More than One Regional?
 

After reading posts about teams like 1114 and 1024 which won 2 and 3 regionals, respectively, I'm wondering how many regionals most teams attend each year. How many does your team attend?

We're a sixth-year team, and for all six years, we've only attended one regional (the once UTC New England, now Connecticut Regional). We started going to the Championship Event our fourth year (2006). After winning this regional for the third consecutive year, we're starting to think about broadening our horizons.

With this, I have some questions:

• Why does your team choose to/not to attend multiple regionals?

For teams that attend more than one regional,

• What is that experience like?
• Is it worth the extra expense in time and money?
• Do you send the entire team to both/all regionals? If not, how do you determine who goes where?
• How far apart (weeks) do you like to space your regionals?
• Do you do multiple regionals and the Championship Event?

Thanks for the input!


(I apologize if a post like this already exists- I searched, but I didn't find any similar posts. Also, none of the more specific forums fit as a place to post this from what I can see- the mods are welcome to move it if they see fit.)

Re: More than One Regional?
 

I crunched the numbers on this once, and it turns out that something like 75% of teams only attend one regional.

That said, I have been on teams that attended double-regionals:


Why? Because after 6 weeks of hard work building the robot, it doesn't make much sense to only go to one regional. Regionals are the funnest part, why not go to as many as you can financially and mentally afford to?

What is it like? The first one has a much lower level of pressure ("this is just a warmup, don't worry about it"). You can try out more tactics, there is less of a feeling that you can't try anything novel because if you blow this regional, that's it for the year. The second one you feel much more confident because you have a fairly good grip on what works and what doesn't. There is obviously also the bonus that your robot will generally work better at the second than the first because of fixes you may have applied during the first regional.

Worth it? Yes

Send Entire Team? Just the mechanical team went to the first regional, as it was a 'warm-up' regional. Many more school members, parents, sponsors, etc came to the 2nd one.

How far apart? Being in Canada, the least expensive option is to do Waterloo and GTR, which means 1 week apart. School-wise, I suppose it'd make more sense to have a wider spacing.

Multiple Regionals + Champs? We did in 2006, because we qualified and had never been before.

Re: More than One Regional?
 

Save your money for next season and come to Hawaii. I promise it'll be a blast!
Aloha!:P
Back on topic: We are going to try and attend every regional in the US for as long as our program continues.
The only ones we cant do are the ones that are concurrent with the Hawaii one from this year on. We will try and average 2 or 3 regionals per year. :)

Re: More than One Regional?
 

our first year, we wen to just won regional and the then nationals. since then, we have gone to two regionals + the championships each year. i believe that it is worth the expence just because of how fun the competitions are. and now that you need to qualify for the championships, that second regional looms a little larger if you want to get to the big dance. winning a regional is difficult, so i think that the second (or third) regionals are a good thing. usually, for one of our regionals, we only take a short bus full of students (chosen by the amount of work they contribute). then for our second (palmetto) we take everyone.

Re: More than One Regional?
 

Okay.. we (Team 326) have been doing 2 reginoals for about 5 years now. One reason is that we travel abit outside of the main competetion.. which alot of the teams around us are very good.. We always compete at the home event (Great Lakes) what yyou can consider as one of the harder reginoals to win each year. The expirence is great to do other things.

This year we traveled out to Pittsburgh for the first time and really enjoyed the venue and the atomsphere around us.

It is worth the extra money if you really want to see how your robot appears to 60- 70 different robots like you will see at atlanta and you have an extra 10 or 12 competeion matches to work out bugs that you wouldn't catch until you got to atlanta which can hurt alot of teams.

The way our team deterimnes who goes is all who fundraises enoguh money to go to the event. We have a set amount of money needed to go and if you get close enoguh we let you come. When we went to Pittsburgh about 200 miles from home we had all but 3 members go.. so just under 25 people.

We really only like to have them one week apart so like week 3 than week 5.. it keeps the team memebers freah after the long weekends endurance test.

Pretty much 2 regionals and the championship... our robot has always gotten better at atlanta then it was at our first event.

Anyother questions PM me or take other peoples imput which can be better than mine..

Off topic but Team 555 are doing 4 regionals and the championship

Re: More than One Regional?
 

For most years 11 goes to two regionals, one of them being the NJ regional (our home town regional) and then the Championship depending on the year.

The second regional usually varies from year to year (04-06 they went to Palmetto, 07 was NYC and 08 was Chesapeake) and my advice is that if your team can afford it, go for it.

