[Jeff Pahl]

Originally Posted by Vikesrock

Someone previously in the thread mentioned the events being 3 miles away from each other, the buildings are actually right across the street from each other.

If I had to guess the reason that they choose to go with this dual regional setup I would say that decision likely fell out of the available venues. They couldn't make a single regional much if any bigger than it was this past year and demand for space already exceeded the number of spots even if just MN and Dakota's teams were counted (10 MN teams attended WI as their only regional and only 5 teams outside MN, ND, SD came to MN). Unlike a number of the University of Minnesota buildings Marriuci and Williams Arena are not connected by underground tunnels and routinely transporting robots outside in the winter in MN is just not a good idea. So the only real way they could increase capacity would be to have two separate events so the robots did not have to travel between the venues.

For those that are unsure of why MN has 2 simultaneous regionals, check the registration when all is said and done. I have a strong feeling that both events will be at max capacity.

Actually, he said 0.3, but left the leading 0 off so it was hard to see...

There are no venues at the U of M that have the space for a super (2 field) regional. The U is a major supporter of FIRST in MN, to the extent that the regional last year was being held in the basketball fieldhouse while the state high school basketball tournament was held elsewhere. The regionals are being operated as seperate events, with seperate volunteer coordinators, etc. They are just across the street from each other at the same time, so it will be possible to mingle with all the teams in the state. I have not heard anything about a social event (we didn't have one last year) but if there is one I hope that it will be a single event for both groups to get together.

After several teams had to go out of state last year to compete, there was a wonderful committment on the part of the regional planning committee to make sure that every team in MN would be able to compete in the state this year. The double regional is the result.