Re: Registration 2016
 

They're estimating an increase of 10 teams to the pool? Life is so interesting.

Re: Registration 2016
 

You could always jump back over to a traditional event and come to Cincinnati for QCR.

Re: Registration 2016
 

+1. We've been there a few times; it's always a quality event with quality teams (but they let us come anyway).

Re: Registration 2016
 

There are usually 1 or 2 extra spots in Duluth by the 3rd round. Team 27 has done it for a few years now. Good idea to contact the RPC to feel it out. Great event at a great venue, would be cool to have you!

Re: Registration 2016
 

Sorry I was busy this past weekend and fell behind here.

I took a look at what was the origin of the lower initial registration between last year and this year. The attached image compares team registration by the first weekend after opening, and is just the difference between last season and this season (negative means fewer teams from that location registered this year, positive means more registered this year).

It seems to be the PNW District somewhat offset by gains in China.

Registration slowed over the weekend as it usually does.
We passed 1900 teams around 5 o'clock on Monday.
We can see by the second attachment that registration has at least met up with last year, even though we know it must be ahead by a margin.
P.S. The dates on the base axis of the second chart are normalized to changing opening dates back to 2005 and don't reflect the current dates.

Re: Registration 2016
 

I'm not a moderator, so I can't split the posts into separate threads.
Not sure that I'd want the extra workload.

CD threads usually turn into more of a chat room.
People asking unrelated questions because this is where they found people talking. Some posts have been way off topic, and conversations, while others are debating issues that bear on the numbers.

Re: Registration 2016
 

What's going on with PNW?

Re: Registration 2016
 

It may have something to do with this shift.

-Mike

Re: Registration 2016
 

From what I understand, they have gone to a "Home Event" system, similar to Michigan (on top of other changes to their district workings). However, there are teams that do not wish to participate in their home event for various reasons (timing being a big one). Teams can choose to opt-out of the home event system, and instead register for both districts during second event registration.

Because of this, we see a lot of teams not registered. We should see a massive spike in PNW teams come second event registration.

EDIT: See post above by Mike for more info!

Re: Registration 2016
 

Any reason why the teams don't want to attend their home event?

Re: Registration 2016
 

Totally get it. Right now, MI is sitting somewhere around the 190's, however our total number when all said and done should be closer to 400.

My team is not attending our home event. For us, it is because of a couple of factors:
1) the pits were really dim (we needed to use work lights to see well inside the robot).
2) the event tends to be one of the most difficult districts in the state. As a younger team, that makes it harder to qualify for MSC.
3) the bleachers are open underneath, so it's easy to drop items down into the void.
4) there's many other events within comfortable driving distance that we like better.

Re: Registration 2016
 

Perhaps they want to see something other than the same 20 teams they see every year.

Re: Registration 2016
 

Like he said, timing is a big factor. I know we made our selections based primarily on how they will slot into the season calendar. As we move into future seasons in TCD we probably would add weights like event quality and roster depth.

Re: Registration 2016
 

New Iowa regional will take some pressure off of the Duluth regionals.

Re: Registration 2016
 

Maybe, maybe not. I expect a lot of teams, particularly from southern MN, to go for Iowa as their second regional. But I suspect that there are enough teams in MN who want to do a second regional who haven't in the past that all 4 Minnesota regionals and Iowa will reach capacity.

Re: Registration 2016
 

I am not sure about the other teams in PNW but we opted out because we really didn't want to do week 5 event with the District CMP in week 6.

FIRST requires the home events to be designated by nearest zip code and even though the event we wanted was closer (by actual mileage) our home event was designated as a different one.

You should see a big jump when we all get a chance to use our first choice.

It is really a matter of timing... we try to set up our season so that the events are spaced out so students aren't out of class for 2 weeks in a row.

There also might be a little kickback because of the new payment schedule/ payment amounts but I am not sure about that.... I will reserve comments regarding that to other threads.

Re: Registration 2016
 

Our 'home event' is late in the season and more inconvenient for many on the team to attend, so I'm keeping an eye on registration numbers each day. If our preferred events are at risk of filling before 2nd event registration opens, I'll accept our registration for the home event -- otherwise, I'll pick two events at once in a few weeks.

Re: Registration 2016
 

With the 2nd Portland event also being week 5, I suspect that many Portland area teams are waiting to see if they can get into Wilsonville week 2, and then maybe traveling to Philomath week 4. Having weeks 2, 4, and 5 is not a great distribution for Oregon, because if a team misses out on Wilsonville week 2, they end up having to do Weeks 4, 5 and 6 unless they want to travel the 3+ hours to the next closest event. Hopefully it goes back to 1, 3, 5 next year, because 2, 4, 5 would not be sustainable, and is going to cause a lot of teams trouble.

