Something I noticed from all regionals....
 

A small observation I noticed from opinions and recollections from each regional competition. Although technically its not part of the actual competition itself, it seems that all the team parties at each regional was not as fun as past dances by far. Everyone has complained about the team parties, if it wasn't one thing, it was another. But I am guilty of the same whining, I thought the Philly regional party was a huge dive. Adults wouldn't even let the teens grind or dance closely, cuz it seemed "inappropriate." So any good reviews of a team party? Cuz it looks like all the team parties, for a lack of better word, sucked.

But lets all make sure the Florida party is incredible! Especially for all the seniors (like myself), lets go all out! Its our last year anyways (as high schoolers)!!!! Party at my hotel!! I'll make sure to go out of my way that everyone has a good time. later ya'll

I say every regional needs sumo wrestling. :D

I was at the parties in Cleveland and San Jose, and they did have their ups and downs. My only problem with the Cleveland party was that all they served was... pasta... garlic bread... cookies... and punch [to me, not much of a selection]. But they did have enough food, if only that, and they did open the entire (practically) Rock & Roll Hall of Fame to us, and there was the live band, and a bunch of other stuff. San Jose's party was pretty cool too, the location wasn't anything special like at cleveland, but they had good burgers, and chicken, sodas, etc. Also especially memorable was the aforementioned sumo wrestling ring, and there was the inflatable obstacle course, the huge twister game, the weird tricycles, lots of ice cream... they just took the sodas away too early, and some teams weren't able to stay for the entire party. It was somewhat thin at 10pm...

Then again, maybe I'm just lucky that the two parties were pretty good. Or I missed a lot. :p

That's my two cents, I'll see you in Florida. Maybe Disney will have sumo wrestling...

MMR
 

The team party at MMR was by far better than last year. This year it was at Windy City Sports Complex which was a switch from whereever it was last year. It was a good forty minute drive from our hotel but it was pretty much worth it. The only thing was, there was nowhere to dance! A few kids from my team tried to get everyone dancing but we were pushed out of the way by relay-racers and stuff! But still, it was a good time (and much better than last years!)

- Katie

The team party in LA was fun. While it was nothgin terribly special, it was in a pretty small area so we got to meet a lot of new people. Unlike San Jose, we had a really fun DELUXE obstacle course, and sumo. The food was pretty good as well. I think the best part of the whole regional was watching all the FIRST crew sumo each other. It was such a blast and the staff there were cool when we wanted to gang up on mike couch and take him down when we were nto in sumo suits. Dima, i hope you got pictures! All in all, the LA party was fun!

New Haven Rocked
 

New Haven (UTC Regional) this weekend was awesome, there was some technical difficulties with the music for a little while but othe than that the music and the people there were great. Grinding was definately not banned lol.
Some thing we found out were: some glowsticks burn when you rub the contents of them on your face, there was a lot of awesome soccer jugglers/hackey sack players at the regional, soccer balls deflate slightly when you play a competition over an ice rink, even when you get to a competition 15 minutes before the doors open you still get lousy seats, athe the team party you get surrounded by people of the opposite sex for doing the stupid dance you can think of, and the number one thing I learned at UTC this weekend is, teaching people to do the happy dance(R) correctly is hard!

w icked
 

Wicked Part at the Canadian regional, you did all you wanted, glowsticks, moshpits and grinding, lol it was up to the teens to have fun, the adults went to the main arena to watch K-pax.
All I wish for is more techno music, there was too much rap stuff :)
It still was a grat party.

Martin
907

VCU wasn't really a party ... it was food, and then entertainment .... and then bad music and no one there. I have to say though, that whole hypnotism bit was quite funny.

The SV party seemed pretty good to me. Good selection of food, and entertainment.

The LA party didn't convince me... but, wow, there were some good sumo matches there! ;)

i dont know if its because im older now, but i do agree that the parties arent as cool as they used to be

the best ever was my freshman year, my team went to philly, they had philly cheese steak sandwhiches, they gave you sunglasses and tshirts at the door (it was a men in black theme) and so all the people were in suits and sunglasses and the dances from the men in black video were there dancing amongst the crowd, and on the stage

Quite, howabout EXTREMLY funny!!! That was the best part. Nothing else seemed that good (they should have brought the singers to the field durring dinner, they were good.)

Remember, if you...

a.) don't know how to dance
b.) love rides
c.) don't like your team
d.) just like Test Track

sign up for the Test Track Ride-A-Thon for the team party. We will ride all night long. But i'll have to check those glow sticks at The Living Seas first :). I wonder if they'll have Innoventions open? RAID THE SEGWAY EXHIBIT!!!!

