[NEFIRST] 2014 Northeastern University District
 

Set your smartphones, mark your calendars, the Northeastern University district event is set for March 28th & 29th (Fri and Sat) in Boston, MA.

I am personally extremely excited for this event as it has been a culmination of a lot of work. For those who have ever been to the Beantown Blitz, the Northeastern University district event will take place in the same venue. Matthews' Arena is the oldest functioning hockey arena in the world! It opened it's doors in 1910 and has been hosting hockey games (amongst many other events) ever since! It was the original home of the Boston Bruins and New England Whalers (now the Carolina Hurricanes). It is also considered the 'second home' of the Boston Celtics. 2014 will mark 10 years for Matthews' hosting robotics competitions too! More on Matthews' Arena

The competition is already stacking up great and there are currently only 5 open spots remaining! Plenty of old veterans and a couple rookies, including team #5000 from Hingham, MA! Here's who is coming thus far:
Keep a look out here for the next round of sign ups.

Looking forward to seeing a district event happening at Northeastern!

-Brando

Re: [NEFIRST] 2014 Northeastern University District
 

1058 is extremely excited for this event. 125 has been great hosts for Beantown Blitz so it's very exciting to have a district event there!

Re: [NEFIRST] 2014 Northeastern University District
 

I'm absolutely giddy to have an event <10 minutes from me/at my school. Already put in registration to volunteer and can't wait!

Re: [NEFIRST] 2014 Northeastern University District
 

3467 is super stoked for Northeastern! :cool:

Re: [NEFIRST] 2014 Northeastern University District
 

157 will see y'all there!

We're excited, looks like a great group of teams!

Re: [NEFIRST] 2014 Northeastern University District
 

1 day left until Northeastern! Get your popcorn ready!

Re: [NEFIRST] 2014 Northeastern University District
 

4761 is pretty excited, we wedged a few upgrades into our robot access period, and shaved a few more pounds. We're looking forward to some more matches with our RI alliance partners 125, and the other teams attending.

Good luck to all coming.

Re: [NEFIRST] 2014 Northeastern University District
 

I'm looking forward to being on the other side of the field this weekend as a volunteer after competing at two districts already. It's an exciting game to announce for, especially as teams dial in their machines and game play continues to improve.

Feel free to stop by and chat, and good luck to all the teams!

Re: [NEFIRST] 2014 Northeastern University District
 

You announcing this weekend?

3467 is really excited for this weekend! I haven't competed at the Blitz for a few years but when I did Brandon & 125 put on an amazing event which I'm sure will carry over into this weekend!

Anyone know of some good spots for overnight parking in that area?

Re: [NEFIRST] 2014 Northeastern University District
 

The best answer for this question will come from Brandon, but I believe the Gainsborough Garage (immediately adjacent to the Matthews Arena) and the Renaissance Garage are both open to overnight parking for visitors. I don't know if any special discount is available for the district event...

It's not clear if I'll be able to attend NEU at all this weekend, but even if I can't be there in person I'll certainly be watching the webcast! Best of luck to all the teams competing!

Re: [NEFIRST] 2014 Northeastern University District
 

Check out the NU District page on NEFIRST.

http://www.nefirst.org/portfolio/ma-nu/

There is information on parking in the welcome packet that was distributed to teams & hosted on page. Additionally they are doing work on I-90 this weekend. Check out the lane closure link for that as well.

Both Garages are open overnight. You can make the decision based on cost.

Good luck & see you there.

Re: [NEFIRST] 2014 Northeastern University District
 

For parking- try to get into the Renaissance Parking Garage at 835 Columbus Ave.

If you bring your ticket for parking into the arena and show it to pit administration, you will be able to purchase a voucher for $12 that gives you 24 hours of parking.

Saturday no voucher is required and it will be $8 for the same 24 hour period.


Looking forward to hosting everyone this weekend at the "Big Blitz"!!!

-Brando

Re: [NEFIRST] 2014 Northeastern University District
 

Just want to wish all of the teams, and especially the NUTRONs, the best of luck at this event!

And for any HS sophomores/juniors starting to look at colleges, I hope you get some time to check out all that Northeastern University has to offer!

Re: [NEFIRST] 2014 Northeastern University District
 

And the many nearby universities/colleges (Shameless plug for Wentworth, which is just down Huntington Ave).

