RPI regional
 

Just heard some exciting news from very reputable sources that RPI (New York) will be hosting an FIRST FRC Regional next year. This is great news for all the capital region teams. Look forward to not having to drive 3 hours to an event.

Re: RPI regional
 

I assume this is the rumored Albany Regional I heard about from a couple other teams in your area when talking about the New England Districts. It looks like FIRST's way of compensating for the capital region teams not being able to join New England. Must feel good to have a local regional now though.

Re: RPI regional
 

This is exactly why there's such a strong push for this regional. Without this regional, Albany region teams would have lost their four closest events. Finger Lakes is several hours from here, and regionals farther than Finger Lakes aren't logistically possible for most of us.

I am extremely excited that I live within 2 blocks of the three possible venues. I haven't heard if it will take place in the Houston Field House (RPI's hockey arena, think a BAE style layout), ECAV (RPI's basketball court, think like WPI), or the Armory (older athletic center, would be more like Connecticut). Either way, RPI should be an excellent venue for a FIRST event - just off the road from multiple major highways, plenty of parking, reasonably sized venues, a few nearby hotels, and you don't even have to drive in downtown Troy to get there.

Hopefully with the venue being announced as at RPI, students (like myself) will take an active role in planning and volunteering. There are a fair number of FIRST alums at RPI, but not a lot of them are active with teams. This regional would be a great way to help out and stay involved without destroying your GPA.

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This also opens up a closer regional for some northern MAR teams(closer than the closest southern regionals; only regionals this close (and north of MAR) are CT and NYC). It also provides a good, closer in-state option for NYC teams.

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Awesome to hear that my alma mater is pushing to run a Regional on their grounds! The Houston Field House would be a perfect venue for this. I actually haven't seen the new football field/ECAV (built the year after I graduated) -- does it really have enough indoor space to host a competition?

I don't think the Armory would be a suitable place, not large enough and its logistically difficult with the multiple floors and surrounding parking availability

Hoping to come back for my 5 year reunion this fall to see ECAV.

Anyway, I got to reunite with Larry Ruff at Championship, who was a Woody Flowers Award winner this past year (finally) and has done a ton to promote FRC. He still runs the manufacturing lab at the school, and I was a student in his Engineering Design class where our design role was to mentor the local Albany High School FRC team.
Prof Paul Schoch is also a big advocate, and also attended Championship as a judge this year.

Anyway, keep me up to date with this news.

Re: RPI regional
 

It would be an awesome chance for FIRST alums at RPI to get a chance to help out and volunteer at the regional! There currently isn't a huge FIRST program at RPI and this would be a great way to get it going again.

The armory would be a bit small, but would probably still work. Will probably be a bit tight like the WPI regional. ECAV would really be the best option as it is a huge facility with a decent amount of nearby parking. The Houston field house would work as well.

Honestly, if they are looking for a location for a regional in the capital region, RPI is a great campus for it. It would also be a chance for students to look at a great potential option for college. (Gotta rep my school :) )

Re: RPI regional
 

Just to be clear, I don't have any knowledge about the venue choice. I was just speculating. That said, fitting a regional in the Armory would be quite the squeeze and probably not work out too well. HFH is a great choice as long as there isn't hockey that weekend.

Re: RPI regional
 

Took long enough :P.

It's gonna be great that we can finally get a FIRST event hosted at RPI. Celebrating science and engineering is something people here can appreciate so it just makes sense to bring a Regional to RPI.

While the FRC program isn't extensive at RPI currently, I have lots of classmates who are alumni of FIRST teams or think this robot thing I do is really cool (or at least they pretend when I'm passionately explaining to them what's going on throughout the season), so I'm sure we will find plenty of support among the students. And there are a few RPI students like myself who mentor teams, but it is definitely not the norm.

Re: RPI regional
 

Well this is gonna be awesome!
Nice to finally have an event where travel time is less than three hours!
Hopefully this will raise interest in the community and support the growth of FRC in more of our local schools.
Looking forward to it!

Re: RPI regional
 

Depending on what date the event is and FLR date is it would make a nice second regional for teams in Western New York!

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I wouldn't be surprised to see these events in back to back weeks. Last I heard FLR was switching to week 3 because RIT is changing its spring break week and RPI's spring break is week 2.

While this regional is great news for Capital District teams, not being able to compete in 2 districts in NE is still a nuisance for us budget wise.

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I was thinking the same thing! It gives Western NY teams another nice regional to consider attending. Also, are the X-Cats thinking about attending multiple regionals next year?

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We'd love to but as of right now we don't have enough money to go to the championsips so we need to get busy raising a whole lotta money.

