Re: Split Champs in '17 and '18
 

The good news is that it'd only be 16 teams that have to haul a robot and mobile pit across the street and down some ramps, once. As opposed to the entire Champs having to hoof it up ramps and down ramps for every match in 2003...

That probably depends on what end of GRB your division is. There's 2 blocks between GRB and Minute Maid, and GRB itself is 5 blocks long.

Re: Split Champs in '17 and '18
 

Related question: what happens to the deans list? Do they have the finalists whose teams are competing in Houston come out to St. Louis? That's cost, in time and air fair. Do they hold the ceremonies/luncheons twice? Do all teams with a finalist get routed to the second competition?

Re: Split Champs in '17 and '18
 

I'm a bit more worried about Detroit. Cobo to Ford Field is about a mile walk through the heart of downtown.

Re: Split Champs in '17 and '18
 

Assumedly they just double the number of winners, 20 at each.

Re: Split Champs in '17 and '18
 

Does Don Bossi have a CDL?

Re: Split Champs in '17 and '18
 

Do we know yet about what will happen to Einstein Field? Will both championships have Einstein or will one keep it and the other gets a new field name?

Re: Split Champs in '17 and '18
 

That's a pretty big assumption considering many great teams don't go to IRI or at least every year. Just taking last year into consideration, 254, 359, 987, 368, 971, 1678, 1671 all didn't attend IRI last year. In fact only one member team 118 of last year's world champions attended IRI.

Re: Split Champs in '17 and '18
 

This actually sounds pretty cool.

Re: Split Champs in '17 and '18
 

Last year wouldn't be a good year to judge this. Many teams made the decision that it wasn't worth traveling far for another round of Recycle Rush... Plus I believe several of those teams were doing an event in China. 2015 was the most "local" IRI's been in several years.

Re: Split Champs in '17 and '18
 

I'm not sure, but Dean has a pilot's license ;)

Re: Split Champs in '17 and '18
 

This is a very easy walk and pretty safe. Ive done it many times myself. It isn't much different than the old Atlanta walk from the furthermost hotels to Georgia-Dome (and its not uphill).

There are also options of the people mover (.4 mile from the stop to ford field) and the M1 rail that will help take walking out of the equation.

Re: Split Champs in '17 and '18
 

Have you done that walk with your entire pit and robot? ;)

-Mike

Re: Split Champs in '17 and '18
 

They did block off a good chunk of the roads for Shells Ecomarthon last year around Cobo, and that was for 3 days.

Re: Split Champs in '17 and '18
 

I hadn't seen that page -- thanks.

(And side note - Why the Heck did they blur the FIRST logo on Don's shirt in the video!?)

I'm just hoping that a lot more information, especially location assignment/logistics gets released before fundraising for next season kicks into high gear. (I can see the conversation, "Well... Championship could be this week, or it could be the week after, in Detroit or Houston, and it could be bigger, or not, and we can't pre-reserve hotels because we don't know where we're going, so we'll probably have to spend more and....")

The more I think of it the hotel problem could be a real nightmare. If you get "assigned" a championship, do you try to hold a block of rooms in both cities until you find out? If the total # of teams in both championships is more than this year in St. Louis, doesn't this actually make hotels harder to find if many teams do this?

Re: Split Champs in '17 and '18
 

~BRANDING STANDARDS~

I'm anticipating an announcement sometime on Thursday, giving it timing similar to last year's well-received announcement.