Side Events at Nationals
 

Just wondering, what are the odds of having side events for your team to compete in at Nat's.
Such as:

-Most Tetras capped in an allotted time frame
-Fastest Robot
-Robot agility Course

Can you guys think of any others

these would add to the excitement of nationals and even showcase certain aspects of teams robots that might get missed otherwise what are your feelings? May be if we get big enough of a following FIRST will consider it, may be not for this year but for the future or even as some sort of alternate qualifying means at regional events.

Re: Side Events at Nationals
 

Chariot races. I know they have been done in the past. For all those unfamiliar with chariot races, Teams tether to their robots and have a driver sit on the cart while the robot is on the ground. There are usually two other people who push the cart too keep up with the robot. It is a drag race to the finish line. It doesn't really matter who wins, it just looks cool, and it ia a lot of fun. Usually, it is done once robots are eliminated from the competition.

Re: Side Events at Nationals
 

I think it would be cool if there was a giant East Coast-West Coast tug of war. The coast that wins gets free one conscession stand item because it is expensive.

Re: Side Events at Nationals
 

That would be extremely cool. Just get a big metal ring with lots of ropes with carribeaners attatched to it. Then everyone could have a loop of rope ready to go on their robot. Then everyone would come hook up and then tether up their robot and pull. It would be cool to see like 20 robots pulling against 20 other robots.

Re: Side Events at Nationals
 

you also need to figure out what team would be in charge of each team. but that would be way too cool.

Re: Side Events at Nationals
 

You could do some kind of 5v5 tournement

Re: Side Events at Nationals
 

Chariots would be awesome. We built a clone of this years robot for practice/promotion, and I believe there's a few other teams who either built identical robots, or very similar robots. Obviously, we need a battle of the clones.

Re: Side Events at Nationals
 

how about best pusher?

Re: Side Events at Nationals
 

What about highest capping ability?

Re: Side Events at Nationals
 

Let me guess, Team 11, are you very proud of your drivetrain, and Team 234, do you have an abnormally high robot? While a competition like this would be fun, they should be kindof off the wall things, instead of just glorified awards, more like a game, and less an award for what teams have already built. Just my take.

Re: Side Events at Nationals
 

i think that is an awesome idea but then there would probably need to be a 4th day of competition added to nationals for these skills tests. since teams are usually working on their robots when they are not in a match then you couldnt do it in between matches. so a 4th day would be the only way it would work i think.

Re: Side Events at Nationals
 

Actually I don't really think of our robot as being abnormally tall, all I was saying that i thought it would be kind of cool to see how tall some of the robots could go.

Re: Side Events at Nationals
 

well how about the highest capper than?

Re: Side Events at Nationals
 

Think about 71's robot in 2002 for the tug o' war...

Re: Side Events at Nationals
 

Yes, I wanted to see a highest capper award at Regionals...and yes, 894 can cap super high.

I remember being in the pits and someone had a sign that said "12'8'' - High Stacker" and I kinda wondered if that's high, cuz ours can go like 20 feet.

If anyone at the Great Lakes Regional remembers the shipping room...

http://www.chargersrobotics.com/stuff/higharm.jpg

yes, that's our arm touching the ceiling. :D

Re: Side Events at Nationals
 

yeah i remember in 2002 the guys on the team i was with decided to take part in those little side events. the coach was not to happy when he saw what was going on espicially since he told them no after the first time they asked =( . In any case the tug of war was cool and fun.


How about best robot dance.

Re: Side Events at Nationals
 

We could get all the teams to donate some parts and have a one day robot build off. We would then need to create a field and we could have a compition between one day robots and six-week robots

Re: Side Events at Nationals
 

That seems perty fun I'd be willing to participate in a one day robot build off, may be play some qualifying matches between them and have the winning seed play the 6-week robots

Re: Side Events at Nationals
 

How about Robot Jousting? Straddle your robot (if possible) and use those safe friendly pool noodles as jousting sticks. I guess you could also have the robot pull the cart.

Re: Side Events at Nationals
 

Yeah, I heard of the more senior members of the team talking about chariot races in the beginning of the year (me, being a freshman, knew next to nothing about first, so I just thought of it as something they usually do, nothing special), now that I have been to my first two regionals (SPBLI and Hartford), I'm thinking how cool a chariot race would be. Also, I think a tractor pull-like contest would be cool as well, maybe even a tractor push contest, which would, of course, be a contest of torque, which my bot' has plenty of.

Re: Side Events at Nationals
 

We want to keep it safe :yikes:

Re: Side Events at Nationals
 

They could do a vision tetra search and who ever got it in the quickest time won.

Re: Side Events at Nationals
 

I guess its pretty high, most teams (in my opinion) did not plan on capping the center goal or something becuase most robots could barely cap it with 1 + tetras on it already. Our robot is roughly 12 ft, it wouldda been higher had we not had to remove a 4ft (either 3 or 4, lol) section of our arm to make weight.

Re: Side Events at Nationals
 

Ouch...gotta hate having to make weight. We drilled holes in the side of the arm and cut corners off lexan(or is it lexon?).

Re: Side Events at Nationals
 

You know how they have tractor pulls, why not do it with robots. see what robot can drag the most amount of weight

Or have like a robot soccer match, like 3vs3 or 4vs4 match.

Re: Side Events at Nationals
 

I would love a highest capper contest. Two robots could take turns stacking on the center goal, whoever gets the last cap wins. I also think a speed capping contest would be good. A lot of robots can cap, but some can do it incredibly fast.......oooooh, one more idea. A weightlifting contest, see whose arm can support and lift the most weight.

Re: Side Events at Nationals
 

Do you mean to the tetra, or capping the tetra?

Re: Side Events at Nationals
 

I mean Capping a a big tetra after picking the vision up in Autonomous

Re: Side Events at Nationals
 

A ROBOT tug of war. wewt.