[HydroSam]

As one of the members of the last group of students who actually remember what Championship events at Epcot were like, I think it’s important that a comparison is drawn between what the Championship event used to be and what it has become. For those of you who haven’t been in FIRST long enough to remember the 2002 or prior Championship events, ask an old-timer on your team, they’ll tell you how much better the event was when it was under the Florida sun.

Take the pits-field-stands distances. Once upon a time the pits were so close to the field that robots actually were sent back to the pits between Quarterfinals matches and retrieving something from your pits during a break between the matches wasn’t a 10-minute running ordeal but a two-minute jaunt. Also, instead of being nearly an entire story above and 10 to 200 yards away from the field your robot is on as it competes, in Epcot designated team cheering zones on the floor were established which put students less than 10 feet away from the field and on the same level as the drivers. Those distances seen in Atlanta present serious problems for scouting teams to relay information to their drivers during Qualifying matches or Elimination rounds. In Epcot I can remember my predecessor briefing the drivers on their next match in the elimination rounds by meeting them at the side of the walkway to and from the pits, not needing to wave them down and use dozens of cell phone minutes to arrange a shouted meeting held a few feet above the drivers’ heads.

Another place where the GA Dome facility simply cannot compete with the Disney facility is in the accommodations, transportation, food, and the party. Unlike the Omni, which fills up weeks before the event and forces teams into sub-par hotels far from the event, Disney had plenty of hotel rooms for the teams and punctual transportation systems (busses and monorail) which transported teams from the front of their hotel to the event site. Even as close as the Omni was to the event, that distance is easily double the distance a team had to walk when the event was in Epcot. For food, the prices in the GA Dome have become ridiculous. I know Disney’s not normally associated with inexpensive, but even they didn’t charge $10.75 for a sad-looking BBQ sandwich, a crushed bag of Lays, and a soda. Also, Disney didn’t go ballistic over teams bringing coolers of drinks into their pits to keep their team members properly hydrated over the long days of competition. And for the party, instead of cheesy stilt acts and carnival games, Disney had major recording artists perform at the Einstein field followed by opening the Epcot park with food and multiple sound stages with entertainment aimed at the high-school crowd.

But the most important difference between the days of Epcot events and the stadium-style of event used today was the difference in facility style. Epcot had massive open areas where inter-team activities like twister, limbo, Frisbee, etc. were encouraged. Nearly everyone participated because the fields were just a short walk from anywhere at the event. In stadiums, it’s a hike just to get to the aisle ways (which cannot be blocked by these activities), let alone outside to the nearest open area. Those activities were an important way that teams got to know each other through the most effective way possible: play. Unfortunately, such activities are far less common today and thus, less inter-team understanding and friendships are created.

The pits, also, are not what they once were. It seems that each year the aisles between them shrinks, and this year the aisles were skinnier at the Championship than at some regionals. The pits at Epcot were sufficiently far apart that I remember it being common for entire teams to accompany their robot back to the pits after a successful match to celebrate and coordinate plans for the rest of the day. Today it’d take 15 minutes or more to do something like that and the traffic jam it would create would be astounding.

The layout of the Epcot event also contributed to the more mobile and social feel of the Epcot-based events. Because divisions rotated through fields, teams didn’t colonize sections of the stands and sit there all day. They’d move into the stands for the field their match was soon to be on a few matches ahead of time, watch theirs, then move on to other things (either a celebration in the pits or to one of the outside events). Today teams have incentive to stay in the stands so that they can have reasonably close seating when their robot competes. It’s a lot easier to meet people and learn from others when you’re up and about instead of sitting like a zombie watching matches and talking to the same old members of your team.

What concerns me about FIRST is that they didn’t realize that the venue was as much a part of the problem as anything in Houston and picked a largely similar setup for Atlanta. There was a certain charm about the Championship event’s style in Epcot, a charm that experience now shows cannot be replicated in other places. I think three years is enough to prove that the Championship needs to return to its home: Orlando, FL. Unfortunately, as of next season, there will be even less people in FIRST who remember what the 2002 or prior events were like, and thus even less push to return it to a similar venue.