arizona
Colorado
Boston
OklahomaMore space:

Alamo
Israel
Toronto East
Toronto West
Chesapeake
Lake Superior
Bayou
Utah
Virginia
NYC
Hawaii
St. Louis
Buckeye
Palmetto
Seattle Olympic
Wisconsin
Connecticut
DC
South Florida
North Star
10000 Lakes
Dallas West
Dallas East
Central Valley
North Carolina
Las Vegas
Queen City
Lone Star
Spokane

[Jared Russell]

Chesapeake Regional should be interesting this year!

[Mark McLeod]

The early draws (1st half hour) were:

19-CT
16-DC
14-NYC gone to waitlist
12-Buckeye
10-NC195 visible (non-waitlist) teams signed up in the 1st half hour.

[Alan Anderson]

Ten minutes after noon EST, Kansas City and Smoky Mountain were offering the waitlist. The Alamo Regional is the only Week 1 event still advertising open slots.

[Chris Fultz]

Knoxville was full at 12:03 .... :(

[SteveGPage]

Chesapeake Regional should be interesting this year!

Agreed! I'm looking forward to it!

[Phyrxes]

Wow, looks like we picked a heck of year to drive up Baltimore. Looks like it will be a lot of fun!

[Akash Rastogi]

Some interesting events: Boston (125, 233), Chesapeake (27, 217), NYC (125, 1676, 2016), Orlando (25, 233).

[Mark McLeod]

Waitlisted Regionals now:

Arizona Regional
Autodesk Oregon Regional
Pittsburgh Regional
BAE Systems/Granite State Regional
Boilermaker Regional
WPI Regional
SBPLI Long Island Regional
Midwest Regional
FIRST Championship
Greater Kansas City Regional
Smoky Mountain Regional
San Diego Regional
Finger Lakes Regional
Sacramento Regional
Los Angeles Regional
New York City Regional
Waterloo Regional
Boston Regional
Seattle Cascade Regional
Silicon Valley Regional
Northeast Utilities FIRST Connecticut Regional

[Madison]

I was just able to register for Autodesk Oregon Regional. Not sure if they've opened up some spots or if something went horribly wrong.

[Gary Dillard]

I can't get to the FIRST website - must be really busy after school today.

Chris - we'll make room for you in our pit at Smoky Mountain.

[Doug G]

FIRST site is back up. Spokane regional has reached capacity.

[Mark McLeod]

A few more Regionals have gone to waitlists with 333 teams appearing on 2nd event team lists:

Orlando Regional
Colorado Regional
Washington DC Regional
South Florida Regional
North Carolina Regional
Spokane Regional
St. Louis Regional

[PayneTrain]

Wow. Site goes down when I'm trying to register my team for the North Carolina Regional, only to come back and find that both it and the DC Regional are closed.
This certainly is not good.

[Mark McLeod]

Wow. Site goes down when I'm trying to register my team for the North Carolina Regional, only to come back and find that both it and the DC Regional are closed.
This certainly is not good.
Don't give up too easily. It's worth communicating with the two Regional Directors to discover what your chances are of getting into each of the events.

I'd guess North Carolina could potentially fit in 12 more teams and DC another 10.

I was just able to register for Autodesk Oregon Regional. Not sure if they've opened up some spots or if something went horribly wrong.
Oregon seems to be immediately rolling the teams right over onto the team list.
They've listed 9 teams past their initially advertised capacity.

#teams past initial capacity (i.e., from the waitlists) / Event
-9 Autodesk Oregon Regional
-6 Pittsburgh Regional
-4 Boilermaker Regional
-4 BAE Systems/Granite State Regional
-2 SBPLI Long Island Regional
-2 WPI Regional
-1 Midwest Regional
-1 Waterloo Regional

[Alan Anderson]

Don't give up too easily. It's worth communicating with the two Regional Directors to discover what your chances are of getting into each of the events.

Don't just ask how likely it is. Provide some information about why you want to attend that particular regional, with details like travel time/distance restrictions and conflicts with other weeks' events. That'll give the regional planning committee some information to work with when prioritizing the waitlisted teams.

One trick you might use immediately is to look at how many teams attended last year and compare it to the number of teams currently registered. That can give you an indication of how many "reserved" slots the regional has.

[Madison]

Don't give up too easily. It's worth communicating with the two Regional Directors to discover what your chances are of getting into each of the events.

I'd guess North Carolina could potentially fit in 12 more teams and DC another 10.


Oregon seems to be immediately rolling the teams right over onto the team list.
They've listed 9 teams past their initially advertised capacity.

#teams past initial capacity (i.e., from the waitlists) / Event
-9 Autodesk Oregon Regional
-6 Pittsburgh Regional
-4 Boilermaker Regional
-4 BAE Systems/Granite State Regional
-2 SBPLI Long Island Regional
-2 WPI Regional
-1 Midwest Regional
-1 Waterloo Regional

Do you have any idea who the 9 teams that were wrongfully registered for Oregon are?

I received an email from the Oregon RD saying that our ability to register was a mistake. We're waiting to hear from New Hampshire about the next step, but she didn't seem aware that the problem extended beyond just us.

[KevinGoneNuts]

Hi I have a question regarding rookie team registration.

I just registered a rookie team and we're wait listed at Silicon Valley. I want to register/get on the wait list for the Sacramento Regional, but the Add event option does not come up and I know second event registration time has come.

Anything I can do?

[Wayne Doenges]

Team 1501 is going to the Smoky Mountain and Boilermaker regionals. Yay!!!!

[JohnBoucher]

Hi I have a question regarding rookie team registration.

I just registered a rookie team and we're wait listed at Silicon Valley. I want to register/get on the wait list for the Sacramento Regional, but the Add event option does not come up and I know second event registration time has come.

Anything I can do?

Call HQ. They are super helpful and will work it out. I would also expect you will hear from the regional director. It makes no sense having a rookie team that has nowhere to play.

[Brandon Holley]

Call HQ. They are super helpful and will work it out. I would also expect you will hear from the regional director. It makes no sense having a rookie team that has nowhere to play.

Take John's suggestion.

Theres often "reserved" spots that are set aside at each regional specifically for rookie teams to be able to compete.

-Brando

[Mark McLeod]

Do you have any idea who the 9 teams that were wrongfully registered for Oregon are?

I looked and the bad news is that the other 8 are lawfully registered rookie teams. They appeared gradually after Oregon went to waitlisted on October 5.
It looks like Oregon can accommodate 2 more teams. The downside is that they may not be out of rookies yet.


Hi I have a question regarding rookie team registration.

I just registered a rookie team and we're wait listed at Silicon Valley. I want to register/get on the wait list for the Sacramento Regional, but the Add event option does not come up and I know second event registration time has come.

Anything I can do?
Call FIRST and straighten it out with them.
They are there to help.

[thefro526]

I'm under the impression that most wait listed Regional teams eventually get in somewhere... Is this true?

We've never been wait listed for a regional before, or at least not since I've been around so I'm sort of lost on this one.

[Mark McLeod]

Ultimately, that comes down to how flexible teams are able to be.

Being on a waitlist doesn't get you into a particular competition.
Every year venues do fill up and waitlisted teams do get turned away.
Smoky Mountain had that very public problem last year and had to ask if two veteran teams would willing trade their slots to rookies in exchange for a different event. BAE, SBPLI, NYC, and others have to turn teams away each year. Most teams are able to switch events, especially in the high event density of the East and FiM/MAR. Some of them cannot. Room is made for everyone to play at least once though. That's what reserving some slots for waitlists helps guarantee.

FIRST will work with teams to find a substitute event, but the practicality of the event change depends on the team being able to take on any additional travel/food/housing expense, not having a conflict for an alternate weekend, school board approval for crossing state/country boarders, etc.

[Brandon Holley]

I'm under the impression that most wait listed Regional teams eventually get in somewhere... Is this true?

We've never been wait listed for a regional before, or at least not since I've been around so I'm sort of lost on this one.

Last year we were really revved up to travel out to the west coast for a competition. Based on scheduling and expenses, we decided on registering for the San Diego regional. We got in what we thought was pretty early, but still ended up on the wait list.

A few emails exchanged with the regional director painted the picture pretty clearly for us. With the amount of teams in the region that were sitting on the wait list, and rookie teams needing available spots, we were highly unlikely to get in. The director didn't completely rule it out (which actually made things a little more complicated because the ball was in our court so to speak). We ended up making the decision to register for a regional that wasn't full and assure ourselves of travel plans, etc.

It worked out great for us in the long run. We had a great time in New Orleans at the Bayou regional, and met a lot of awesome teams. Just a quick anecdote of our experience on a regional waitlist FWIW.

-Brando

[Travis Hoffman]

I'm happy to see 71 sign up for Queen City. Now only if we could get into Midwest, we could see them twice (or more). :)

[Taylor]

I'm happy to see 71 sign up for Queen City. Now only if we could get into Midwest, we could see them twice (or more). :)

--confused-- I don't see 48 on the list.

QCR has a great mix of veterans and rookies. I'm excited to see this new event and location.

[Chris is me]

We're waitlisted for Boston and CT (likely changing to NYC waitlist). Whichever we get in, we'll go to, if we have the money. A lot is hanging on a few grants, but this could be Shaker's first three event season ever.

[Travis Hoffman]

--confused-- I don't see 48 on the list.

QCR has a great mix of veterans and rookies. I'm excited to see this new event and location.

We signed up for the Midwest waitlist 2nd to prove to Dan Green we really really really want to go there. :) :rolleyes:

I'm keeping a close eye on the QC spots left. 19 at last check.

The question I have is, if we can't get in to Midwest, where would we go as a backup? Week 4 or 5. Hmm....

[thefro526]

Last year we were really revved up to travel out to the west coast for a competition. Based on scheduling and expenses, we decided on registering for the San Diego regional. We got in what we thought was pretty early, but still ended up on the wait list.

A few emails exchanged with the regional director painted the picture pretty clearly for us. With the amount of teams in the region that were sitting on the wait list, and rookie teams needing available spots, we were highly unlikely to get in. The director didn't completely rule it out (which actually made things a little more complicated because the ball was in our court so to speak). We ended up making the decision to register for a regional that wasn't full and assure ourselves of travel plans, etc.

It worked out great for us in the long run. We had a great time in New Orleans at the Bayou regional, and met a lot of awesome teams. Just a quick anecdote of our experience on a regional waitlist FWIW.

-Brando

Thanks for the insight Brando.

We're sort of between a rock and a hard place right now. NYC was the only regional that was logistically and financially viable for us. We don't really have the budget to travel all that far, and NYC was right on the cusp of our day travel limit (2 Hours there and back isn't going to be fun 3 days in a row) and the only other event would have been Chesapeake, which conflicts with our Week 2 district...

I guess we'll give it some time and then see if we can beg our way in.

[KevinGoneNuts]

Thank you everyone! We got an email this morning that we were taken off the wait list for SVR and we're registered there now. We're on the wait list for SAC currently. Apparently you can't add another event until you have been officially registered at one event. Thank you for all your help everyone!!

[gblake]

1800 teams this morning.

Close to 270 teams or three weeks ahead of last year at this time.
...


1800/(1800-270) = 1.1765

So, if things hold up, that's a 17.6% increase over last year. That sounds pretty good.