The second regional, especially events farther away from your area gives the students an opportunity to see teams, and interact with people that they normally wouldn't. For instance, if an east coast team went out to play in the MWR or Boilermaker it would be far different, than if they stayed local the whole time.

As far as qualifying and cost? With NJ anyone on the team is allowed to go, buses take us to and from the event Thurs/Fri, and the students are responsible for getting their own rides on Saturday, since it's free most students go. For the events that require travel, it usually boils down to whoever contributes the most gets first shot. We're not punishing the students that don't contribute as much, we're just rewarding the students that contribute more.

With cost always being an issue, the students are encouraged to go out and fundraise for the team, and for every dollar they fund raise, a dollar is deducted from their trip. So in the end a student could wind up traveling for next to nothing.


Myself, I go to 3/4 events and the Championships, but usually as a volunteer so it's a bit different.

But that's just my advice, let us know what you decide.

Re: More than One Regional?
 

My team has been competing for seven FRC seasons. We started the same year as the St. Louis Regional, and have competed there every year.

We recognized early on that a second (or third) event each year helps to build the team by giving our students more playing time and exposing them to a wider variety of competitors. And road trips are fun.

We've been to the Championship twice, in 2003 and 2005. We've been to road regionals five times: Midwest in 2004, Buckeye in 2005, Waterloo in 2006, and Boilermaker in 2007-2008. And we've been to IRI in 2006-2007.

Our team has enjoyed road regionals more than Championships, mainly because road regionals offer more matches and the same exposure to variety*, for less cost and easier travel. I'm sure we'll want to go back to the Championship some year, though.

And as I've said before, I should have gone to IRI years ago. It has been a blast the past two years, and we'd love to go back again. :)
---------------

* the Championship has the potential to offer much greater variety, but its logistics and venue make that potential difficult to realize.

Re: More than One Regional?
 

We go to two regionals and championships a year. We started this in 2002, our 8th year. We decide on a second regional with a few rules:
We always go to Hartford.
No week 1 regionals (we need a break, although it doesn't come).
No back-to-back regionals.
Within bus ride distance.

Being in New England though (as you are) there's usually something that fits those requirements. There's even more if you take one or two rules out. Regionals we consider within a bus ride are BAE, Boston, FLR, NYC, SBPLI, NJ, Chesapeake, and Philly.
We hire a bus to our second regional and anyone that can afford the cost can go. There are multiple opportunities for students to fund raise and offset their costs for any traveling the team does. We also try to bring to cost down as much as possible for students with other fundraising money we earn. For example, last year our second regional (Boston) was a flat $50 for all students. They can then apply their fundraising money to that if they want.

Re: More than One Regional?
 

You can see who is going to which regional this year in the spreadsheet in this thread http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=63045 (Go towards the end of the thread to see the most recent spreadsheet).

Sort on number of regionals and you will have your answer ..

Re: More than One Regional?
 

ok, I don't mean to insult anyone here, but in my honest opinion, if you are attending a "regional" shouldn't that mean you are competing in your "region"? I by all means am a promoter of experience, but for those teams who NEED to win regionals to qualify (I haven't done first this year so I don't know if that applies anymore) isn't that giving them a handicap?
To make this a logical situation, if a team wants to compete at more than one regional, I think they should be unranked in doing so if it is just for "experience" then who needs wins or points? Also the cost situation, I do agree that attending multiple regionals instead of champs is a good idea, but there should be boundaries somewhere.
I don't mean to be negative but I have seen many GREAT teams be knocked out of a chance to go to the championship because another regional winner decided to come and dominate. If you want to flaunt your skills do it at the champs not at another regional.

Re: More than One Regional?
 

In 2005, every single team on Einstein went to 2 or more regionals.
In 2006, 8 of 12 teams on Einstein went to 2 or more regionals.
In 2007, 11 of 12 teams on Einstein went to 2 or more regionals.

Overall, that's 86% on teams on Einstein went to 2 or more regionals that year.

Re: More than One Regional?
 

Thanks for all of the responses, you're definitely offering me a lot of insight. More responses to my first questions are certainly welcomed and encouraged, but I also have one more question to add:

For a team who wants to attend two events, is it better to do two regionals, or one regional and the Championship?

