2005 Canada's Wonderland FIRST Robotics Off-Season Event
 

I really enjoyed canada last year, will there be a spring event this year?

JIm Schddelee
team 107 holland christian / metal flow

Re: canada wonderland 2005 ?
 

There will be another Canada's Wonderland event this year! It will be held on September 24th. Similar to last year, all those who register will gain admittance to the theme park for both the Saturday and Sunday. It'll be a blast.

For more information, contact Canadian Regional Director Vance Scott through one of the methods listed here.

Registration is already open, so hurry before it's too late!

Re: canada wonderland 2005 ?
 

Is there a page on the wonderland event anywhere? With cost and other such details?

Re: canada wonderland 2005 ?
 

There is no page up as of yet. I'll confirm the details tomorrow, but here's what I know for now...

Date: September 24th, 2005
Cost: $300 CAD ($250 USD) + $30 Park admission for each team member. (Note normal park admission is $50 and is only for one day. These $30 tickets are good for two days!!)
Payment: Make a cheque payable to CASR (Canadian Association for Student Robotics) and mail it to Vance Scott. Contact information available here.

We're hoping to run a 24 team event. The September date was chosen because it provides a wonderful opportunity for teams to recruit new members.

I hope to see you all there!

Re: canada wonderland 2005 ?
 

I'll see if I can get 772 there, I'm not ready for the season to be over yet!!! :D

The only thing that might keep us from going is that many key people including myself will be off at university, but since it's on a weekend it might be okay.

Re: canada wonderland 2005 ?
 

Is there a limit to how many teams can register? I hope I can manage to get Team 1006 there, from what I;ve heard it's an awesome event, and c'mon, Emcee Extraodinaire Karthik Kanagasabapathy will be there! :ahh:

Re: canada wonderland 2005 ?
 

I'd like to say, I came to watch the Wonderland event last year, and had a blast. What a creative way to make sure the kids have a great time, by having the event in a theme park! I thought it was well planned, and I certainly enjoyed myself. Kudos to all those who plan this event. I hope the participants this year have just as great of a time as I had last year!

And hey, Karthik sang to me! Which was... interesting. Oh, and I got Brandon Martus to ride the Merry Go Round with me. Thanks for a fond memory, too. :)

Re: canada wonderland 2005 ?
 

So is that interesting in a kind of way or in a kind of way? ;)

Re: canada wonderland 2005 ?
 

Definately the second and that is being generous

Re: canada wonderland 2005 ?
 

The event sounds like a lot of fun, however I just wanted to share something that I read this morning in the newspaper to those US teams considering attending. (Someone correct me if this is wrong) According to the State News, as of this past Tuesday, "the US departments of State and Homeland Security introcued... which will require citizens from the United States, Canada, Mexico and Bermuda to have passports or certain other documents to enter or re-enter the United States." So just as a forewarning to US teams interested in going, make sure your students get passports early!

Re: canada wonderland 2005 ?
 

For those who are unfamiliar with Canada's Wonderland, here is a link:

http://www.canadas-wonderland.com/at...st.cfm?rt_id=1

It's like having a FIRST competition at a Six Flags!

-SlimBoJones...

Re: canada wonderland 2005 ?
 

I wonder what my schedule will be like, and if I can take a trip north...

Wetzel

Re: canada wonderland 2005 ?
 

We went to the Championships and didn't have any problems with students that didn't have passports. I know that by December 31st everyone has to have a passport and that they like it when students have them but teams shouldn't have problems when they pass the border until then.

Our team is going and can't wait hopefully this year we will be able to win it :p

Hafize

Re: 2005 Paramount Canada's Wonderland FIRST Robotics Invitational
 

Just a reminder to teams that space is filling up quickly for this great event. All interested teams should get signed up as soon as possible.

All the details are available here. A list of the registered teams is available here.

There are plans for a skills competition much like last years, of which the details will be released shortly.

What more could you really want, two days in an amazing theme park, plus a FIRST competition? It sounds too good to be true to me. I look forward to seeing you all there!!

