CT and MA Area Teams
 

This is mostly for any teams in the CT and MA areas, but anyone who is interested can get information too, as always :D

Aces High team 176 from Windsor Locks and Suffield will be holding its annual pre-shipping scrimmage at Suffield High School in, you guessed it, Suffield, CT On Feb. 19th, 2005. Yes, just days before shipping!

We have sent out invitations to teams who have registered and participated in years past, and we still have room to expand.

As usual we will have an official FIRST field, however, this year we are asking a $50 registration fee. Sorry guys! Only $50 to see how your robot will function in the real competition ;)

Food will be available in the facility too. Mmmm, food... it will probably be most of the stuff you had six in the previous six weeks, but it is food!

You can reply to this post to let me know if you are interested, or you can have your team e-mail me at FIRSTgirl15@gmail.com

It would probably help if you knew who I was, huh? This is Janine Fournier, a senior on the Aces High team. Hope to hear from y'all soon!

Re: CT and MA Area Teams
 

You said CT and MA, but somehow managed to forget the little state sandwiched between the two.... What about the 3 Rhodey teams? ;)

Dave

Re: CT and MA Area Teams
 

State? We're an actaul state?!? Oh man, I thought we were like Peurto Rico . . . man, that's a kick to the brain . . .

But yeah, are we like the outcast kid that's never invited to the cool kid's table? :D

Re: CT and MA Area Teams
 

121 will be there instead of quincy this year for two reasons. UTC Scrimage is an official field and the matches are structured not just a free for all. See everyone there.

Re: CT and MA Area Teams
 

RAGE will be there! We've had it on our calendar for a long time now... this is always a lot of fun, a great way to test out your robot/human players/drive team... Thank you Aces High for hosting this event again for us!

Re: CT and MA Area Teams
 

lol, sorry to anyone who felt left out. If your team is willing to drive in, you are welcomed to come! I guess we made ourselves look silly in thinking that it was only teams nearby that would want to drive it.

More contact information

Leslie Marx is the mentor on my team taking care of invites and the teams who are coming so feel free to e-mail her also at rkqmom@cox.net

Basically, if you have not received an invite, sent an e-mail to her and, as I mock the great Yoda, much information you will receive. :cool:

And by the way... A cool kid table exists in the world of FIRST? Bah, no way!

Re: CT and MA Area Teams
 

The UTC scrimmage is very well put together; Aces puts on a great event! If your team can drive it; I'd highly recommend attending.

Re: CT and MA Area Teams
 

I agree that everyone should listen to Erin!!! lol

Thanks for the support!!

:D

Re: CT and MA Area Teams
 

Ouch thats a low blow.

Re: CT and MA Area Teams
 

Just out of curiosity, since we will be recieving our team LED's at our first regional event what should we do for the scrimmage ? should we bring last years led's ? Rather will the competition system allow for us to run the robot without the proper led's?

Re: CT and MA Area Teams
 

I would say bring your old led's just to be on the safe side. Good question though, especially since everything is set up through FIRST including the scoring system I believe.

Re: CT and MA Area Teams
 

I would be prepaired to bring last years LED's since this is not a first regional event.
Bob
:eek: :cool:

Re: CT and MA Area Teams
 

I'm thinking of bring my team and bot even if its a long haul from New York City. I was wondering how many teams are showing up as of now, and when can we register till. We have a problem of unfinished robots that have kept us from attending scrimmages in the past but this year looks to be shaping up differently. *crosses fingers*

Re: CT and MA Area Teams
 

As of the e-mail we received last night, there are twenty teams competing in the UTC Scrimmage this year. Organizers are suggesting we bring LEDs from last year. If you PM me I will put you in touch with Team Organizers...

Re: CT and MA Area Teams
 

Sorry, I was mistaken. I love the fact that there are two scrimmages going on for the New England Area. This is why us New England teams do so well in the real comps. Looks like 121 will be sending a scout group to UTC Scrimmage and the robot to Quincy. I will be leading the scout group so I'll see everyone there.

(quincy has great food btw:) )

Re: CT and MA Area Teams
 

Team 716 will be attending the UTC scrimmage. In past years it has been very valuable for us to get a chance to practice, test, and redesign when necessary. :)
This is an awesome event and I encourage teams to attend. Even if all you can bring is an old robot, a partially completed robot, or a prototype robot, you will get a better idea of what the game will be like, give you an upper hand on your strategy, and find out what aspects of your robot will need improving. It is a good way to see where your robot's design limits lie... because it is better to break your robot now, than it is to break it later when you wont have much time to redesign.

I hope to see more teams attend this event than I have in the past!