Is that a typical year-over-year increase or is it a big enough change to merit notice?

Blake

[Brandon Holley]

Thanks for the insight Brando.

We're sort of between a rock and a hard place right now. NYC was the only regional that was logistically and financially viable for us. We don't really have the budget to travel all that far, and NYC was right on the cusp of our day travel limit (2 Hours there and back isn't going to be fun 3 days in a row) and the only other event would have been Chesapeake, which conflicts with our Week 2 district...

I guess we'll give it some time and then see if we can beg our way in.

The only advice I would give is to get in touch with the RD as soon as you can (if you haven't already). Try to find out some information regarding the waitlist (# of teams, # of rookies, # of local teams, etc.) and inform them of your situation. Getting involved in the process early can only help your cause.

-Brando

[Doug G]

I have a novel idea.

First come, first served.

I am beyond aggravated with FIRST and TIMS right now.

If only they had an online system to support 1000+ requests in a matter of minutes.

And automatically register a rookie team in their home regional.

[XaulZan11]

We signed up for the Midwest waitlist 2nd to prove to Dan Green we really really really want to go there. :) :rolleyes:

I'm keeping a close eye on the QC spots left. 19 at last check.

The question I have is, if we can't get in to Midwest, where would we go as a backup? Week 4 or 5. Hmm....

Wisconsin is really lacking outside teams this year...just sayin'...

[Chris is me]

Wisconsin is really lacking outside teams this year...just sayin'...

But you might not get to use power tools, so watch out :p

[Mark McLeod]

470 out of state/country plays (not counting Championship) - this is a little misleading for border events, such as Kansas City
663 extra events including Championship & 2nd DistrictsHere's where the rookie teams (so far) are going to play:
# rookies -- Event
18 ---- Montreal

14 ---- Los Angeles

11 ---- Orlando
11 ---- Midwest
11 ---- Pittsburgh

9 ----- Oregon
9 ----- San Diego

8 ----- Bayou
8 ----- Smoky Mountain

7 ----- Peachtree
7 ----- Boilermaker
7 ----- NYC

6 ----- Arizona
6 ----- South Florida
6 ----- Toronto-West

5 ----- Alamo
5 ----- Boston
5 ----- Buckeye
5 ----- Palmetto
5 ----- Spokane

4 ----- Dallas E
4 ----- Seattle-Cascade
4 ----- Seattle-Olympic
4 ----- WPI

3 ----- Central Valley
3 ----- Dallas W
3 ----- Finger Lakes
3 ----- Lake Superior
3 ----- MAR-Chestnut
3 ----- Oklahoma
3 ----- Silicon Valley
3 ----- Utah
3 ----- Waterloo
3 ----- Wisconsin

2 ----- Colorado
2 ----- Connecticut
2 ----- DC
2 ----- Long Island
2 ----- MAR-Mount
2 ----- Chesapeake
2 ----- MI-Traverse
2 ----- MI-Troy
2 ----- MI-West
2 ----- St. Louis
2 ----- North Carolina
2 ----- Las Vegas
2 ----- Queen City
2 ----- Lone Star
2 ----- Virginia

1 ----- 10000 Lakes
1 ----- Granite State
1 ----- Hawaii
1 ----- Kansas City
1 ----- MAR-Lenape
1 ----- MAR-Rutgers
1 ----- MI-Waterford
1 ----- North Star
1 ----- Sacramento

[Mark McLeod]

So, if things hold up, that's a 17.6% increase over last year. That sounds pretty good.
Is that a typical year-over-year increase or is it a big enough change to merit notice?

It's not outstanding mostly because last year's registration had an unusual lag (it took a big jump later) . That makes this season look like a larger gain than it really is historically.

Here are the registration numbers for the mid-point /final and gains over the prior year as on noon on the 29th day of Registration (this year's 2nd event opening).

Season - # reg teams - midpt gain - final # ---- final gain
2012 ------ 1863 ----- 15.4%
2011 ------ 1615 ------ 6.1% -------- 2065 ----- 14.2%
2010 ------ 1522 ------ 7.7% -------- 1808 ------ 7.8%
2009 ------ 1413 ----- 13.5% -------- 1677 ----- 11.7%
2008 ------ 1245 ----- 26.7% -------- 1501 ----- 15.4%
2007 ------- 983 ----- 24.4% -------- 1301 ----- 14.8%
2006 ------- 790 ----- -0.1% -------- 1133 ----- 14.7%
2005 ------- 791----------------------- 988

[Andrew Schreiber]

If only they had an online system to support 1000+ requests in a matter of minutes.

And automatically register a rookie team in their home regional.

Why don't they? 1000+ requests in a couple minutes is trivial given the right tricks and capabilities.

And registering rookie teams in the nearest regional when they register is pretty straightforward given that FIRST knows regional locations and team locations...

[rsisk]

The home regional can be tough. A lot of our rookie teams are equidistant to San Diego and LA (and some out in the desert can add in Las Vegas)

[Mark McLeod]

Another problem, just with getting rookies into whatever their home regional is thought to be, is that they are traditionally the group that takes the longest to register. Most events are filled before half the rookies have signed up. That's why FIRST insists on every event having 10 reserved slots.

Rookies have a lot more dominoes to setup than veterans, and they don't yet know what those dominoes even are: get initial funding in place, garner administrative permission, find teacher advisors, recruit EVERY student member, locate mentors, find a room for storage and working, find out what kinds of tools & materials are necessary and where/how to acquire them.
Very little starts before the school year (and FRC registration) begins, so a lot happens for rookies in the Fall.

[Mark McLeod]

We broke 1900 teams this morning.

253 new teams - 4 of them are new vets (~13% of all teams. An average final ratio is more like 20%)
13 resurrected veterans
11 Countries - USA, Canada, Mexico, Israel, Turkey, Brazil, Great Britain, Australia, Chile, Dominican Republic, GermanyStill missing 421 vets from last year, but a bunch are only hidden on waitlists.
No FRC teams in two of the US states.

Here's where everyone is from so far.

# ----- Place
181 ---- CA
159 ---- MI
120 ---- NY
109 ---- MN
90 ----- TX
90 ----- WA
60 ----- CANADA-ON
59 ----- VA
56 ----- FL
53 ----- PA
51 ----- MA
49 ----- NJ
48 ----- OH
46 ----- MO
46 ----- OK
43 ----- IL
42 ----- CT
42 ----- OR
38 ----- IN
36 ----- AZ
34 ----- WI
32 ----- CANADA-QC
32 ----- GA
32 ----- MD
32 ----- NC
31 ----- CO
28 ----- NH
27 ----- SC
22 ----- HI
22 ----- LA
20 ----- KS
18 ----- TN
15 ----- ID
14 ----- DC
13 ----- Mexico
10 ----- AL
10 ----- Israel
10 ----- ME
10 ----- UT
9 ------ MS
8 ------ AR
8 ------ KY
8 ------ NV
4 ------ IA
4 ------ MT
4 ------ NM
4 ------ RI
4 ------ Turkey
4 ------ WV
3 ------ Brazil
3 ------ WY
2 ------ AK
2 ------ DE
2 ------ Great Britain
2 ------ ND
2 ------ VT
1 ------ Australia
1 ------ CANADA-AB
1 ------ CANADA-NS
1 ------ Chile
1 ------ Dominican Republic
1 ------ Germany
1 ------ PR

[Basel A]

Oddly low number of Michigan rookies (5) relative to previous years. I can't help but wonder if they're simply hidden or some other, apparently significant factor is in play.

[Karibou]

No FRC teams in two of the US states.


Which two states, and did those two states have teams in previous years?

[EricH]

Which two states, and did those two states have teams in previous years?
I'd bet that one of them is South Dakota, which last had an FRC team back around 2007 or so. (FLL is strong in the state, but going higher than that is a little slow.)

[Mark McLeod]

Which two states, and did those two states have teams in previous years?

Nebraska has only ever had one FRC team (team 2044), and they only played in the 2007 and 2008 seasons.
South Dekota has had 11 FRC teams, but the last one played only as recently as the 2008 season (team 939).

[Mark McLeod]

The registration rate has dropped to an average 20 teams a day.
Unrestricted event registration opens tomorrow.
(1) Event seems to have reached it's maximum theoretical capacity
(30) Regionals are developing waitlists
(10) Regionals with single-digit spaces available (also means there's no waitlist to worry about)
(11) Regionals with double-digit spaces remaining
(4) FiM Districts have 10 or fewer spots unassigned
The most vacant FiM District (Niles) has 23 openings.
(4) MAR Districts have 10 or fewer spots unclaimed/unreleased
(1) MAR District seems to have 12 openings(8) MAR teams haven't picked/been assigned a second event (a lack on the teams part I imagine)
(65) FiM teams haven't picked/been assigned a second event (a delay by FiM rather than by teams - also imagined)

P.S.
Bill's Blog RSS feed reported 1994 teams at the same time that 1944 teams showed, so 50 teams are unreported on waitlists for 1st events, or only pre-registered (didn't pick an event yet).

[Anupam Goli]

Have all of the regionals been filled ever? My team is looking at participating in a 2nd event either in week 1 or week 5, but we don't have funds to pay for it yet, and were wondering if second event registration closer to kickoff is feasible.

[ebarker]

All event registration closes December 1st, 8:00 pm.

It doesn't matter if it is your 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, etc event.

All event registration closes December 1st, 8:00 pm.

So you have about 1 month to get your ducks in a row.

[Travis Hoffman]

Wisconsin is really lacking outside teams this year...just sayin'...

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Schlemiel! Schlimazel! Hasenpfeffer Incorporated.
We're gonna do it.

[Mark McLeod]

Have all of the regionals been filled ever? My team is looking at participating in a 2nd event either in week 1 or week 5, but we don't have funds to pay for it yet, and were wondering if second event registration closer to kickoff is feasible.
Payment for a 2nd Regional isn't due until the end of January, but as Ed said, you need to at least sign up by December 1st to get on the event list at all.

There has always been leftover space somewhere, as long as you're willing to travel. Dallas during week 5 should have plenty of room.
Week 1 events are all waitlisted, except for Israel (that'd be a lot of travel fundraising), although even some waitlisting events may still have room.

[Travis Hoffman]

48, 71, 234, 379, 829, 1024, etc. Queen City has a decidedly 2011 Knoxville feel. Add in 1038, 3138, Andy Baker's rookie team, and others, and it has the makings of another great rookie event! I just hope Blair leaves the orange spandex at home this time.

And then 772 and 781 sneak in from Ontario. It gets better!

[Mark McLeod]

20 teams added events after unrestricted registration opened at noon.

P.S.
Very preliminary at this early date, but here are the number of teams who have signed up for 5 events, 4 events, etc.
It includes Districts and Championship too.

5 Events = 2 (.1%)
4 Events = 7 (.4%)
3 Events = 93 (4.7%)
2 Events = 509 (26.0%)
1 Events = 1347 (68.8%)

----------------
Historical perspective
Last seasons final percentages were:
6 Events = .05% of all 2011 teams
5 Events = .3%
4 Events = 1.8%
3 Events = 9.6%
2 Events = 27.1%
1 Event = 61.1%

[Dave Campbell]

48, 71, 234, 379, 829, 1024, etc. Queen City has a decidedly 2011 Knoxville feel. Add in 1038, 3138, Andy Baker's rookie team, and others, and it has the makings of another great rookie event! I just hope Blair leaves the orange spandex at home this time.

