Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

Just like this title says, this is just a quick question...

What was the first FIRST competition you ever attended?
Can you remember much from it? If so... share a quick story about your experience, or about what happened.

I figure, we might get some interesting stories out of this one.

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

I remember first time when I started my journey for FIRST. Epcot, Nationals... we leave for orlando... first time ever i walk into a FIRST environment. all the cheering, gracious professionalism, robotics in action got me hooked up ever since. Personally, FIRST is the best thing that has ever happened to me and there is no way i will be willing to give up FIRST. :)

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

I'll go first...

The first event I ever attended, was the Long Island Regional in 2000.

It was a fun event, I remember in particular seeing a team from Texas (55 - Texas Torque), and a team from Puerto Rico (15 - Coqui Power) and realizing "Wow... FIRST is everywhere!" These 2 teams had 2 of the best robots at the event. At the time, I was awed. It was cool to compete against them (we had matches against both). It was discouraging to be beaten by them (they had REALLY beautiful machines), but at the same time it inspired us to try harder.

I remember thinking to myself:
"Next year, I want to be better."

That regional was a "close but no cigar" experience for me.
We ended up catching fire in the finals, and losing to the "Texas Alliance".
It was incredible to take the silver, but it left us wanting gold.

Every student on that team was inspired to try harder in 2001.

I was hooked. I've thrown myself into FIRST, and never looked back.

John

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

My first regional attendence was the Kennedy Space Center Regional. We went through some tough competition against the likes of Demolition Squad (still in love with that 2000 bot), Baxter Bomb Squad, Coqui Power, Metal-In-Motion (their first Regional ever), and a host of other great teams (Big Jimmy =)).

We were second to Metal-In-Motion until the final day where we took 1st seed away from them and chose BBS as our partners (Baxter Alliance). We went on to win over the second seed alliance of Metal-In-Motion and Demolition Squad even though we took a beating in the process.

Leaving with the gold was really cool, but it really changed my perspective about this competition. Originally, I thought this was an excuse to miss a four days of school. After that I couldn't get enough and wanted to be much more involved.

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

The first event that I actually attended was the 2004 VCU regional. I didn't join the robotics team for my first few years of high school, cause my brother was on the team and I couldn't stand to do anything with him. So I got around to joining the team my senior year. Though I will admit that I was interested in the team while I wasn't on it and looked at some of the games when my brother was working with the team.

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

My first FIRST event was the SCRRF Pre-Ship Scrimmage at Chatsworth HS on the Sunday before ship in 2002. The Wednesday, and Thursday and Friday, before, we had a ton of drivetrain problems most remembered by our lead engineer saying "What is all the cr*p in those gears!" The Saturday before, we started working at about 8AM and we worked late into the night and into the early morning. I remember using a giant single speed electric drill (that thing was a monster) at about 3:00 AM Sunday to cut treads in our tires. I would start cutting a groove in the tread and then all of a sudden it was done cutting but for some reason the drill was still running. I had fallen asleep with a running drill in my hand. :ahh: And then we needed to mount the rotating light. So we measured it three times to make sure it was just right, then we drill the holes and go to mount it and the hole is like an entire inch and a half off. :D During this Saturday night, even our teacher had gone to sleep under a table. We were all so exhausted. So here it is 7:00 AM on Sunday. Our guy with the van rolls up and we load the robot in. He goes off to the scrimmage and I go home to eat and get like 5 mins of sleep. Well, that 5 mins ended up to be about 40. Anyway, after that, I went out to the event. When I got there I was surpirsed to see the rest of my team just standing around. I asked if we had a match coming up. They said no. I asked if they played a match. They said yes. I asked how it went, and they told me the gears had stripped and we were done. None of us knew what to do. We had spent all build period designing this Chia+drill drivetrain and all week working the bugs out and in our first match the gears strip. It turns out that they were pulling two goals and once (which we knew we could do fine) and then tried to turn (which disintegrated the drivetrain).

So there we were in the pit with a broken robot we could not fix. Seeing we needed some help, some random gentleman comes over offering his assistance. We told him the situation, and he took a look at our robot. He asked what was wrong and we told hime the gears stripped. He asked if it made any noise and we said yes, a very loud noise. They he asks, "was it a clicking noise or a clacking noise" we all just turn to each other and burst into laughter. It was like, "what's the difference" and "what difference does it make, our robot is broken". Anyway, it turns out that this guy was Doug Hogg (team 980) and to this day he has been one of the most helpful people to our team (like offering spare drill motors in 2004 LA regional when no one was at the spare parts table).

So, back to our 2002 robot. We left the scrimmage early and returned to our shop. We tried to find replacement gears out of a stronger material but had no success. So, we ended up pulling the chias and running with just the drills. Then we had all sorts of drill clutch problems. We did not have a reliably running robot until midnight. I woke up at 8AM on saturday and worked straight through until midnight on Sunday. 40 hours straight. And that was my first year on the team.

Anyway, in the entire LA regional, we finally had no problems whatsoever with the drivetrain, and performed minimal maintanance on the rest. We mostly sat in the pit with our feet up on the robot watching all the other teams scurry to fix their broken machines. We were finally rewarded for all that time we put in per-ship.

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

My first FIRST event was the 2002 Pacific Northwest regional. It was the first one and it was in Seattle. But I think that was the best payoff for the build season before. We were next to a team from Brazil who actually won the event. I think competitions are the most fulfilling way to end the build.

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

My first competition was the UTC New England Regional in 2001. At the closing ceremony on Friday, my team (177) was announced as the winners of the GM Industrial Design Award. I can remember being so excited to go up on stage and shake hands with both Dean and Woodie (Dean came Friday and Saturday and Woodie was the field announcer). On Saturday, we finished somewhere around 9th in the seeding rounds and was picked in the first round of alliance selection by the 3rd place team (team 126), and ended up winning the regional (along with teams 69, 175 and 501). After the closing ceremonies, Dean was just hanging out on the stage talking to students and a few reporters, most of them asking about Ginger/It. I remember one student in particular telling him "I can keep a secret" to which Dean replied "So can I".
I can remember feeling kind of disappointed the next year when neither Dean or Woodie came, but I guess they can't be everywhere at once...yet.

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

2003 Buckeye Regional. I remember it all considering it was only a year and a half ago. The moments that stand out are 1. Not having spirit the first day because we were dead from waking up at 4:00 am for the bus ride 2. Getting yelled at for being dead at the competition 3. Being really crazy the next day and: a. Starting "the wave" b. Cheering for Team Rush after we were eliminated, and having them go on to win and c. Learning the spirit award was not given out on Saturday! :D

Can't forget Loosing because Chief Delphi forgot to ziptie their battery, causing their machine to loose power mid-match. That didn't really matter, though, because we had a good time.

