Re: Leaving The Event - Departure Schedules For You And/Or Your Team(s)
 

Our teams was more concerned about getting our students back home in time for School on Monday morning.

We drove down from Canada via a Coach Bus, so it was an 18hr drive back up from St. Louis. We also had to work around the Bus Driver's regulaions on how long he could drive as well as picking up a new driver along the way.

We left around 8:30-9PM or so, so we could grab dinner as a team and get back home for around 6PM, giving our students the chance to get a full night's sleep and get over their FIRST Championship hangover.

Re: Leaving The Event - Departure Schedules For You And/Or Your Team(s)
 

Reminds me of 2012. Left after the division stuff was over, made it four hours across Missouri in time to watch Einstein wrap up.

Re: Leaving The Event - Departure Schedules For You And/Or Your Team(s)
 

I had a 6:45 AM Sunday flight. I was worried about being able to wake up for it. I really wanted to see Chairman's but by about 8:15pm I just couldn't wait any longer.

Re: Leaving The Event - Departure Schedules For You And/Or Your Team(s)
 

Our team stayed for Closing Ceremony and took turns waiting in line (~45 minutes) to buy dinner at the concessions. Since it was important for the kids to not miss Monday class, we had a 6:35 am flight on Sunday. The team had to get up early enough to catch the first Metro (at 4:30) to the airport. What didn't help was that we couldn't check-in online and had to do it at the airport. Luckily, the bridge demolition that was supposed to happen over the weekend was canceled or else it would have added another half hour to the commute on the Metro. On top of it all, there was a baby who cried through the whole flight while people tried to catch some sleep.

Re: Leaving The Event - Departure Schedules For You And/Or Your Team(s)
 

We decided to leave right after Einstein matches, we had too many hungry folks and I think our patience was wearing thin. We walked to a local sandwich shop for dinner. The small group that returned to the stadium actually got there just as Chairman's was being announced.

I personally did not get the memo about the closing ceremony plan and was very confused when everyone started to leave. I can understand why they separated the finals from the awards, but my preference is to have the awards mixed into the matches so that all winners are recognized for their achievements.

Re: Leaving The Event - Departure Schedules For You And/Or Your Team(s)
 

PLEASE...not this!

While I agree things on Saturday were WAY too long, with the current format of having half the qualification matches on Friday, forcing teams to execute alliance selections on Friday night is unreasonable.

1) This would eliminate the excellent "learning opportunity" that is the evening "pick list discussion".

2) This could disenfranchise the teams' (frequently large) scouting group by having to generate a pick list without spending sufficient time digesting the scouting data.

I would think a better approach would be to shorten the break between division finals and Einstein matches and do away with the arena exodus before the finale.

Re: Leaving The Event - Departure Schedules For You And/Or Your Team(s)
 

To add to this, I also wouldn't want to send a team "packing" so to speak before the last day of the event event happens. That would be a huge hits on students morale for their last night at champs if they don't get into eliminations.