And then 772 and 781 sneak in from Ontario. It gets better!

We really want to make this a great event...The team list looks to help make that possible so far. It is awesome having a week six event.

There are still several rookie teams in the Cincinnati area not showing up on the list yet. I'm sure that is true with most events.

[ebarker]

when all this settles down I'd like to see a chart, by region, of how many teams are registered in the region, and how many rookies are in the region.

In Georgia we are going to have 16 rookie teams. The Peachtree will go from having mid-40's team numbers to 61 teams.

yee haw !!

[Andrew Schreiber]

when all this settles down I'd like to see a chart, by region, of how many teams are registered in the region, and how many rookies are in the region.

In Georgia we are going to have 16 rookie teams. The Peachtree will go from having mid-40's team numbers to 61 teams.

yee haw !!

Mark, if you have the team info for this year I can toss together a heatmap by region if you'd like.

[Mark McLeod]

Mark, if you have the team info for this year I can toss together a heatmap by region if you'd like.

I'll take you up on that, I like your heat maps.

What data do you want:

Team coordinates
Team #
Rookie/vet flag?

[Andrew Schreiber]

I'll take you up on that, I like your heat maps.

What data do you want:

Team coordinates
Team #
Rookie/vet flag?

That'd be great. Heck, if you'd like over time throw a year on there. CSV is easiest for me since I don't actually own Excel.

[Andy Baker]

Mark, if you have the team info for this year I can toss together a heatmap by region if you'd like.

I'll take you up on that, I like your heat maps.

Oooooh... that would be outstanding. Thanks guys, for this effort. We often discuss how FRC is growing by referencing this thread during our company's Monday morning meetings. Maps would wow the audience.

Sincerely,
Andy Baker

[Bob Steele]

20 teams added events after unrestricted registration opened at noon.

P.S.
Very preliminary at this early date, but here are the number of teams who have signed up for 5 events, 4 events, etc.
It includes Districts and Championship too.

5 Events = 2 (.1%)
4 Events = 7 (.4%)
3 Events = 93 (4.7%)
2 Events = 509 (26.0%)
1 Events = 1347 (68.8%)

Mark,
Does this include those that are signed up for the wait list for an event? or for CMP?

So if a team is signed up for three regional events and on the waitlist for CMP is that listed as 4 events or 3 by your present reckoning?

I would guess 3...you don't have access to numbers for waitlists do you?

thanks!!

[Mark McLeod]

Mark,
Does this include those that are signed up for the wait list for an event? or for CMP?

Nope, those numbers don't consider any of the hidden waitlists.
Even if we could see them, that would be counting chickens a little too early.

These numbers are guaranteed to go up because of the two FiM/MAR State/Region Championships that get populated in March, the waitlists clearing eventually, and another few hundred teams showing up during the coming month.


I also went back and added a bit of historical perspective with the percentages of multi-event teams from last season.

[Mark McLeod]

That'd be great. Heck, if you'd like over time throw a year on there. CSV is easiest for me since I don't actually own Excel.

See how this works.
Note: there is a team 0 rookie in there who hasn't been assigned a number yet.
It's in team number order with most rookies at the bottom (three new teams are mixed into the older team numbers).

It's just for 2012: team #, coord, new team flag (1=new/0=vet)

[ebarker]

Is it any trouble to get the file with another column added with the state ?

Not needed for the heatmap but for us with the green eyeshades !

[Mark McLeod]

Is it any trouble to get the file with another column added with the state ?

Not needed for the heatmap but for us with the green eyeshades !
Here's a simple list of all the registered teams as of this morning.
Area, city,team name & sponsors, team #, coords.

[Andrew Schreiber]

All Rookie Teams (http://www.google.com/fusiontables/embedviz?viz=MAP&q=select+col1+from+2067259+where+col2+%3D+'1'&h=false&lat=34.81763412141628&lng=-94.50844336249995&z=4&t=1&l=col1)

Rookie Heat Map (http://www.google.com/fusiontables/embedviz?viz=MAP&q=select+col1+from+2067259+where+col2+%3D+'1'&h=true&lat=34.81763412141628&lng=-94.50844336249997&z=4&t=1&l=col1)

Non-Rookies (http://www.google.com/fusiontables/embedviz?viz=MAP&q=select+col1+from+2067259+where+col2+%3D+'0'&h=false&lat=34.81763412141628&lng=-94.50844336249997&z=4&t=1&l=col1)

Non-Rookie Heat Map (http://www.google.com/fusiontables/embedviz?viz=MAP&q=select+col1+from+2067259+where+col2+%3D+'0'&h=true&lat=34.81763412141628&lng=-94.50844336249997&z=4&t=1&l=col1)

All Teams (http://www.google.com/fusiontables/embedviz?viz=MAP&q=select+col1+from+2067259+&h=false&lat=34.81763412141628&lng=-94.50844336249997&z=4&t=1&l=col1)

All Teams Heat Map (http://www.google.com/fusiontables/embedviz?viz=MAP&q=select+col1+from+2067259+&h=true&lat=34.81763412141628&lng=-94.50844336249997&z=4&t=1&l=col1)


Edit: If FIRST is listening... giving us anonymous shipping addresses would be great. That would let us get a street level view of team growth.

[ebarker]

Here's a simple list of all the registered teams as of this morning.
Area, city,team name & sponsors, team #, coords.

I know I sound like a pain, we lost the rookie flag column on this sheet....

no worries, If I know the rookie start number then I can create the column and resort.

edit: NVM - I marked everything from 3925 down as rookies

CA -32
FL - 18
GA - 14 indicted, real answer will be 16
and so on down the list.

[Joe Ross]

Here's a simple list of all the registered teams as of this morning.
Area, city,team name & sponsors, team #, coords.

The team coordinates are off by 1 in this list, caused by team 0. They are correct in the first list.

[Mark McLeod]

The team coordinates are off by 1 in this list, caused by team 0. They are correct in the first list.
Thanks, I fixed the posted file and added Ed's new team flag column.

I probably won't be able to take a look at Andrew's heat maps until Sunday, but Andy has his maps for the next Monday meeting. Thanks, Andrew.:)

[Dad1279]

All Rookie Teams (http://www.google.com/fusiontables/embedviz?viz=MAP&q=select+col1+from+2067259+where+col2+%3D+'1'&h=false&lat=34.81763412141628&lng=-94.50844336249995&z=4&t=1&l=col1)

Rookie Heat Map (http://www.google.com/fusiontables/embedviz?viz=MAP&q=select+col1+from+2067259+where+col2+%3D+'1'&h=true&lat=34.81763412141628&lng=-94.50844336249997&z=4&t=1&l=col1)

Non-Rookies (http://www.google.com/fusiontables/embedviz?viz=MAP&q=select+col1+from+2067259+where+col2+%3D+'0'&h=false&lat=34.81763412141628&lng=-94.50844336249997&z=4&t=1&l=col1)

Non-Rookie Heat Map (http://www.google.com/fusiontables/embedviz?viz=MAP&q=select+col1+from+2067259+where+col2+%3D+'0'&h=true&lat=34.81763412141628&lng=-94.50844336249997&z=4&t=1&l=col1)

All Teams (http://www.google.com/fusiontables/embedviz?viz=MAP&q=select+col1+from+2067259+&h=false&lat=34.81763412141628&lng=-94.50844336249997&z=4&t=1&l=col1)

All Teams Heat Map (http://www.google.com/fusiontables/embedviz?viz=MAP&q=select+col1+from+2067259+&h=true&lat=34.81763412141628&lng=-94.50844336249997&z=4&t=1&l=col1)


Edit: If FIRST is listening... giving us anonymous shipping addresses would be great. That would let us get a street level view of team growth.

Our team, 1279, is on Mark's list, but not on the maps?

[1986titans]

Our team, 1279, is on Mark's list, but not on the maps?

It looks like Sommerville, NJ has two FRC teams. The team pins for any town having more than one FRC team are layered right on top of each other. Only one of them shows up.

[ebarker]

An interest stat to see would be rookie growth, in absolute and percent relative terms.

For example:

California is adding about 32 rookies, about 18 % growth
Florida is adding about 18 rookies, about 32 % growth
Georgia is adding 16 rookies, 44 % growth
there are a lot more regions to calculate

On the downside, some kind of metric for teams lost would be good too.

[Mark McLeod]

The maps are nice Andrew.
I'll give you an update when registration hits a high.

The layering of multiple teams in the same city hides a quarter of the teams.
The heat map view is one way around this.

We could go look up 749 (as of the date of the plotted data) school addresses that are layered one atop the next.
We could save time by just updating the 512 team locations hidden underneath the top layer.
We could automatically add unique minor offsets to members of identical coordinate groups to shift them a tiny bit away from each other.

Here are the deepest layered places. (Also the cities with the most FRC teams if we don't aggregate the boroughs of NYC)
17 ----- Toronto, ON Canada
16 ----- Chicago, IL USA
16 ----- San Diego, CA USA
14 ----- San Antonio, TX USA
14 ----- Washington, DC USA
13 ----- San Jose, CA USA
12 ----- Detroit, MI USA
12 ----- Montreal, QC Canada
10 ----- Rochester, NY USA

An interest stat to see would be rookie growth, in absolute and percent relative terms.
...
On the downside, some kind of metric for teams lost would be good too.
I have these for you as they stand so far. I'll try to remember to post a list tomorrow when I take a break. Maybe a pie chart would make a nice visual.

I'm coasting today after our local off-season played yesterday.

[Mark McLeod]

Registration is running 13.8% ahead of last year.
Just broke 2000 registered teams.
Nebraska now has one team - a rookie.
Broke the 300 rookie markI've attached a snapshot of the rollup aggregate I keep for all teams.
Don't get freaked out by the "Lost" teams. Above the line will continue to grow, while below the line will continue to shrink.

I'll do the state/country breakouts later on and update this post with those results.

[Mark McLeod]

Here are the states/countries broken out by percentages of:
new teams (rookies + 2 "new" vets)
Returning veterans
Vets Missing from last year (as a % of last year's area total, so adding up the % across the board won't get 100%)Raw counts follow. Resurrected vets are all singletons from different areas and don't impact the percentages.
Some pie charts are attached.