I HAD FUN
 

Hey I'm ashleigh from team 128.
I think the parties were not as great as the past years. But i htink you need to make the best of it. You can only make things enjoyable by your adittued! so for Fl I will think it is going ot be bad and then maybe I will have a blast! I hope to see some of you down there I will help you have a fun time! Learn from me nad your last year will be a great one to end on! tlak to you later!

my team went to VCU and NYC to scout and competed at LI and UTC (wow, a lot of abbreviations) The parties deffinately could have been better. they played too much rap. at UTC we decided to go back to the motel and hang out instead of staying at the party. there were some kids from other long island teams staying at the same motel, so we just hung out till 4am and then had to wake up at 6 to go back to the competition. i'm definately looking forward to the party at disney though, it should be better, right? i hope so.

I was at a couple team parties...One was at the Great Lakes Regional...It was ok - there were a lot of blow-up mazes and stuff, but there were only a few that were worth doing and the lines for them were like 30 mins each.

There was a 'DJ' there that had a stereo and some music, altho I would bet the stereo on my computer here is more powerful than what they had. Oh and the food (if thats what it was) was kinda nasty....But besides waiting in line forever it wasnt bad.

The other party I was at was the Canadian Regional...It was a HUGE MuchMusic (MTV) Video Dance party...4 huge screens on the wall. The food here was good too.

The dance was really good, Much Music puts on good parties - they know what they're doing....

Basically Great Lakes Party was like 6/10....The CR was easily an 8 or 9/10.

I never stay for the parties. I have a better time at home with my non-robotics friends.

^--Looser :p Comon, why don't you stay and hang around w/ all the other dorks in FIRST? (J/K!!)

Ya, I wasn't there for the GLR party, but i was there for the CR party, and that was so cool! The food was good, and the music was about 50/50. I liked the moshes-if you want to call them that. Ever been to a Korn concert...

i vote we all rent our own sumo suits and have a sumo mosh pit in epcot

Indeed it was Adam. Highly amusing.
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,9,10,...11
:D :D
That dude ruled!

Wetzel


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And when I snap my fingers, you will be very cold....

Hrrm? Test track ride-a-thon? Sounds like fun!

I sure as hell can't dance...So Test Track it is!

Re: Something I noticed from all regionals....
 

WELL YALL PARTY JUST PLAINED SUCKED...THE ONES WE HAD IN MI WERE A LIL BETTER THEN YALLS, ADULTS WERE ON THE FLOOR GRINDIN AND STUFF AND DANCING CLOSELY WITH US STUDENTS AND ALL THE HITS AND SOON TO BE HITS WERE PLAYED, IT WAS A MIX OF TECHNO, HIP-HOP, R&B, RAP, AND ROCK...BUT WHAT SUCKED AT OURS IS THAT OUR REQUESTS DIDNT GET PLAYED AND NOT MANY OTHER ACTIVITIES BESIDES DANCING WERE AVAILABLE...THE LASER TAG LINES WERE SUPER LONG AND ALL THE OTHER FUN STUFF HAD SUPER LONG LONG LONG LINES...THATS ABOUT IT

doesn't matter anyways, no more team parties, only "team socials." no dancing....

i think the whole team social idea sucks. they should just have it no moshing or crowd surfing, or other equally stupid things. then we're all not screwed over because of the actions of a small number of stupid idiots. it's not even that i like to dance, but it's better than sitting around. i can sit around at home. bah, parties are going to really suck this year...

I dont think FIRST has control over it. I think it is the insurance companies or something like that. Oh well, I don't go to them anyways.

They never played any Metallica. They didn't even have Metallica when I asked. What's up with that?

No grinding? How dare they suppress teenage overt sexuality!

Yeah, I have never been really fond of the parties either. The only Mid Atlantic Regional party I went to was in 2000, and I ended up playing cards in the lounge area, and haven't been back since. In 2000 at Nats, all I did was grab something to eat before I had to head back to PA. In 2001 & 2002, I went on Hunny I Shrunk the Audience then had to catch my bus. This year, I might have enjoyed it more, but I had to have an almost hour long interview before I could go to the party. I don't think I would miss them. However, after reading this thread, some Regionals have really cool partys, including laser tag and stuff.

For some strange reason the ice for the sodas at the LA Regional party had a bunch of leaves in it. Also, there was some bit about no sodas available after 9 pm. What's up with that? I wait 40 mins in line for the inflatable obstacle course race, dash through it as fast as I can, lose the race to some little kid, and then I'm really thirsty and there's nothing to drink!!!!

Sumo was pretty cool though. The rest was like ehhh - I could be home watching The Simpsons.

well, it seems the east coast parties sucked a lot compared to the west coast ones. just crap djs (apparently all they had was rap, ick) and somewhat edible food. otherwise, it was like, not even worth going. at NYC, i'm pretty sure we got in trouble for playing hackey sack, but then one of our team members kicked the ball into the celling (don't ask how). we did have a nice argument with team 19 about lexan though, which was quite interesting :D.

The party at LI wasn't much fun. I got to play with glow sticks for a while and dance on the speakers with my friend Michelle, but the whole thing was just blah. I apologize for the obnoxious boy running around trying to dance with all the girls. That would be an ex-member of my team, who no one really likes at all.