Re: 2014 Greater Kansas City Regional
 

So to those that went, how does the seating situation look? It's been a while since I've been to BTC, but I can't imagine there being much room for seating. That's been a major concern of mine since day one.

Re: 2014 Greater Kansas City Regional
 

Is that going to be a full-size practice field?

Re: 2014 Greater Kansas City Regional
 

Last I heard the bleachers were going to hold about 950 per side (1900 total) which is almost 1000 seats less than Hale, but still more than 30 seats per team. From what I hear ShowReady loves the venue and doesn't think seating will be a problem. There will be substantially more seating than there was in the pit-fields at the 2011 championship.

Yes. The 3 Lee's Summit teams cooperate together to build a full size wooden practice field, invite teams to use it on the pre-bag weekend, and set it up for the local regional.

Really helps when tuning up those autonomous routines. ;)

There are still two empty pits on the diagram, so... Even after 118 comes off the waitlist there would be two openings for any team out there looking for a fun and competative week 3 regional. Would love to have the number of teams divisible by 6 and avoid surrogate matches. Call up the regional director and see if you can join us today. :cool:

Re: 2014 Greater Kansas City Regional
 

Seating: The venue is very large and organizers are bringing in bleachers to hold 1900. For comparison, the portable bleachers that were set up for Champs in 2011 held approx 900. Hale Arena had a capacity of 2800, but we all know much of that was empty. The seating will be closer to the field than was possible at Hale.

Practice Field: The venue layout shows a full size practice field area. We in the Lee's Summit Alliance will strive to provide a full field.

For those that have not seen the venue it is easy to wonder if it will be large enough, but it is quite enormous. There is room for a very spacious pit layout, machine shop, practice field, field area, and a large, separated area for FLL, demos, dining, etc. The lighting is much better than Hale, and there are several advantages such as ample free parking, more concession options, BYO food, better judging rooms, pits closer to the fileld, etc. Compared to some of the basketball arenas we have all competed in, it will be very spacious.

Re: 2014 Greater Kansas City Regional
 

That's great news! I'm disappointed I couldn't attend, but it sounds like the venue will work out really well for the regional! Now just counting down the days until kickoff! (Is it weird that I'm counting those down but not to graduation? haha)

Re: 2014 Greater Kansas City Regional
 

Tyler, I am glad you will be there again. What are you doing up at this time in the morning? I am looking forward to seeing all the teams compete and have fun. It will be a change, but hopefully a good one.

Re: 2014 Greater Kansas City Regional
 

We've added another state! FRC 118, Robonauts are offically off the wait list and on the roster. Welcome aboard.

We're now at 58 teams. FYI: There is still pit space allocated for 2 more.

Re: 2014 Greater Kansas City Regional
 

The Kansas City Regional is going to be great again this year. I'm really excited to meet all the rookie teams and to welcome team 118. I have seen and heard nothing but good things about their helpfulness and professionalism...their robots aren't bad either!:yikes:

Ooh, I would really like to see 118 and 1986 go head to head in a match or five.

On a different note, I really hope the the Lee's Summit teams host the "Saturday before bag day" practice scrimmage again this year. Having some field time before the end of build season was fantastic!

Re: 2014 Greater Kansas City Regional
 

That would be SOOOO COOL! 118 & 1986! 1939 in the mix would also be cool! Hopefully 3928 can make it down to this one again as well!

Re: 2014 Greater Kansas City Regional
 

People are working relatively hard to make sure that seating and spaces are comfortable for all. ;) I am excited for KC this year should be a great regional this year as always!

Re: 2014 Greater Kansas City Regional
 

I think there are still two spots left! Neutrino would be a great addition.

Re: 2014 Greater Kansas City Regional
 

Q1-
Red 1986, 1806, 1939
Blue 118, 1730, 3928

...
Then again, that might really mess with the rankings later...

Re: 2014 Greater Kansas City Regional
 

Bringing back memories of 2007 and the algorithm of death.

Absolutely. The only thing that would stop us is if Kansas City landed an official week zero event.

At CTTD 3928 indicated they were pulling back this year and just attending one regional. I don't think they are on a waitlist anywhere.

Q1 eh? I know there is an algorithm with a random factor which generates the qualification pairings, but it seems like some high-end robots end up in that first match quite often. After we won our first regional at Hub City last year (where then reigning world champion 16 was featured in Q1) we saw Q1 in our next two regionals. And as Woolly is aware, we squared off against our top pick in GKC for Q1 OKC. Coincidence? That's what I'm told. It does make for an exciting start to the event.

GKC-2013 Q1 2410 3784 1763 935 1986 1625

OKC-2013 Q1 1775 4523 1986 3169 1806 3507

Re: 2014 Greater Kansas City Regional
 

I'll add a little more history to this

GKC-2012 Q1 1985 1939 1984 1806 1997 2972
Led to first CO-OP balance in Rebound Rumble. (1985, 1806)

Though, I wonder that if while the pairings may be random, the order may not be (For sake of robots not having back-to-back matches. matches 5 hours apart, etc) and that they look at the list of matches and while ordering matches for team-convenience, they might slip a high-powered match into the Q1 spot while doing so.

Re: 2014 Greater Kansas City Regional
 

The pairings and sequence are all generated by the algorithm, which takes into account inter-match spacing and attempts to avoid anything resembling the output of the "algorithm of death" -- there's no hand sorting.