All ----- New ------ Vets ----- Missing Vets - Area
188 --- 18.6% ------ 81.4% ----- 13.1% ----- CA
163 ---- 3.7% ------ 96.3% ------ 8.7% ----- MI
121 ---- 9.9% ------ 90.1% ----- 14.2% ----- NY
121 ---- 8.3% ------ 91.7% ----- 15.3% ----- MN
97 ---- 15.5% ------ 84.5% ----- 43.1% ----- TX
94 ---- 18.1% ------ 81.9% ------ 7.3% ----- WA
63 ---- 14.3% ------ 85.7% ----- 18.5% ----- CANADA-ON
62 ----- 3.2% ------ 96.8% ----- 11.8% ----- VA
61 ---- 31.1% ------ 68.9% ----- 25.5% ----- FL
53 ---- 24.5% ------ 75.5% ----- 16.7% ----- PA
52 ---- 13.5% ------ 86.5% ----- 15.1% ----- MA
50 ---- 16.0% ------ 84.0% ----- 14.9% ----- OH
50 ----- 4.0% ------ 96.0% ----- 23.8% ----- NJ
48 ---- 18.8% ------ 81.3% ------ 9.3% ----- IL
46 ----- 4.3% ------ 95.7% ------ 8.3% ----- OK
46 ----- 4.3% ------ 95.7% ----- 15.4% ----- MO
43 ---- 23.3% ------ 76.7% ------ 8.6% ----- OR
42 ----- 2.4% ------ 97.6% ------ 2.4% ----- CT
39 ---- 23.1% ------ 76.9% ----- 11.8% ----- IN
38 ---- 18.4% ------ 81.6% ----- 16.2% ----- AZ
37 ---- 37.8% ------ 62.2% ----- 36.1% ----- GA
34 ---- 14.7% ------ 85.3% ------ 9.7% ----- WI
32 ----- 9.4% ------ 90.6% ----- 19.4% ----- NC
32 ---- 12.5% ------ 87.5% ----- 17.6% ----- MD
32 ---- 59.4% ------ 40.6% ------ 7.1% ----- CANADA-QC
31 ----- 6.5% ------ 93.5% ----- 17.1% ----- CO
28 ----- 3.6% ------ 96.4% ----- 15.6% ----- NH
27 ---- 18.5% ------ 81.5% ----- 16.0% ----- SC
24 ----- 8.3% ------ 91.7% ----- 34.4% ----- HI
23 ---- 30.4% ------ 69.6% ----- 33.3% ----- LA
20 ----- 0.0% ----- 100.0% ------ 0.0% ----- KS
18 ---- 44.4% ------ 55.6% ----- 37.5% ----- TN
16 ---- 25.0% ------ 75.0% ------ 7.7% ----- ID
14 ----- 0.0% ----- 100.0% ------ 0.0% ----- DC
13 ----- 7.7% ------ 92.3% ----- 38.9% ----- UT
13 ---- 30.8% ------ 69.2% ----- 25.0% ----- Mexico
11 ---- 27.3% ------ 72.7% ----- 20.0% ----- AL
10 ---- 20.0% ------ 80.0% ----- 20.0% ----- MS
10 ---- 30.0% ------ 70.0% ----- 12.5% ----- ME
10 ----- 0.0% ----- 100.0% ----- 79.2% ----- Israel
9 ----- 11.1% ------ 88.9% ----- 36.4% ----- NV
8 ------ 0.0% ----- 100.0% ----- 33.3% ----- KY
8 ----- 75.0% ------ 25.0% ----- 33.3% ----- AR
5 ----- 40.0% ------ 60.0% ----- 25.0% ----- Turkey
4 ------ 0.0% ----- 100.0% ----- 20.0% ----- WV
4 ------ 0.0% ----- 100.0% ----- 20.0% ----- RI
4 ----- 50.0% ------ 50.0% ------ 0.0% ----- NM
4 ------ 0.0% ----- 100.0% ----- 33.3% ----- MT
4 ----- 25.0% ------ 75.0% ------ 0.0% ----- IA
3 ------ 0.0% ----- 100.0% ------ 0.0% ----- WY
3 ------ 0.0% ----- 100.0% ----- 40.0% ----- Brazil
2 ------ 0.0% ----- 100.0% ----- 33.3% ----- VT
2 ------ 0.0% ------- 0.0% ------ 0.0% ----- UNITED KINGDOM
2 ------ 0.0% ----- 100.0% ----- 33.3% ----- ND
2 ------ 0.0% ----- 100.0% ------ 0.0% ----- DE
2 ------ 0.0% ----- 100.0% ------ 0.0% ----- AK
1 ------ 0.0% ----- 100.0% ----- 50.0% ----- PR
1 ---- 100.0% ------- 0.0% ------ 0.0% ----- NE
1 ------ 0.0% ----- 100.0% ------ 0.0% ----- Germany
1 ---- 100.0% ------- 0.0% ------ 0.0% ----- Dominican Republic
1 ------ 0.0% ----- 100.0% ------ 0.0% ----- Chile
1 ---- 100.0% ------- 0.0% ------ 0.0% ----- CANADA-NS
1 ------ 0.0% ----- 100.0% ------ 0.0% ----- CANADA-AB
1 ------ 0.0% ----- 100.0% ------ 0.0% ----- Australia

Raw Numbers for the above in case you're interested:
All ---- New -- Vets – Missing - Area
188 ---- 35 ---- 153 ---- 23 ----- CA
163 ----- 6 ---- 157 ---- 15 ----- MI
121 ---- 12 ---- 109 ---- 18 ----- NY
121 ---- 10 ---- 111 ---- 20 ----- MN
97 ----- 15 ----- 82 ---- 62 ----- TX
94 ----- 17 ----- 77 ----- 6 ----- WA
63 ------ 9 ----- 54 ---- 12 ----- CANADA-ON
62 ------ 2 ----- 60 ----- 8 ----- VA
61 ----- 19 ----- 42 ---- 14 ----- FL
53 ----- 13 ----- 40 ----- 8 ----- PA
52 ------ 7 ----- 45 ----- 8 ----- MA
50 ------ 8 ----- 42 ----- 7 ----- OH
50 ------ 2 ----- 48 ---- 15 ----- NJ
48 ------ 9 ----- 39 ----- 4 ----- IL
46 ------ 2 ----- 44 ----- 4 ----- OK
46 ------ 2 ----- 44 ----- 8 ----- MO
43 ----- 10 ----- 33 ----- 3 ----- OR
42 ------ 1 ----- 41 ----- 1 ----- CT
39 ------ 9 ----- 30 ----- 4 ----- IN
38 ------ 7 ----- 31 ----- 6 ----- AZ
37 ----- 14 ----- 23 ---- 13 ----- GA
34 ------ 5 ----- 29 ----- 3 ----- WI
32 ------ 3 ----- 29 ----- 7 ----- NC
32 ------ 4 ----- 28 ----- 6 ----- MD
32 ----- 19 ----- 13 ----- 1 ----- CANADA-QC
31 ------ 2 ----- 29 ----- 6 ----- CO
28 ------ 1 ----- 27 ----- 5 ----- NH
27 ------ 5 ----- 22 ----- 4 ----- SC
24 ------ 2 ----- 22 ---- 11 ----- HI
23 ------ 7 ----- 16 ----- 8 ----- LA
20 ------ 0 ----- 20 ----- 0 ----- KS
18 ------ 8 ----- 10 ----- 6 ----- TN
16 ------ 4 ----- 12 ----- 1 ----- ID
14 ------ 0 ----- 14 ----- 0 ----- DC
13 ------ 1 ----- 12 ----- 7 ----- UT
13 ------ 4 ------ 9 ----- 3 ----- Mexico
11 ------ 3 ------ 8 ----- 2 ----- AL
10 ------ 2 ------ 8 ----- 2 ----- MS
10 ------ 3 ------ 7 ----- 1 ----- ME
10 ------ 0 ----- 10 ---- 38 ----- Israel
9 ------- 1 ------ 8 ----- 4 ----- NV
8 ------- 0 ------ 8 ----- 4 ----- KY
8 ------- 6 ------ 2 ----- 1 ----- AR
5 ------- 2 ------ 3 ----- 1 ----- Turkey
4 ------- 0 ------ 4 ----- 1 ----- WV
4 ------- 0 ------ 4 ----- 1 ----- RI
4 ------- 2 ------ 2 ----- 0 ----- NM
4 ------- 0 ------ 4 ----- 2 ----- MT
4 ------- 1 ------ 3 ----- 0 ----- IA
3 ------- 0 ------ 3 ----- 0 ----- WY
3 ------- 0 ------ 3 ----- 2 ----- Brazil
2 ------- 0 ------ 2 ----- 1 ----- VT
2 ------- 0 ------ 0 ----- 0 ----- United Kingdom
2 ------- 0 ------ 2 ----- 1 ----- ND
2 ------- 0 ------ 2 ----- 0 ----- DE
2 ------- 0 ------ 2 ----- 0 ----- AK
1 ------- 0 ------ 1 ----- 1 ----- PR
1 ------- 1 ------ 0 ----- 0 ----- NE
1 ------- 0 ------ 1 ----- 0 ----- Germany
1 ------- 1 ------ 0 ----- 0 ----- Dominican Republic
1 ------- 0 ------ 1 ----- 0 ----- Chile
1 ------- 1 ------ 0 ----- 0 ----- CANADA-NS
1 ------- 0 ------ 1 ----- 0 ----- CANADA-AB
1 ------- 0 ------ 1 ----- 0 ----- Australia

[Hallry]

new teams (rookies + 2 "new" vets)

Awesome graphs and data. What exactly is a "new" vet? ::rtm::

[Phyrxes]

Is "new Vet" a "new" team that has enough veteran members to not be considered a rookie?

[Pjohn1959]

Wow! 62 teams from Texas not returning! I'll bet there is a lot of one&done teams that were originally financed by the Texas Workforce grant. That's very disappointing.

[Mark McLeod]

Wow! 62 teams from Texas not returning! I'll bet there is a lot of one&done teams that were originally financed by the Texas Workforce grant. That's very disappointing.
Texas is also usually a little late in registering due to the BEST Fall competition, so teams may just show up later.
I checked and the big surge in Texas registration occurred last season in the middle of November. I don't know how that tied into the Texas Workforce grant schedule.

Israel is another area that traditionally registers later than everyone else.


Is "new Vet" a "new" team that has enough veteran members to not be considered a rookie?
Bingo!
There are current only two of these. A third one dropped out just this morning.

[JaneYoung]

Texas is also usually a little late in registering due to the BEST Fall competition, so teams may just show up later.


Being on the outside of things and not knowing much, I'm not concerned - yet. Hopefully, these Texans will kick in and git 'er done.

Jane

[Hallry]

It's interesting to see that there are currently 13 less New Jersey teams signed up than in last year. Perhaps this is due to the new M.A.R. system? ::rtm::

[MagiChau]

Haha, no hard feelings to FIRST, but I find it amusing that we are still on the wait list to the Traverse City District, when our nearby neighbors of 74, 107, and 141 are already listed. Two of the rookies in Michigan are going to West Michigan and Traverse City.

[Mark McLeod]

Here's a graph of the most populous FRC cities last season.
That related to the earlier list of this seasons current most populous cities.


(Also the cities with the most FRC teams if we don't aggregate the boroughs of NYC)
17 ----- Toronto, ON Canada
16 ----- Chicago, IL USA
16 ----- San Diego, CA USA
14 ----- San Antonio, TX USA
14 ----- Washington, DC USA
13 ----- San Jose, CA USA
12 ----- Detroit, MI USA
12 ----- Montreal, QC Canada
10 ----- Rochester, NY USA

[Andrew Schuetze]

wow, I hadn't realized that San Antonio was that far up the list on most populist FRC cities.

John, Jane, and fellow Texans...

I am not being an alarmist but we do have some work to do to bring back a few dozen teams. If you have the time and can reach out in your area, please contact a Regional director or FIRST Senior Mentor to see what teams you can help them contact to get a status check. They and others have probably been sending them emails and phone calls but a personal connection from you could be the thing that flips the switch.

