Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

did anyone else think the matches were kind of aggressive for practice rounds, or is that just week six setting in?

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

Just curious, but how many (and which) teams had a good autonomous in practice rounds and what was the autonomous strategy? Thanks

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

First impressions from this morning: Team 375 is there to win. Good looking bot:yikes:

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

They came REALLY close at Pittsburgh, I expect to see good stuff out of them.

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

ok so the webcast just went down. Did Godzilla eat NY?:ahh:

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

hey so who are the teams to watch out for in this regional?

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

What's the webcast link?

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

http://robotics.nasa.gov/events/2008_frcwebcasts.php

then scroll down and click "webcast" for the new york regional

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

Thanks! Just in time to see our Millennium team in action! (1237)

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

No problem

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

You beat me Rich, darn!!! :)
Congratulations Wayne!

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

Congratulations Wayne!
New York must be rockin'!

Jane

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

ALL CD'ER AT THE NYC REGIONAL-

I'm calling for a CD HUG with Wayne Penn right after the Final Alliance picks. (Anyone can join)

We'll meet on the field for a CD Hug and a photo shot to congratulate Wayne on winning the Regional Woodie's Flowers nomination.

(If not the field, we'll be next to the field!)

Everyone with me? :)

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

In spirit:)

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

I'm coming in tomorrow with the team (1676) to help out- I think we're touring VIP's (or at least we were today). Provided I'm not working, I'll be there!

Congrats Wayne!

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

Hey Wayne........way to go........Congratulations from team 357......&
Adam, Dina, Mike, Megan, Joe, Chris, Jules & Beth.......

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

The thing thats been bugging me is that a lot of teams are consisted of students and mentors but no students are working. Ive seen teams where the students haven't even changed the battery.I mean common how much more, or should i say less, can you do.lol



[From Moderator: Please bring this up in the appropriate thread when it is reopened on Monday, any further discussion here will be removed.]

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

Please take this to the appropriate thread when it is unlocked.

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

I'll be there tomorrow. CONGRATULATIONS, WAYNE!!!!

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

Wayne has a Woodie!!!

Congratulations


WC :cool:

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

Congratulations Team 2070 for winning the Autodesk Visualization Award. I know how hard you guys worked on that Animation!!

Also, Congratulations to all of the Friday Award Winners!
And last, but certainly not least, Congratulations Wayne Penn (WFF) and Gary Israel (OVA)!!

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

A modest amount of photos I took during the first two days can be found here.
No pictures from the award ceremonies, unfortunately, as I had left early to rest (silly back problem).

And a huge, massive, spectacular, fantabulous congrats to Wayne! I've been only saying forever that you deserve some shiny new (WFA) hardware. :D

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

Congrats go out to my friend Wayne. He deserves it!

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

Wayne:

From all of us on MOE 365, a huge CONGRATULATIONS on your Woodie Flowers award. Absolutely well deserved. This one should have happened years ago!

Way to go! We greatly appreciate all that you do!

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

Congratulations Wayne! I knew you were going to be recognized sooner or later. Very cool!

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

CONGRATS WAYNE!
You totally deserved it!

Imad

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

Wayne Penn, You are THE MAN!

I am so incredibly happy that you won. You definitely deserve this especially in the NYC area for all that you have done. After moving to Boston, you certainly did not stop. Any area that has you is definitely blessed with a lot of help. Great going buddy. Enjoy this time.

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

Anyone know FTC results for new york?

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

Congrats Wayne, good luck at Champs!

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

Congrats to Waynep! :D

I don't think I can really add much to what everyone else above me has already said.

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

So i came down from boston today see my brother compete in the FTC comp. I must say i was rather disappointed at what i saw today, from a set-up side of things. I got there at about 11 am today, they were supposed to start at 9 or so today, not so much. When i got there i found out that they were 2 HOURS behind! I was blown away! And when it was finally time for a match it seemed like it took FOREVER to get it started, they were out there upwards of 5 min just waiting to being the match.

One of the fields had what looked like a 12"x12" high spot, which cost some teams matches! It 232's match with team 74 (who has won 3 regionals already) got stuck on that raised portion, from what i have heard it may have been their only loss all season. This situation repeated it's self in the #8 vs. #1 seed match, the number 1 seed was dominant, but one of the teams on the #8 alliance got stuck.

And for some reason they had very nice flat screen tv's set up all over the place, but coudl not get them working!! They just ended up printing out seedings after every couple matches.

That whole event was run very un professionally, and none of the team members, parents, or spectators seemed to enjoy this very much.

FRC also seemed to be in a state of disarray, there were 2 MC's and 2 play by play announcers. Blair and Shenqua both on the same field while cool, seemed a bit.....much. While talking to some of the volunteers, they were also not enjoying them selves.

