another rules change
 

ok so most of you know you get 10 extra pounds to fool around with

also there is an extra little zone inside each goal zone

now the top 8 cant choose the within the top 8. this is to avoid the familiar top seed and number 2,3, or 4 seed together. i think it works out pretty nicely

just another way to balance out the game.

one more
 

also the third alliance pick is chosen randomly from a hat.

On another note, my team hasn't done any of these off-season competitions before, so I am very excited about this. I even convinced my dad to drive me and my brother up a day before the team gets there so we can get extra driving time :)

Can't wait to see ya'll there!

Stephen

Re: another rules change
 

ahhh...ummmm....HUH? zone? more zones? PLEASE NO MORE ZONES! :( How much will this zone be worth?

The last I heard about rule changes, there is a special bonus zone in zone 4 where each goal in that zone is worth 15 points as opposed to 10 elsewhere. I suppose I should know more about this as I'm supposed to modify the scoring software as well as ref the competition but for some reason I don't.

Also, listening to the radio on my way to work this morning, I heard an advertisment about the MD State Fair. When speaking of entertainment, they also talked about "NASA's high school FIRST Robotics Competition" which I thought was fairly cool. Even if it really wouldn't make sense to most people.

Matt

The extra 5 point zone will be a small rectangle within zones 2 and 4. It will only be large enough to fit 3 casters of the goal in, and Mike Wade said the drivers would really have to work to get the goal in, it won't be as easy as getting a goal in the 10 point goal zone.

Stephen

Does anybody know if all 24 team are there now?

Does anybody have any pics of what it looks like?

I have some photos of the place being setup. Only about 7 teams were there Wednesday.

I am not sure how long this link will be valid, but the Baltimore Sun has an article for the competition.

http://www.sunspot.net/news/educatio...al%2Dheadlines

MD Fair
 

I was down yesterday with kids to practice. There were 2 other teams there at the time, Parkville (7), and some team in black shirts.

I didn't count, but there's definitely not 24 robots there yet.

It is all under a big tent, but in late afternoon there was a pretty bad glare on the one side of the court. And at one point there were a bunch of random spectators throwing balls all over the place!!.....into goals & our robot basket while we were practicing!....pretty distracting / annoying....but I think if Mike was there at the time, he would have stopped it.

Its about an hr drive for us....but we'll have a crew there to practice everyday 4ish - 6ish Mon - Fri. We need it ---- all but 5 kids graduated (including both drivers!)

Good Luck all. Hope to meet some CD posters.

Mrs T
Bear Feat

Just curious. I'll be there on Thursday to practice, and I was wondering how it is being run. Do you wait in line to take the field? Are there 4 bots at a time for 10 minutes? How many times are you allowed to practice?

Just wondering, all of our drivers are rookies (w/ driving, not new team members), including me, so we need that practice time! :)

Stephen

Yeah, just thought I would share that I received confirmation that our robot (Chuck N Moose) have arrived! Anyone have pics up yet to see what it looks like! Or you could share a pic of my 'bot on display! :) We will not be fortunate enough to have practice time. I will be in school, and arrive to be there Saturday morning to begin the long weekend. Hope to see some of you there.

I temporarilly posted a photo from Wednesday here:
http://www.invisiblerobot.com/robotics/md-fair-temp/

Eventually, the photos will be in my team 116 photo album.

There were 7 robots there Wednesday: 53, 116, 122, 306, 341, 400, and one that looked like a snowblower, but didn't have a number, only a NASA and an ERIEZ sticker.

Hey everybody. Does anyone know how the MD fair is going ?

It's going great, but I don't have any info on standings, and I don't even know my teams score. I do know that each team gets to play in about 22 matches over the three days.

Heidi and I took over 300 photos. Not all of them were of the robots though. We did photograph the animals, and the horseraces, and some of the rides and stuff.

I've uploaded some pics already, I will take more tomorrow and upload them at some other time.
Now, sleep time.


Wetzel
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/me is listening to E:\No Doubt\No Doubt - Don't Speak.mp3