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

The inaguaral 2002 Buckeye regional. It was as spectacular and as exciting as any sporting event I had ever attended (and I attended quite a few) and I have been hooked ever since (and I didn't even like the 2002 game much, plus I also found out I enjoyed the regional than I did the championship event at Epcot which was too hot, too far spread out and also that nasty ref on the middle field who kept disqualifyig everyone.he snapped at us and told us if we didn't sit down RIGHT NOW he was going to disqualify us).
We also met 229 at Buckeye and they were nice folks(shared some cookies that were very good). :D

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

My first FIRST event was the 2004 Great Lakes regional. I spent practice day collecting pins and friday and saturday working in the pits.
_Alex

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

My first FIRST competition (hahahaha...) was the 2003 Chesapeake Regional. I had hardly slept the night before, I was so excited. The guys were kind of shocked at my enthusiasm, but they really understood, considering they knew what it was like for their first FIRST competition.
That day was amazing...the weather was decent, the sun shining, and the robots thriving. I remember meeting a lot of teams there and some people from FIRST. I had met Steve Shade at 2003 Kickoff, but he was at the competition so we talked more then, and I met Majdi Mukhar there as well. I still keep in touch with a few teams I met there that I hadn't seen in a while, which is good.
At any rate, that day just was one of the best days in FIRST of my life. I hope to never forget any of it.

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

My first competition was the 2000 UTC Regional:

>It was a lazy Saturday morning and I was sitting on the couch watching some cartoons. My Dad stepped into the room...

Dad: Hey erin, you seem bored. My company is sponsoring a robotics competition at the Meadows (I heard 'at Longmeadow') and I'm going to go check it out later. Wanna come?

Me: No.

(2 hours later)

Dad: I'm going to head out now, you sure you don't wanna come?

Me: Ehhh, I dunno. Fine, I guess I'll go.

>We start heading south on the I-91, this confused me.

Me: Aren't we going to Longmeadow?
(I thought this robotics thing was some lame shin-dig in a gym)

Dad: No, it's at The Meadow's music theater in Hartford.

Me: Ohhhhh (thinking 'now this is really cool then')

>We arrived at the Meadows and I stepped into the venue, woah! The lights, the music, the robots, the excitement, the costumes, the people... I was hooked immediately! I knew this was a club that I was going to do next year. I proceeded to talk to Dr. Flush on Buzz (my town's team) and he convinced me further that I should join.


Thanks Dad! :)

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

My first was the 2003 Buckeye Regional. A few of the older students went down early to set up pit so by the time everybody got to Cleveland, everything was set up. All I remember saying was, "WHOA." It all looked so intense! We went for a team dinner that night, which was fun, except for the fact that this odd guy who said he just got out of jail approached us on the way home. When we got to the hotel, my coffee pot got hijacked. Oh well.. The next two days were fun, because I was in the pits the whole time working with the drive train and talking to judges. Complete adrenaline rush! And we got to the quarterfinals and received the Xerox Creativity award :)

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

MY first competition was the 2003 Fall Fury...my first regional was last year at manchester...all i can say awas it was amazing...the fall fury gave me a chance to drive, and meet some really awesome people ;)

the manchester regional got me hooked for life....it gave me a chance to drive, and plus, i ended up on the front page of the newspaper :D

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

My first competition was the 2004 UTC regional at the meadows. Our first match we flipped over.That was discouraging, as we ended up losing the match because of the penalty that we got for falling out of there. I remember thinking how we had all worked so hard, and it really didn't seem fair. The rest of the first day of UTC was on/off, meaning we lost when we had our arm on and we won when it was off. The entertainment at night, particularly the hypnotist, was very entertaining. The second day we had the arm off permanently, and went 2 and 1 in the morning. We got selected to be in the fourth ranked alliance, but we lost in the quarterfinals. It didn't matter though, the thrill of the competition had me hooked.

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

My first event was the 2000 Midwest Regional.

I had spent the entire season merely observing our team in action - throughout the build and into the competition season. I was a VERY green teacher mentor (the only one on the team) and just wanted to see what this whole FIRST thing was all about. Being a rookie on the team, I didn't want to mess anything up either!

Along comes the Midwest Regional and I am thrown directly from the realm of "see what FIRST is" to the "experience what FIRST is." What an overwhelming experience! I remember some awesome robots like CD and their swerve drive. I could not fathom a robot moving so quickly and effortlessly to the other side of the field, pick up 6 balls and deposit them in the trough! WOW! I also remember the Technokats and Wildstang - the best teams seem to stand out in your mind. So elegant and functional!

My most memorable competition experience from that first year was the championship finals at Epcot. Team 25 had an amazing robot that had the ability to steal balls from their opponents trough and put it in theirs. I realized then that game strategy is EVERYTHING! Some incredible, down-to-the-wire matches!

The rest is history and here I am today - still hooked!

Sean

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

My first competition was the River Rage competition at the end of the 2000 season. I got to look around my soon to be teams pit and was wicked excited about everything. I've been hooked ever since.

-Aaron

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

my first competition thanks to my big bro who joined s.p.a.m.

my mom and dad wanted to go and i did to0 a bit cause i saw them building the bot and all looked like tons of fun-- so my first competition was 2000 i was in 7th grade --we went to KSC --got up that saturday morning and drove up-- sat in the blenchers and well just joined s.p.a.m. in cheering while trying to do my vocab hw for mrs. clark's class-- i never seem to be able to avoid hw-- but it was way fun and it started to rain a bit but thats alright -- i was hooked forever


thanks michael for everything as usual :)

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

Palmetto. 2004, although that's pretty easy to figure since there's only been one of them. :D

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

My first regional was the 2001 VCU. Don't remember much besides not figuring out the game for quite a while.

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

This is going to date me....

My first FIRST competition was the 1998 Mid-Atlantic Regional. Our robot that year was pretty bad. We didn't win a single match. Something broke catastrophically in every match. We did, however, win a Special Judge's Award for Victorious Perseverance in the Face of Adversity. I'm still of the opinion that the "Victorious" part was wishful thinking on the part of the judges.

Matt

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

I had almost the same experience, but at the 2000 Florida Regional, then held at Kennedy Space Center. That regional was incredible, fields in the rocket garden and team party in the Saturn V building.

When I saw that cherry picker robot in the last 30 seconds bring out its secret claw and start stealing balls from the other trough, I knew I was hooked.

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

Hmm, I think it was the 1999 UTC Pre-Ship Scrimmage.
The first official competition was the 1999 UTC regional, and honestly. I don't remember anything about it. :(

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

1995 NH Regional Competition.. I didn't want to go, it was just some thing my older brother was in at school. I literally was forced to go with my dad's infamous words of "if I've gotta go, you've gotta go..." I don't know that I ever came back.

I walked in the gym and I was hooked; it was an insane, unmatched atmosphere. The next year it was the first thing I signed up for as a freshman.

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

1997 UTC scrimmage...

same comments as everyone else, the atmosphere is what got me, people screaming, robots tipping and falling everywhere, news crews everywhere- it was a pretty insane environment

Tom

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

My first experience was as a spectator. I had volunteered to help at the new Canadian Regional and I had never seen an event before. I went to Cleavland for their first event (I believe). My main objective was to see what they did good/bad to help make our event the best. I was not prepared for what I saw. I left the people I was with to tour the pit area. I was approached by so many students that really were enthused about their robot and team. Kids that were interested in something and wanted to tell me about it. When I exited the pit area an hour or so later I met up with Mark Breadner and the first thing I said to him was that I HAD to join a team. The rest is history. The more I put in, the more I get back. This has been one of my best experiences. This also the reason I say that if you can get Teachers, potential mentors or sponsors to an event then you will have them hooked.

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

Nationals. 2000.

Best. Birthday. Present. Ever.
My parents took me to Disney for my birthday and lo and behold there was that little old robotics thing on the side. OF course once I noticed this I had to check it out, unfortunately I couldn't stay long, but I saw enough to know I was hooked.