Re: Registration 2016
 

Will be interesting to see how this pans out. What were there -- 20? MN teams that were at 2 regionals last year?

For S. MN teams, Cedar Falls looks like it could be a cheaper destination than Duluth. Looking at rack rates, the Radisson is 50% higher than the Clarion. Also lower transportation costs.

Re: Registration 2016
 

37 MN teams attended 2 regionals last year, and one attended 3 - roughly 20% of MN teams attended multiple regional events. This number has been growing over the years, slowly though.

Re: Registration 2016
 

When is the second registration date? Same with 3rd 4th or 5th. I'd just like to know. Thanks.

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http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprogr.../calendar/list

Re: Registration 2016
 

2001 teams currently registered as of this morning.
The St. Louis Regional went to waitlist yesterday. The first since the beginning heady 27 hours.

16 countries have been heard from:

1 ---- Ecuador
1 ---- Germany
1 ---- Poland
1 ---- Taiwan
2 ---- Chile
2 ---- Dominican Republic
3 ---- Netherlands
2 ---- Turkey
2 ---- United Kingdom
3 ---- Brazil
6 ---- Canada-AB
7 ---- Israel
11 --- Australia
21 --- Mexico
26 --- Canada-QC
30 --- China
107 -- Canada-ON
1775 - USA

Re: Registration 2016
 

The number of teams in China is pretty impressive! How much did they have last year?

And why is Canada splitted? :(

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Mexico is pretty impressive. They have 7 rookie teams at the Mexico City regional. All are from Mexico.

Re: Registration 2016
 

Chinese teams competed in various regionals, including Las Vegas, Hawaii, Australia, New York and a few more last year as well as Champs as I recall.

Re: Registration 2016
 

Hey. I noticed on the FIRST website that Georgia districts are abbreviated PCH. So, FiM stands for FIRST in Michigan and IN stands for Indiana so I was expected Georgia to be like FiG or GA. Any ideas on what PCH stands for? Could it be Peach?

Re: Registration 2016
 

Peachtree, just like CHS stands for Cheese, I mean Chesapeake.

Re: Registration 2016
 

Last year China had 23 teams.
I split Canada just to show which provinces have the most growth.

Re: Registration 2016
 

It is amazing that already China has the third highest number of registered teams (granted, Israel still has many more yet to show up, but still...)

I wonder how long it will be until China surpasses Canada. 2018?

Re: Registration 2016
 

That's plausible but they'd need a second regional and probably a third assuming each team goes to 1 regional and each regional holds 60 teams. How many Canada teams are there in all? I'm assuming around 150.

Re: Registration 2016
 

Y'know, Mark did post the current registration numbers. Canada currently has 139 if you add the three provinces together.

And multiple regionals can be arranged, I'm sure. It was "only" 17 FRC seasons ago that CA had their first regional. The second followed two seasons later. The third took 3-4 years as I recall. The fourth followed another 3-4 years later. And another one came a long about the same amount of time later... but the last couple additions didn't take quite that long. It just takes a little time...

Re: Registration 2016
 

it only shows registered teams! there was around 42 teams from QC last year and only 26 signed up for their first regional

Re: Registration 2016
 

Orlando & Silicon Valley booked up yesterday.

There were 197 Canadian teams last season.
As can be seen by the first weekend comparison,
in general, QC is slower signing up this year, while ON is quicker, and they offset each other for a Canadian registration pace that's pretty normal.
Canada is at ~ 76% of last year's final count.
All FRC is at ~ 72% of last year's final count.

2100 teams have registered.
130 rookies

Re: Registration 2016
 

Registration numbers finally surpassed last season at this same time.
2200 teams

Re: Registration 2016
 

What's that bump that always occurs around the 3rd week of October? 2nd event registration causing more initial registrations? FiM teams getting enrolled? Grant approvals?

Re: Registration 2016
 

I ran the numbers but didn't have time for a graph. I'm traveling this weekend, so I won't be able to post the graph until Sunday.

Re: Registration 2016
 

FiM probably contributes to the bump. I'm currently showing 131 FiM teams not registered for their home event. I'm not sure what portion of those are passing on the home event vs. what portion are just slow to register because I didn't get numbers from last year, but I expect many are in the former category and will suddently show up on Thursday.