I applaud the Regional committee for attempting to do "everything", but it ended up half assed in my opinion.

congrats wayne

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

So who won FTC?

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

I know that Sir Winston Churchill SS from St. Catharines, Ontario was on the winning alliance.

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

We could only be so lucky! :yikes:

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

Congrats Wayne on winning the WFA!!!

Should be fun to watch the eliminations tomorrow.

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

As far as game announcing and Emceeing goes, rather than rotate, I believe Blair and Chiniqua (sp?) thought it might help speed things up to just "hand off" rather than run to the other end of the field to save a wee bit of time on the late-running event.

With game announcing, George A. has been kind enough to share the mic with me because I'm a "GA in-Training". There's no miscommunication or "disarray" there.

There are a few contributing factors to why we're running behind there, and they include:

1) Teams taking too long to get their robots on and off the field
2) Refs deliberating for a long time about penalties (and I will qualify that by giving ridiculous props to the head ref who has been busting his tail this entire regional).
3) Technical issues, largely due to teams slamming into driver station walls. I witnessed at least 5 times on Saturday where controller boards fell off the driver station. That's being conservative.

To be critical, the biggest issue for me at the NY regional is the sound. When I'm on the field, I'm fighting over being able to hear the Emcees and being blasted over by the FTC area and FRC pit area. I'm not sure if its the same in the stands, but it really makes my job harder when I hear the field error sound to realize it's on FTC and not FRC.

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

211,74. and i forget the other.

My team came home with the Motivate Award, so I'm happy:)
We were the 8th alliance captain and had to face 74 and 211 first match of elims....so didn't make it past that lol. I really didn't like the fact that alliance selection wasn't serpentine, it actually pissed me off a little.

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

Just something interesting. I have a calculated the offensive power rankings (How many points, on average, a single robot will contribute to their alliance) for all the qualification matches in this regional. These are the results:

Based on that, the average scores should be roughly:

Just something interesting.

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

Hats off to rookie team 2344. Impressive design. I don't know why I like it so much?:rolleyes:

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

i agree that it was weird that they went back to old school FRC for the alliance selections, but in the rules is says that the order that the teams pick will be repeated for the second alliance partner, while not quite understanding it, they did it right, and apparently other regionals have done it wrong.....


i will agree that was another frustrating thing that NONE of the FTC teams could hear when they were up. Granted it was not too hard to go up and just as what match they were on, but i think something needed to be worked out...

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

Well it was hard to hear due to all the noise coming from the FRC competition. I was frantic with my FTC team (123) trying to get our bot in queue two matches in advance.

I really hope next year, they put the FTC competition in the other hallway, like what the guy at opening ceremonies said they might do.

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

Not every other FTC regional... they did it right in Washington.

There was a small problem in Washington, though. Last year we only had a dozen or so robots in the tournament, so there weren't enough teams to make eight alliances of three each for the Eliminations. The solution was to just pick 2-team alliances for Eliminations. Most of the last-year's teams were not prepared to pick a third alliance partner because of this (failing to read and remember the manual, I suppose), and were surprised that there were three 'bots per alliance. Another item for my mentor's checklist: Remind the team to completely re-read the rules about two weeks before an event, just to make sure.

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

My Regional Winner Prediction-

41, 555, and 1989.

Really hope 555 can have this win, they've been working really hard all season long. 41 as well. I don't know of 1989 though (never met them)

Finalists will be 375's alliance..I will keep this updated.
UPDATE: wow, 694 just put on an awesome show against 375 and won 72-44 due to two penalties on 375. 694 would have won anyway. That was a sweet match. They are now 1-1 and moving onto a third match.

UPDATE: Holy cr@p, 694's alliance took Semi finals to a third round and busted out a hurdle at the buzzer. Moving onto the Finals is 375, 348, and 637 due to penalties on 1403 and 694. If not for penalties, 694 would have won with a score of 72-66. Awesome job from 2344, 1403, and 694 though. It was intense to watch.

UPDATE: Finals match 1- Due to what appeared to be a shooter malfunction, 375 wasn't able to hurdle near the end of the match which cost them dearly. 375 also had a penalty for impeding a hurdle. 555 put up awesome hurdles and won the #1 alliance the match. 555's alliance wins 74-58 74-68 was pre-penalty).

UPDATE: Congratulations to teams 41, 555, and 1989 called the "New Jersey Sweep" for winning the NYC Regional with a clear victory of 96-54!!!!

Awesome job by 348,375, and 2234. Predictions were right and I will try to keep you all posted on awards as well.