Edit: I also thought of something else I'd like feedback on- some posts have mentioned a "warm-up" regional, with lower pressure. Our team recently started using a full-scale practice field, and we simulate competitions with loud music, spirit teams, defensive robots, running pep rallies, etc. We also go to a scrimmage before ship date. I know this is not the same as a regional, but it does get in a lot of individual driver practice for technique, as well as six-robot driver practice. Does this change the idea of a first regional as a "warm-up" at all?

Re: More than One Regional?
 

that is a risk since you must qualify by having to win your only regional. so then you may end up with only one event. id go with two regionals, then try (if you qualify) to find the money to go to the Championships... thats what we have to do this year... find the spare change under the counch:D

Re: More than One Regional?
 

Hmm... do you think that speaks to more practice/regional experience made the teams better at competing with that year's robot, or that they are more visible to other teams to be selected as alliance partners? Or maybe both?

Re: More than One Regional?
 

If you can afford the Championship, go. The experience alone is worth it, no matter whether you are competitive at that level or not.

I foresee in the not too distant future that all spots at the Championship will be merit-based (including previous merits, like HoF and last year's winners). There won't be a "buy-your-way-in" option like 1025 is making avail of this year. Or if there is, it will not be available if your team went to CMP in the last year or two.

Re: More than One Regional?
 

CougarTech choose to attend more than one regional this year and it paid off. during the FLR our robot preformed poorly but during the buckeye we had time to fix everything and had a great robot. so the extra regional gave us a chance to have a good season

Re: More than One Regional?
 

We go to one regional every year, BAE GSR. We only go to one because we can only afford to go to one.

We will only go to the championships if we win the regional, like we did last year.

Re: More than One Regional?
 

For the amount of work our team puts in, we can't just let it end after three days of competition. We've been going to two regionals for threes year now and have been hooked. After your first regional you learn a lot about the game and how your robot will perform and what changes you need to make.

On the note of team members we take the whole team to our home regional, NASA/VCU, and we take any team members willing to go to the second. Usually the whole team is unable to go to the second due to school and other things.

If you continue going to a second regional try to pick a new regional to attend every year. We have gone to Chesapeake, Philadelphia, Buckeye and will be deciding on a new one next year. Unless we use the money for both regionals for hawaii :rolleyes:

Re: More than One Regional?
 

1529 only goes to one regional, but would gladly go to more or go to championships if we had the financial capbilities. It does seem like a let down, after going to one amazing regional for three days(Boilermaker)then not doing anything more. If I were you, I would go to more than one. I would try two regionals, then a regional and championship, to see what you like. I think playing with other teams before ship seems like a good practice, even though its not really a regional.

Re: More than One Regional?
 

Team 980 has attended as many as three regionals, the Championship and two off-season events in a year. That's a lot of competing and rather expensive!

Our preference is to attend two regionals, at least two weeks apart. We generally perform better at the second regional because the initial regional reveals the kinks in our design. Also, we benefit from seeing how other teams have tackled similar problems we've encountered. We like to "flatter" those more clever teams by borrowing from their effective designs. We make good use of "fix-it" windows.

Our "home regional" is the Los Angeles regional, so we get better attendance there from parents and classmates but our relatively small team is basically intact for all of the competitions. The additional cost ($4K) for the second regional is well worth the experience of competing with a robot that performs as intended. It's more than twice as much fun competing in two regionals rather than one!

BTW, by winning in the LA Regional, we've qualified for the Championship as well.

Re: More than One Regional?
 

We always have enough money for two events. However, due to students money situations, we opted for two regionals (closer than ATL) last year. So we did our normal GLR then hit up BMR. Last year, after being a two time regional finalist, we regret not going to ATL. Usually we do GLR and ATL.

Re: More than One Regional?
 

1155 is in its second year of two regionals. NYC has been, and always will be, our home regional. Due to financial limitations (we don't charge a team fee) we only consider second regionals that are close to home . Last year we did NJ, this year we did CT, next year we're probably doing NJ, CT, or LI. We also bus down to Champs only if we qualify, as we did in 06 and 07.

If you have the means to go to two, do it.

Re: More than One Regional?
 

to add to that. My advice as a senior, is to go to a travel regional. Yeah, we kids are a lot to handle.. and we will have fun.. and might get a little loud. but in all honesty, it brings the team close in my opinion. last year we didn't go to a travel regional, and something seemed missing.

my two cents:)

Re: More than One Regional?
 

save your funds to do the Hawaii one, stay longer and enjoy the beaches/sites. It'll be well worth it.
Our team is actually going to the beach tomorrow morning to relax before a stressful and exciting Hawaii event.:P

Re: More than One Regional?
 