At least a half-dozen teams are not on the 2012 list in Houston, Dallas, El Paso and the Rio Grande Valley with some assorted towns in Central and East Texas.

Looking forward to great FIRST season in Texas again this year.

[Mark McLeod]

We have passed last year's total 2065 teams.
About a week earlier than the same milestone (i.e., passing the prior year mark) last year.

Some waitlist clearing going on today.
31 Regionals have changed their headcounts.
That's how a lot of teams suddenly appeared on the registered list today.
Broke 2100 teams before 6pm EST today.

p.s.
Team 23 Plymouth, MA, who last played in 1999 has rejoined us. (One of their teacher/mentors is a Championship Woodie Flowers winner.)
They will be playing at WPI.

7 resurrected old teams appeared by lunchtime today, so we now have:
(14) teams who sat out one year
(6) who sat out two years
(1) 5 years
(1) 6 years
(1) 13 years

[Brandon Holley]

Team 23 Plymouth, MA, who last played in 1999 has rejoined us. (One of their teacher/mentors is a Championship Woodie Flowers winner.)
They will be playing at WPI.


Welcome back team 23. I'm also happy to see they will be attending our Ask an Engineer workshop this weekend at Northeastern.

-Brando

[AcesPease]

Welcome back team 23. I'm also happy to see they will be attending our Ask an Engineer workshop this weekend at Northeastern.

-Brando

Does this mean Rumble at the Rock is Returning? I believe we are defending champs :D

[Andy Baker]

p.s.
Team 23 Plymouth, MA, who last played in 1999 has rejoined us. (One of their teacher/mentors is a Championship Woodie Flowers winner.)
They will be playing at WPI.

Welcome back team 23. I'm also happy to see they will be attending our Ask an Engineer workshop this weekend at Northeastern.

Does this mean Rumble at the Rock is Returning? I believe we are defending champs :D

I am very excited to see team 23 back. Mike Bastoni, the team leader of team 23 is a Championship Woodie Flowers Award Winner and has been an active member of the WFA judging committee since the summer of 2003 when we were challenged by Dr. William Murphy (http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21493) to create the WFFA. Mike has been active all of these years, not just as a WFFA judge, but also developing the Gears Educational Systems (http://www.gearseds.com/) with some friends. Mike also has worked hard to create the BBIQ program (http://www.botsiq.org/) with some other friends.

For those of you not around in 1999 (and previously), Mike and his team ran the best off-season event, called Rumble at the Rock. This was the inspiration for many events, including BattleCry and IRI.

Welcome back, team 23!!!

Respectfully,
Andy B.

[Mark McLeod]

The Taipei American School just registered (for Hawaii predictably).

Our team did a season of BBIQ in 2002 and we still have the robot.
It had to share motors and electronics with our FRC robot that year.

[JaneYoung]

wow, I hadn't realized that San Antonio was that far up the list on most populist FRC cities.

John, Jane, and fellow Texans...

I am not being an alarmist but we do have some work to do to bring back a few dozen teams. If you have the time and can reach out in your area, please contact a Regional director or FIRST Senior Mentor to see what teams you can help them contact to get a status check. They and others have probably been sending them emails and phone calls but a personal connection from you could be the thing that flips the switch.

At least a half-dozen teams are not on the 2012 list in Houston, Dallas, El Paso and the Rio Grande Valley with some assorted towns in Central and East Texas.

Looking forward to great FIRST season in Texas again this year.


Andrew,

I've sent you a private message with my offer/suggestions.

Jane

[Mark McLeod]

Since some of the waitlists have been clearing (there still appear to be a lot of teams cooling their heels though) I decided to run more interim numbers on the total events teams are signing up for this year.
(3) = 5 events(.1% of all registered teams)
(9) = 4 events (.4%)
(99) = 3 events (4.7%)
(532) = 2 events (25.1%)
(1476) = 1 event (69.7%)We can extrapolate to include State/Region Championships and an additional 200 World Championship attendees.

Take Championships out of the picture and we get:
72.7% = 1 event
27.3% = more than 1 eventDouble Districts in FiM & MAR account for 5.6% of the multiple event totals, but a large percentage of teams in those regions have not yet been assigned a second district event. Without the District areas included, the tally of single (non-CMP) event teams rises to 78.3%.

P.S.
California at 194 teams is drawing close to the record setting 200 team mark.
More than 30 rookies has something to do with that.

[Andrew Schuetze]

What would be the interest in a combined FRC & FTC registration count by state to add to this statewide FIRST comparison of FRC teams? Is the FTC data publically available in a usable format? FTC registration continues until late February but tends to get a bit fixed by FRC kick-off. I say that knowing full well that FTC registration in Texas extended into late spring last year due to the slow roll-out of a government grant. We might see something close to 400:yikes: plus FIRST HS teams in Texas this season depending upon how many of the missing FRC and FTC teams get registered in the next 30 - 45 days... we are hoovering above 325 right now.

FTC event data is not available as that is handled directly by the affiliate partners.

[Mark McLeod]

FTC team cities/states/countries are readily available.
P.S. Although I only see 217 Texas teams listed right now, so if you're operating off of insider information, then it'll be hard to compare.
The next closest area is California with 154.
P.P.S. Oh, I see you just meant to add the # of FTC and FRC teams together into one number. In that case California is winning with 349. NY and MI are much further back at 240 & 220 respectively.

Eight FTC countries: US, Canada, Australia, Mexico, New Zealand, China, Italy, Norway.

FTC event location cities are also available if not the associated list of attending teams.

It's too bad FLL doesn't provide public general location info. Those numbers completely dwarf FRC and FTC and any other robot competition you care to mention combined.

[Mark McLeod]

Currently showing,

5.3% growth
16.7% are new teams
12.3% of veteran teams unaccounted for
13.6% recovery of defunct teams (accounts for 1.6% of all registered teams)

[rwood359]

It's too bad FLL doesn't provide public general location info. Those numbers completely dwarf FRC and FTC and any other robot competition you care to mention combined.
FLL Team 13,xxx (I can't remember exactly) was at the competition that we were in last weekend.

[GaryVoshol]

FLL Team 13,xxx (I can't remember exactly) was at the competition that we were in last weekend.

FLL team numbers in Michigan range from 8 to 14347.

[Mark McLeod]

FIRST projects that there will be 19,800 FLL teams this season.

[dodar]

Ya, we hosted an FLL event recently and had team numbers ranging from 468-11313.

[GaryVoshol]

In the past, series of numbers were reserved for FLL teams outside the US and Canada. Does anyone know if that is still the case? For example, if all European teams had numbers in the 16000's or 17000's, that would align with the US/Can numbers noted in the projection.

[Mark McLeod]

More than 2200 teams now.

6.9% growth (142 net gain)
17.3% new teams (381)
11.6% veteran team loss (263) (% is adjusted to account for returned vets)(Chart at the bottom)
Teams - Rookies - Missing - Place
197 ----- 37 ------ 18 ------ CA
169 ------ 8 ------ 11 ------ MI
151 ----- 21 ------- 1 ------ MN
135 ----- 15 ------- 7 ------ NY
119 ----- 23 ------ 48 ------ TX
95 ------ 18 ------- 6 ------ WA
72 ------ 23 ------- 8 ------ FL
71 ------ 15 ------ 11 ------ Canada-ON
65 ------- 4 ------- 7 ------ VA
60 ------ 15 ------- 4 ------ PA
56 ------- 8 ------- 6 ------ MA
56 ------ 13 ------- 6 ------ OH
55 ------ 15 ------- 3 ------ IL
52 ------- 4 ------ 15 ------ NJ
51 ------- 4 ------- 5 ------ MO
46 ------- 2 ------- 4 ------ OK
45 ------ 17 ------- 8 ------ GA
44 ------- 7 ------- 1 ------ AZ
44 ------ 11 ------- 3 ------ OR
43 ------ 12 ------- 3 ------ IN
42 ------- 1 ------- 1 ------ CT
38 ------- 3 ------- 1 ------ CO
37 ------- 6 ------- 5 ------ NC
36 ------- 5 ------- 3 ------ MD
35 ------- 6 ------- 3 ------ WI
32 ------ 19 ------- 1 ------ Canada-QC
30 ------- 1 ------- 3 ------ NH
30 ------- 8 ------- 4 ------ SC
29 ------- 3 ------- 7 ------ HI
24 ------- 0 ------ 25 ------ Israel
24 ------- 7 ------- 7 ------ LA
23 ------ 11 ------- 4 ------ TN
20 ------- 0 ------- 0 ------ KS
16 ------- 4 ------- 1 ------ ID
16 ------- 5 ------- 1 ------ Mexico
16 ------- 2 ------- 5 ------ UT
15 ------- 1 ------- 0 ------ DC
13 ------- 4 ------- 2 ------ AL
11 ------- 0 ------- 1 ------ KY
11 ------- 3 ------- 0 ------ ME
10 ------- 2 ------- 2 ------ MS
9 -------- 1 ------- 4 ------ NV
8 -------- 6 ------- 1 ------ AR
6 -------- 0 ------- 0 ------ MT
5 -------- 3 ------- 0 ------ NM
5 -------- 0 ------- 0 ------ RI
5 -------- 2 ------- 1 ------ Turkey
4 -------- 1 ------- 0 ------ IA
4 -------- 0 ------- 1 ------ WV
3 -------- 0 ------- 2 ------ Brazil
3 -------- 0 ------- 0 ------ VT
3 -------- 0 ------- 0 ------ WY
2 -------- 0 ------- 0 ------ AK
2 -------- 0 ------- 0 ------ DE
2 -------- 0 ------- 1 ------ ND
2 -------- 0 ------- 0 ------ United Kingdom
1 -------- 0 ------- 0 ------ Australia
1 -------- 0 ------- 0 ------ Canada-AB
1 -------- 1 ------- 0 ------ Canada-NS
1 -------- 0 ------- 0 ------ Chile
1 -------- 1 ------- 0 ------ Dominican Republic
1 -------- 0 ------- 0 ------ Germany
1 -------- 1 ------- 0 ------ NE
1 -------- 0 ------- 1 ------ PR
1 -------- 1 ------- 0 ------ Spain
1 -------- 1 ------- 0 ------ Taiwan

[RMiller]

Mark, from the graph, it looks like the total teams this year from each state is "Teams + Rookies" make "Teams" = Veteran Teams. However, based on Nebraska (and Iowa) "Teams" is just the total number of teams, right?

Sidenote: wow, nearly all those missing MN teams showed up just recently.

[Mark McLeod]

Mark, from the graph, it looks like the total teams this year from each state is "Teams + Rookies" make "Teams" = Veteran Teams. However, based on Nebraska (and Iowa) "Teams" is just the total number of teams, right?

Sidenote: wow, nearly all those missing MN teams showed up just recently.
Yea, I did that wrong. Thanks for noticing :)
Teams is total in the chart just like the table, so I'll rework the chart to be vets/rookies/missing instead. It'll be updated in a second.

I changed the previous posted chart to have the same convention as the overall chart too. Missing teams are shown below the 0 line in red for each area.
I've attached here what I call the "Could Have Been" look that includes the missing teams on top so we see just how many teams each area could have if they just recover the missing teams.