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

:ahh: :ahh: :ahh: 375 must have had a problem with their shooter. They were in the home zone 3X with the ball, and no shot taken. I hope they can recover.

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

Congrats to the NJ Alliance of 41,555,and 1989

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

i think they ran out of air

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

Awards- Sunday

Outstanding Volunteer of the Year- Firooz Mirbaha
GM Industrial Design Award- 395, 2Train Robotics:cool:
Motorola Quality Award- 1517, P4
J&J Gracious Professionalism Award- 334, Techengineers
Chrysler Team Spirit Award- 230, Lehman Lionics
Judge's Award "For Spreading the FIRST Fever"- 1660. Harlem Knights
Rookie Inspiration Award- 2596, Ferrous Bulldog Innovations
Rookie All-Star Award- 2344, Saunders Droid Factory
Highest Rookie Seed- 2344, Saunders Droid Factory
UL Industrial Safety Award- 571, Team Paragon
Regional Finalists- 348 Norwell Robotics, 375 Robotic Plague:cool: 637 Mr. T
Regional Champions- 41 Robo Warriors, 555 Montclair Robotics:cool: , 1989 Viking Robotics ftw!!!

Engineering Inspiration Award- 694, StuyPulse ftw!!!
Regional Chairman's Award- 116, Epsilon Delta

Congratulations to all teams and see some of you in Atlanta!

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

HUGE Congrats to 1989 for the win in their second year. 555 and 41 are awesome (scary awesome) teams to be allied with, and you guys deserve it all the way.

See you in Atlanta!

Don

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

yeah i had fun @ new york it was my favorite regonal nd i honestly did wanna go this weekend but after going i was glad i went..it was so big and engery packed...yeah u couldnt hear the mcs cause of those green shirt 1403 children buts that alright that why i love my freshmen haha..it was good matches and lot s of fun ...i hoped 1403 will go next year

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

Unfortunately we were ranked 11 and for some odd reason no one selected us. This year we won nothing. As a matter of fact i don't think a single NEW YORK team won anything except for Saunders(2344 gratz). They got rookie of the regional and probably will win the National rookie team. My school will probably be losing the team after 8 long years. I bet many teams will drop out simply because they cant produce. If we accomplish Dean Kamens hw assignment(double amount of NY teams) I want to make it a NY only regional.

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

Congrats to every1, especially to our alliance members 694 for Engineering Inspiration, and 2234 for being the greatest rookie that we've played it. Someone please send me a link to that really sick 3sec hurdle that 2234 got in?
I think our match was the most intensest(if thats a word) but then again...i'm biased since it was our team.
I'm glad our team followed my lead with spirit...if some did'nt notice we went around chanting "We got spirit! Yes we do! we got spirit! How bout you?" and all the hailing to the different teams. Lots and Lots of funnn..especially when ourr aliiance joined with the cheering and what not, since 2234 was on the other side, we were yelling our alliance color, surround sound style (almost)
But nonetheless great job to 348, 375 and 637, we know you guys had a tough time beating us (;
Congrats to the winners great job
congrats to the spirit team, we almost were at your level
and grats to 116 for chairmans

we'll see you all soon.

O and sign up for Monty Madness at www.montymadness.org, theres not many spots left

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

The rules state that the process will be repeated except that it will be in reverse order.
From the Tournament Book, page 6 of 11

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

We (2344) made it to the semi-finals and lost , yet managed to walk away with the Rookie All-Star Award and Highest Rookie Seed and Firooz Mirbaha was a mentor of ours =P....... anyways yea.... we may have not won the competition in itself... but we've also won the hearts of others (meaning new friends of course) and all I can really say is that we hope 2 do the same in Georgia. Which reminds me... I heard a rumor that we won 2 more awards, don't take my word for it because I'm not 100% sure on that. I'll find that out at school tomorrow. And I'd personally like to thank every team that we have been paired up with so THANKS FOR HELPING US OUT. And sorry for writing so much and wasting your time :D

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

Chris, they are talking about the FTC tournament. FTC has always been 1-8 for both rounds not serpentine. Refer to 3.5.1 of the FTC manual.

The interesting thing about the tournament is that with 2 divisions every team made elims (even though 2 teams had to switch division)

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

Thanks for the clarification.

When I look back, the thread jumps between FTC and FRC and i though the draft was talking about FRC.

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

Thank you to the NYC Planning Committee for putting together a fantastic event. I was a referee for the FTC tournament on Saturday, and I was lucky enough to be able to MC the FLL event today. NYC was really fun for everyone I talked to. I can't believe next year will be the big 1-0 for this regional!