They had only intended to let me see Disney's millenium celebration, I don't think they realized the damage they had done when they let me find FIRST :P

Now back to counting the seconds until kickoff....

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

My first robotics competition was the 2002 Bash@the Beach.

I was new to the robotics team and knew only one other person on the team at that point. I was overwhelmed by all of the people, and I didn't know a thing about robots, so most of my time was spent standing around wondering what I was supposed to be doing. :)

I had alot of fun though. It was amazing for me to watch something that I had so little understanding about. I was fascinated by the robot, and wondered what exactly made it work the way it did. I loved to watch the veteran members of the team working on the robot. My most distinct memory was watching Tom, our driver, fix our robot's frame, which was made out of aluminum extrusion and had been skewed out of place in the last match, by whacking it with the hammer. :)
(the "fine adjustment tool" as he called it :p)

I also was fascinated by the matches themselves; I had never seen anything like it. The competition as a whole was very exciting to me; the smashing of robots, the oddly dressed and strangely behaved people ;)

I was also the team's operator for one match, which I remember we lost. :( But being on the drive team for one match gave me a better understanding of how stressful and difficult that job is. The experience augmented my appreciation and admiration of my fellow teammates, mentors, and other FIRSTers.

After Bash was over, I left with feelings of great admiration for my team. I wanted nothing more but to be able to do what they do... and learn. I was inspired to follow in the footsteps of the veterans who came before me.
At my first robotics meeting, one of my teammates said, "Once you go to your first competition... thats when you fall in love with it."


And I did.

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

2001 KSC....and obviously I was hooked.

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

My FIRST competition was the 2002 Canadian Regional...

I was actually recruited to the team in 2001, as an animator, but since I was underage (high school is from grades 7-11 here in Quebec) I never even saw the robot, let alone went to a competition.

The next year, since I was a very dedicated member of the animation team, I got to go to the first ever Canadian regional. I remember thinking to myself that since I didn't do any work with the robotics team proper I wouldn't find it very exciting and would have nothing to do. I was wrong.

I was handed a video camera and told to film a few matches. I ended up filming about 7 hours of the most exciting stuff I had ever seen. Our team didn't do very well in the regional, due to the fact that we spent most of our time getting the robot to a working state. But I still had a great time, and watching an all American alliance being defeated by an all Canadian alliance in the finals left me with a sense of victory nonetheless.

That regional gave me the feeling of wanting to make a difference within my team, and as a result the next year, 2003, I threw myself with a passion into the aspects other than animation, and I became the programmer, the wiring expert, and the driver.

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

My first FIRST competition was the 1999 Philidelphia regional. I barely remember it... But I do remember the venue was very large, and I remember Chief Delphi being there. I also remember the team party. All in all it was a lot of fun so I ended up going to the rest of our competitions that year and the next year became very involved.

Patrick

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

My first competition was the 2000 Great Lakes Regional. I don't really remember much and don't even remember where we placed. I just remember that it was one of the most exciting events I had ever participated in and I was hooked from there.

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

My first FIRST event was Great Lakes Regional this year. For those of you who didn't hear, our wrist fell flat off so it wasn't my favorite of the year. My second was the Midwest Regional, we won so that is my favorite.

-kyle

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

1998 Great Lakes Regional.

I was a senior in High School and a member of the first ever Canadian team in FIRST, Team 188. Back in the day, your team didn't actually have to compete in a regional competition. So our only event of the season was the National Championship at EPCOT center. It was our spring break, so a few of decided to drive down to Michigan to do some scouting. We braved a huge snow and ice storm to get there. It was quite the ordeal.

I was shocked by the quality of the teams and magnitude of the event. Having no experience with FIRST, I was picturing robots at level more comparable to a science fair. Boy was I wrong. I was awestruck by the engineering excellence displayed by the team, especially 111 and 47 (when I fell in love with crab drive). Seeing the energy displayed by all the fans, the music and the general "Super Bowl" like field, well I was hooked.

The other thing that really struck me, was how friendly everyone was. I'd never been to such a large competition of any kind, where teams were actually helping their opponents. It was a wonderful thing to see.

There really is nothing quite like your first FIRST competition. As much as people describe it, they can't capture all the little things that come together to make it so unique.

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

My first FIRST competition was the very first FLL event held in Plymouth, Mass. way back in the fall of 1998. Experience: well, there were only about 15 teams of about four students each (this was the year before its inaugural year when they were testing the whole FLL concept), but the place was packed with parents, family, and whatnot (keep in mind this was when I was in the eigth grade and we needed parents to drive). It was quite loud. The game that year was a small mazeish like field were there were three routes, and you could take the short route with the hazard of falling off, the medium route with the hazard of being caught agaist some 1/4" bamboo sticks around the edge of a circular turn, or the long route, where the only hazard was leaving the field if you weren't straight (and it was longer). My team did okay, but didn't make the playoffs. Oh, and I carried the Rhode Island flag during the opening ceremonies :D. It was all fun: the game, the pit area, watching other robots, even the postgame conversation on the 2 hour ride home. And I had just turned 13 at the time, so it ranked up there on my list of good times.

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

Duel on the Delaware 2002.

Steve won. But, I mean, we all knew that.

25 partnered with 87 in the only 2 team alliance out of 8 alliances. The finals were against 122, 365, and 341. The match ended with 365 spun 90 degrees with two (?) goals in 25's scoring zone and 25's mouse bot in the home zone.

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

My original event was the 2003 Fall Fury - I got a chance to figure out the game and operate a couple of qualifications. At that point I wasn't even sure if I would continue on the team, but after the event I became completely obsessed :D

MY first official event was the 2004 New Jersey Regional. At first I was overwhelmed by all the people there..the dancing, singing, cheering, etc. I wanted to do something on the team besides watching from the stands - when I asked a senior on the team what I should do I was handed a clipboard and told "scout." I scouted, but soon thought to myself, "wow, this is boring."

So I went down to the pits and joined my team, asking our pit boss what I should do. She said leave, it was too crowded already. After scouting a little more I returned and was kicked out again, probably 3 times in total. Once more I came back to the pits but this time went to a mentor before our pit boss got to me. I asked what I could do, and was given a job of repairing an old robot cart. This was my first ever accomplishment on the team, and people began to see that, despite being the only freshman on the team, I could make a difference. I helped out on a few other things and the next day while watching matches a mentor came up to the stands and told me that we were reorganizing the pit and that my help would be needed - I felt great,having gone from scouter to necessary pit worker!

I worked a lot on the repairs that competition, and for the next regional since our former boss could not make it I was elected pit boss, a title which the two of us now share. (except now we are also both operators for the team, so we haven't really decided what we are doing next year)

We ended up in 42nd out of 47 for the NJ regional but got picked by 181 early. We lost in the quarterfinals and got no awards, but it was a great event for me and now I am excited to have 3 more years of FIRST (as a student anyway...I will later work as college student/mentor hopefully) ahead of me. (did anyone actually read that whole thing? That was my longest post on record, I believe).

