Re: Minnesota regional!
 

I would definately pack a nice assortment of cool weather and warm weather clothes and probably bring a light jacket to the competition incase the weather fluctuates a lot between walking in at morning and leaving at night.

Im on spring break right now, and this is the only thing I have thought about nearly the whole time.

Re: Minnesota regional!
 

I know someone who works in the athletic maintnence department at Marriucci and I believe he has said that the ice is going to be melted. That is what I knew last talking to him, but stuff changes.

Re: Minnesota regional!
 

Yes. I've just confirmed it with the regional director:

Ice will be melted, and 1/3rds of the rink will be used for the field.
Other 2/3rds will be the pit area. Each team will get the standard 10'x10' and there will be a large black drape disconnecting the two sides.

Wow, looks really convenient to me for transportation reasons and really inconvenient for noise level when trying to work/rest in the pits.

Re: Minnesota regional!
 

Earplugs FTW

Re: Minnesota regional!
 

I've been to a lot of regionals that use the "arena" arrangement with the drape, and the sound level in the pits is not that significant. The speaker arrays point away from the pits, and the drape also kills a lot of the sound level. I can't recall ever even being aware of the sound from the field, even when our pit was on the end right by the drape.

It's not as inconvenient as trying to get your robot from the pits to the field and back, across the street at Williams Arena. I hope everyone coming to 10,000 Lakes has a good cart.

And it's snowing again :(

Re: Minnesota regional!
 

I have to agree with Jeff on this one. Midwest, Boilermaker, and Wisconsin have all used this setup forever and I've never considered noise to be a problem. I'm happy to hear that we'll be getting the full 10x10 in the pits and not 9x9 smaller like you tend to get at some other events.

We'll be leaving at 4pm tomorrow for our 6 hour trip. I hope everyone else manages to travel safely.

Re: Minnesota regional!
 

Mariuchi is an Olympic size rink (200' x 100') as opposed to an NHL rink which is only 200' x 85', so there is more room for full 10x10 pit spaces than at some of the other venues.

Have a safe trip. The snow is supposed to stop by around 1PM tomorrow. It's sticking to the grass at my house, but is not expected to stick to the roads in the southern part of the state.

Re: Minnesota regional!
 

I don't think we have to cross a street with our robots, at least I hope not. This is from the Minnesota FIRST website.

Directly connected to Williams Arena, the “pits” for the 10,000 Lakes Regional will be housed in the Sports Pavilion. Just a couple minutes walk from the arena; teams will be able to transport their robots quickly and efficiently between the “pits” and the playing field via a designated corridor. Special Note: All robot carts must be less than 34” wide to fit through the connecting corridor.

:ahh: Carts on a diet?

BTW, it's still snowing right now.

Re: Minnesota regional!
 

Here at the U of M it is snowing right now, but so far it's melting as soon as it hits the ground. It's supposed to be below freezing tonight, so watch out for ice on the roads and sidewalks tomorrow morning! The forecast says that the high temperatures should be in the mid-40s this weekend though, so it should be fairly nice. :)

Re: Minnesota regional!
 

I was refering to the other regional across the street, not having to cross the street with the robot. The pits are in the same building :). They just are not in the same room as the field. And there are ramps, it's not a flat walk. Thankfully it's nothing like the walk from the pits to the fields in Atlanta.

Snowing here, too :( Hope it quits soon.

Re: Minnesota regional!
 

Snow has stopped here and is beginning to melt to some degree.

Re: Minnesota regional!
 

I hope everyone's been having fun, I came back to MN from Purdue and I'm SO happy I did! If any of you are on a drive team at North Star come say hi to me, I'll be scoring all weekend! The weather is looking to be pretty nice and I've been pretty impressed with a lot of bots so far.

Re: Minnesota regional!
 

Yeah, Good practice rounds to all teams. Very fun to watch a lot of different designs compete. I know our team is very excited for the next couple of days and we hope all of you guys are as well. Good luck to all teams in both regionals during the next few days!

PS: I hope team 79 from FL are enjoying the 30 degree mornings. =P

Re: Minnesota regional!
 

I am enjoying the weather. The teams here are very great and I am looking forward to playing with them.

Re: Minnesota regional!
 

Were lovin em' :D feels goooood