Congratulations to all the teams that competed-
FRC: The few matches I saw were awesome. Congrats to the JERSEY ALLIANCE (woo! represent) of 41, 555, and 1989 for being the champions, to 348, 375, and 637 for putting up a great fight in the finals, and also to team 116 for a well-deserved Chairman's win. To quote the infamous Dave Lavery, "It only took 14 freakin' years!!!". Great job, everyone.
FTC: Even through the delay, the competition was fantastic. Good teams, good volunteers, just all-around great. Thanks for making my job as a ref fun.
FLL: I always love seeing FLL competitions. As an NJ FLL mentor, I love to see other states' tournaments. Inspiration has no borders, and it was very clear to see in today's tournament. Thanks to Rich Wong for giving me the chance to be "The Girl in the Tie Dye".

Overall review: Pretty freakin' sweet.
Thumbs up from me!
:)

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

Wow, thanks everyone, and props to our alliance partners of 555 and 1989 for helping our alliance win. I'm still in shock...from dead last last year to this. Also, congrats to the winners of the awards.

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

I just want to say congrats to all the teams, you all did a great job!

I want to say a special congrats to a good friend of mine - Wayne- for winning the Woodie Flowers Award. I am really happy for you and you deserve it!

As always congrats to the winning alliance and chairmans award winner!

Thank you to team 395 and 271, we really enjoyed working with you as an alliance and we put up a good fight! We couldn't have asked for much more.

Other than that - hopefully I can make it to Atlanta and see some more of you in action!

:)

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

Congrats to Wayne.

He has worked very hard in FIRST and I could think of no one else who deserved it more.

Here is the essay submitted for his WFA

“The fundamental responsibility of a mentor or leader is to inspire others to step up to the plate, take responsibility, and become new leaders.” This is the role of a mentor defined by Wayne Penn. He has lived his life by the quote, and has affected the lives of those around him dramatically.
Wayne Penn started his involvement in FIRST on Team 217, The Thunder Chickens, in the 2001 season as a junior in High School. In 2002, Wayne broke out of his shell and became Driver and CEO of his team.
When Wayne moved onto college at Columbia, he did not stop his involvement in FIRST. In New York, Wayne became involved in Team 395, 2Train Robotics. On 2Train, Wayne was the lead student mentor from his University. He was involved in mentoring efforts and strategy. He helped 2Train win five Regionals in four years and a Regional Chairman’s Award. Team 395 comes from an inner city neighborhood with very low high school graduation rates. Instead of working with the teams that have major sponsors, Wayne chose to help these students. Wayne has said that one of his favorite memories is when a student told him that when he entered high school, he did not expect to graduate. FIRST gave him a reason to stay motivated. He is now an engineering student in college.
One of Wayne’s greatest accomplishments in New York was his involvement in the Region 2 Robotics Initiative. He spearheaded the creation of several FLL team in a Bronx Neighborhood. They held bi-monthly workshops with student and teachers. The borough’s FLL teams grew to 45, the largest numbers for a neighborhood in New York City.
Wayne has been involved in FLL and FRC. He has worked with many FLL teams. He has brought one team to the World Festival three times. In addition, Wayne was awarded the National Invitational Adult Mentor of the Year Award in 2002. In FRC program, he has been involved in the NYC and Boston Regional Planning Committees. Wayne was awarded Chief Delphi’s Unsung FIRST Hero award. He has also emceed numerous competitions. All of this was outside of helping out numerous teams each year.
In the fall of 2006, Wayne entered graduate school at Boston University. Yet again, he still stayed involved. Our team had met Wayne many times before at the New York City Regional. When he told us in 2006 that he was planning on attending BU, we said that he would always be welcome on our team. A few months later, he called and said he would take us up on that offer.
Wayne has helped our team tremendously by providing our team with new aspects of engineering and outlook on the FIRST program. Wayne has been an unbelievable role model for the students of our team. He works well with the students and gets them motivated, no matter what the situation is.
Above all, Wayne thinks about himself last. Bharat Nain of Team 25 says, “The best trait about Wayne is his selfless dedication to FIRST. The last person he thinks of is himself, always making sure to serve his teams and others in need.” Wayne comes down almost every night from school or work and work tirelessly. Last year, we would be dropping Wayne off at the train at midnight. Then the next day, he would be there, working ever hard then the day before.
I remember when a rookie team asked if he was helping out our team for college credits. With out dropping a beat, he responded, “Nope, just for fun.”

I would like to Thank Team 217 and Team 25 (Wayne Cokeley, Alexa Scott, Shaun McNulty & Bharat Nain) for their support in this essay.

Good luck to Wayne at Championship and hope that he wins WFA for the year!

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

Congrats Wayne, to a well deserved recognition :)

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

I was at the NYC regional on sunday, and let me just say this, it was a great regional, and just fun to watch. I had a great time.

