[Peter Matteson]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

At Championship they give out awards in between matches on Einstein. There are very few "cooldown" periods where there isn't something going on right next to the field.

For those of you who haven't really paid attention the cycle time on Einstein is more than 15 minutes per match because of the speeches, longer if Dean speaks...

It is a painfully long match cycle and is already pretty nerve racking for the students participating. It's easy to forget that 12 teams are sitting on or by the field through all those speeches trying to remember to charge ther pnuematics and make sure everything is set and ready to go. The longer you wait the more you doubt yourself as ready to go. It's also physically taxing because you are out there from lunch until about 7pm on Saturday. I have found myself providing water and snacks for our team and alliance partners just to keep them going because they are stuck out on the Dome floor for so long.

Also as it comes to time over run, if you make Einstein as it is now you are lucky to have a chance to have your pit packed up by 8pm on Saturday. When you go back over to the pits and the only teams left are the Einstein and ready alternates packing up it's a kind of eiry experience because everyone else is long gone.