[ebarker]

While you are doing all this trouble could you also post the spreadsheet also. Thanks,

[Mark McLeod]

While you are doing all this trouble could you also post the spreadsheet also. Thanks,
Done.

[Mark McLeod]

Bosnia has returned.
That makes 14 countries that are represented in FRC:
Australia
Brazil
Canada
Chile
Dominican Republic
Germany
Herzegovina
Israel
Mexico
Spain
Taiwan
Turkey
United Kingdom
US
MAR is showing 93 teams (7 of them rookies) and has seen the reappearance of several missing NJ/PA teams and updated their District rosters.
18 MAR teams do not have 2nd Districts yet (19%).

FiM has 73 teams (of 169 total) still to choose/sort into a second District event (43%).

Topped 3000 total playing slots taken by 2226 teams.

Only 23 fewer new teams have registered than last year.

More resurrected veteran teams than any previous year.

7.8% gain now matches the gain of 2010.

[RoboMom]

18 MAR teams do not have 2nd Districts yet.



Any correlation between 18 MAR teams who haven't signed up for 2nd Districts, but have signed up for events outside the MAR catchment area?

[Mark McLeod]

Any correlation between 18 MAR teams who haven't signed up for 2nd Districts, but have signed up for events outside the MAR catchment area?
Only one of these (Team 204) has signed up outside (for Chesapeake).
Four are rookies.

[jwfoss]

Mark,

I'm not sure how hard it would be to tabulate the data on this but, it would be interesting to know for teams that are "missing", how many years they competed/existed before going "missing"

Side note: I'm proud to see that it looks like CT may not be growing fast, but is at least sustaining the majority of its teams

[Mark McLeod]

I'm not sure how hard it would be to tabulate the data on this but, it would be interesting to know for teams that are "missing", how many years they competed/existed before going "missing"

You mean like this (http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1072425&postcount=286)?

http://www.team358.org/files/frc_records/TeamDropout-2011.jpg (http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1072425&postcount=286)

[jwfoss]

Mark,

I apologize, I must have completely missed that post as I read through. Seeing it like that makes me wish FIRST would focus more on those teams who only last 1-3 years rather than constantly push for completely new teams.

[Mark McLeod]

Here are the average years of team experience at each of the 2012 events (so far):

10.5 ---- NH
10.2 ---- CMP
9.4 ----- MAR-Lenape
9.2 ----- MAR-MtOlive
8.9 ----- MAR-Hatboro
8.8 ----- MAR-Chestnut
8.7 ----- MAR-Rutgers
8.7 ----- CT
8.5 ----- LI
8.4 ----- MI-Detroit
7.8 ----- SJC
7.8 ----- DC
7.8 ----- MI-Kettering
7.5 ----- FLR
7.4 ----- MI-Troy
7.4 ----- MD
7.3 ----- WI
7.2 ----- CV
7.1 ----- MI-Northville
7.1 ----- NYC
7.0 ----- VA
6.9 ----- WPI
6.7 ----- MI-Livonia
6.7 ----- Queen City
6.6 ----- S. FL
6.6 ----- TOR-E
6.6 ----- OH
6.6 ----- MA
6.3 ----- SAC
6.3 ----- KC
6.2 ----- MI-Traverse
6.1 ----- CO
6.0 ----- MI-West
5.9 ----- NV
5.7 ----- MI-Waterford
5.4 ----- CA
5.4 ----- PIT
5.4 ----- TOR-W
5.3 ----- FL
5.3 ----- WAT
5.3 ----- IN
5.2 ----- IS
5.1 ----- NC
5.0 ----- MI-Niles
4.9 ----- AZ
4.9 ----- SC
4.9 ----- TX
4.8 ----- OR
4.7 ----- OK
4.6 ----- TN
4.5 ----- Alamo
4.5 ----- MO
4.2 ----- LA
4.2 ----- UT
4.2 ----- HI
4.1 ----- WA-Cascade
4.1 ----- GA
4.0 ----- Spokane
4.0 ----- IL
3.9 ----- Lake S.
3.8 ----- SDC
3.7 ----- WA-Olympic
3.7 ----- 10K
3.6 ----- N STAR
3.1 ----- Dallas E
3.0 ----- Dallas W
2.1 ----- Montreal

[Steven Donow]

^^ Interesting list, being that all MAR events are at the top.

[Siri]

^^ Interesting list, being that all MAR events are at the top.Very. Have they sorted all the rookies in yet?

[Andrew Schreiber]

^^ Interesting list, being that all MAR events are at the top.

Well, good to know that MAR is now the retirement home of FIRST. ;)

[Hallry]

Well, good to know that MAR is now the retirement home of FIRST. ;)

Well, after New Hampshire of course ;)

Would it be possible to make an experience list like that for last season too, so they two can be compared?

[DonRotolo]

Well, good to know that MAR is now the retirement home of FIRST. ;)
Retirement implies that we're not doing it any more.
In fact, the opposite is true: MAR teams are going to raise the bar this year.
Be Afraid.:rolleyes:

[Mark McLeod]

Here are last season's average team ages at events.

[buildmaster5000]

Realizing that FRC started in New England, it isn't hard to believe that MAR has a lot of "old" teams. Even older than FiM. While it is good to see that CT is sustaining teams, the real question should be: Where is there a total lack of FIRST impact. What part of the country is the concentration of FRC teams per high school student the lowest. It would not surprise me if someone ran the numbers on this and came up with an area like Boston, or DC, or NYC.

We want to expand, but what is the point of expansion if the area is already saturated with teams (FiM, MAR, other "popular regions") If we as FIRSTers get teams in areas with no FIRST exposure, how much more effective does that one team become in acocmplishing the goal of FIRST as a whole?

As an aside, just because a high school in a certain district has a FRC team, doesn't mean the whole district knows about it. I didn't know that 5 of the 30 high schools in my county (Fairfax, Va) had FRC teams until I joined a team, which happened to be unaffiliated with any high school at all.

[ebarker]

What part of the country is the concentration of FRC teams per high school student the lowest.

A couple of years ago there was this thread (http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=78670)

Which led to this spreadsheet (http://www.kellrobotics.org/files/Team_Growth_Model.xls)

If you look on row 56, you will see "teams / million students".

The data is out of date by over two years but you will get the idea.

Ed

[Chris is me]

We're going to the most storied regional in FIRST next year. Wow.

[Andrew Lawrence]

We're going to the most storied regional in FIRST next year. Wow.

And that is?

[Pjohn1959]

Must be the BAE Systems Granite State Regional in Manchester. :rolleyes:

[Mark McLeod]

More than 400 new teams now.
2246 teams altogether.

Thanksgiving break usually kind of flat lines registration, but then there'll be a bump up before Registration closes the middle of next week.

FiM (at 170 teams) is 10 shy of their current maximum capacity.
MAR seems to have room for 6 more teams.

88% of the available slots are spoken for:

5 Regionals are full
29 Regionals are in the single digits
10 Regionals have room for more
None of the Districts look like they're at maximum yet
8 Districts are in the single-digits

[Alpha Beta]

Well, good to know that MAR is now the retirement home of FIRST. ;)

Interesting how the FiM model (with its extra layer of weeding out) ends up sending a higher quality slate of robots to the Championship than the regional model does. Since MAR is running the same model with older, more experienced teams on average any thoughts on which of the two will have the greatest impact on Champs?

[Mark McLeod]

There are 2251 teams visibly registered and Bill just mentioned there are only nine more that aren't listed for an Event yet.
We have 2260 registered FRC teams as of this morning...

Championships has dropped the first team from their list.

[Andrew Schuetze]

A few of the missing Texas teams are now back along with several Rockies clearing registration. FTC registration has also really picked up in the last 10 days.

Texas combined FTC & FRC = 370!

[Mark McLeod]

Here are the events with the highest percentage of Rookie teams attending.
Montreal should be exciting with a one-to-one match up of vets to rookies...

Total - Rookies - % rookies -- Event
36 ----- 18 ----- 50.00% ----- Montreal
51 ----- 18 ----- 35.30% ----- IL
58 ----- 19 ----- 32.80% ----- GA
43 ----- 14 ----- 32.60% ----- LA
64 ----- 20 ----- 31.30% ----- FL
39 ----- 11 ----- 28.20% ----- MO
40 ----- 11 ----- 27.50% ----- IN
63 ----- 17 ----- 27.00% ----- CA
41 ----- 11 ----- 26.80% ----- PIT
32 ------ 8 ----- 25.00% ----- Dallas-E
48 ----- 12 ----- 25.00% ----- TN
49 ----- 12 ----- 24.50% ----- TOR-W
30 ------ 7 ----- 23.30% ----- Dallas-W
35 ------ 8 ----- 22.90% ----- S. FL
52 ----- 11 ----- 21.20% ----- SDC
62 ----- 13 ----- 21.00% ----- N. Star
44 ------ 9 ----- 20.50% ----- UT
50 ----- 10 ----- 20.00% ----- MA
47 ------ 9 ----- 19.10% ----- WA-Olympic
38 ------ 7 ----- 18.40% ----- SC
46 ------ 8 ----- 17.40% ----- AZ
53 ------ 9 ----- 17.00% ----- TX
30 ------ 5 ----- 16.70% ----- TOR-E
62 ----- 10 ----- 16.10% ----- NYC
31 ------ 5 ----- 16.10% ----- WPI
64 ----- 10 ----- 15.60% ----- OR
57 ------ 8 ----- 14.00% ----- OH
53 ------ 7 ----- 13.20% ----- Queen
61 ------ 8 ----- 13.10% ----- Alamo
46 ------ 6 ----- 13.00% ----- SJC
46 ------ 6 ----- 13.00% ----- WA-Cascade
31 ------ 4 ----- 12.90% ----- WAT
32 ------ 4 ----- 12.50% ----- HI
41 ------ 5 ----- 12.20% ----- Spokane
50 ------ 6 ----- 12.00% ----- NC
46 ------ 5 ----- 10.90% ----- WI
65 ------ 7 ----- 10.80% ----- Lake S.
19 ------ 2 ----- 10.50% ----- MI-Niles
29 ------ 3 ----- 10.30% ----- MAR-Chestnut
40 ------ 4 ----- 10.00% ----- FLR
40 ------ 4 ----- 10.00% ----- MAR-MtOlive
57 ------ 5 ------ 8.80% ----- VA
35 ------ 3 ------ 8.60% ----- NV
36 ------ 3 ------ 8.30% ----- MI-West
39 ------ 3 ------ 7.70% ----- IS
29 ------ 2 ------ 6.90% ----- MI-Waterford
44 ------ 3 ------ 6.80% ----- CO
44 ------ 3 ------ 6.80% ----- CV
59 ------ 4 ------ 6.80% ----- MD
30 ------ 2 ------ 6.70% ----- MI-Troy
61 ------ 4 ------ 6.60% ----- 10K
33 ------ 2 ------ 6.10% ----- MAR-Lenape
33 ------ 2 ------ 6.10% ----- MI-Traverse
34 ------ 2 ------ 5.90% ----- MAR-Rutgers
51 ------ 3 ------ 5.90% ----- OK
54 ------ 3 ------ 5.60% ----- DC
36 ------ 2 ------ 5.60% ----- SAC
47 ------ 2 ------ 4.30% ----- LI
54 ------ 2 ------ 3.70% ----- KC
55 ------ 2 ------ 3.60% ----- CT
30 ------ 1 ------ 3.30% ----- MI-Northville
32 ------ 1 ------ 3.10% ----- MI-Kettering
33 ------ 1 ------ 3.00% ----- MAR-Hatboro
50 ------ 1 ------ 2.00% ----- NH
141 ----- 0 ------ 0.00% ----- CMP
28 ------ 0 ------ 0.00% ----- MI-Detroit
30 ------ 0 ------ 0.00% ----- MI-Livonia

[Mark McLeod]

Chart for the raw numbers of the previous post.
For comparison overall, rookie's make up 18% of all teams. Right between SC and AZ on the chart.