Congrats to teams 41, 555, and 1989 for winning the regional, and 348, 375, and 2234 for being finalists. Both alliances put up a though fight and in my mind both should have won, but sadly there has to be a winner.

Also a big congrats to team 116 for winning chairman's, it is a tremendous honor and well deserved. And a big congrats to 694 for winning Engineering Inspiration.

And congrats to Wayne for winning WFA! (That was one of the greatest WFA entries I have ever read. I wish I could have written one that good.)

All in all it was a great regional and there were great teams with great talent. I had tons of fun cheering and watching! Good luck to everyone going to championships, and I can't wait to see everyone in Atlanta (next week already)!

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

New York City was nothing but problems for The Robo Wizards, probably the worst experience we have ever encountered since our inception in 2001. The high spots (or patches) on the sides of the center median on the playing field were substantially higher than the other 2 regionals we attended, Pittsburgh and Long Island and it was killing us. The high spots were bending our front pneumatic piston with its ball transfer system which allowed our treaded robot to lift itself at the front and pivot from the rear drive wheels, allowing us to turn. We tried to work around it and we made some drastic changes to our drivetrain in an attempt to surpass the obstacles on the field, and it did not work as well as we anticipated. This was also our first regional in which we were not picked to play in the elimination rounds. Overall the New York City Regional was a fun event. :D

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

I cannot BELIEVE I forgot to mention Wayne's WFA! I'm so sorry, please forgive me, Wayne! I must have been completely tired out from NYC.

I have known Wayne for just about a year now- and I can say that he absolutely and completely deserved it. He's a great mentor, and has done a lot for FIRST. I definitely look up to him, and I'm glad to call him my friend. If you ever get the chance- talk to him. He's got a lot of great things to say.

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

He also pays attention and listens very well. Another sign of a great mentor.
:)
Jane

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

I agree that our matches were very intense. I was amazed by your teams spirit and I have already sent an email to my team talking about your team's spirit in hoping we can emulate it. I have a question about Monty Madness. How do we get our robot over there? I know you guys are able to go to Nationals because I was at Trenton also but I hear you guys may not be going. Why not? If you were then our entire alliance would be there even without winning it all because 2344 got rookie all star and my team got EI.

I just want to say you could have been paired up with teams that caused you to lose every match and I still would have chosen your team to join our alliance.

I want to thank your team for the additional scouting information.

I just want to say that discussing strategy with Wayne for our qualifier match was amazing. I didn't even realize it was him at first until after we finished talking. I was thinking that guy looks a lot like Wayne Penn. When I talked to him again I was blown away at the compliments he gave my team and our robot for this year saying that he knew we worked hard and did not let our mentors build our robot. He left me feeling excellent. I just did not appreciate it when I told him that his first choice for his team's alliance in new york was not working (according to that team's head coach) and we were going to find out, he had a private discussion with a mentor from that team while I waited and never got back to me. I understand that mentor might have told him that I was lying or trying to slander that team (which I wasn't) but he could have at least told me what happened instead of ignoring me.

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

694 won EI award which is a huge deal and they are a NY team. and that sucks when you're a high seed an dont get picked. I know that ppl may say like "keep your chin up" and stuff...but yea, i understand what that feels like. There's almost nothing that someone can say to cheer you up. But hey, if you need help in getting support, funding, or mentors, just hit up anyone on Chief Delphi.:)

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

You know what makes it worse. We played with 41 and 555 and came up with an awesome strategy and blew the other alliance out. WE got along well. When the finals were going on the guy came up to us and said sorry he completely overlooked us. So close and yet so far.:( I didn't even go to school im so depressed...sigh

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

I would like to add in a special "thank you" and recognition to the entire referee team, and in particular to Mark Sharfshteyn, the Head Referee. I thought that they did an exceptionally good job at the NYC regional. During the matches I observed, the penalty calls that were made were appropriate and reasonable, and I don't recall any obvious missed calls. As has been previously mentioned, the best officiated games are the ones where you don't really even notice that the referees are there, where the officiating is appropriate for the play and does not artificially affect the game. The referee team in New York certainly fit this definition. In particular, I was impressed by Mark's open communication with the teams. In virtually every instance that I saw, whenever a team had a question about a call or ruling Mark took as much time as was necessary to explain the ruling and make sure that the team understood exactly why something was called the way it was. They may not have liked the ruling, but Mark was always careful to explain in as much detail as they wanted why a ruling had been made and where it was backed up by the official rules. When they had something to say, he listened. His ability to do this in a respectful and informative manner set a great example.

-dave



.