-------------

As for the issues about American citizens requiring passports, according to the US State Department, passports will be required for all air and sea travel to and from Canada as of December 31st, 2006. Passports will be required for all land travel to and from Canada as of December 31st, 2007. So, American teams considering the Wonderland Off-Season event, or the 2006 Waterloo and Greater Toronto Regional will not have to concern themselves with this issue.

Re: 2005 Canada's Wonderland FIRST Robotics Off-Season Event
 

SWAT is officially going to be there, so watch out, Karthik!

Re: canada wonderland 2005 ?
 

Definitely. My girlfriend lives in Canada (more specifically, Niagara Falls), and having a passport definitely makes border-crossing much easier! :D

Re: canada wonderland 2005 ?
 

One more day to Canada's Wonderland!

I still can't get over it... a FIRST competition in a theme park!

Best Idea EVER

Re: 2005 Canada's Wonderland FIRST Robotics Off-Season Event
 

I know Canada FIRST committee has put a lot of time into planning this offseason. Good luck to every single committee member and the volunteers who worked day and night to get this thing together. :)

Re: 2005 Canada's Wonderland FIRST Robotics Off-Season Event
 

We (SWAT) were wondering if there will be an area to practice driving, as we just got our 2005 robot functional and have not had any time for our new drivers to practice.

And we will have an extra kilt handy.

Thanks!

Re: 2005 Canada's Wonderland FIRST Robotics Off-Season Event
 

yay for wonderland!!!!!!! i'm so excited for it...except the waking up early part...at least we live close by-ish so i don't have to get up as early as some teams!!!!

hmm i wonder what that would be for :rolleyes: hehe

Re: 2005 Canada's Wonderland FIRST Robotics Off-Season Event
 

There is no space for practice driving,sorry. There are a lot of new drivers at this event and even a team that borrowed a robot and this will be their first time at a FIRST event.

Re: 2005 Canada's Wonderland FIRST Robotics Off-Season Event
 

That's okay... it's good to know that we're not alone.

I'm really excited... it should be awesome!

Re: 2005 Canada's Wonderland FIRST Robotics Off-Season Event
 

Good luck to all teams there...hopefully its a great comp!

Re: 2005 Canada's Wonderland FIRST Robotics Off-Season Event
 

thanks -- yeah, was a great competition!

haha, they should have like FIRST events everyday -- haha, I would rather do that then go to school -- everyone was so psyched out for the competition and we even had our drivers from last year [2005 season -- they're at uni now] drop by and yeah...super fun and a great competition.

Results
 

Here are the results from yesterday's amazing competition.

Champions: 1114, 1503, 1310
Finalists: 1305, 854, 1397

Awards:
Creativity -- 188, for their gripper and easy to repair drive train.
Quality -- 854, for their holonomic drive train, and use of vision.
Best Defense -- 1241, for their hard defensive play throughout the day.
Spirit -- 1547, the Waldo girls were the loudest team at the event.
Best Autonomous Mode -- 1114, for their whacking of the hanging tetra, capping the back middle goal, and picking up a tetra from the auto loader, routine.
Play of the Day -- 1680 & Sir John A. MacDonald CI -- Team 1680 could not attend the competition, so Team 1114 brought their robot to the competition for a pre-rookie team to use. The kids from MacDonald CI had never seen a competition before, and had 5 minutes of practice time with the 1680 robot. Coached by 1114 mentor Tyler Holtzman, the team ended captaining the #5 seeded alliance! Not only this, but they also capped the 5th most goals during the event. It was a great display.


Skills Competion:

The Need For Speed -- Team 1305 dominated the competition, blazing across the field to beat all competitors.

How High -- 188 placed the 14 tetra on a stack on one of the side goals, to show that their robot could go higher than anyone else. 1006 set the bar earlier with a mark of 13, which it seemed that 188 could not match. Ingenuity prevailed, as 188 removed their gripper to gain a few extra inches of height and capped using the mount for the gripper. Their t-bar actually consisted of a pile of serial cables.

The Sponsor Challenge -- Team 1006's robot, driven by the Director of Engineering for GM Canada, was able to cap a goal across the field faster than any of the other sponsor/mentor driven robots.

