Bills Blog - Champs info

[Karibou]

Who else is seriously concerned about the noise level in the pit/pit field area?

[BrendanB]

Originally Posted by Alpha Beta

I wonder if they needed room for the Collegiate FIRST event in the dome.

April 20th is a long ways to wait for more information. It sounds like they are still working out the details. I wonder what kinds of things are still up for negotiation and how our comments here might influence the final decisions. This is not the kind of change I was looking forward to as the Championship Event comes to my home state.

What collegiate FIRST event?

@Kara: Seems to be a theme this year!

[AndyH]

We are a local St. Louis team, and I am disappointed to hear this. We have been working hard to publicize this event as a great opportunity for the public to see what we do. We were working to put together a field trip for several classes of 2nd grade students to watch. Now that we know this setup, I believe that our staff sponsors will choose to cancel that field trip. They are also not nearly as proud to invite the superintendent and other administrators when there may or may not even be a place to sit. We told them we were excited to be playing in the Dome, and now that may not even be the truth depending on when they can come.

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by Karthik

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I'm eager to be playing matches in the pit, compared to what we had at the Georgia Dome last year. But given the choice between spending all our time in the pit fields, or moving back and forth and dealing with all the associated hassles, I'd take the pit in a heartbeat.

I'm curious what the walk will be between the two fields. If a team could get two sets of calibration readings in 45 minutes (even pushing the robot on the cart--might as well get used to it), relief from those frustrations seems to be a sticky note away.

Originally Posted by Karthik

Anyways, before we all get worked up over this setup, let's wait and see what details emerge. It can't be as bad as everyone is making it seem.

Cosigned. This'll be my first Championship outside of Atlanta, and I know there will be speedbumps, but I doubt that Bill Miller is up in his office right now twirling his mustache and cackling evilly. Playing qualification matches in the pits is highly unlikely to be the worst thing our team has experienced all year (even if Friday at Peachtree was a bit of a curvebuster).

[Joe Ross]

Originally Posted by JohnBoucher

What happens Saturday AM?

Originally Posted by miketwalker

I would say with almost certainty that if there aren't qualification matches Saturday morning (and alliance selection is on Friday), we will see at least a few teams leave the event after Friday to save money.

As always, you can view the full agenda on the championship website: http://usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/...nt.aspx?id=432 I wouldn't expect Bill to duplicate the entire agenda. As usual, there qualification matches and division eliminations on Saturday.

[Chris_Elston]

Originally Posted by JohnBoucher

What does this mean?
What happens Saturday AM?

Here is the agenda which denotes Sat AM.

http://www.usfirst.org/uploadedFiles...a_3-7-2011.pdf

It's been a month since it's been updated. But somewhat a clue to your question.

EDIT: Joe beat me to the punch....

[Joe Ross]

Originally Posted by Chris_Elston

It's been a month since it's been updated. But somewhat a clue to your question.

It was updated 3/21 according to the note at the bottom, they just didn't update the filename. However, based on the content, I wouldn't be surprised if it was updated this week.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Billfred

I'm curious what the walk will be between the two fields. If a team could get two sets of calibration readings in 45 minutes (even pushing the robot on the cart--might as well get used to it), relief from those frustrations seems to be a sticky note away.

Shouldn't be too bad--it's virtually level, and Hall 5 is maybe 5-10 minutes from Hall 6 (the arena, depending on where you're going in the arena). Hall 1, at the opposite end of the convention halls, would be another 10-15 accounting for traffic and robot towing.

Depending on how long calibration took, I'd say you could probably do it in about 30 minutes for both fields. 45 is a reasonable guesstimate to account for everyone else trying to do the same thing. Maybe as long as an hour.

[miketwalker]

Originally Posted by Joe Ross

As always, you can view the full agenda on the championship website: http://usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/...nt.aspx?id=432 I wouldn't expect Bill to duplicate the entire agenda. As usual, there qualification matches and division eliminations on Saturday.

The public agenda is inconsistent with Bill's posting. His posting clearly states different times from the posted agenda and directly states in all capitals that "MATCHES ARE SCHEDULED TO END AT 5PM" on Friday suggesting this may be the end time for all qualifying matches. The public agenda in its' current form can not be used for scheduling purposes until all changes are incorporated. Whether we are talking about qualifying matches ending completely at 5pm on Friday or things will be as usual on Saturday morning needs to be clarified. It most likely will be business as usual, but there are obviously drastic changes being considered so we need to wait on an update.

[Bob Steele]

Well the schedule as posted above isn't final (as stated)
Bill's blog post shows at least one difference already.
FRC qual matches end on 5 Friday (it shows 6 on the posted schedule)
I didn't check for other changes....

you beat me Mike :0)

[Koko Ed]

I keep holding out hope that this is just a delayed action April Fools joke.
This is such an awful idea.

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by Jon Jack

Besides the fact that there's going to be a huge exodus from the pits to the dome and visa versa Friday at noon

That will be a sight to see, I'm bringing a video camera. I just need to remember to film the stampede from a safe place

Originally Posted by Jon Jack

Furthermore, how is FIRST planning on transferring tournament data from "Dome Field #1" to "Pit Field #1"?

Maybe Ethernet?

[Mike o.]

Originally Posted by Chris_Elston

Here is the agenda which denotes Sat AM.

http://www.usfirst.org/uploadedFiles...a_3-7-2011.pdf

It's been a month since it's been updated. But somewhat a clue to your question.

EDIT: Joe beat me to the punch....

I would seem to infer that since what Bill said in his blog would update the agenda on the FIRST website by ending an hour earlier on Friday and going an hour later on Thursday, that the Plan Pending at 8PM on Friday may be a possible reason that they had to move two fields to the pit area.

Going on to the EJD site and the GD site one can basically see that it appears the floor space of the EJD is in fact larger than the GD, by how much would depend on if they had the retractable seats extended or not in the EJD.

On another note, I personally think that this isn't truly that bad of a situation. It has its Pros and Cons, but why not give something a try before completely dismissing it. As a student of process and logistics engineering, I do agree that it provides at first glance somewhat of a logistical nightmare, but we don't even know yet how many of the Exhibit Halls FIRST is taking up in the Convention Center, so for all we know, there could be a whole lot more space in the pit area this year.

**And some people beat me to some of my points**

[BrendanB]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

I keep holding out hope that this is just a delayed action April Fools joke.
This is such an awful idea.

Same here.

This will make the dome look even more empty with half of the teams in another place. Seems like the pit will be the main attraction with two fields and the robots housed.

[Mike o.]

Originally Posted by DonRotolo

Maybe Ethernet?

Or maybe even wireless.......just hope they don't have problems like the robots

........Although in a serious answer, they will probably use the backup files that the FMS creates would be my guess. Just hope that person that is in charge or running from one field to the other doesn't get lost....