Re: CT and MA Area Teams
 

Even though 782 won't be competing in this years competition (it's been a hard 6 weeks of withdrawl) I will be there to get my fix. What time does it start/end?

Thanks!

-Jamie

Re: CT and MA Area Teams
 

Yeah...we'll be there...last year we learned about some very important things that needed to be fixed on our robot, and the experience in a competition setting is extremely valuable.

That and it's fun :-D.

Re: CT and MA Area Teams
 

8 am to 5 pm I believe...

88 will be there... The first time in our existance that we have had a working robot in 5 weeks... technically 4 becasue we missed a week of school/build due to snow...

WOOT!!!

Re: CT and MA Area Teams
 

Yup, the scrimmage will be from 8am to about 4-5 pm

Can't wait to see y'all there!!!

-J9

Re: CT and MA Area Teams
 

I personally can't wait, 2 more days and then RAGE will be there to defend our back to back title. Too bad we couldn't threepeat with the same robot. LOL.

Out of curiosity how many teams will be attending this year? I heard it was around 27 or so.

Re: CT and MA Area Teams
 

Even though we aren't competing we were thinking of borrowing "Marsha Bee", last years robot, doing a few mods, and putting her into the off-season competitions. But other things came up and we didn't have the time. Think if we replaced her suction cup with a neumatic grabber and changed the arm actuator motors with something alittle faster (versus the van door motor in there now) we would do pretty well, except for the fact none us have practiced on a field or know any of the rules in detail.

Its a tradgedy Watkinson wouldn't work with us to bring us into our 4th year with a bang -- but I guess all good things come to an end. I will see you all at RIT Fingerlakes (my new school next year, I'm so stoked) and at UTC Hartford as a voulenteer/spectator.

I can't wait -- I might not be competing, but i'm not out.

Good luck you guys! See you there!

Re: CT and MA Area Teams
 

If possible could a list of teams competing and a time schedule be posted. I looked at last years schedule and assume it will be the same. Practice from 8-10 then matches, lunch, picking, finals? Also directions coming from 95 (from RI) would be great too!

Re: CT and MA Area Teams
 

There are 29 teams attending this year.

As far as a schedule, team list, and directions from RI - I will attempt to post that before the end of the night tonight (Thursday).




Are we there yet?

Re: CT and MA Area Teams
 

Woo-hoo! I cannot wait for this weekend. We have gone (counting this year) 3 out of the past 4 years )and the one year we did not go is the year we dont talk about :( ) but everytime I have gone has been a blast and I am sure no doubt this year will be the same it is so nice to see all the robots and all of the hard work that people have put into it and all the new designs that they have thought of. No doubt we will be working late Friday in order to make sure everything is all set and packed so we can leave bright and early Saturday. Just a few more tweaks and we are there!


Just think only 4 more days without sleep W00T (as I take my last swig of my 7th red bull since school started :ahh: )

Re: CT and MA Area Teams
 

The teams registered for the scrimmage are: 571, 173, 195, 1124, 1524, 230, 190, 176, 663, 228, 181, 178, 716, 1350, 839, 1071, 521, 1058, 175, 1373, 1027,999, 38, 809, 1099, 236, 694, 88

I believe that the schedule is still tenative.

And lastly, the directions from Rhode Island should be:

4: Merge onto I-95 S toward WESTERLY.

5: Take the CT-85 exit- EXIT 82- toward WATERFORD/BROAD ST.

6: Turn RIGHT onto CT-85 N/HARTFORD TURNPIKE/HARTFORD RD. Continue to follow CT-85 N.

7: Turn LEFT onto CT-82/E HADDAM RD.

8: Merge onto CT-11 N toward COLCHESTER/HARTFORD.

9: CT-11 N becomes CT-2 W.

10: Merge onto US-6 W/I-84 W via EXIT 2W toward I-91 N.

11: Merge onto I-91 N via EXIT 51 toward SPRINGFIELD.

12: Merge onto CT-20 W via EXIT 40 toward BRADLEY INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT.

13: Turn RIGHT onto Old County Rd.

14. Follow Old County Rd. until you come to the stop sign in front of Dunkin Donut then turn left towards Rt. 75

15. At the light turn RIGHT.

16. Turn LEFT onto 168 in Suffield.

17. Continue on 168 until you come upto Sheldon St. which will be a left.

18. The school will come up on your RIGHT.

Hopefully those directions will get you there and we will have our road signs up and visable.

Anyone can doubte check me on that. See y'all later!