-Steve Howland

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

My first time was at the 2000 Great Lakes. Very fun times. Had a blast with RUSH (27), Buzz (33), Juggernauts (1), and other teams that don't really stand out (sorry :D) and than going through the 'tent' made by people all around the field after our feather-weight in the finals award (for the 3rd time in a row. Maybe that's why they discontinued it! Alcoa was AFL's parent company and they delt with aluminum)

But I remember it being a Very-Very small place. Maybe that's why they don't hold it in the same place the following years! :eek:

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

2002 Midwest Regional was the first FIRST competition I ever stepped into.

After an hour of being there, I was already hamming it up for the Jumbotron and meeting lots of people.

After two hours, I became a bleacher coach.

After three hours, I was hooked on FIRST.

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

The first one I attended was the Pittsburg regional in 2004.

The main thing I remember from that is that it was small, nothing like the Buckeye where we actually competed.

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

2002 Southern California. Boy did our robot stink.

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

2001 Philadelphia Regional

I had just finished coaching basketball for the year and my wife was so glad I was going to be home more (oops). As an English teacher, I helped the students on Team 103 edit a few newsletters during the year at the request of team leader Cathy Beck. I had also seen their robot one time at a faculty presentation, but that was my whole exposure to FIRST until Cathy and her husband Dave (regional WFA winner) asked me if I wanted to attend a competition. I said, "Sure" - heck it was a day off of school.

So I board the bus at 6 am on Friday with the rest of the team not knowing what to expect. We get there, I sit down with the group at the Drexel field house and ask Dave and Cathy what I can do. They tell me to just enjoy my day. That lasted maybe 20 minutes. I walk around the pits and sense the energy in the place and the first match starts and I go batty with excitement.

I noticed all of the alliance strategy stuff happening and I saw 103 really had little scouting/strategy going on. The coaching instincts kicked in and I asked Dave, "Do you mind..." He proceeds to give me two team members and said, "Go for it." With some blank paper and a vague idea of the game we developed a scouting/strategy system on the fly.

As luck would have it, 103 had an awesome day and I got really excited about it. Seeing the teams cooperate the way they did totally blew me away. Saturday I couldn't go back with the team, but followed match scores on the web (just 24 hours earlier I had no clue what FIRST was), and lo and behold 103 was a member of the winning alliance. Dave called me on the way home to tell me what I already knew.

Needless to say I was more than interested, but Monday morning in the school hallway Dave came walking towards me with a gold medal.
"Here, we really appreciate what you did for us."
"I can't take that, I didn't do anything."
"We talked about it and the kids want you to have it."

That was it, I was done. I wound up going to Epcot a few weeks later with the team and upon my return scheduled an appointment with the principal to ask him how he felt about me resigning as a basketball coach to be a full time member of Team 103.

Almost four years, another teaching job at a new school, a new team in the works, and an appointment as a senior mentor later, my wife is still waiting for me to come home...

Thank you Cathy and Dave. :)

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

My first FIRST competition was IRI 2002. I wasn't on Cyber Blue yet but a friend's older brother and father were, so we were doing field reset and I just thought it was awesome. Hammond capturing all 3 goals, and T3's little truck driving around. It was something spectacular. My first competition on Cyber Blue was Richmond 2003. That was also just an amazing thing. 3 days worth of robotics and some fun times afterwards. The team social with ice cream, a great hotel, tons of awesome things. FIRST started it all, I am what I am now because of robotics. It really does inspire.

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

my first one was Buckeye Regional in 2003, my my we never knew what we were getting into as we won the regional and went on to the nationals and got demolished by the better of the teams. it was great and we hope to go back to Buckeye for the third year and win it yet again this year for 3 in a row. Good luck to all in the season!

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

The 1997 NJ Regional- at the Rutgers College Ave. Gym-

I'd seen the tapes and we built something close to a robot but we were totally unprepared for the experience. Our machine the Silver Eagle was miraculous in that it moved at all and Toroid Terror proved to be just that. But the crowds of loud cheering kids and helpful people convinced me that next year we would do better (we didn't!). In those days the big teams at NJ were TJ2, CD, Huskie Brigade, Buzz and the locals from Hillsborough and Bound Brook. Everybody had neat uniforms and schtick. We had baby blue tee shirts.

A lot has changed over the years and I am glad we stuck with it. This year is the team's 9th season and we have graduated 47 seniors on to college programs in technology fields. And we have fun.

Isn't it amazing where your fondest memories can come from?

WC :cool:

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

My first competition was the Motorola Midwest Regional in 1997. My son invited my wife and I to come and see what he had been working on. Up to that time I had only been involved with the video team ('96 & '97) and had never seen the robot up close. I couldn't believe how loud and exciting the regional was. I think there were only about 30 teams present. Lot's of people in strange uniforms/t-shirts. Sometime on the second day, the robot developed an electrical problem and my son asked me to come to the pits and help. (my first introduction to a student drilling into a tube that contains wiring) That robot is the one John V has a his picture in front of in his bio. I didn't go to nationals that year, but I have been on the team and in the pits ever since.

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

2001 KSC Regional, only on that Saturday though. I was still a freshman in high school not wanting to miss that many classes yet (ha did that change).

Woody was there in his crazy vest.
86's robot was almost dead last, but we received a judge's award.

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

The first competition i went to was Midwest Regional. 2001.
All i can say is i was nearly coughing up blood after day 2, i couldn't talk for a week, and 461 took home their first of many spirit awards.
Life changing.

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

1999 Philadelphia Regional, the first 237 ever went to.

I remember cheering throughout practice rounds, finding out what an attenuator was and why it was important (and especially why it's best place isn't in the engineer's pocket), and that 47 is one heck of a puck-grabber. I have that machine whipping the puck across the field ingrained in my mind.

The next day I got yelled at by my director for ruining my voice for my part in Little Shop of Horrors, since the show was a mere days away. But it was worth it.

Years later I no longer do shows (or sing all that often, except in my car), I'm graduating from business school, and I still cheer in practice rounds. Go figure.

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

VCU 2002, the year our robot looked like a motorized laundry basket Back then, when we were going to Nationals, only pit and flight went to the whole Regional competition, the rest of the team went down just on Saturday, so I didn't really get the full experience of a competition then. I wandered around a lot, taking pictures, looking at other bots, stopping to watch the matches only when our robot was competing. At one point, some of my team members found me to ask me if I could teach them how to do the Time Warp (how they guessed I knew it, I don't know) so I did some crazy hopping around for a bit then went back to wandering... Oh, and I smacked Griffen whenever I saw him. Griffen was a student on the team who had gotten hold of my boyfriend's cell phone two days before, which had my parent's telephone number on it, so Griffen phoned my mother and said (rather ominously) "Mrs. Foster, you have a wonderful daughter." and just hung up. Which freaked out my mother who tried to call me but couldn't get through and caused me two hours worth of apologizing (especially since I made the mistake of laughing when she told me what happened) once she did reach me... so yeah, my hand hurt because Griffen got swatted a lot!

All and all, it wasn't a bad competition, but to me they just get better and better every year.

Heidi

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

My first event was the 2000 Kettering Kickoff in Flint, MI. I'd just joined the FEDS about a week before the competition, and the team was looking for a new driver. So, they picked the new guy, me, to drive the robot. I had never even seen a FIRST match before, and there I was, driving the robot in competition. Needless to say, I didn't do very well. We lost all four of our matches, seeded 24th out of 24, but still managed to get picked by the #1 seed, Metal-In-Motion (343) and their partner, the Juggernauts (1), and took second place in the competition. It was confusing and frustrating, but driving that robot was more thrilling than anything else I'd ever done. I was hooked from the moment the clock hit 0:00 on my first match.

