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Originally Posted by Anupam Goli
Take a look at my custom user title.
The only thing I disliked was having very little pit time at DCMP before matches started. we had a very rough first day and a half and we're still trying to get all of our robot functional again.
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I waited until after DCMP to make a final call on this, but truth be told I had already made up my mind after my first district competitions.
To answer the questions in by the OP, 1648 has attended two events for the past few years (2013-14, Palmetto and Peachtree; 2015, GSC and Peachtree). Peachtree was local, Palmetto was obviously not, and GSC was kinda in the middle.
ALL of our events were not close this year (Columbus, Albany, DCMP), and all required lodging. We did this for the strategic value of it, not because we couldn't pick a local event; we wanted to avoid the KSU/DCMP turnaround of two days, which I think was a good call in hindsight. Travel was 2 hours, 3.5 hours, and 1.5 hours respectively.
But after all of this, I definitely prefer the district system. I come from a team that always did one event in the regional system. So while the change hasn't been that significant for 1648 (though it is universally loved within the team), for me it's been dramatic. The extra plays, the small size of the competition, and the venues all made them feel like well run events. Did I have my gripes? Absolutely. The lack of practice fields at both of our districts was troubling and painfully annoying. The lack of metro-Atlanta events was disappointing. However, I think that as the state grows, having more events around the state will only make things better. I'm willing to chalk up the rest of the problems I saw to the first year of the system, and the positives definitely outweigh the negatives.
In terms of what I would like to see next year, the three priorities for me are:
1. Reorganize the event schedule so there aren't poorly timed, unavoidable back-to-back events.
2. Find a practice field for an event. This needs to be a priority over a lot of other things.
3. Figure out the Dean's List/Woodie Flowers situation. It was frustrating and odd to see them mention some things at a few events and ignore them at others. For example, Albany didn't mention anything about Woodie Flowers, but Dean's List Semifinalists were announced. The reverse was true at KSU, IIRC.
Quote:
Originally Posted by notmattlythgoe
I have emailed Frank and asked about official inter-district play being opened between the districts. With MAR, CHS, and NC all right next to each other this seems like the prime location to pilot this. Teams could compete at any district events they want but earn points towards their own DCMP. This would help alleviate seeing the same teams over and over again. It would also allow teams on the edges of their districts(like 1629) to travel to events that are in other districts but may be closer than any of their own districts events.
Franks response said that this has been brought up to the district leaders and was voted down. If this is something that you may be interested in doing please talk to your own districts and try to convince them that this is something the teams in your district could benefit from. I will be talking to Stan about it in detail. Frank said the topic would be brought up again to be discussed.
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I'd love to see PCH do this as well, at least with NC....obviously it isn't as easy since we aren't nearly as close, but I still think piloting it in NC would be an ideal option, I think.