[FRC Blog] 2015 FIRST Championship Updates

[Hallry]

Posted on the FRC Blog, 3/9/15:

2015 FRC Championship Updates

Blog Date: Monday, March 9, 2015 - 14:22

Guest blogging this week is Toby Clarke, the Program Manager for FIRST Robotics Competition. Toby manages the behind-the-scenes logistics that make our season possible, in addition to a lot of other tasks- including logistics for Championship. Some of you will have the opportunity to meet him, as he is an FTA for several events this year.

Hello FRC Community!

With the Championship in St. Louis now not far away, we want to provide you with an update on the ongoing planning for this event. We are very excited about this program.

As previously shared, we will be welcoming up to 600 teams to the event and they will be playing on a total of 8 fields. These 8 fields, or sub-divisions, will have 75 teams assigned to each. There will be 2 sub-divisions making up each of the 4 divisions. This means that there will be 150 teams eligible for the judged awards on each of the 4 divisions. The smaller sub-division structure will allow us to maximize the number of qualification play opportunities for each team and allow more teams (43% vs. 32%) to participate in the playoffs.

As Frank shared in an earlier blog, we have kept the four previous division names and added four new ones. Below is how these 8 sub-divisions will be grouped into the 4 divisions:

Newton – Hopper
Curie – Carver
Galileo – Carson
Archimedes – Tesla

Below are a few diagrams with details of the FRC Championship layouts. For more detailed drawings, please look at these files for the competition fields in the Edward Jones Dome and the pits in the America's Center. If you look at the layouts, you’ll see that there are 8 competition fields on the floor of the Dome. In addition, there are 4 practice fields grouped together in the pits, between the Archimedes-Tesla division and FLL area. This is twice the number of fields for 50% more teams, which yields more team access.

In addition, there will be a team support area for spare parts and NASA Machine Shop services located centrally, near Pit Administration (indicated by the blue octagon between the Curie-Carver and Galileo-Carson pit areas). The main Robot Aisle is shown on the layout by thick red and green lines, which cut through the center of each division’s pit areas. These two lines represent two separate lanes, going either to or from the pits/dome/practice fields. Think of the Robot Aisle as a two-lane divided highway- we made this change to allow for easy robot transportation. You’ll see these lanes of traffic continuing from the Pit to the Dome layout, indicating how teams will enter and leave the Dome floor.

Edward Jones Dome Floor: Sub-Division Fields



America's Center: Pit Areas and FRC Practice Fields



Following the conclusion of the sub-division playoffs, the Archimedes and Tesla fields will be transformed on Saturday afternoon to create two Einstein fields. This will provide the location where the winning alliances from each of the 8 sub-divisions will compete to determine the 4 team alliance that will be the 2015 FRC Champions.

The FIRST Championship Conferences are being expanded as well to provide more learning opportunities. The final schedule is planned to be released on Monday, March 25. For more information, visit http://www3.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/firstplace/workshops-and-conferences

As FIRST takes over St. Louis during Championship, be sure to check out FIRST Tech Challenge at Union Station and the FIRST Innovation Faire at the Renaissance Hotel. There will be shuttles continuously running between venues, to make it easy to move around the city.

We can’t wait to welcome all the qualifying teams and FIRST supporters to St. Louis. Good luck during the upcoming weeks and we hope to see you there!

Toby

[PayneTrain]

Is Eisntein on the opposite side of the dome now or am I really turned around?

[JohnFogarty]

Originally Posted by PayneTrain

Is Eisntein on the opposite side of the dome now or am I really turned around?

No, it's still on the same side. Has to be, they won't switch sides of the dome because the lounge for VIP guests is on the side of the dome they use now.

Green arrow is last year's entrance. Red arrow is where FLL used to enter from.

[Thad House]

Originally Posted by JohnFogarty

No, it's still on the same side.

Green arrow is last year's entrance. Red arrow is where FLL used to enter from.

That does mean its reversed. Eintein used to be where hopper and newton are now.

[JohnFogarty]

Originally Posted by Thad House

That does mean its reversed. Eintein used to be where hopper and newton are now.

I see what you're sayying now. That doesn't make sense why they would switch sides.

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by JohnFogarty

I see what you're sayying now. That doesn't make sense why they would switch sides.

That VIP lounge on the west end eats up a lot of seating space. Putting Einstein on the east end gives many more seats for team members to use.

[JB987]

Is it reasonable to think that for Einstein seating fairness spectators will be removed from the Archi and Tesla fields before the finals and re seating will take place to include all 8 division winner's teams first?

[Chris is me]

Not to take away anything from the many good changes and updates here, but why is Einstein even on the end of the dome? We have raised the size of the Championship by 50%, but increased the seating maybe... 10% with the VIP section removed. It has always been quite cramped. Can't we go back to side seating like Atlanta?

Originally Posted by Hallry

That's a relatively small HoF exhibit. Took me a while to find it on the layout.

It's been this bad for years. HOF teams get a coffee table when they used to get a full pit.

[Connor Mulkey]

Originally Posted by JB987

Is it reasonable to think that for Einstein seating fairness spectators will be removed from the Archi and Tesla fields before the finals and re seating will take place to include all 8 division winner's teams first?

Those were my thoughts. Being part of the Archimedes or Tesla division shouldn't provide any big seating advantage because you'll be moved to make room for the teams that will be featured on Einstein.

[Richard Wallace]

If I am reading this right, teams in Archimedes and Tesla will have a pretty significant logistical advantage over those in other subdivisions.

[Matt_Boehm_329]

That's a long walk from Hopper and Newton to those practice fields

[dellagd]

Originally Posted by Matt_Boehm_329

That's a long walk from Hopper and Newton to those practice fields

But its a pretty nice walk to the competition fields. Seems like a fair way to do it.

[Hallry]

That's a relatively small HoF exhibit. Took me a while to find it on the layout.

[Libby K]

Originally Posted by Hallry

That's a relatively small HoF exhibit. Took me a while to find it on the layout.

The HoF exhibit is (sorry, not sorry) embarrassingly small.

I get that they're trying to crunch as many teams in the pit as possible, but it doesn't seem fair that the Hall of Fame teams spend hundreds upon thousands of hours on their efforts to improve the FIRST community, and we reward them with a cocktail table.

Remember the Atlanta Hall of Fame? Where the teams got their own HoF display the size of a real pit, and you could see them all as you went in to the convention center? We need that back. I see no reason why we couldn't do that in the upstairs atrium of the Americas Center, where there's currently quite a bit of open space.

After years of comments about the HoF exhibit being to small, it really seems like FIRST likes it this way, and that's pretty sad. These are the teams we need to be celebrating & holding up as role models for the FIRST community, and we throw them in a corner once they've won?

They have so much to offer us all. I think it's well past time FIRST offered them something back.

[Jay O'Donnell]

Originally Posted by Richard Wallace

If I am reading this right, teams in Archimedes and Tesla will have a pretty significant logistical advantage over those in other subdivisions.

Why do you say that?