My first official FIRST event was the 2001 West Michigan Regional. We arrived in the midst of an early March blizzard, with a robot slightly more than half finished. After that, well, let's just say our robot was named "Tippy" for a reason... ;)

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

Mine was the Sacramento Regional in 2003.

Even though I later learned that it was a relatively small regional (28 teams) I thought it was amazing to see so many teams in one place. I've been to 7 competitions (5 local) and this one was the only competition my parents ever came to see. I just remember being really, really excited. I was even excited to start the practice rounds. I was the arm controller for Spicy Mustard (see attachment). We won the Leadership in Controls Award, which qualified us to go to Houston, and were semi-finalists. Oh, and I remember the FemBots (692) cheering a lot.

But most importantly, this was when I first became aquainted with MARK LEON!!!!! :D

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

My first FIRST event was in 2004 in Az regional. This was my first year in FIRST and I was a senior. I was the driver for the robot and it was my first ever regional. It was insane because we lost the first two rounds but then got going and won out. We were in the playoffs. I do not remember our seed. I know that I chose 330 and 585. Some how our robot held up and we won the Az regional. That year was insane. I am hooked now with FIRST.

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

Now I am going to feel old....

My first FIRST event was the NH regional in 1996!! I cant say I remember much other than the "interesting" Econolodge, and eating at Applebee's. I think the competition must have overwhelmed me!

I do remember the Nationals that year very well though. We were the precurser to the Ace's High 176, Team 10 the Raiders (possibly the RoboRaiders). I dont even have a shirt from that year, I cant remember if we had them made or not. We did not have buttons, as we didnt know about the tradition yet.

That year, the competition was actually held inside of Epcot! The pits were a long run from the stage, and mascots were fainting everywhere because it was rather warm out! We used a supersoaker to spray down the head of our Raider, when all the little kids weren't looking. The kids would run up to him and ask for his autograph thinking he was captain Hook!

The party was tons of fun, we made some friends on the Buzz team. Though, I think we were the reason the team has a curfew now!! :o We got stuck with the teachers riding things like "its a small world" over and over again *shudder* At least now Im a mentor!!

Rumble at the Rock I. was that year also... in a hurricane!! We drove our robot up in a pickup truck covered with a tarp, were late to competition, and ran in wiping it down with rags towels and anything we could find!!

And that was my first FIRST year :)

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

The first one i attended was in 1999 at Midwest Regional when my sister was on the team.. I had no clue what was goin on. Other students tried explainin what was goin on to me and I had no clue what so ever..And let me remind you, i was in 5th grade at the time. lol

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

(Okay, I apologize in advance – this is way longer than I intended. Once I started writing the story just sort of kept coming and I couldn’t stop. I think that there is a little personal catharsis and self-therapy going on here :))

The first FIRST competition I ever attended was the Championships in 1996, held at EPCOT in Orlando. This was way back when the entire competition was held on the little stage at the American Adventure Theatre in the U.S.A. pavilion at the back of EPCOT, not the big “Olympic Village” that sprawled all over the parking lot. We had absolutely no idea of what we were getting in to that year. No one on the team had ever seen a FIRST competition, or even a FIRST robot, before. The lead teacher was the only one that was able to go to the kick-off, so literally all we had was a kit of parts, a rule book, and a complete misunderstanding of what we were supposed to do.

We spend six weeks building a thing that vaguely resembled a robot – but only when you looked at it with the lights really low and your eyes all squinty. There wasn’t a straight line or square corner anywhere on it. It was painted with poster paints, and decorated with a big smiley face, with a few business cards stapled on (tape was forbidden!) to provide the required corporate logos. The chains connecting the motors to the drive wheel sprockets stayed on perfectly - as long as we didn’t try to actually move. We then spent the last two days of the build season taking the entire robot apart. You see, that was the first year that FedEx donated shipping the robot. The offer of free shipping was great, but there was a catch. The donation was limited to shipping three standard FedEx boxes of materials. You know, the ones that are 3x4x36 inches or 3x11x16 inches, or just big enough to hold a few pieces of paper. We thought that you HAD to use the donated shipping service – it never occurred to us that we could just pack up the entire robot into a crate and ship the whole thing as a unit, as long as we paid for it (the way virtually every other team did it). So we took the entire robot apart and made a pile of 5000 little tiny pieces, then poured all the parts into the FedEx shipping boxes and sent them on their way.

So we show up at the competition on Thursday morning and walk into the pits, which were in an open-sided tent in the back lot behind the U.S.A. pavilion. Our eyes got as big around as dinner plates as we looked around at all the highly engineered machines and teams decked out in team uniforms and/or styled t-shirts, and realized how completely out-classed we were. We found our pit and looked at the pitiful little pile of FedEx boxes on the floor waiting for us. Next to our pit on one side the Baxter Bomb Squad already had their machine out of the crate and was going through pre-flight tests, and on the other side the robot from a certain other unnamed team was sitting under a hand-embroidered dust cover and a velvet rope stretched across the front of their pit area to keep their students away from the robot. While most other teams spent the entire day practicing, we spent all Thursday re-assembling our little robot and getting all the parts to work again - or in some cases, for the first time. Our first exposure to the FIRST standard of gracious professionalism was having several of the engineers on the Baxter team loan us tools and help us rebuild the robot, for which we were eternally grateful (by the way, that year they built a very cool little custom suction cup out of polycarbonate that worked with the wimpy little 20psi pumps we had, and picked up the 24 inch balls like there was no tomorrow).

As Friday rolled around and we started the double-elimination rounds, we started to get our first taste of the competition. We won several of our matches, not too bad for a rookie team. We also discovered a huge tactical error we had made – not bringing a cart for the robot. The trudge from the pits out into the open area of EPCOT, dodging through tourists, and over to the American Adventures stage was about 150 yards. After about thirteen times of carrying the robot back and forth, it seemed like the robot was gaining significant weight (or we were just getting tired).

Meanwhile, that certain other team on the other side of us spent the entire day very obviously laughing at us as we trudged back and forth carrying the robot, while they gracefully glided their robot around on a custom-built cart. This was after spending all day Thursday laughing at us as we struggled to re-build our robot, while theirs sat under its hand-embroidered dust cover. But then late in the day on Friday we were up against them in a match and we won and knocked them into the “losers bracket” of the double-elimination competition. As we were carrying the robot back to the pits, we overhead one of their engineers complaining about “the crappy little robot” that had beaten them (yes, I still remember who they were, and yes, I admit that I can't help but hold a little bit of a grudge).

That was when we learned a lesson from the folks on the Baxter team and Larry Crawford from Team 120. They all told us not to sweat the occasional rough edges that may show up during a FIRST competition, and instead focus on what was really happening. The students on the team were getting a chance to apply all the theory they had learned in the classroom. They were getting a chance to work with adults as peers, and see how professionals worked. They were getting the opportunity to see other great and soon-to-be-great teams in competition, and hang out with them to make new friends and exchange information. And a whole new generation of technically literate engineers, technologists, scientists, and inventors was being created right in front of us.

