Championship 2011 - St Louis - Your Thoughts Please?

[JesseK]

Hey, whatdya know -- the 2011 Championship Survey was just emailed to team contacts a few minutes ago.

With all of the robot cross-traffic of teams going to the Dome, I understand why it may be necessary to require safety glasses for pit fields. Yet they (possibly) could have arranged the pit fields so as to facilitate a safety zone where goggles weren't required. However, I'm sure there's some logistical/other tradeoff to doing so.

Great

• Food -- the boxed lunch was spectacularly better than either DC or VA. DC's was something next to 'god awful' and VCU's was a 'not bad', but Champ's was great. Bottled water, chips/cookies/sandwich left me hungry at 4pm rather than 2-3pm at the regionals.
• Pit field proximity to pit, and feeling like we had 'court-side seats' to some of the best matches FRC can offer spectators. If we could figure out how to increase the quantity of seating, I'd be all for pit fields next year.

Good

• For once, I didn't feel like the music was trying to rip a hole through my eardrums as we stood in queue or put the robot on the field.
• Wildstang broke 2 paradigms on my team last week (though they weren't my own POV's). They'll forever be on my 'rock stars' list becaue of it. 1.) You don't NEED high traction wheels to make it to Einstein. 2.) No, the driver coach doesn't need to micro-manage the drivers. We simply need to design the robot in such a way that gives the operators more opportunities to quickly recover from the inevitable failures (dropped tube, misalignment, etc). Thanks Raul!

Meh

• I didn't get a shirt this year, for the first time in 3 years. Honestly, I hope several others noticed their elevated prices and didn't purchase because of it.
  
• I think I stated enough about the bad in the 2011-Negative thread, but the only other thing I'd add on top of what others have stated regards the safety advisors. Safety is taken seriously most of the time, yet it's not administered evenly. That cute little WallE robot attracted crowds that would make a 20-30-foot circle, including 2 safety advisors at one point. I understand that it's very easy to lose focus at a championships; but really if they're going to be pedantic about us having too many people in front of our pit, they need to be pedantic about the other situations that happen as well.

[Kevin Sevcik]

Originally Posted by Bill_B

Lots of thought fodder in this thread. I'd like to see some diagrams made to support some of the relocation ideas proposed. Want larger bleacher areas? where? Better routing? sketch out what you mean. No debris zones? how can that be laid out.

Hey, you're not designing a robot for a while, why not try your hand at "venue" design.

I can't chop up the Load-In PDF at the moment, but I'm thinking you land the two fields in the hall next to 9th street, possibly oozing out into the corner of the two halls. If you keep them the same orientation as now and slide them close together, you can economize on the extra space usually taken up around fields for equipment, storage, aisles, etc. Then pits and all the other miscellanies go in the hall occupied by Newton. Yes, you'd be back to the giant labyrinth of pits, but you have to admit that the packing efficiency is a good bit higher. Plus it keeps the FRC pits completely separate from the stands, which eliminates the need for debris-free lanes, etc. And puts the fields right next to FTC in case any of them are interested in checking things out.

Yes, you could swap this around and have the fields where Newton is, but then you've got a lot of robot traffic all headed in one direction, inevitably crossing the path to the fields for the public. Plus it'd be harder to balance pit vs. field locations to keep travel distances mostly equal.

If you're concerned this puts the fields too close together and could cause cross-talk problems, then you could separate the fields more and fill up the in-between space with scholarship row, the NI and Autodesk stages, etc, etc. More added benefit there in that the public could check out those venues without the safety glasses hassle.

Mind you, that Load-In map is a complete and utter lie. I sure don't recall those spots near the fields for "Spare Parts" and "TV Viewing". And the pit layout was a little different. And that map cleverly doesn't show all the space taken up on the Curie/Archimedes border by a wall o' robot crates not even stacked double high. If space was really at a premium and we really wanted to expand things to fit in bigger bleachers, I would think we could do something better with crates than just shoving them across the aisle. I'll admit it was personally convenient during loadout since our crate was right there, I'd have gladly traded that for more seats around Curie.