Thought you guys might like to kinow why 1024 did 3 regionals this year.
Well it was money. Atlanta often had openings and we got lucky and got
to go. It was a lot of money.

We decided this year that the team would do Chicago to get ready for
our backyard brawl in Indiana at Purdue. We scheduled Cleveland as our
finisher since we really like the Buckeye for fun and excitement.

Who knew we would win in Chicago. We spent all of our money on the
three regionals. We asked if we could swap Cleveland for Nationals
only because of a lack of Funds. :ahh: ( We really like the Buckeye!)

Well long story short we went to Cleveland and had a great time and
enjoyed seeing everyone and having terrific competition.

We decided to take a small group of our students to Atlanta since we
are scraping for funds.

Two regionals are really the minimum we would do. We like a road trip
to enjoy the bus and other teams in other cities.

By the way since First reserves space for 3 regional winners to go to
Atlanta at each regional and we got fortunate to win all three with our super alliance partners we just freed up two spots for some of you guys who can still get on the list:) .

Chicago, Purdue, Ohio thanks for the great 2008 memories!

Mentor Team 1024
get on the list.

Re: More than One Regional?
 

1519 has only gone to one regional each year. (We did attend the Championship in '06, after winning the GSR.) However, we attend four or five off-season competitions around New England. Personally, this is a direction I would like to see more FIRST teams move in. An off-season competition usually costs around $200, and provides nearly as much fun and excitement as an official regional.

I don't mean this as an indictment against anyone, but I think rather than spend 5-10K on attending another regional, you could fund another team for one regional and go to several off-season competitions. While going to a second regional is definitely a valuable and worthwhile expereince, I think other options can give you even more inspiration and excitement for your buck.
Just my two cents.

Re: More than One Regional?
 

i love this hawaiian push going on by 359...

1402 used to go to two regionals and or the championship

2004: Florida and Palmetto
2005: Florida, Philadelphia, and Atlanta
2006: Florida and Atlanta

My team in 2007 went to Florida and Atlanta (1694)

This year, 945 went to Florida and is now on it's way to New Orleans for the Bayou Regional

I think 2 regionals is well worth it, but really consider going to a different regional every year. in 2006. 1402 was considering the Greater Toronto Regional, but because of border issues, we opted not to attend

This will give the drivers more practice time, the mechanical crew more time to toy with the machine and give your scouting team more first hand experience in preparation for Atlanta. not to mention a better shot of winning a regional, or awards.

Re: More than One Regional?
 

TEAM 2171, CROWN POINT INDIANA - 2nd year team
1) Last year we made the comment that going to one regional was like a football team putting the time and effort to play one game. IRI was a great second competion, which we plan on attending again this year. It was well worth the expense. Our first regional was the Boilermaker Regional. We did well, qualifying 27th, getting picked for an alliance, and advancing to the semi-finals before getting beat by a great alliance. We did not get our autonomous working correctly until the last practice match. We practiced in our cafeteria before shipping. Practicing in an arena, on carpet, with a real overhead rather than our PVC rack, made a big difference. We spent a good part of the regional tweaking our software control. Our second regional was the West Michigan Regional. We pulled our robot out of the box, plugged in the controls, and everything was debugged. We had expierence from the week before, which ended up being priceless for the drivers and myself, the mentor. We ended up finishing 8-0 in qualifying. I admit you have to get lucky to do that, but the confidence I saw in our drivers between the Boilermaker and Western Regional made a huge difference. Some students had conflicts and could not go to both regionals. The bus only allowed for 13 students and some got the opportunity to go to only 1 regional. We are now planning on going to Nationals with the win at the Western Michigan Regional. We won the regional by being teamed up with Team Hammond that has mentored us and helped us tremendously. It was a great experience being allied with them and 2604, a great rookie team we shared a hotel with. We both learned a tremendous amount by playing with and following the lead of TEAM HAMMOND 71 with THE BEAST.

Re: More than One Regional?
 

I'm going to make sure we post pics of the team social to entice teams to come to Hawaii in '09 and beyond!
Here are some perks already.
1. Every team will have FREE lunches sponsored by the Hawaii regional!!!
2. The team social is supposed to be this big luau (feast) FREE!
3. During your spare time, enjoy the 70-80 degree weather on the clean white sand beaches with snorkling, surf, and fun.

What better excuse than saying for school, you HAVE to go to Hawaii to participate in the culminating Robotics activity event.
Any questions?
Sign up for Hawaii and experience it yourself!!!!!:P

Re: More than One Regional?
 

