Although the event was proposed to be a complete disaster by some people, I was pleasantly surprised. This was only my second time to the championship event, but it was not far off from Atlanta in terms of overall quality of the event.
Goods:
The pit fields were very convenient and allowed students on the drive team to take a quick walk over and watch a few matches in between their own matches. They were also extremely exciting and filled with enthusiasm.
Edit:The college level competition was really interesting! Aftering hearing about it when it was first announced publicly, I was excited. Looks like this could be the next FIRST competition.
At least for us, our hotel, The Renaissance Grand, was right across the street from the Americas Center, and a 8 minute walk total to the pits. Could not have worked out better.
Loading and unloading was not bad (besides the rain). It seemed there was plenty of space for the teams to bring their stuff in and out.
I thought it was nice they fed us (Despite how basic it was) on Saturday after the closing. The St. Louis cookies were a nice touch!
Bads:
The stands for the pit fields NEED to be bigger. Significantly bigger! Two times what they had might be enough.
At least in the place in the pits where we were, the lane seemed very crowded. There was definitely not as much space as Atlanta, but with a few changes, I think they could make it work better.
The performance was pretty awesome, but it would've been nice to let some more people into the, "Mosh Pit," area (on a lottery basis or something) as it was kind of dead in there in most parts. I understand that there were smaller kids in there, but it was really calm where we were.
Edit: The only other complaint I had was the placement of the HOF booths. It seems they were figured out last minute where they would go, so they were put in a corner. Maybe this is bias because I was over there more than most people, but I think they should be celebrated a bit more.
Overall, a great experience. I am glad the negative feelings were proved wrong. Great job volunteers, planning committees, and FIRST!