With that perspective, we set out to get as much out of the event as possible. We met a whole bunch of up-and-coming new teams like The Baxter Bomb Squad, the X-Cats, Orange Crush, Technokats, Tigerbolt, Wildstang and a young Chief Delphi team (with a certain young lead engineer who was as enthusiastic and excited about the competition as one human being could possibly be – Dr. Joe Johnson). We had the chance to watch several of these teams go on to become some of the best-known teams in FIRST. As a young team, a lot of our focus was on the “competition” part of the program, and we really wanted to get good enough to take on some of the emerging powerhouses of FIRST. Chief Delphi, with their very impressive performances during those early competitions, quickly became a team that a lot of our students wanted to defeat, with the reasoning that “if we are ever good enough to beat them, we can beat anybody.” But in the process, we had a lot of discussions about HOW Chief Delphi got to be as good as they were, and the obvious emphasis they put on simplicity, creativity, and quality in their designs and their whole approach to the FIRST program.

I knew that the students on our team really understood what FIRST was all about when, two years later, our unofficial team motto changed from “we want to BEAT Chief Delphi” to “we want to BE Chief Delphi.” And ever since, the whole focus of our team has been less on the competition itself, and a lot more on the build season and making sure that both students and adults get the most out of the entire experience.

So to all those teams that helped us during our early years to figure out how to focus on the most important parts of FIRST, let me say a big “thank you!”

-dave

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

My First competition was in 2001 of March for the NYC Regionals been hooked ) on FIRST ever since =)

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

The first FIRST competition I ever went to was the UTC New England Regional in 2001. Our robot did horribly, we had our pits outside in a tented area where it was not only cold as heck (CT weather in March) but, we also had flooding in there. (Did I mention our robot was 19.5 feet long too?)

We rebuilt the robot after every match, and we placed maybe somewhere in the last 5 spots.

I was called up to coach in one round, and Woodie Flowers, who was MCing the event, tapped on the glass, and pointed at his eyes. Apparently I forgot something - my safety glasses. I ran to the direction of the pits, but since the countdown for the match had already begun, I asked the first person I saw in the queuing line to borrow theirs. They let me and then in that match we broke once again. We pulled the bot off to the side of the stage and tried to fix it. I had the person I borrowed the glasses from yelling at me that they needed them back, so I ran over to them and threw the glasses their direction and was off with a quick "Thanks" as their match was being count down to start.
Later that day, I painted on a set of "safety glasses" with some face paint. :cool:

Then after the competition was over, a couple of teammates and I went outside to help pack up some stuff since we were not in the finals. We saw a limo, and asked who was in it. The driver told us that somebody had hired them to drive them from the competition. We asked if it was someone named Dean Kamen. He said no, but we still had a feeling that it was for him. One of my friends tried to bribe the driver for more info with a dollar, and he still wouldn't tell us who it was for.
After standing outside for about ten minutes and talking with the driver, we saw Dean come out toward the venue, and we asked him for his signature. He gladly obliged, and the friend who tried to bribe the driver with the dollar had Dean sign the dollar. (I think)
(btw, I still had the safety glasses painted on my face at this time. :cool: )

Dean got in the limo and left, and as soon as he left we all kicked ourself for not taking pictures since all 3 or 4 of us had cameras in our pockets.

The team party that Friday night was at the University of Hartford gym, and we danced :ahh: , and sang, and ate free food and had a blast.

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

I do remember the first FIRST competition I did go to. I went to the 2002 Nationals to watch WildStang because my brother was on the team then. I remember sitting there watching this competition and then thinking about how much I wanted to do it. The thing I remember about the 2002 Nationals is the big water fight we all had there... FIRST was giving out free water bottles and then someone decided to start the water fight and I also join in.. So it was fun.. Ever since that competition I have loved coming to the competitons and being on the team.

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

The first FIRST competiton I ever went to was Great Lakes in 2003.

I dont remember anything really awkward going on there but at Nationals in 2003 (my 3rd competition) I remember being woken up at 3 in the morning by my roommate... she gave me whole new meaning to homesickness when i walked into the hotel bathroom and saw she threw up all over.... I dont think i will ever forget that...

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

I remember my first FIRST competition. I'll date myself and geographically locate myself, since most posts here are about the east coast and midwest...

1998 Johnson Space Center Houston Regional. No, not Lone Star, the original Houston Regional that was only around for a year. The event was held at Space Center Houston.

Imagine if you will, a pit for 20+ teams contained in an area the size of a high school cafeteria. With barely existent aisleways. Needless to say, the pits were a mess. The field was in the center of a somewhat large cleared area SSH uses for displays and events of this type, but there wasn't much in the way of stands. There were nearby stairs that occasionally offered decents views, though. The original incarnation of our robot didn't fair very well at that event. We were trying to use a system of PVC rollers to squeeze balls into the center goal, but we used some plywood as the base, and it didn't stand up well to other robots.

Nationals that year was a bit better as we traded out the plywood for lexan and added a third roller to help pull balls through. With the added benefit of removing balls as well. There's nothing quite like the look on a team's face when you cut their score in half... We still had issues with the chain for the rollers coming loose, and it was hard to beat Baxter Bomb Squad loading the center goal with 3-4 balls at a time, though. So we did decently, but not incredibly well.

At any rate, the competitions were fun and all, but I think I enjoyed the build season a good bit more.

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

The first competition I went to was VCU in 2000. I don't really remember much other then there was a lot of good music. The Brazillian Machine stands out in my mind too, for some reason.

The first meetings I attended were in the fall of 1998, but the friends I had at the time were discouraging in my attendence of robotics. They were discouraging in my attendance of school as well, but thats another story. I ended up droping off the team halfway through the build season in 1999. That fall, however, I was waiting to join the team again. This time I stuck through and made it to the competition at VCU. That competition hooked me hard enough that I gradually stoped hanging out with my old friends, and started hanging out with my new FIRST friends.


Wetzel

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

2000 Lone Star Regional in Houston Texas - I remember the team from Hobbs NM - their robot was shipped in upside down and arrived in pieces - those students rebuilt it in a day with some help from others - mostly though they wanted to do it on their own. Also 68 Truck Town -- showed up with their portable machine shop and a truck full of parts and a huge willingness to share and show gracious professionalism at it's finest.

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

My first competition was the `04 Pittsburgh Regional. The best part of the whole time was probably when we were in 2nd place at lunch on Friday - that was (to us) rather unbelievable. Although it didn't last, we were still thrilled to get selected for an alliance.

Ah well, the whole thing was a really great experience - I can't wait for Annapolis `05!

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

Great Lakes Regional in 2003. we were a rookie team and loved it. It's our favorite regional. we went back in 2004 and we're signed up to go again this year.

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

My first was the Midwest regional in 1997. Back when there were only three regionals - Manchester, Chicago, New Jersey. Our team competed in NJ but went to Chicago (Harper College, I think?) to scout and see what this was all about.

I remember the Greenville TX team - they grabbed onto the tree and could rotate it to keep any other teams from placing innertubes. Incredible defensive strategy.

Beatty/Hammond was there - big surprise, they were awesome (students of the game will note that they were natl champs that year). Best offense. Even back then they were masters of the steel frame and PVC arms. That industrial-looking robot is on the cover of my SPI catalog #18W.

When Beatty/Hammond went up against Greenville, there was a serious and entertaining struggle when offense met defense. I don't remember who won, but I do remember in at least one match that Beatty/Hammond got "rolled" by the rotating goal.