-J9

Re: CT and MA Area Teams
 

We are Webcasting the Scrimmage again this year. (As well as the UTC Regional) if anyone wants to tune in from afar find a link on the Gaelhawks website- (Team 230)

http://www.shsrobotics.org/05/index.htm

We'll be putting a link on the home page sometime today, but it wont be active 'till Sat Morning.

Pass it on and/or link to our site from yours if you please. (Especially the wonderful Scrimmage Hosts- Ace's High - 176. Since people may visit your site for info!)

See you there!

Re: CT and MA Area Teams
 

Wow, I can't wait for the scrimmage tomorrow! I work at P&W this year so I'll be "refereeing" the event. Good, the scrimmage marks the beginning of competition season (my favorite season of the year). I live in the town adjacent to Suffield, CT (I live in Enfield, CT right now) so if you need any tips on what there is to do in CT... I'll break it to you early: there is Nothing to do in CT (except I know where the local restaurants are).

Looking forward to it! :)

Re: CT and MA Area Teams
 

Erin is WRONG. There IS stuff to do in CT - You can always come and hang out with RAGE! :D

Please let your non-engineering mentors know that there will be a NEMO table set up where they can join NEMO. See everyone tomorrow!

Re: CT and MA Area Teams
 

Sadly, Team 195 will not be sending their 2005 robot to the UTC scrimmage this year. We are sending last years robot with our secondary arm mounted on it, and not our 2005 robot that will be used in the competitions. Most of our team will be there, but a few will stay back to work on the real robot. Hope you have a lot of fun (I'm staying back to work on the 2005 bot!) Just wait until you see what we have in store for the UTC regional... :D

Re: CT and MA Area Teams
 

Is anybody else not able to get team 230's webcast? It says they will start broadcasting at 0900 but it is 0940 and I am still not getting anything? Just curious if it is something wrong on my end or something on theirs?

Re: CT and MA Area Teams
 

Yeah. When I click the link from the home page, I get a page that says:
When I enter the link in the href attribute into my browser (Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041107 Firefox/1.0) manually, Windows Media Player attempts to open it but encounters an "unknown error".

ON EDIT: Tried it in Internet Explorer. Clicking the link from the Main Page brought up Windows Media Player, which returned the following error message: "Windows Media Player cannot connect to the server. The server name may be incorrect or the server is busy. Try again later."

Re: CT and MA Area Teams
 

It seems that the problem has been fixed - works now. (I used IE.)

Re: CT and MA Area Teams
 

I should have gone... I just slept in and missed my ride... By like 5 minutes... and they were a quarter of a mile down the road... and wouldn't wait/pick me up... I was so mad and upset... This is so bad... :0( :0( fine I guess I'll just have to save all my energy for BAE Regional...

Comp looks good though...

Re: CT and MA Area Teams
 

We had an AWESOME time today! It was great seeing everyone's different robot designs and game strategies, and seeing people we haven't seen since last season.


Good luck to everyone in the upcoming season! :D

Re: CT and MA Area Teams
 

Nice job to all the teams who attended today.

From ACES HIGH's point of view the scrimmage went off beautifully and as usual everyone got to work out a few kinks.

I hope that it worked out just as well for everyone else :D

I guess this is the point where I will leave this thread open for any comments and suggestions that y'all may have in regards to the scrimmage setup so that it may be bigger and better for the 2006 season!

Get some sleep everyone! :p

-J9

Re: CT and MA Area Teams
 

The scrimmage was a blast and very well run. The only suggestion I would have for in the future would be to try to make the announcers a little bit clearer. It sounded very echoy and undistinct at the competion. It might just be an acousitics thing you can't fix, but sometimes it was a little bit hard to hear what was going on.

Then again, I was usually so focused on the game I wasn't listening anyway
:rolleyes:

Re: CT and MA Area Teams
 

Was there a scoring system ready for the scrimmage? I didn't see the usual win/loss/ranking screens or a score projected in the gym like the last couple years.

Re: CT and MA Area Teams
 

Yes, we noticed the scoring and acoustics issues. Love the music; impossible to hear the announcing over it!

Also, lesson learned - check your tables when you arrive BEFORE you put your robot on them. Make sure the legs are locked into place. Ours collapsed, narrowly missing people's feet under it, and narrowly missing hitting them in the head as the robot went down. Fortunately no one was injured.

Also, some organization tips - your registration table needs to be better marked; everyone was coming to me at the NEMO table. It might be good to make up a flyer explaining the game and FIRST program, or provide FIRST brochures or something for visitors and post them somewhere where visitors would find it. I spoke at length with someone who had simply seen this advertised online (or in the paper?) and I had no materials with me about FIRST to give to her that would better explain the program [make note to self, pack some with me for UTC regional].