Re: RPI regional
 

Some details from a recent e-mail blast:

• Show Ready says that RPI's ECAV as well as Robinson Gym (the Armory) are suitable venues for a 40 team max event. In addition, nearby Hudson Valley CC is also a suitable venue. Exact location should be decided soon.
• The regional is currently named the Tech Valley Regional.
• The event is expected to host 35-40 teams. With about a dozen local teams, there is PLENTY of room for Western NY, MAR, and NE FIRST teams.

I haven't heard anything official about this but I believe every attempt is being made to ensure this regional does not fall on the same week as Finger Lakes. As it is the only "local" "option" for Albany area teams, it's all but certain that many of us will attend it next year. So we end up on the road for about the same number of hours next year - it's just that they are all at once and we probably can't get away with leaving for a regional on Thursday morning anymore.

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From this document (just a google search), RIT's 2014 Spring Break is March 24-28, which actually makes it a week 4 or week 5 event. If I remember right, they traditionally go at the end of spring break so that they can do the traditional Thurs/Fri/Sat event... which could make it a week 5 event. Quite a change from their traditional Week 1/2 event!

Hoping to make it out to check out the Albany Regional, but it's definitely going to depend on NE's final District Event schedule... Glad to see some momentum towards an Albany event!

Re: RPI regional
 

RIT is switching from a quarter system to semester, so the later spring break is likely to stay.

Re: RPI regional
 

Please post when you know the date. The New England teams are moving to the district model next year but depending on dates some might be interested in still traveling to a Regional...who knows :)

Re: RPI regional
 

How about our friends to the north? They're certainly welcome as well!

Re: RPI regional
 

Just curious, what email blast did this come from? I would hate to go to a regional at the Armory or ECAV. ECAV would be much more crowded than WPI and the Armory seating would be terrible, parkin will stink (and it leaks in bad weather). The HFH would have pit space but not much seating, it is half the size of the Verizon center and had 2500 less seats than the Agganis arena. The only place in the capital region I would think could host a good regional would be the TUC (Pepsi Arena? I don't know what it is called anymore)

Re: RPI regional
 

ECAV would definitely outclass WPI for seating from 2010-2012. Parking for ECAV is the same as HFH. The Verizon Center uses like 1/5th of its seats at best for GSR. TUC would be nice, but it is a tough venue to book. Also folks haven't mentioned the Glens Falls Civic Center, but that is a reasonable size venue for an FRC event and about an hour north of Albany.

Regardless, the venues as discussed in this thread are the ones that are seriously being considered as far as I know. Hopefully we will have more details to share in the near future.

Re: RPI regional
 

I got the info from a forwarded message from our RD.

ECAV is bigger and has more seating than the pre-2013 WPI Regional, with plenty of parking even if you have to walk around HFH.

I would guess the Armory works with supplemental bleachers and a slightly scattered pit area. I don't think it's ideal, but it would probably work for a smaller event.The Armory has some parking, particularly during break when the regional would probably be if hosted at RPI (around march 15th / week 3).

The Houston Field House is more than big enough for a regional this size, with plenty of seating as long as the field is parallel to the long side of the ice rink. However, it's hockey playoffs, so the field house probably isn't available.

Hudson Valley also has a reasonable arena, with a decent amount of parking and accessibility.

Re: RPI regional
 

Well if it's hockey playoffs, then the Houston Fieldhouse should definitely be available then!

Kidding, kidding -- haven't followed the team in awhile. Go Red! And Clarkson still sucks...

Re: RPI regional
 

Oh don't start that now.... At least Clarkson has a FIRST team!!!

And I'm pretty sure the saying goes RPI sucks and SLU... well we just won't talk about it...

[Though I will admit it unfortunately does look like RPI has done better than Clarkson in the last couple of years...]

Re: RPI regional
 

I've spend a decent amount of time, along with Chris and Carl looking at where a regional would best fit on RPI's campus. ECAV sits 1,200 for basketball, that's 200 more than WPI use to be able too. With the pits being in a different gym there would be room to add some more seats. Still not the most ideal location. The HFH sits 5000+ not all these seats would have a good view but more than enough seats for a 40 team event. RIT sits 4000 for 45+ teams. The Armory would require bringing in almost all the seating, this is very similar to whats done at any regional that is held in a convention center.

Parking isn't great at any of these locations. What do you expect in a city? A short simple shuttle just like RPI does for hockey games could easily solve that problem.

Re: RPI regional
 

Some things I heard from tonight's meeting (second-hand, I wasn't there in person):

• Tech Valley Regional is sticking as the event name, barring the sudden introduction of a six-figure sponsor or something like that.
• The regional is probably week 2 or 3. FLR is Week 5, and NYC is Week 6, so this is not a conflict for any New York team's local regional.
• The regional will almost certainly take place at ECAV on RPI's campus. (It's worth noting that since Week 3 is over spring break, the parking lots around BARH and Stackwyck will be more open, allowing for plenty of parking)
• Venue cost is donated by RPI (woo!)