For students of the game: whatever became of the mentors for that great defensive team? (JVN is excluded from this question because it is too easy for him)

Ken

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

The first FIRST competition I attended was the Canadian Regional (now GTA Regional) in Mississauga three years ago. My first thought was one part rock concert, one part sporting event, one part dance party. Mix with loads of energy and lots of sound and you have something I have got to be involved in!!! :ahh:

I am now embarking on my third season as a mentor/facilitator to Team #63 - The Red Barons. And I am now up to 6 FLL teams that I work with, maybe 7!! We attended a local FLL tourney last weekend. The team next to us in the pits wasn't faring too well. They had no real technical mentor, just several parents with limited knowledge working with them. :eek: So I just had to volunteer to stop in at their next couple of meetings and help them out!!! :rolleyes:

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

I'll give other people a chance to answer, but I'll leave a little hint. They started a company that some FIRSTers might be familiar with...

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

OOOooohhh! OOOOoooohhhh!! OOOOoooohhhh!!! Mr. Kotter! Mr. Kotter! I know! I know!! I know!!!!

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

My first was Deul on the Delaware 2002. However my first main season event would be the Arizona regional of 2003.

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

The first robotics competition that I attended was the duel on the deleware offseason competition in Salem county community college right off of the deleware memorial bridge. This was the replay of the 2003 stack attack game which I found to be extremley awsome and challenging. :D

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

It became too easy once you excluded JVN from the list. There's exactly one group that I know of being located in Greenville, TX (what else is in Greenville, TX?).

Matt

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

L3, one of the largest defense contractors in the nation?
Team 148?

Something else...?

John

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

Ken,
In the stories I've heard, Beatty wins, but only because of a last minute strategic error by Greenville.
(Maybe the story teller was biased).
I guess we know who went on to fame that year!

For the full story, you'd have to ask someone who was there, with a better memory. (Or the video).

I've got my copy of SPI #18 sitting on my bookshelf next to me. What a cool machine.

Ken -- if you exclude me from every contest where I know the answer, I'll never win anything!

John

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

My first was a New York regional that i attended 2 years before i actually joined robotics, my job was team mascot but it was still awsome... ever since i've been hooked!

Story Time:
During the competition there was a round where the judges accidently gave our score to the opponent and our opponents score to us. Dean Kamen was in attendence so I went down and started "chatting" with him about what happened and asked why weren't teams given a round in which they could go to judges and ask them to review the score. He must have taken this into concideration because the next year there appeared a rule allowing this. At home we have a tape of this little argument between him and I which looking back at it is quite amusing seeing myself, less than 5 feet tall wearing a shirt 2 sizes too big arguing with Dean, standing on his Segway, twice the height of me.

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

My first competition was actually this year's Silicon Valley Regional. Unfortunately, I could only make the last day...but from what I had heard from the higher-ups, the competitions were awesome, and I was really excited to see what it would be like. But I had no idea just how awesome it would be. I even volunteered to be the mascot that time...It was fun, despite being the closest I've ever gotten to passing out (man...that thing's hot). We ended up getting 6th place, and I'll never forget that first experience. I absolutely cannot wait for more.

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

I'm glad this thread got revised - it's a fun read.

Would you believe the first FRC tournament I attended was Nationals in Houston in 2003?

But long before that, I attended an FLL tournament at Brewster Elementary School in Rochester, MI in November 2000. My daughter's team, the Dragon Devils, made its debut there in Volcanic Panic. And lo and behold, they managed to qualify for the State tournament. 16 tournaments later, the team retired and several of the girls joined FRC team 1188.

Oh, and the reason we were in Houston? The Dragon Devils were competing in the FLL championships, and took 3rd place Directors Award.

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

My first FIRST competition was this year... :yikes: Wow, it's only been a year. Technically, my first competition was an local off-season called Duel on the Delaware, but that one didn't go very well. There were very few senior members to show us the ropes, so us freshmen just kind of sat around and didn't understand what all the weird pyramids were for. So I will tell you about my second competition, and first true FIRST experience. It was Ramp Riot, another off-season competition. This time, I understood what was going on with the games. Not only that, but there were more members up in the stands that... forcefully... convinced us that cheering was a good thing. At least, they convinced me and some of my friends. Where before there was boredom and lack of understanding, suddenly I saw why competitions would be fun. Not to sound corny or anything, but it brought a side out of me that I used to never show people in public. I danced, cheered, screamed, and had a blast. I could barely talk afterwards, and I was very sore from all the dancing, but I had made some great friends and helped win us the Spirit Award. Ever since, the fire has been lit, and I've loved FIRST and all it stands for.

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

Great Lakes Regional in 1999 (I think... either that or 1998)
It was pretty awesome... still remember it... still have buttons from back then :rolleyes:

wOOt for old threads!

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

The first competition I ever saw was the Arizona Regional in 2003. Our family was good friends with the family of one of the members, and he had been telling me about it and getting me all excited about it, so we came down to see him. I only came for part of Saturday though, so while I finally I got to see these big robots and all these crazy dancing people wearing costumes (I distinctly remember team Cryptonite and 64's Gila Dance there), it didn't prepare me at all for what attending a full regional would be like next year.

2004's Regional was my first true experience since I was there the whole time. We managed to make it to the finals and lose in two to 330's alliance, but we got Sportsmanship, an invitation to Nats, and an award from team 60 (who we all looked up to), so I just loved the whole thing. Ever since coming that close I've wanted to push our robots further and shoot for more.

FIRST competitions are just amazing. I can see why some people would be lost to alot of what is going on if they only come for part of one day, but I honestly think you'd have to walk around with a blindfold and earplugs to be there for a whole competition and not get hooked.

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

My first was the 2003 Great Lakes Regional. It was pretty awesome to have my team win the first competition I ever attended. My only experience before that was of OCCRA competitions the previous fall (2002). No comparison.

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

My first competition experience with FIRST was the Lone Star Regional in Houston. I'd like to back up to the Kick Off. We traveled to Houston to watch it along with other teams from the surrounding area. The travel with the team was great and the Kick Off was inspiring. I wondered what we were about to do. Then build, then competition. The whole process was one eye opening experience after another. At LSR I loved everything from the teams' spirit to the competition itself. But, my heart was in the pits. I loved the pit area. It was so awe inspiring and fun watching the teams work together on the robots and also how they worked with each other. I loved the volunteers and the staff and their enthusiasm and support. And I could dance in the stands like nobody was watching - because they weren't, they were all dancing too! That was the year I went through the stands with pen and paper and wrote down everyone's email address and information and we formed the Parents' Association to help support the team. We've never looked back since - only forward. It's the hardest fun we've ever had.

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

Mine was Buckeye 2003 or GLR 2003, I can't really remember which came first. Feels like so long ago...

It was an eye-opening experience, seeing all the spirit and work involved with the competition. Although I can't remember so much about the actual competition. As a rookie, I was *completely* thrilled to be on the pit team, so I hardly left our 10x10 square... :p

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

I went to the 2004 competition in San Jose. At the time I wasn't aware that that this competition was as large. All I could think of was, "That's really cool." I hadn't ever heard of FIRST. It wasn't until two year later when I joined my high school team that I realized what I had seen, and this made it all the more exciting. :]

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

My first official FIRST competition was the New Jersey Regional this year. It was such an amazing experience, and I met some cool people and had tons of fun. My first unofficial FIRST competition, however, was Duel on the Delaware in 2005. I'm so glad that I attended off seasons, because it helped me to get used to the way an event works and the way everything is run, from our pit schedule to alliance pairings. Also, since we don't do much scouting at off-seasons, some of the veteran members were able to take some time to explain everything that was going on, as opposed to an actual competition where everyone is super busy with their list of things to do.