[BrendanB]

We're going to the most storied regional in FIRST next year. Wow.

Oh yeah!:cool:

[JamesCH95]

We're going to the most storied regional in FIRST next year. Wow.

You'll have a good time, GSR is a great regional. Drop by and say hi if you want!

[Mark McLeod]

3 and a half days of Registration remain and after the Thanksgiving holiday we're sitting at 2269 teams.

[DarrinMunter]

We have a new FIRST Kick-Off event in Peoria, IL at Bradley University.
Is there a way to find out who has signed up for the Kick-Off events?

[Brandon Holley]

We have a new FIRST Kick-Off event in Peoria, IL at Bradley University.
Is there a way to find out who has signed up for the Kick-Off events?

The kickoff coordinator for each local kickoff should have visibility into registered teams through the event management site.

-Brando

[Miss Paris]

I have a question. =)

We were on the waitlist for our local regional. The waitlist email from FIRST said we would receive an automated email if space opened up.

I checked this morning. The # of registered teams for the regional had increased and our teams name appeared on the list of registered teams on USFIRST.org..... BUT I never received the automated email saying we got off the waitlist.

Does this mean we're off the waitlist? Or do waitlisted teams also show up on the USFIRST.org Event's registered teams website?

Thanks!!:D

[rsisk]

I have a question. =)

We were on the waitlist for our local regional. The waitlist email from FIRST said we would receive an automated email if space opened up.

I checked this morning. The # of registered teams for the regional had increased and our teams name appeared on the list of registered teams on USFIRST.org..... BUT I never received the automated email saying we got off the waitlist.

Does this mean we're off the waitlist? Or do waitlisted teams also show up on the USFIRST.org Event's registered teams website?

Thanks!!:D

Best way to get an answer is to email your Regional Director. You can find the contact information here: http://www.usfirst.org/regional-contacts

[Mark McLeod]

Look on TIMS to see the status of your registration for events.
An email should have gone to the TIMS Main Contact, but there's always the possibility it got trapped somewhere.

Here's the one I got from our home regional. It includes an invoice:

Hello Team 358,

Team 358 is now registered to attend the SBPLI Long Island Regional.

This event will take place Mar 29-31, 2012 in Hempstead, NY USA.

Below is a copy of the event invoice and payment terms that apply to this event.

If you have any questions, please send email to frcteams@usfirst.org (frcteams@usfirst.org).

Go Teams!

This email was automatically generated by the FIRST Robotics Competition Team Information Management System (FRC TIMS).

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

EVENT INVOICE
...etc.


TIMS gives you an accounting like the attached where you can see we are on the event list for SBPLI & Championship ("Registered"), but still on the waitlist for WPI ("Waitlist").
Edit/View gets you to the invoices.

[Miss Paris]

Thanks for the replies! I checked TIMS event section and it said we are registered. What a relief!

[Mark McLeod]

Just reached 2300 teams.
That's

A growth rate of 11.6% (just a smidgen under 2009's growth - only 3 other years have seen smaller growth though)
429 new teams, 18.6% of all 2012 season teams (surpassing last season's 411)
26 recovered defunct teams (14.8% recovery rate). The oldest after a 13 year hiatus
But a 9.2% loss of veteran teams (216)9 Events seem to have reached (or surpassed) maximum capacity (e.g., if you're waiting for NYC... you're probably out of luck)

32 hours remaining to register...

[Mark McLeod]

Only a few official hours left to Registration.
A new rookie from Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany just signed-up.

Where missing veteran teams are from:
34 ---- TX
17 ---- CA
13 ---- Israel
10 ---- MI
9 ----- CANADA-ON
8 ----- NY
7 ----- FL
7 ----- NJ
6 ----- GA
6 ----- HI
6 ----- OH
6 ----- VA
5 ----- MA
5 ----- NC
5 ----- UT
5 ----- WA
4 ----- MO
4 ----- OK
4 ----- SC
4 ----- WI
3 ----- IL
3 ----- IN
3 ----- LA
3 ----- MD
3 ----- NH
3 ----- NV
3 ----- OR
3 ----- TN
2 ----- AL
2 ----- MS
1 ----- AR
1 ----- AZ
1 ----- CO
1 ----- CT
1 ----- ID
1 ----- KY
1 ----- ME
1 ----- Mexico
1 ----- MN
1 ----- ND
1 ----- PA
1 ----- PR
1 ----- Turkey
1 ----- WV

[rsisk]

Mark,
Do you know the typical loss rate after the first payment date?

[Mark McLeod]

Registration is now closed.

http://team358.org/public_files/RegistrationClosed.jpg

2332 teams at the bell.

I do have numbers for team losses after registration closes, however, the interesting thing is that the number of teams is going to continue to rise through the next couple of weeks. FIRST seems to be forgiving with teams on the edge. You can see that in this plot (http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=10617&d=1303246259) posted last year.

I'll post a current year plot tomorrow.

[rsisk]

What is the cause of that weird dip in 2011 in January?

[Chris is me]

What is the cause of that weird dip in 2011 in January?

Michigan teams getting shuffled, I think?

[Ankit S.]

-snip-

141 ----- 0 ------ 0.00% ----- CMP


There are already 141 teams registered for CMP? How are there so many?

[Mark McLeod]

What is the cause of that weird dip in 2011 in January?
Michigan teams getting shuffled, I think?
Washington State double-regional team shuffle. (http://www.firstwa.org/FRC/Seattle2011/tabid/287/Default.aspx) Teams came off the registered list for a few days as they evened out the rookies/veterans between the fields.

There are already 141 teams registered for CMP? How are there so many?
Actually a few teams have already declined and the number has dropped to 138. I just spoke to a team leader about their withdrawal last night as they were dropping a broken Classmate off at my house.

There was an open sign-up for 141 spare Championship slots in October as there has been every year. They went really fast though.
There are fewer offered each year-last year FIRST offered 149 open slots, the year before it was 175.

[Dave Campbell]

Registration is now closed.

http://team358.org/public_files/RegistrationClosed.jpg

2332 teams at the bell.

I do have numbers for team losses after registration closes, however, the interesting thing is that the number of teams is going to continue to rise through the next couple of weeks. FIRST seems to be forgiving with teams on the edge. You can see that in this plot (http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=10617&d=1303246259) posted last year.

I'll post a current year plot tomorrow.

Mark, There may still be some fluctuation in new teams over the next week or so. I know that FIRST is still working with some rookies in our region to get them on-board.

[Mark McLeod]

Here's this season's registration chart.

You can see the teams that have been added since Registration officially closed peeking out to the right of the deadline.
These are all due to 5 more rookies that have appeared.

P.S.
17 more teams have now shown up since Registration closed.
I should note that they aren't all going to be rookies that show up late. Vets are still appearing too.
Teams are continuing to drop out as well.

FiM and MAR registration for 3rd events remains open until December 9.
Michigan has added the most rookies in the past two days (10).

[LinuxArchitect]

Does anyone know when we should expect to see the waitlist for events processed? I'm interested in DC...

George

[Mark McLeod]

Most waitlists got moved by mid-December last year, but DC was an exception.
DC didn't clear until around New Year's.

[Andrew Schuetze]

Something close to 400 FTC & FRC teams in Texas:D The list of non-returning teams has dwindled but still not a number that we all would like to see.:ahh: Most likely a great deal of work has been put in by the three Regional Directors, the now four FTC Affilate Partners, and the now two FIRST Senior Mentors and countless other members of Texas FIRST teams.
:)
We could also be experiencing some matriculation of FLL teams which has also skyrocketed in Texas in the last three years.

APS

[LinuxArchitect]

DC didn't clear [their waitlist] until around New Year's.

Argh. All I want for Christmas ...
:)

[Mark McLeod]

Michigan rookies are showing up in droves finally.
The West Michigan District event is the first to be at full capacity.
FiM now has 189 teams showing, but only slots for 180...where will the next District event be? "Purchasing" spare slots from nearby Regionals and accrediting them for FiM, or an undersized District, or more recruiting to fill a new District?

Since (regular) registration closed there have been rookies added from:

12 MI
3 CO
2 Ontario
2 TX
8 other singletonsAt least now new teams only get added during Manchester business hours, instead of all hours of the night in this globe spanning competition.

Argh. All I want for Christmas ...
:)
Me too!

[EricLeifermann]

DC will clear the list much earlier this year. There were certain circumstances last year that forced the list to be cleared later. Those circumstances have been prevented this year.

[Mark McLeod]

There has also been some room opened up at DC by teams dropping out this year.

[Mark McLeod]

2360 Teams (it goes up and down 5 or 6 each day)
296 net gain (14.3% growth)
467 new teams (19.8% of all teams)
26 resurrected veteran teams (14.8% team recovery rate)
-197 missing teams (91.72% adjusted retention rate)Some tally's:

