Quote:
Originally Posted by SoftwareBug2.0
Is there a list anywhere of which events are what size? I always hear people warn about sub 10x10 pits, but I've never been to an event where that was the case.
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At this point, it's more the case at district events, or regionals with small venues. If you only go to regionals in big arenas or convention centers, you won't run into this problem. Once events start scaling down to college or high school gyms, there usually isn't enough room for teams while keeping the pit at the traditional size. 9x9 is what we've found at most of our events. We had an 8x9 once, but that wasn't what was taped out on the floor for us - our neighbors had set up their 10x10 pit walls already and had encroached into our space. (Not cool!)
I'm a definite fan of adjustable pit sizes - or even better, don't build some crazy big structure. 1923 has one (gifted from another team that was folding), and it's definitely been too big & clunky for some of our district events. We are looking at redesigning for this year, keeping the idea of a back-wall to hang banners, but we're trashing the 10x10x8 cube we've had - it just doesn't make sense for us anymore with smaller events & venues.
Nobody likes it when a team pushes the edges of their pit into yours. Not only is it unsafe, but it's just not fair. It's the FRC-pit equivalent of the people on the subway who put their bags on the seat next to them when someone else clearly wants to sit down. Whatever you plan out for your pit, don't be
that team.
Edit::
Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber
[citation needed]
I've never heard of this happening. Nor is it in the criteria for any judged awards. Safety Award MAYBE but that's the only one I don't know well enough to argue about.
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Safety, for sure. I know at one of our events we had a 'take a pin!'/brochure stand outside of our pit by about 3 inches, and the Safety Advisors wouldn't leave our space until we scooted it inside of the taped line.
(Not sure how 3 extra people refusing to leave our pit made it any safer, but...)
We got a frowny face on the next morning's form for it.
