2011 Greater Kansas City Regional

[Alpha Beta]

Originally Posted by IFB662

Team 662 is ready here in colorado. We are coming to KC for the first time this we hope to see a thrilling competition. The only downside is the 9 hour bus ride. We leave wednesday.

I hear you on the 9 hour bus ride. We'll be joining you guys in Denver later on after our own road trip.

1098 "Rock Bots" are ready to go. Weekend before pack up day we were hanging in auto, picking tubes off the floor, and deploying a fast minibot. We have a great drive team, the driver races RC cars and planes and races MotoX, HP is a lax and hockey player. Have a good feeling about this year. KC is a very fun Regional with really GREAT teams!!

Its good to hear that 1098 is bringing a strong bot. This field may not have the household names at the top, but it could be as strong and/or deeper than some of the week 1 regionals.

We here at 1986 are very much looking forward to this weekend. Most of the team spent the day at school watching all of regional and Michigan feeds together followed by a team dinner. The game looks exciting, and exactly what we designed our robot for. We are ready to play.

PS. That two ubertube thing in autonomous looks pretty sweet. Anybody thinking about trying it? Could keep some programers busy on Thursday.

[funggiss]

This is going to be a great year. Watching the other regionals made the wait worse. 1825 is ready to go and wishes every one a great competition.

[treffk]

1802 is pretty much ready to go! And are we excited! Hope to have another great competition season. It would be great to see the team go to St. Louis while I'm volunteering!

[Alpha Beta]

Is MoreNet providing the webcast again this year? They put out one of the highest quality feeds in FIRST. I only see 2010 information up on the website. http://www.more.net/content/first-robotics

A large number of our teachers like to have the competition running in the background while they teach on Friday. We love the support the team members receive from their classmates.

[Alpha Beta]

MoreNet just started switching over their website to incorporate 2011 information. Looks like they are on board after all for this weekend. One of the great things they do is archive matches during the competition. Anyone who misses one on the webcast can download the replay minutes later.

http://www.more.net/content/first-robotics

[Alpha Beta]

Continuing my once a day post for this thread.

Team Titanium has put an emphasis on Gracious Professionalism this year. It can be easy when success come your way to lose sight of the ideals that make this program great, and we are trying to make sure that doesn't happen.

Before team members were allowed to participate this year each member had to define what it meant to be Gracious and Professional. Excerpts from their responses are posted on our website. http://www.teamtitanium.org/team.html (Click on the names to see their comments.) One of those excerpts is printed below.

• Professionals know how to collaborate. They use language that encourages a flow of ideas between colleagues. This includes giving credit to others and avoiding offensive comments that would diminish the contribution of others.
• Professionals pay attention to the details. They know the cost of sloppy work, and the beauty of good design.

Throughout the competition season our team is wearing wrist bands in FIRST colors that are debossed with "Always Gracious - Always Professional" as a reminder to ourselves to live this message.

We are bringing an extra 500 bands to the KC regional for anyone else who wants to sign the pledge to work on being more Gracious and more Professional. It has become a great conversation starter with the public and a chance for us to talk more about what FIRST is all about.

A couple FAQ's
1. Why didn't you make the wrist band in your team colors?
We wanted to give other teams a chance to promote FIRST without feeling like they had to promote us. Our name and team number is lightly embossed on the inside.

2. If I find myself not being very gracious or professional do I have to give the wrist band back?
No. Our team is working on the whole GP thing too. We're not perfect at it. The wrist band is simply a statement that we are commited to working on it.

3. Can someone else pick up a wrist band for me?
No. The pledge sheet is in our pit and you have to sign it to get the wrist band. We'd love to meet you and talk about robotics in person. Come on down.

We're looking forward to dropping off our robot tonight, and then counting down the hours until tomorrow morning. See you in the pits, in the stands, and on the field. It's going to be GRRRRRRRREAT!

[DtD]

BTW> Team 2410 is excited in case nobody noticed.