Re: RPI regional
 

Tech Valley Regional is a great name in my opinion. I sounds like it will be cramped which is unfortunate. Its great that there will be another regional in NY.

On another note, off topic I know, does anyone know what regionals if any will be closing with the advent of the NE District System? I've heard rumors that the Pine Tree Regional would close but I have seen anything offical from FIRST or another official source that confirms any regionals to be closed as of next year.

Re: RPI regional
 

Do not expect an opportunity to compete in any New England events if you are not from New England.

Also, Patrick: I'm not sure why you would have concerns with parking at an ECAV Regional over Spring Break. The field house parking for hockey games will be almost 100% available and right there, along with student housing parking on the other side of ECAV that will be available to us due to Spring Break. That parking accommodates thousands of fans coming for hockey games and students who live there all winter. It is more than suitable for any FRC event hosted at these venues, the limiting factor is by far the venue size, not the parking in any way (at least for ECAV, the armory has a parking challenge associated with it).

Re: RPI regional
 

Hockey game parking is a mess. 50% of the fans park in north lot or on the street and are bused up to the HFH. There's also the off chance that there is a home hockey game that weekend, Friday-Sunday 7pm. Can you imagine telling 5000 hockey fans they can't park in those lots because they are being used by a robotics regional? Parking will be a concern. But not something that can't be easily solved.

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We have been told by RPI there will be no home hockey game that weekend. I think ECAV's only real limitation is seating. Show Ready said the regional can hold 1,500 with extra bleachers.

Re: RPI regional
 

All of them, there will not be any regionals in New England in 2014. There was an idea to allow Capital Region teams to join the New England District system, but that didn't get past HQ. Sorry :(

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The Tech Valley Regional is on our short list for our travel regional for the 2014! Looks like it will be a blast!

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I talked to Rob Helsin who is a member of RIT FIRST. FLR will definitely be week five. I would bet good money Tech Valley will be any other week than that. They would probably not want to go head to head with FLR since they would like to have some of those teams come to their event as well and they don't want teams choosing between the established event and the rookie event.

Re: RPI regional
 

Or for volunteers who would love to work at both this year...:D

Re: RPI regional
 

Week 3 would be ideal for the MAR teams that want to attend the regional (at least the ones from NJ) as there is state wide testing week 2.

Re: RPI regional
 

More likely than not the date will be determined by RPI's break. As long as this doesn't force the regional to intersect with FLR or NYC these is what they will use to schedule the regional. RPI's break is March 10-14

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So glad this is going to be an event next year. Definitely going to be on 694's short 2 or 3 event list to attend now that CT is no longer an event. With the talent pool this is likely to attract in terms of teams and volunteers, it's already #1 choice in my personal book.

Re: RPI regional
 

Well isn't this an interesting team list so far. I expected the local teams and 229- but Ohio and TURKEY?!?!?
I thought I'd revive this thread since registration started.
Who else is planning on coming to Tech Valley?

Re: RPI regional
 

Team 810 is contemplating the idea of going. Last time we went on a road trip was 2006 to the Florida regional... Apparently the robot's electrical system was compromised en route and didn't perform well because of that.

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As Mr. B stated, 11 is hoping there are spots left for any of the events on our short list by the time us district teams are able to register for a regional event. Due to the new rules, we have to wait until open registration to do so...

:(

Re: RPI regional
 

I hadn't checked this thread in a while but it looks like there is potential for playoff hockey overlapping with the Regional. The ECAC Hockey site lists the Regional weekend, 14th-16th as the second round of the playoffs which would be at home if RPI is the higher seeded team.

http://www.ecachockey.com/men/tourna...4_Championship

Re: RPI regional
 

This possibility has been talked about in planning meetings. The conflict here is mostly parking spaces. We may need to work something out on Friday and Saturday such that certain areas of parking are cleared out by 6 PM. There is still plenty of parking in and around the venue and it shouldn't be anything beyond a minor inconvenience.

Re: RPI regional
 

Reminder to teams about the New York Tech Valley Regional. This is a week 3 event that will be held on the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute campus in Troy, NY. We already have an exciting list of teams attending, but there is still room for more.

With second event registration just around the corner, consider joining us for the inaugural event. It promises to be a great one.

For more information, visit our website: http://techvalleyfirst.org/

Re: RPI regional
 

Team 3044 is excited to be going!
We can't wait

:D

Re: RPI regional
 

The VEX Tournament was Great! I believe 14 robots came.
First Place went to the blue alliance
~Shenendahowa's Team 20 and Avril Park~
GO ROCKETEERS!

Re: RPI regional
 

wait..what?

Re: RPI regional
 

I think he is referring to the local FLL / Vex tournament which happened on Saturday. The FRC regional competition is still in March!

Re: RPI regional
 

So sorry for the confusion!
I mixed up the RPI Regional with the VEX Tournament.
Sorry 8d
:ahh: