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Originally Posted by Billfred
Let's just ignore the Dome's requirements and consider this on just the basis of running fields. Each field requires six radio channels, and runs on a six-minute match cycle. (In other words, we have six robot-matches completed every six minutes.)
The IFI radio modem has forty channels. Six of them can be accessed by teams, which leaves the possibility that someone will make a dumb mistake and run off the field on a radio and lock up a competing robot. Clearly, this prospect is unacceptable. Therefore, we have 34 channels available to us. That breaks down to five fields of 3v3, or eight if FIRST reverted to 2v2. (We'll ignore 2v2; FIRST's current-generation field barrier is made for 3v3, no matter how Mission Mayhem rigged it up, and should be used by past experience through the 2009 season.) So yes, FIRST could run a fifth FRC field in Atlanta. Now how do you incorporate that into the elimination bracket on Einstein in a manner that is both fair and easily understood by the average person on the street? I don't think you can.
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Hypothetically, they could set it up like the 2001 Championship, with additional fields with limited-capacity, portable bleachers in another location. Surely there are additional exhibition halls in the GWCC complex which could accomodate that.
If you keep enough distance (and concrete/steel) between the conflicting transmitters, you might be able to get away with it.
You'd also want to make sure that every team was playing some matches on the Georgia Dome fields, as well as some in the basement.
But there's another concern here: at a lot of regionals, the transit time between pits and field is miniscule. At Waterloo, for example, it's less than a minute. At the Championship, it's often much longer. Then, there's the time spent in-queue. That means that you've got less time to work on the robot between matches, and means that it is rather more difficult to keep everything running smoothly, from a team's perspective. Some teams may actually welcome the fact that they're not quite so rushed.