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

Yes, I will say that from my side of the table as backup game announcer, I really felt the refs did a great job of keeping us informed as to what was happening. Mark was a fantastic head ref, and was always clear, professional, and polite, even when a dufus like me was trying to announce his calls. He definitely deserves a lot of credit, as I know it's often a very unappreciated job.

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

I think most of us are still in shock from the whole thing, it was a great experience, being a 2nd year team and already having a regional under our belt, couldn't have done it without your guys and team 555 with us. Hopefully we can get an alliance together in Atlanta and pull a repeat :) Hope to see you guys there

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

Congratulations to everyone involved, from the teams to the volunteers to the judges and refs.

116 truly earned it, I'm shocked that this was your first Chairman's in 14 years of FRC. Good luck at Champs!

I've had the honor of working with 694 on and off the field and StuyPulse deserves EI. Have fun in Atlanta.

Saunders...you're my personal favorite to win Rookie All-Star at Champs. Keep up the enthusiasm and learn from the Hall of Famers, you guys have the potential to be one of them some day.

Oh, and congrats to 41, 555, and 1989 for winning NYC and 348, 375, and 637 for being Finalists.

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

To all the FRC, FTC, FLL attendees at the NYC Regional,
We want your feedback, good or bad, we want your feedback!

This is the best way for us to improve for next year and make it bigger & better.
You can post your opinions or PM me or email it to me.
Thank you all!
:]

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

The promised frisbee playing space was not there. Although this year I wasn't really able to play much. Other than that everything was absolutely perfect from the MC's to the pits to everything else. I can only speak for myself though and I am only speaking about the FRC part of the event.

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

Well the staffing was perfect, they were extremely nice and patient when we had crystal troubles in FTC. I believe noise was the biggest issue there. It would be really nice if you could put FTC in another hallway like what was said in the opening ceremonies.

--Of course this was from an FTC point of view. Too be honest, it was nice that I could visit FRC whenever I wanted to. The other problem was with how hard it was to get food, go to the bathroom etc. Everything was across the convention center, so it would take an annoying jog to get to where we wanted and back in time for the round. I still am not sure what caused FTC to start late though.

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

What was good:
Volunteers-They were great, especially the MCs and refs.
Range of Events- FRC, FTC, and FLL all at once is pretty cool.

What wasn't:
Seating- the bleachers were uncomfortable, especially for the members who sat there for prolonged periods of time (ie scouts)
Lunch on Saturday- the lunch break is an critical time for alliance's to begin preparation for the elimination rounds, and moving it was a HUGE MISTAKE. It made preparing strategy and robots for the elimination rounds very difficult. I understand that a delay had to be produced to allow the mayor to arrive, but I would have much rather seen the qualification rounds end and alliance selections happen first, then having the mayor speak at the end of lunch right before the eliminations began.
FTC Timing- The FTC event running so late caused our FTC to have to miss the awards because they had to leave with the FRC team (who had already been waiting for some time). It made dinner plans very difficult.


Side note: bigger doesn't equate to better. Even though the venue has room for plenty more teams, doesn't mean the event needs them. The mid-60s is as big as a regional should get. Once you go beyond that it starts to become very difficult to get enough matches, proper scouting, and it loses the sense of community conferred by the smaller, "friendlier" events.

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

Congrats to Wayne P on your Regional Woodie Flowers award. You really deserve it and truly represent FIRST well where ever you appear.

FTC Teams - Excellent job competing! I was happy to see everyone working well together throughout the tournament and representing FTC. Thank you for participating at the first ever NYC FTC event. You all were awesome!

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

I'd like to thank 694 for being such an awesome mentoring team

Moreover, Id like to thank every team that helped us! Props to Bronx Science for helping us with our mysterious drive train issue!

Id also like to thank Spare Parts! You guys were awesome and very patient with us

I hope the team who lent us an orange rubber mallet found from pit admin!

thank you all for making my first regional an awesome experience!

-Neel 2554

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

I stopped by your pit and your team members seem pretty cool. I liked that you have a good sized team in your rookie year and I know that FIRST can expect great things from your team in the future.

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

Good:

Pit Layout-We never had to even ask anyone to move out of the way, plenty of room to get robots out to the field. After the 2nd entrance/exit from the pits was opened, getting from the pit to stands was easy as well.

Pit announcements-We always heard our matches being called and everything else that needed to be announced.

Judging/Officials-Everyone we dealt with was nice, and helpful/interested.

Inspection-No lines.

Volume-Could hear everything properly, both when in the stands and pits, without going deaf.

Not so good:

Food-Javits (from my understanding), allows food to be brought in, so the rule (although I didn't seem many obeying it), of not allowing food/beverages to be brought in, even to the stands was very annoying, especially since the food Javits had to offer was barely edible (in my opinion).