Re: Registration 2016
 

Here's another year-to-year comparison of registration numbers by area.
This at the time of the graph in my previous post, so they can be compared.

I'll go review just where the bump came from in previous years, but I think it's just the surge after the weekend, as the week starts and teams start registering during normal business hours. The phenomena is more pronounced early in registration and the effect gradually lessens as time goes by and the registration graph levels out.
In the graphs we can see weekend plateaus and weekday climbs. It's more obvious when the graph is zoomed in.

Re: Registration 2016
 

New Michigan district event on FIRST website. It is in Week 2. You would never guess where it is. It is a brilliant idea.

Re: Registration 2016
 

I was going to say that the Bloomfield Hills event that had been posted a couple weeks back was happening. Kettering University Event #2 is not what I expected.

Re: Registration 2016
 

If it was at my own school building, first of all I would know, why would I say it was a brilliant idea. Kettering 2 is a brilliant idea because they only have to set up the field once, leave it there for the next weekend and take it down once. It saves so much volunteer time. Imagine finding a place that you can have a district competition every week for 6 weeks. That would be something.

Re: Registration 2016
 

Taking it a step further, have the field available to teams for unbagging windows during the week or on weekends when there is no official event.

This is a luxury enjoyed by every other high school sport.

Re: Registration 2016
 

Is this the first time that the same venue is hosting two official competitions, during different weekends?

Re: Registration 2016
 

Did Georgia have a regional at the World Congress Center when CMP was in Atlanta? Edit: looks like probably not.

Re: Registration 2016
 

Imagine having a number of locations depending on the district that host events each week and the district championship as normal...so teams could choose to attend 2 - 3 events at one location.

It could allow for those teams to have access to the field in between events but I can't imagine the logistics needed for this....

Re: Registration 2016
 

2nd District registration gave us a bit of a bump at noon today.

We're at 2448 teams registered.

Re: Registration 2016
 

Seems like a terrible idea to me. Hope they only did it because there wasn't any options.

One of the goals of Michigan Districts stated as "This allows teams to play close to home and gives families, schools, local government, businesses and media easy access to local FIRST Competitions." By putting two events in the same place one group of teams get to do this twice while other groups of teams are waiting for their chance to do this.

Additionally I don't believe you will see the benefit one just field setup under a model like this, since I doubt many schools will just let teams leave a set up FRC field in their gym for a whole week. Gym classes, clubs, and other sports will still need to utilize that gym.

Re: Registration 2016
 

It's not so bad. There were 39 teams assigned as "home" for the original week 1 Kettering event, so having two events allows for all of the local teams to play at their local event while also allowing for visiting teams to come and mix it up a bit.

Also, Kettering is a University and they do actually have a field set up that teams can visit. I don't entirely know the details of how a team would go about visiting but the university is pretty FRC-friendly in general. There's a bunch of KU students on this forum that may be able to address that concern more thoroughly.

Re: Registration 2016
 

QFT on both points. If you figure you should have 1 district event per cluster of 20 teams, two events in Flint absolutely makes sense. Also, Kettering is the only college I can think of that would even possibly do this. They're FRC-crazy and my understanding is they will be leaving the field up for the whole week. That said, you're right that it's unlikely this becomes common because only the rare place would be willing to leave a field for a whole week.

Re: Registration 2016
 

Why does the Kettering event #2 say it has 7 registered teams and no open spots? Kettering event #1 has 5 open spots so maybe they are waiting to see if a second event is needed?

Re: Registration 2016
 

When I went to register at noon, it was already waitlisted. :(

Re: Registration 2016
 

Kettering 2 is waitlisted because first in Michigan needs to make sure that teams from Kettering 1 have room to move to Kettering 2 because they need to be guaranteed their home event.

Re: Registration 2016
 

Maybe we could have a Kettering East and a Kettering West event with the field moved from one end of the rec to the other. /s

Re: Registration 2016
 

Team 5813 just registered for the UNH District Event. :)

~Daler

Re: Registration 2016
 

It's not that easy to move water.

Re: Registration 2016
 

2600 teams at 6:45pm today.

Re: Registration 2016
 

Nonsense. Moving water is easy. The ocean does it, rivers do it, creeks do it, coolant pumps in cars do it, restaurants do it, single-celled lifeforms do it. The tricky bit is keeping building foundations and robot electrical systems intact while moving large quantities of water in a short period of time. ;->

Re: Registration 2016
 

Crossed the 2700 team mark.