Re: [NEFIRST] 2014 Northeastern University District
 

The webstream is ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC! Unbelievable quality, guys and gals! Great job! http://new.livestream.com/nefirst/ma-nu

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Ditto from me. Greatest quality I've watched online.:yikes: :yikes:

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Now that I've actually been able to sleep and think back over the whole weekend...
Northeastern was an incredibly well run event. All of the volunteers did their job perfectly, the refs were great, the judges were outstanding as always, and FTAs kept us from having any major problems all weekend.

To 3467, 125, and 5000- congrats on the win! You guys were an amazing alliance. Hope to see you all on the field with us in a few weeks.

To 126 and 97- I loved every minute of getting to play with you guys. Both of your teams are incredibly professional, and even though we couldn't get the job done I wouldn't have wanted alliance selections to go anyway else.

To Brandon Holley- thank you so much for running this top notch event, I would bet on 1058 coming back next year. You truly deserved the Volunteer of the Year award, because you put in more work than anyone else I know in FIRST.

Time for New England Champs!!!!

Re: [NEFIRST] 2014 Northeastern University District
 

What a crazy awesome weekend!

The Northeastern District event was top notch and a huge thank you to all of the volunteers who made this event happen! Not only was the event top tier so was the field crew and referee staff. We never had to wait for a ball or pedestal all weekend and all calls seemed fair and reasonable! Kudos to everyone involved to put on the event including the Volunteer of the Year recipient Brandon Holley!

3467 was extremely happy to be invited by team 125 the Nutrons to join the #1 alliance! It was a nice change up considering we've played on opposite sides of the field a lot in the past few years. You guys have an amazing robot and pit crew working through every little issue that came up over the weekend! It was great to see you guys lit up the high goal in the elimination matches!

Team 5000 you were an amazing robot to round off our alliance with your solid defense but more importantly your inbounding was phenomenal and pivotal to our alliance's success in the finals! You guys were quick, consistent, and always ready to dart back to get the next ball started! It was a pleasure working with you and we hope we can play again with you and the Nutrons in Boston!

A big congratulations to the finalist alliance of 69, 2877, & 3499 for their performance in the elimination matches. Finals match 1 was intense, strategic, and well played! The score kept going back and forth after each triple assist cycle on both sides of the field. Putting up 191 points in the finals match with no penalties is something to be very proud of! You all have three amazing robot that know how to play the game. I hope we get to see more of your robots this season!

To 1058 The PVC Pirates, we are so excited to see you guys take home your second Chairmans award in three years! I've said it before but you have been such a role model for our team since we started and never hesitate to help us out if we were in need! You guys have an amazing team and even more so an amazing robot! So glad you guys have the opportunity to show it off in Boston as you are probably one of the most underrated teams in New England at the moment!

Also thanks to everyone who helped us out this weekend with part requests! We seem to have forgotten who gave us a Banebots RS550 motor yesterday before the alliance selections and we would like to replace it.

Our Youtube Channel now has our match videos uploaded here.

Overall it was a fantastic event and we can't wait to come back next year!

Re: [NEFIRST] 2014 Northeastern University District
 

Does anyone know if/when match videos will be on blue alliance for all matches (like they are for UNH)? Thanks!

Re: [NEFIRST] 2014 Northeastern University District
 

I spent my time this weekend doing the Hartford district, not the Northeastern one (and I probably won't have the time this week), but it you PM me, I'll tell you how I got everything set for archiving if you want to do it. It basically consists of running a few scripts I wrote overnight

Re: [NEFIRST] 2014 Northeastern University District
 

Unfortunately I'll have to spend this week getting my grades back to normal. I really appreciate the work you're doing with archiving these videos though! Sorry I can't be of much help!

Re: [NEFIRST] 2014 Northeastern University District
 

I can't say THANK YOU enough to the volunteer staff who helped us out at the 1st ever Northeastern District Event. I had the easiest job at the event because of how awesome all of the volunteers were. Thank you everyone who helped out- the event was a success because of you guys.

Massive congrats and thanks to our alliance partners 3467 and 5000.

We've played against 3467 plenty of times already in their young existence, but it was awesome watching us share the same side of the glass. Your guys bot is so unique and effective, you have a lot to be proud of...not to mention an EI and a Chairmans to go with your 2 event wins.

To team 5000, we couldn't be any prouder to play with you guys. You guys played like wily veterans out on that field. We're very proud to have helped you guys along the way, and winning together on the field was absolutely awesome.


I hope everyone enjoyed the event. Please, if you have any comments/questions/concerns/constructive criticism for potential future events at Northeastern, please PM me, leave them here, or send an email to myself at brandonjholley AT gmail DOT com.

-Brando