Power-Javits employees wouldn't let us run any sort of power to the stands, would be nice if something was available, to allow us to use laptops and such to scout with.

Pit Size-While I know the pits were at least FIRST regulation size, if not larger, there seemed to be plenty of room, an extra foot or two would be nice.

Overall though, it was a great, and well-run event.

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

Those three days were some of the most exciting days of my life!
I still can't believe we won!

I would also like to say nice work to all that competed. You all did great!
:]

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

Wow, these past 4 days have been insane; it's all just a blur. Just competing in what was the most awesome regional setup I've seen is great enough. Then being picked for eliminations at all was enough for us to call success, but getting picked by 41 and 555 is..."wow."
Getting to help two amazing hurdlers do what they do best..."extra wow."
Getting to the final round..."wait what just happened."
Winning the finals..."that did not just happen."

Then coming into school today with the principal announcing the win got a lot of teachers and students seriously interested in FIRST.

Big thanks to teams 41 and 555 for picking us.

Congrats to 348, 375, and 637 for being finalists, you were great competitors.

More congrats to Wayne Penn for the WFA win. After you were announced I saw you and your team interact, and you seemed to be the definition of an inspirational mentor.

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

The disorganized pit layout was really crazy but not to the extent where it made me angry or anything. I didnt even remember when you asked.

To 1989:
Did you guys get to deliver the ball in your elimination matches? I only watched the Finals and I was really out of it when i did.

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

We did to a small extent when we were closest to the ball, mostly after hybrid mode. We also tried to bounce the other alliances ball just a little to delay them.

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

Heh. Well luckily for your team that strategy did not work out in our teams' first qual match together or else you would have never made it down to the first alliance and you might not have become champions. Congrats though. You guys truly deserve it.

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

I had it listed as a pro, because the aisles were wide enough that unlike in NJ, there weren't crowds of people and bottlenecks to have to force your way through. The way the team #'s didn't go in order was odd, but didn't bother me, so I hadn't factored it in.

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

The oddness of the pit # were done on purpose.

A compliant from last year was that the veteran teams were all on one end of the pit and the rookies were on the opposite end of the pits. They asked that the rookies and the veteran teams, be place next to each other; like big brother little brother (or sisters).

Team and mentors also suggest that rookies be place close to the pit admin so they can hear all the announcement and not be isolated.

That is the reason for the strange numbering system.

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

Yeah I was definitely almost run over at least a couple of times in NJ. In NY i was able to run in the pits safely(relatively that is).

Yeah I was told about this. How were the teams assigned though? It was just terrible for me as strategy to find a certain random team at a certain time to talk about an elimination match.

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

Yeah having veteran teams and pit administration around our pit really helped

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

The pit map given out at the pit admin table gave both the physical layout of the pit stations and a cross reference of team number-team name- pit station.

Rookies got priority in the front, veterans that are already mentoring rookies get the next assignments, veteran that are known to be helpful are the next layer then everyone else.

Next year I want to name all the aisles, like Broadway, Wall St., Lenox Ave., Queens Blvd, Coney Island Ave. etc......

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

That idea sounds awesome. I just wish the teams on the list telling you their pit number was organized by number not by name.

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

Well, we're not going to ATL because of security reasons according to our school's administration, plus we spent a lot of money going to Florida but it would be crazy to re-create our alliance.
Haha, I think the spirit was an alliance effort. After all 2344 wanted to be the loudest alliance ever, I think we pretty much achieved that. Other than that, this year the freshmen that have joined the team have brought in a lot of spirit with them, and I'm happy to say that I'm proud of them.

About Monty Madness, usually teams just bring their robots with them. For example, when we went to Brunswick Eruption, we just piled our '07 robot and all our tools in the back of our bus and headed out to North Brunswick High School. If you have a lot of people on your bus, you can just put it in someone's van but it would be awesome if you guys could come.
If you do bring an extra 694 shirt would ya?


See you soon,
Sravan

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

Dear Rich Wong,

I want screens in the pit displaying the matches that are played!!! I missed lots of matches cause I was helping with repairs :(

project it way up high for all to see!!!

Love,
Michael Vilarelle :)

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

Man, that sucks you guys can't go to ATL. It would've been really cool if the 3rd Alliance could get back together and kick some more butt.:D

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

Hey everybody, great competition in NYC! My entire team had so much fun that they fell asleep on the bus ride home. I have to say that this year was the most fun out of all of mine (sadly it's my last) and New York was the highlight of the year. Of course, big thumbs up to Watchung Hills and 1989- you guys are the greatest and you know we'll see you soon. Stuyvesant I'm so glad you guys will be down in Atlanta with us. 348, 637 and 375 great matches at the end. The competition was great, the refs made it fun and fair; which meant instead of fixing the robot I got to wander the pits talking to people and helping out. The people at the event were all great and I think it was more fun talking to students and mentors from other teams then actually competing. Everybody there it was great playing with you and I just hope my voice comes back by Atlanta.