The Tetra Test -- Team 1114 won this event by capping 8 tetras in 2:00 (15 seconds autonomous, 1:45 driver control). What made this feat even more impressive was the fact that they did while dropping 4 tetras during the 2:00.

-----

Overall the day was a great success. A big congratulation to all teams how came out to play. Thanks to all the wonderful volunteers, especially those who came from so far away. This includes Andy Baker, Mark Koors, Bob and Linda Hammond, Walt Porter, Paul Morrison and Travis Hoffman.

Also, a special thank you to girls from Team 771 for presenting with me one of their kilts. I've definitely never received anything quite like it.

We'll see you all next year!

Re: 2005 Canada's Wonderland FIRST Robotics Off-Season Event
 

And a huge thanks to Karthik and Steve for an amazing MC job once again!

Thank you Steve for making the presentation of the kilt happen, and to Karthik for bearing it with such good grace.

Wonderful day and I can't wait 'til next year!

Re: 2005 Canada's Wonderland FIRST Robotics Off-Season Event
 

I want to thank all the volunteers who worked behind the scenes, their hard work solving the technical problems with the OI system during the competition was not overlooked.

Congratulations to the winning alliance of 1114, 1503, and 1310; the final match up was a ton of fun.

Re: 2005 Canada's Wonderland FIRST Robotics Off-Season Event
 

wonderland was so much fun!!!!!! i think part of it had to do with it being my first time driving...bah i want to go back and do that weekend over again :p

okay now for my thanks:

firstly i would like to thank my teachers and mentors for letting us go to wonderland

next i would like to thank karthik and sean for all the help they gave us in such short notice...we wouldn't have gotten anywhere without you guys!!!

thirdly i would like to thank Timothy Eaton for lending us their controller...we owe you guys big time for that!!! if you hadn't helped us out we wouldn't have had a chance at getting to wonderland...thanks!!!!!

and finally thanks to all the teams that were there that helped us out or were really nice to us...you made the experience even better...hope to see you again next year!

p.s. thank you to 1114 for lending us the "Industrial sized" zip-ties when our arm had some...difficulties...hehe thank goodness for zip-ties and tape! :yikes:

Re: 2005 Canada's Wonderland FIRST Robotics Off-Season Event
 

haha...if you ask me...zip-ties are the best creation _EVER_ -- when we were building our robot back in the 6-weeks that's mostly all we used...one of the old team members that're in uni now was there for about a week just to see how we were doing and stuff and since his arrival, all we did was use zip-ties -- FOR EVERYTHING.

Re: 2005 Canada's Wonderland FIRST Robotics Off-Season Event
 

Wonderland was quite exciting, I'd like to thank all the people that helped out for the event including Karthik and Steve. It's been an honour to be part of team 1503 - Spartonics and hope to see all the other teams next year at Wonderland also.

Re: 2005 Canada's Wonderland FIRST Robotics Off-Season Event
 

Congratulations to all the teams. It was great. Looking forwards to see all the teams at Greater Toronto Regional.

Re: 2005 Canada's Wonderland FIRST Robotics Off-Season Event
 

Same here, we weren't able to compete :( , but oh well, at least I got to see it :D and meet up with some friends who I haven't seen in a while...all in all, it rocked :D

Hope to see everyone at the GTR too :)

Re: 2005 Canada's Wonderland FIRST Robotics Off-Season Event
 

It was a great event. Even for my last time driving. Thanks to Karthik for all those confidence boosts, 1114 for picking us and to my coach who tought me all those driving skills I got for the season to look better than what I could of looked like, and to my team for making my only season driving great.

And coaching the sponsor event, great, it felt good to tell my coach where to drive instead of me doing it.

Re: 2005 Canada's Wonderland FIRST Robotics Off-Season Event
 

Was a great day, a little long and a little cold at points. Some great footage from that day....unfortunatly both my cameras have managed to.....die.....2 cameras in 2 weeks....I'm a wee bit mad. As soon as I get at least one of them back I will get something together and put up on the boards.