[kristinweiss]

I was slightly hesitant about Georgia's transition to districts, but after this weekend, I believe that going to districts is one of the best thing to happen to Georgia!

Shoutouts:
1. Thank you to 4188 and 5074 for joining us and helping us win! You guys were fantastic alliance partners and complimented our abilities perfectly! We hope to play with both of you again in the future!

2. HUGE congratulations to 1648 on their long awaited chairmans win! You guys always amaze me with all of the work that you do to get kids involved in STEM and I cannot think of a more deserving team to win!

3. Good job to the second seed alliance of 2415, 4193, and 2974 for putting up a great fight in the finals! You gave us two great matches that were extremely close in score and really forced us to stay on top of our game!

Highlights of event:
1. The floor of the pits were carpet covered astroturf which made them very cushiony and were incredible on the feet for everyone of their feet all day.

2. The arena seating was plentiful and gave everyone a good view of the field and what was going on no matter where you sat.

3. The refs did an incredible job scoring the field and admitted when they made mistakes, and scored were updated almost instantly so you always knew where you stood in the ranks.

4. You never quite realize how nice 12 qualification matches are until you get the chance to play them in at an event. While we were running slightly behind schedule, I was glad to see that every team got to play their full 12 matches.

Lows of event:
1. While the cushiony carpet in the pit was fantastic, it kept many teams from preforming to their full potential and caused too many brownouts especially in elims.

2. No outside food or drinks were allowed in the building and everyone was getting very dehydrated from lack of water (and water fountains). The arena and vending machines sold water and soda for $3 a bottle, but were sold out very quickly. Also, due to the slight delay in seeding rounds, drive teams only had 20 minutes or so to get lunch before elims and had to waste time leaving the building to get lunch instead of being able to have it brought to them in the stands.

3. There was no practice field so if you wanted to modify and test out your robot, you were doing it during matches. I hope to see even a partial practice field at future GA district events because teams need to be able to test modifications

Overall I am very pleased with how the first district event went! Thank you to the Georgia FIRST planning committee and everyone involved who helped make the event run so smoothly! I cannot wait to attend the KSU event and state champs later this spring!