Pit ordering- :eek: Killing me guys, I know they switched it up so rookies weren't grouped together and people weren't always next to the same crews; but, some order has to be there. If you do it by team numbers backwards (555 would be...bad example, 2070 would be 702), or first number last number ( 1, 4000, 2, 3999). But the unorganized pit gave me a headache, some order off of team number would be greatly appreciated.

FTC- Great job guys, I only saw a few matches but the program is one I became really impressed with this year. Keep up the good work because the innovation I see in VEX often trumps what the FRC guys come up with (just don't tell them I said that). ;)

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

Apparently they ordered it by name?? Never seen that...it was a good attempt though......

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

FTC is getting rid of VEX next year and switching to their own platform. From what I hear, all VEX metal can be used, but gears and the microprocessor has to be FTC's. But thanks for the compliment :)

Now I feel lucky that the FTC pits was organized by team number.

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

This was my first time making an appearance at the NYC Regional, and only second time volunteering at a FIRST event. What a crazy weekend!
So here's what I have to say-
All the key volunteers were very pleasant. Unhappy with my placement at the safety glass station, I was able to transfer over to field reset (thanks Bharat!) within a few hours. That was great! Everyone on field reset, at the scoring table, and all the refs were fun people and a blast to work with. I became quite skilled in the art of ball placement (after several humorous failed attempts to get the balls on the overpass when I first got there).

The pit numbering was a bit funky, but I understand the reasoning behind it. Lots of confused team members came up to me Friday morning asking where their pit was, and I always did my best to point them in the right direction. I second Rich's idea of naming the aisles next year. It would make scouting interesting. "Ohh, 555? They're on Kamen Boulevard."

Having FRC, FTC, and FLL all in the same place was really neat, though the noise sometimes became a problem. From the field, it was easy to hear what was going on at the other events, which drowned out the music at ours. However, the pit announcing was loud and clear.

I know there were some complaints about us getting behind schedule, but shift happens. :rolleyes: We kept having trouble with the field, especially after a few hybrids where the alliance station was hit so hard that it lost power.

I had the pleasure of meeting many amazing people this weekend, and I hope to see all of you in the near future! A shoutout goes out to Jose who was the only person on field crew who was brave enough to dance on the field with me. And a special thanks goes out to Koko Ed for letting me try his popcorn. :D

And thank you everyone who repeatedly asked if I was alright after my incident with the gate. For those who didn't hear, while closing the gate before the start of a match, I got "bit" by the latch. I didn't notice at first, but then realized that I had essentially skinned the knuckle on my right index finger! :ahh: In retrospect, I should have gone to get stitches, but I'm okay now. :)

The robots were strong and competitive, the crowd was enthusiastic, the MCs were vibrant, Dean Kamen and Michael Bloomberg...it all made for an excellent event. One that I hope to be attending next year.

Congratulations to 555, 1989, and 41 for the win! Also, a big congrats to 348, 375, and 637- you guys put up a tough fight. That third semi-final match was a nail biter for sure!
Also congrats to 694 for EI and 116 for a well deserved Chairman's.

I already posted it once, but congrats again to Wayne! Everything he does is the epitome of what an excellent mentor is. The way he cares for his team and always put them ahead of his own needs is truly astounding. It's impossible to name all the reasons why he deserves it, but I believe his actions speak volumes.

I also hope to add more photos to my Flickr account sometime this week, so keep an eye out.

Phew, long post. I'm done. :D

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

By chance did anyone find an IR gun at Javits. We had it at the competition, but somehow we seemed to have misplaced it in transit.
It is a remote ziptied to a ~14" pvc pipe. There are 20 IR led's wired to the front, the IR's have a blue-ish tint.

If anyone has seen this please PM me. I think it went missing right after our last semi-finals match.

Thanks

Re: 2008 New York City Regional
 

By the end of Sunday, no item like that was turned in at the LOST & FOUND (L&F). Hopefully another team pick it up and will contact up.

On the same topic- At the L&F table, there was over 1.5 dozen jackets and coats, really nice ones, they have been turned over to the Javits Center Lost & Found but they are keeping it for 1 week only. Then, probably, it will be donated to the homeless.

We will TRY to get them down to Atlanta but if you are from the NYC area and you lost your valuable jacket or coat, return to Javits and check with L&F.
The L&F is right next to the FEDEX/Kinko station.