# - Rookies - Missing - Area
199 -- 37 ---- 17 ----- CA
190 -- 26 ----- 9 ----- MI
153 -- 23 ----- 1 ----- MN
151 -- 36 ---- 30 ----- TX
135 -- 16 ----- 8 ----- NY
97 --- 19 ----- 5 ----- WA
79 --- 21 ----- 9 ----- CANADA-ON
78 --- 28 ----- 7 ----- FL
67 ---- 5 ----- 6 ----- VA
65 --- 17 ----- 1 ----- PA
63 ---- 6 ----- 6 ----- NJ
58 ---- 9 ----- 5 ----- MA
58 --- 15 ----- 6 ----- OH
57 --- 16 ----- 3 ----- IL
56 ---- 8 ----- 4 ----- MO
48 ---- 3 ----- 4 ----- OK
47 --- 17 ----- 6 ----- GA
44 ---- 7 ----- 1 ----- AZ
44 --- 10 ----- 3 ----- OR
43 --- 12 ----- 3 ----- IN
42 ---- 1 ----- 1 ----- CT
41 ---- 6 ----- 1 ----- CO
40 ---- 4 ---- 13 ----- Israel
38 ---- 7 ----- 5 ----- NC
36 ---- 5 ----- 3 ----- MD
34 ---- 6 ----- 4 ----- WI
33 ---- 4 ----- 4 ----- HI
32 --- 18 ----- 0 ----- CANADA-QC
31 --- 10 ----- 3 ----- LA
31 ---- 9 ----- 4 ----- SC
30 ---- 1 ----- 3 ----- NH
26 --- 12 ----- 3 ----- TN
20 ---- 0 ----- 0 ----- KS
19 ---- 8 ----- 1 ----- Mexico
19 ---- 5 ----- 5 ----- UT
16 ---- 4 ----- 1 ----- ID
15 ---- 1 ----- 0 ----- DC
14 ---- 5 ----- 2 ----- AL
11 ---- 0 ----- 1 ----- KY
11 ---- 2 ----- 3 ----- NV
10 ---- 3 ----- 1 ----- ME
10 ---- 2 ----- 2 ----- MS
8 ----- 6 ----- 1 ----- AR
6 ----- 0 ----- 0 ----- MT
6 ----- 3 ----- 0 ----- NM
5 ----- 0 ----- 0 ----- Brazil
5 ----- 0 ----- 0 ----- RI
5 ----- 2 ----- 1 ----- Turkey
4 ----- 1 ----- 0 ----- IA
4 ----- 0 ----- 1 ----- WV
3 ----- 0 ----- 0 ----- VT
3 ----- 0 ----- 0 ----- WY
2 ----- 0 ----- 0 ----- AK
2 ----- 1 ----- 0 ----- CANADA-AB
2 ----- 0 ----- 0 ----- DE
2 ----- 1 ----- 0 ----- Germany
2 ----- 0 ----- 1 ----- ND
2 ----- 0 ----- 0 ----- United Kingdom
1 ----- 0 ----- 0 ----- Australia
1 ----- 1 ----- 0 ----- CANADA-NS
1 ----- 0 ----- 0 ----- Chile
1 ----- 1 ----- 0 ----- Dominican Republic
1 ----- 0 ----- 0 ----- Herzegovina
1 ----- 1 ----- 0 ----- NE
1 ----- 0 ----- 1 ----- PR
1 ----- 1 ----- 0 ----- Spain
1 ----- 1 ----- 0 ----- Taiwan

[Andrew Schreiber]

2360 Teams (it goes up and down 5 or 6 each day)
296 net gain (14.3% growth)
467 new teams (19.8% of all teams)
26 resurrected veteran teams (14.8% team recovery rate)
-197 missing teams (91.72% adjusted retention rate)Some tally's:

# Teams - Rookies - Missing - Area
199 -- 37 ---- 17 ----- CA
190 -- 26 ----- 9 ----- MI
153 -- 23 ----- 1 ----- MN
151 -- 36 ---- 30 ----- TX
135 -- 16 ----- 8 ----- NY
97 --- 19 ----- 5 ----- WA
79 --- 21 ----- 9 ----- CANADA-ON
78 --- 28 ----- 7 ----- FL
67 ---- 5 ----- 6 ----- VA
65 --- 17 ----- 1 ----- PA
63 ---- 6 ----- 6 ----- NJ
58 ---- 9 ----- 5 ----- MA
58 --- 15 ----- 6 ----- OH
57 --- 16 ----- 3 ----- IL
56 ---- 8 ----- 4 ----- MO
48 ---- 3 ----- 4 ----- OK
47 --- 17 ----- 6 ----- GA
44 ---- 7 ----- 1 ----- AZ
44 --- 10 ----- 3 ----- OR
43 --- 12 ----- 3 ----- IN
42 ---- 1 ----- 1 ----- CT
41 ---- 6 ----- 1 ----- CO
40 ---- 4 ---- 13 ----- Israel
38 ---- 7 ----- 5 ----- NC
36 ---- 5 ----- 3 ----- MD
34 ---- 6 ----- 4 ----- WI
33 ---- 4 ----- 4 ----- HI
32 --- 18 ----- 0 ----- CANADA-QC
31 --- 10 ----- 3 ----- LA
31 ---- 9 ----- 4 ----- SC
30 ---- 1 ----- 3 ----- NH
26 --- 12 ----- 3 ----- TN
20 ---- 0 ----- 0 ----- KS
19 ---- 8 ----- 1 ----- Mexico
19 ---- 5 ----- 5 ----- UT
16 ---- 4 ----- 1 ----- ID
15 ---- 1 ----- 0 ----- DC
14 ---- 5 ----- 2 ----- AL
11 ---- 0 ----- 1 ----- KY
11 ---- 2 ----- 3 ----- NV
10 ---- 3 ----- 1 ----- ME
10 ---- 2 ----- 2 ----- MS
8 ----- 6 ----- 1 ----- AR
6 ----- 0 ----- 0 ----- MT
6 ----- 3 ----- 0 ----- NM
5 ----- 0 ----- 0 ----- Brazil
5 ----- 0 ----- 0 ----- RI
5 ----- 2 ----- 1 ----- Turkey
4 ----- 1 ----- 0 ----- IA
4 ----- 0 ----- 1 ----- WV
3 ----- 0 ----- 0 ----- VT
3 ----- 0 ----- 0 ----- WY
2 ----- 0 ----- 0 ----- AK
2 ----- 1 ----- 0 ----- CANADA-AB
2 ----- 0 ----- 0 ----- DE
2 ----- 1 ----- 0 ----- Germany
2 ----- 0 ----- 1 ----- ND
2 ----- 0 ----- 0 ----- United Kingdom
1 ----- 0 ----- 0 ----- Australia
1 ----- 1 ----- 0 ----- CANADA-NS
1 ----- 0 ----- 0 ----- Chile
1 ----- 1 ----- 0 ----- Dominican Republic
1 ----- 0 ----- 0 ----- Herzegovina
1 ----- 1 ----- 0 ----- NE
1 ----- 0 ----- 1 ----- PR
1 ----- 1 ----- 0 ----- Spain
1 ----- 1 ----- 0 ----- Taiwan


Could we also see teams lost per region?

[Mark McLeod]

Could we also see teams lost per region?
I'm not sure I know what you're asking for.
How does that differ from "Missing"?

[Andrew Schreiber]

I'm not sure I know what you're asking for.
How does that differ from "Missing"?

It doesnt... :o I misread the column labels. Totally read the missing value as rookies. I'll go back to my rock now.

[Mark McLeod]

It doesnt... :o I misread the column labels. Totally read the missing value as rookies. I'll go back to my rock now.
Formatting these columns to line up and not be confusing takes more work than generating the data I swear.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Formatting these columns to line up and not be confusing takes more work than generating the data I swear.

Representing data in a good way is an art in its own right.

[Mark McLeod]

Here are charts of the areas with:

% Above average (>14.3%) gains this year
% Losses (<0%) this year
% Everyone
Raw numbers gain/loss of every areaUnderpopulated areas float to the top, but of course it's also harder to start teams where there's no local support network.

[Hallry]

Here are charts of the areas with:

Above average (>14.3%) gains this year
Losses (<0%) this yearUnderpopulated areas float to the top, but of course it's also harder to start teams where there's no local support network.

Those charts are a little misleading; it would seem as if New Mexico had a huge jump in teams, while they only gained 3 new rookies, and that Puerto Rico had a large loss, while only 1 team is from there not returning.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Those charts are a little misleading; it would seem as if New Mexico had a huge jump in teams, while they only gained 3 new rookies, and that Puerto Rico had a large loss, while only 1 team is from there not returning.

Which shows an interesting point. Texas, having lost 30+ teams this year, is not on the graph at all. Perhaps this chart would be better as a pie chart of lost teams by area such as http://d.pr/Wv4 (CD's max upload size got me!)

[Mark McLeod]

I tried a pie chart first of everyone, but it sort of just looks like a colored pinwheel with too many entries.

These kinds of plots are going to mostly show areas with few teams at both the upper and lower ends of the spectrum.
They can illuminate transistion areas where team loss/gain is more critical to reaching a self-supporting mass.
Larger established areas aren't at risk of dying from loss of teams while small areas are. Loss of teams in low-density areas = a lack of experienced support.

I suppose we could generate individual charts based on FRC team population catagories, e.g.,

0 to 10 teams
11 to 20
21 to 50
51 to 100
101 to 200I'll try a chart based on absolute number rather than % that sort of factors in the size of an area. (It's posted as part of the prior post)

[Mark McLeod]

Some speculations on the pending new Michigan event.
Okay, so we know that Michigan must be looking for an additional District site, because they obviously don't fit right now.
That probably also means the existing event lists won't be completely straightened out until after the new event is settled.

Choice of new events depends on the mixture of overall FiM philosophy.

Events as drivers of future growth
Events in response to existing team density pressuresContributing factors/clues include:

FiM District map (http://www.firstinmichigan.us/mi_district_map.html) (see below too)
FiM has the stated long-term goal of at least one event in each District. Short-term that probably doesn’t mean the UP with it’s scattering of teams and long travel times.
New Events historically drive new growth. Team expansion areas would benefit most from a new event being closer by.
Team density tends to drag events closer to existing teams like gravity (higher density in southern Michigan Districts). Events responding to existing teams and not trying to drive growth.
New team growth depends on available population centers close enough to be affected by a new event and to draw from.
Local availability of strong, established teams and thus volunteer sources to form the core support/experience for a local event
District new team growth, 27 new FiM teams are located:
(6) District 14
(4) District 16 (has event)
(3) District 6 (has event)
(2) District 1
(2) District 2
(2) District 5 (has event)
(2) District 10 (has 2 events)
(1) District 7
(1) District 8 (has event)
(1) District 9
(1) District 11 (has event)
(1) District 12 (has event)
(1) District 15
(0) District 3
(0) District 4
(0) District 13 (has event)


Thoughts, contributions, rumors, wild speculations, conspiracy theories all welcome...


http://www.firstinmichigan.us/Images/2011_FRC_districts.jpg

[Richard Wallace]

Lansing would be a good site for a new District event.

I have no inside knowledge of FiM plans. We are a tad busy just now, getting new teams up and running out here in District 16. :)

[Mark McLeod]

District 14 (Battle Creek) would be a good choice. That doesn't have an event yet, has the most new team growth, and is still close to the high team density Detroit area.
District 7, Lansing would push the FiM center farther north and did have an event the first year when FiM was a pilot, so they'd know what's involved (or would that make Lansing shy away?).
Kalamazoo might be a consideration based on team density and potential new team population.Any other District teams care to jump in with opinions?

I've been busy myself running a series of rookie workshops (mechanical, pneumatics, electrical, programming, putting it all together) at two rookie sites locally.
Yesterday one rookie team finished assembling all the electronics and got a running robot, last night I took the robot apart, today another rookie team gets to put it all together (again). I feel like I'm on one of those hampster wheels.

[Andrew Schreiber]

District 14 (Battle Creek) would be a good choice That doesn't have an event yet, has the most new team growth, and is still close to the high team density Detroit area.
District 7, Lansing would push the FiM center farther north and did have an event the first year when FiM was a pilot, so they'd know what's involved (or would that make Lansing shy away?).
Kalamazoo might be a consideration based on team density and potential new team population.
Any other District teams care to jump in with opinions?

I've been busy myself running a series of rookie workshops (mechanical, pneumatics, electrical, programming, putting it all together) at two rookie sites locally.
Yesterday one rookie team finished assembling all the electronics and got a running robot, last night I took the robot apart, today another rookie team gets to put it all together (again). I feel like I'm on one of those hampster wheels.


Saginaw is likely, it has the benefit of utilizing the Flint network of volunteers and is just inside 7. Lansing is another good guess but there may be a reason that Lansing didn't hold another event (speculation).