We almost signed up for Hawaii as our first-ever second regional. I think we're enticed enough to go next year. Too bad I'll be off at college somewhere. I'll have to come volunteer.

Re: More than One Regional?
 

Team 469 has been lucky enough to have enough funds to attend 2-3 regionals and championship every year.

As weird as it may sound, I've always enjoyed the regionals more than nationals. Why? Well, 1) it is closer, which means that family and friends can come with us to support us. 2) There are less teams attending, which means more game time. 3) You can meet people there you will be able to see again some day (as they live in the same area as you - if you go to home regionals. 4) You can see the games better! 5) it's easier on the drive team: Last year, I spent more time running between the pits and the dome than actually on the field or meeting people. ATL is huge! 6) You don't feel like just a number. Every team attending is its own.

Now, don't get me wrong, Atlanta is fun. If anything, the bus ride down with the team, living in the hotel and spending so much time with your friends makes it all worth it. But given the price, and the open alternatives... My choice is made.

Also, if I had extra cash, I would probably choose going to Hawaii over championship. Same team bonding experience, closer nit community and the sea is right there!

Francois

Re: More than One Regional?
 

217 attends 2 regionals and the Championship as the norm, but has attended three 2 times (2003 and 2008).

We have Golden Rules that can't be broken:

1. Never attend back-to-back regionals (we broke this is 2003 and that is why it is rule #1).

2. We always go to Detroit (week 3)

3. Try to attend week 1 (totally different than the other weeks)

If Spring Break lines up with week 5, then we attend a week 5 event since the students do not miss school.

This year, we were lucky enough to have Great Lakes be on week 5.

We try to do an away regional for a couple of reasons:

1. Road trips are fun
2. We try to mix it up for the veteran students and the mentors
3. We like meeting different teams



We always try to get into the Championships, but I won't travel with the team unless we qualify (we usually buy our way in right when it opens). So far, I have been able to travel with the team every year.

Re: More than One Regional?
 

Why: A mentor suggested it to our team in 2006 (our second year) and it was unanimously decided that we would go.

For 1629, this year was the opposite of that. At Chesapeake, we were applying for Chairman's, so every night we would stay up to at least midnight working on our submissions. It's also our "home" regional - the one nearest to us, so we always feel more pressured there. The Buckeye regional was supposed to be the "fun" regional where we didn't have to worry about anything. It's also a lot of fun to meet twice the number of teams or even work with the same team at two events. Our team has become fairly close to others, such as 1727, because of this.

Worth it: Absolutely. As I know others have said, the first regional lets you work out the bugs and work better for the second. Also, we finished the robot really late this year, so our drivers didn't get enough practice working together. By Thursday of our second regional, they were working like (forgive the pun) a well-oiled machine.

Sending Everyone: We have a relatively small team (only 20 student members), so we bring everyone to both, because otherwise, we would not have enough people to fill all of the jobs that are required at a regional: scouts, drive team, and pit crew.

Space between: In the past, we have always done back-to-back regionals, only because those are the two nearest regionals, although I have heard talk of having two weeks between the ones we attend in the future.

Championships: We have plans to go to the Championship event every 4 years to ensure that all student members of the team are given the opportunity to attend. We also fundraise like crazy if we are invited because of an award or a regional championship so that we can attend as well (like this year!!!).

Re: More than One Regional?
 

In my eight years in FIRST, I've done 2 regionals six times, 3 regionals once, and 1 regional once. I've also been to the Championship every year. In my opinion, two regionals and the Championship is the perfect balance. Three regionals can get to be overwhelming, especially if you end up doing back-to-back events (a common problem if you're tied to a "home" event in Week 2 or 4). One regional can be a little underwhelming - after six weeks of build, I always want to compete as much as I can, and the long layoff between one regional and the Championship makes me restless.

For the longest time, I had only done 2 + Champs, but due to favorable (and unfavorable) money and school scheduling concerns, I did 3 in 2007, and one this year. Having seen it all three ways, I definitely prefer two regionals and the Championship - it's the best balance, by far.

Re: More than One Regional?
 

We are in the same boat as you. We have always done 2 events (Hartford + another regional or Championship), but think we are getting to a point where we can expand to two regionals and the Championship.

Re: More than One Regional?
 

But then at some places you get the opposite, the cheesy poofs have dominated SVR for what 7, 8 years in a row, maybe it's time for them to start moving around ya know?:D