Re: Registration 2016
 

So GA just moved to districts and we're guaranteed 2 events but 2 of the events are full and the other 2 are on the same weekend...
We are only registered for one event because of the situation described above.
Will we still get 2 events or are we stuck with 1?

Re: Registration 2016
 

I recommend contacting your local regional director (see http://www.usfirst.org/regional-contacts) - there may be spots held back at one or both of the other events. They can help you get in to one of them.

Re: Registration 2016
 

Ok, thank you

Re: Registration 2016
 

I just checked on this. The two Minneapolis regionals each seem to have 1 spot held back and the Duluth regionals each have about 15 spots available. So there's not enough space in Minnesota for the 37 Minnesota teams that did two regionals last year though there is plenty of space left in Iowa.

I wonder how many of the 200+ Minnesota teams will try for 2 regionals this year.

Re: Registration 2016
 

There are reserved spots for the events. Contact your local Senior Mentor and they'll check where you are on the list and give you an idea of the likelihood of you making it into the event you are on the waitlist for.

I'm certain that the people in charge will do everything possible to ensure that all teams get two events.

Re: Registration 2016
 

We're trying for 2 this year and have already got into North Star. Are the Duluth spots reserved for rookies or are they going to be available come registration?

I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that Iowa is going to fill up pretty quickly

Re: Registration 2016
 

3234 will be at east Kentwood district and we are currently waitlisted for gull lake

Re: Registration 2016
 

Team 6000 is the Shalhevet School in Los Angeles, CA

Re: Registration 2016
 

Team 1708 will be attending the Pittsburgh Regional again this year along with one other one TBA! So excited for this years game.

Re: Registration 2016
 

Little random but I'm just going to say I'm impressed with the growth of teams internationally. Great to see it really become a worldwide program.

Re: Registration 2016
 

Here are the international scores.
19 countries heard from.

25---Australia
6----Brazil
186--Canada
2----Chile
31---China
1----Colombia
1----Czech Republic
2----Dominican Republic
1----Ecuador
1----Germany
40---Israel
39---Mexico
2----Netherlands
1----Poland
1----Singapore
1----Taiwan
10---Turkey
2----United Kingdom
2394-USA

Re: Registration 2016
 

What happens to the wait lists when the 2nd registration opens Thursday? It's been a while since our team has attended more than one competition. The two sites we were considering have zero capacity now. Does that mean we should consider somewhere else, or will that capacity be increased for the 2nd round? If capacity is increased, do they pull from the existing wait list first?

Re: Registration 2016
 

The waitlist is not strictly "first come, first served". The RD's prioritize teams that are rookies or first plays ahead of teams looking for a second play. There may be other considerations as well (local teams vs non-local, bringing a lot of volunteers, etc). That said, there is only one waitlist per event - if you go on it Thursday, you'll be behind everyone else already on it.

Your best bet is to look at the historical size for those two events - how many teams are usually at them?. That will give you an idea of how many teams will be pulled off the waitlist later to bring it up to full. Some events are actually already full, with no room to expand!. After that, look at the new color coding for the waitlist for the two events. As explained in the FRC blog, the color coding can give you an idea of how big the wait list currently is, versus the number of spots that will be available.

Re: Registration 2016
 

Also keep in mind the new color coding system for the waitlist.

Re: Registration 2016
 

Thank you very much - that helps a lot!

Re: Registration 2016
 

Michigan's Gull Lake event is going to be moving from week 2 to week 3 if it doesn't change venues (insert grumble about our home event also being week 3). This will leave Michigan with only 1 week 2 event 2 week 2 events (I forgot about Kettering #2).

Re: Registration 2016
 

Welcome India - FRC Team 6024!

I first met R-Factor at the 2013 FLL API where they won the Champions Award. At the 2015 FTC API they won the Inspire Award and completely won the judge's hearts. And now they officially registered for the 2016 Sydney Regional.

They are the FIRST progression in action!

Re: Registration 2016
 

Apologies if this has been asked before:

In TIMS, will the registration link appear automatically at noon after logging in, or do you a) have to refresh the page yourself, or b) log in no earlier than noon? I ask because I expect the seconds to count today.

Re: Registration 2016
 

You can be logged in ready to go, but the page does not automatically refresh for you.

Good luck!

Re: Registration 2016
 

Thanks!

Re: Registration 2016
 

This Regional Availability site is great. http://173.255.246.196/2016/
Thank you to whoever wrote this code.

FIRST & RobotEvents should setup a similar page for all the competitions (FTC, FLL, VEX, VEXiq...)

Re: Registration 2016
 

With 1 minute remaining, somebody moves from Gull Lake to Troy ...

Re: Registration 2016
 

No problem. Should be updating every minute starting now.

Re: Registration 2016
 

Within 30 seconds after opening, Ventura added 5 teams. Within 60 seconds, the 14 previously-available spots were filled.

Re: Registration 2016
 

We tried Tech Valley right when it opened.
Couldnt get in on the few remaining spots left.
Currently on waitlist...

Re: Registration 2016
 

358 is waitlisted for Tech Valley, too.

Re: Registration 2016
 

Alamo also full in the first 5 minutes.

Many events haven't increased their cap for the second round.

Iowa added 30 teams in 10 minutes.

Re: Registration 2016
 

GTR East filled up in a matter of seconds/minutes as well.

Re: Registration 2016
 

Of the remaining open Regionals...
By
1 minute - 7 events filled
2 minutes - 9 events filled
3 minutes - 11 events were filled

No other fillings occurred in the following 15 minutes.
The Regionals in no particular order were:

• Greater Toronto East Regional
• Alamo Regional
• Central Illinois Regional
• New York Tech Valley Regional
• Sacramento Regional
• Ventura Regional
• Finger Lakes Regional
• Oklahoma Regional
• Dallas Regional
• Orange County Regional
• Smoky Mountains Regional

If you are still looking for a 2nd Regional event then these are the open options and your best bet:
Open slots/Event
27 Arkansas Rock City Regional
27 Idaho Regional
27 Lone Star Regional
23 Hub City Regional
22 Western Canada Regional
19 Utah Regional
18 Las Vegas Regional
16 Arizona North Regional
14 Queen City Regional
13 Wisconsin Regional
11 Iowa Regional
11 South Florida Regional
10 Buckeye Regional
10 Hawaii Regional
8 Palmetto Regional
8 Central Valley Regional
8 Israel Regional - see Site Info for additional information
8 North Bay Regional
6 Rocket City Regional
6 Windsor Essex Great Lakes Regional
5 Colorado Regional
3 Mexico City Regional
3 Australia Regional
2 Bayou Regional

Re: Registration 2016
 

Hopefully we'll see you there. :)

Re: Registration 2016
 

Sounds like the perfect time to make that trip to the Queen City.

edit: If you decided to not attend your home event this year. I second what Dave says two posts down.

Re: Registration 2016
 

Tech Valley had 36 teams last year. I suspect they will have as many teams this year event though I think they should only do 30 teams.

Re: Registration 2016
 

Glenn - Why don't our planning committees talk in the summer so our events aren't on the same weekend? We could work out a "team exchange" event you all attend Queen City and we can attend Hawai'i!

Re: Registration 2016
 

In my limited time to read ChiefDelphi these days, this is the thread I am most interested in reading. Many thanks to Mark McLeod and all who post good information here.

Aren, are you the person who made the code for this page: http://173.255.246.196/2016/?

I agree with Andrew, this is excellent! Thank you for coordinating this. I do have one request: please add another column of event dates next to each event.

Sincerely,
Andy Baker

Re: Registration 2016
 

If we're making requests, I'd love it if the event name included a link to the list of registered teams, provided that it's simple for you to do.

Let me second Andy's thoughts; this page is a great resource. Thanks for putting it together.

Re: Registration 2016
 

Done and done.

Thanks for the remarks!

Re: Registration 2016
 

2800 Teams around noon today.
Closing in on last year's total of 2892.

Re: Registration 2016
 

All 7 CA events are "full".

Re: Registration 2016
 

FYI: I didn't see it posted anywhere here, but it's officially listed on my.usfirst.org/myarea/index.lasso, Gull Lake has switched weekends from Week 2 to Week 3.

Re: Registration 2016
 

I saw that, but wonder if Gull Lake is just being cancelled, as it also show zero teams registered, and zero capacity.
(Edit based on team count they still need 19 districts of 40 teams)

Re: Registration 2016
 

Howdy! To clarify any confusion, the Gull Lake event is only changing venue. The event will be during Week 2 over March 10th, 11th and 12th.

The event is now identified as the Lakeview Event. The new venue is Lakeview High School, which is only about 15 miles down the road in Battle Creek. As co-host of this event, I am excited to invite all of you to a fantastic venue. We (4327) are co-hosting with the Gull Lake team (4381) who did a great job hosting these past several years.

TL;DR Gull Lake event now Lakeview event in Battle Creek. Still Week 2. Carry on.