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

My first robotics competition was the Philadelphia Regional back in 2004.

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

My first was the Saint Louis Regional in 2004. We weren't sure how our robot would run, since we cut off a huge portion of it just a few days before ship (wow, that seems to be a recurring theme with our team...). We ran great and made it into the finals on the 8th seeded alliance but lost in our first round. I spent a lot of time following Ricky around, scouting (both in the stands and in the pits), and trading pins. I also remember being the only girl from our team to be able to come to that regional (we did have two female mentors with us, Mrs. and Paula Vertz, however).

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

Wow, I can't believe that I haven't replied to this thread yet.

My first FIRST competition was the Midwest Regional in 2002. It was still held on Northwestern's campus back then, and had around 50-55 teams. Our team had made several drive changes around and had a nervous rookie driver (see: Myself).

We ended up going out there and having a great time. The robot was one of the quickest ball collector's out there and matched up with the best of them. We managed to seed 3rd and got eliminated in 3 matches in the semi-finals by that dang 2002 Team #71 BEAST machine. But it was a blast.

Some of my greatest memories come from that first competition: Winning the Xerox Creativity Award. Teaming up with WildStang in a qual match and winning 48-47, scoring 111 qualification points for them. Beating TechnoKats in my first showdown with them as almighty Andy Baker was field coach and Austin Butler was driving. And perhaps the best FIRST match of my career, giving up all 3 goals to the 71 alliance in our first semi-match but pulling 2 of the goals and their partner robot back into our home zone with :19 left to win the match.

I also got to see firsthand what FIRST was all about, I met some of my first FIRST friends there and most importantly, I was hooked. I had no idea what it would be like going into the competition, none the less being a rookie driver. It was amazing.

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

2004 NJ regional. I remember the practice rounds ran really late the first day, and the delicious pizza place down the street from the arena. :x

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

My first FIRST comp was the UTC Regional in '99. We had a good 2 days of qualifying rounds and then won with team 19. I was hooked.

Ever since then, it has consumed all of my free time (read: all of my time) and I still have no regrets.

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

My introduction to FIRST came during a work related visit to Deka R&D in early January 1996. Dean Kamen convinced my boss that Emerson should sponsor a team, and I was standing at the right place to get the assignment. The next morning I was at the kickoff, and the next evening I was on a commercial flight home with two extra boxes of checked luggage -- the KOP. When I got back to St. Louis, my first task was to recruit a team! :eek:

My first FIRST competition was the 1996 Championship at Epcot, before teams had permanent numbers. We were called the Arch Rivals -- note the St. Louis theme. :) In the pits we were right next to another midwestern rookie team called the Baxter Bomb Squad. Their history is now storied, while ours ended after the 1997 season. :( Boy was it hot in that tent! And carrying the robot to and from the field made us really wish we had brought a cart!

After that I took four years off from FIRST, starting back again in late 2001 when the St. Louis regional was being organized. 931 was the first and only St. Louis area team in 2002. Now our area is up to 18 teams and still growing. :D

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

My first competition was the New England Tournament at Memorial High School in Manchester, 1995.

After a year of getting used to the whole FIRST experience on Gael Force (Where I didn't really put that much effort in) I treked up on the Clinton bus to go see the action. The competition was amazing, yet primitive...nothing at all like it is today. Two fields layed out in the gymnasium, big television screens for seeing the score and time, and the man in the middle of the field as emcee who "I thought I recognized from somewhere on TV" (Woodie Flowers).

Back then at that competition...there was no music...however schools brought bands to keep things plenty loud. There was no play by play announcing...you pretty much had to figure out what was going on in a match on your own. The gym was packed and very energetic. There were cheers comming from every corner of the gymnasium.

I watched the whole day as the Gael Force robot struggled to even pick up a ball, let lone score up a mile...yet for some reason...this was the coolest thing I had ever experienced.

I remember having to leave right after our last match (I believe it was the only one we would end up winning) and thinking to myself..."yeah, I want to do this next year...and next year I want to be down on that field!"

Of course, the next year, I was.

Walking into that gym last year for River Rage sent chills up my spine. I didn't know back then how much of an effect that day would have on the rest of my life..and seeing it all again brought back alot of amazing memories.

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

The first competitions that I attended, in order, were the 2005 Duel on the Delaware, followed by Ramp Riot, and then Brunswick Eruption 4*.
However, the first actual "official" FIRST competition that I attended was the '06 New Jersey Regional. To then be followed by the Las Vegas Regional and the Championships. :)

*BE 5 is going to be off the [drive] chain. Be there.

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

My first competition was the UTC scrimmage at South Windsor High School in 1997... Way back when the robots ran off of 2 drill batteries..

I couldn't believe how different every team's robot was! It was quite amazing to watch them glide around the field and fumble to pick up the toroids...

I don't recall who won or any specific events (besides a few random robots falling over, which was spectacular), but i knew i had to be a part of it. Coming up on 10 years later, I'm still hooked.

I can agree with Andy when he commented on how he had no idea how much effect the first FIRST competition would effect the rest of his life. I don't know where i would be, or what i would be doing right now without FIRST, it really is a life changing organization!

Tom

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

My first FIRST competition was the 2006 Finger Lakes Regional. I had a really great time. It was a whirlwind experience for me, but I do remember a few points:
1.) I had to go in and be interviewed for the Chairman's Award, which was really nerve wracking,
2.) The guy selling Ben & Jerry's ice cream was really nice,
3.) I liked a lot of the music that was played,
4.) People on my team started painting faces/limbs/hair,
5.) I think we almost killed the drive team with a stampede,
6.) And for some reason I remember I dropped the blinking paw light that the X-Cats were giving out on the floor and then it didn't work. But I still have it. :)

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

Brunswick Eruption '05... I remember not knowing what to expect and as a pre-rookie team member, if I could be called that, I remember being really bored because I didn't have anything to do. But my 3rd competition, Palmetto Regional '06, I was busy every day, all the time! Just goes to show that if you just throw yourself into the team and do your best to get involved, you can really play a crucial role! (*cough* SCOUTING!!!!! *cough*) :D .

The Canuck

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

My first FIRST competition was the Pittsburg Regional in 2004 where it was there that I really got hooked on to FIRST. It was one of the best times I had ever experienced up to that point in my life. But the best FIRST competition that I have attended would have to be the Buckeye Regional in 2006 when my dad attended who had been helping out the team and now I think he is hooked to FIRST also!

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

The first competition I ever went to wasn't one my team competed in; we went to Pittsburgh in 2005 on that Saturday to watch and get an idea of what to expect the next week at Chesapeake. I remember (and will always remember) the overwhelming noise and the feeling of awe when I walked in at the top of the stadium and looked down in the middle of a match. It was incredible.

The first competition I competed in was the following weekend, at Chesapeake. It was an insane amount of fun, and I remember barely needing sleep or rest at all that weekend...until the car ride home. :cool:

Re: Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?
 

The first one was the last day of the FLR 2005 Regional as a viewer. The FIRST regional that I competed was FLR 2006. It was amazing though being at both. Being right besides the field and meeting new friends along the way was great.