[Debbie]

Originally Posted by JesseK

Hey, whatdya know -- the 2011 Championship Survey was just emailed to team contacts a few minutes ago.

[*]Food -- the boxed lunch was spectacularly better than either DC or VA. DC's was something next to 'god awful' and VCU's was a 'not bad', but Champ's was great.
[/list]

You must have A) not looked inside your food.. or you would've seen the mold that I found on 10 sandwiches our team ordered... and B) have a much stronger stomach than those that got sick on my team! I'm glad someone enjoyed it! It certainly wasn't me lol

[Karibou]

I just keep on thinking of more things to add. Sorry for always posting something new :/


Did anyone else feel like the arrows on the floor weren't accurate? I don't know which ones in particular, but I remember looking down a few times after I had gotten my bearings, saw "FTC/FRC to __location__" and thought "That's not right..." There were even a few that had one of the competition names blocked out in black Sharpie.

[rwood359]

Originally Posted by Boydean

I wish they would have explained more of what the Chairmans team did. Either at the concert or at the award ceremony.

Visit our web site http://waialuarobotics.com.
There will be a link to our Chairman's video shortly. All shot in HD, I think that it is excellent.

[kristin329]

Good

• The concert! I was originally sore about it kicking out 2 fields, but it was well worth it!

• The hotel we stayed at was beautiful with great views of the arch.

• The representatives at scholarship row helped me narrow down my top schools.

• Roboprom!!

• St. Louis was wonderful, they really did their best to welcome us.

Bad

• Crowd surfing...my team was on the floor for the concert, and I'm pretty small and weak, so when a crowd surfer came my way, he fell on me and it hurt!

• The food was disgusting and overpriced.

• The after party was not worth going to, there was virtually nothing to do.

Overall, I had a fantastic time and I'm sure that I can say the rest for my team.

[john.hobbins]

Our team (1241) had an amazing time on the Curie field. I cannot believe that we did not get it done (the job)! However, it goes to show you that anything is possible: what a confidence booster! I want to say that this division was strong, well played and organised - kudos to all teams. Regarding the stands, I found myself wondering what we would do if our team brought more than the 12 students? Looking ahead to next year, I am sure that we would bring a bus load, but, where would they sit? I have always thought that saving seats was ok, especially if your team was aggressive enough to seek out the seats. BUT, at worlds, there is not enough seats. Where should all the people go? Back to the matches; why was the ref calling pushing the opponent into the lane a penalty against the pushing robot? Most times, they did not call a single robot in violation of this rule when they themselves crossed the line? Anyway, I can't wait for the day to play Einstein...
Back in 2004, we were picked by team 60 and 33. We had the catcher robot with a very good human player...who remembers??? Team Hot remembers from the Michigan regional...don't you. You capped us just as the balls were dropping - GREAT STRATEGY!
Worlds 2004 -Wow, getting knocked out in the quarters because of the stick-it note that said our arm was touching the doubler ball
Anyway, we have already had several team meetings so that we prepare for next year!

[robobandmom]

The Championship event was a great competition, but like most events, it had its highs and lows.

The Highs

Lots of great hotels pretty close to the venue. We qualified Week 6 and nice hotels downtown were still available.

Impressive facility. I can understand why St Louis was chosen; the Edward Jones dome and convention center are nice, HUGE facilities.

Upper Deck seating for Einstein. We were on the upper deck and you could see and hear things pretty well.

Friday Night Concert. I went as a parent chaperone, and it was great. I'm not really a huge BEP fan, but the concert had lots of energy and the kids loved it. It was a fantastic bonus for the RCA winners that got floor passes. Our kids had a great time. It would have been nice if the teams that had to play in the pits for 2 of the 3 days got floor passes.

Vending machines for drinks. This seems like a little thing, but if you ask me not to bring outside drinks I expect to be able to get a drink easily...and I could.

The Lows
One area to enter the complex was difficult. In Atlanta you could enter thru the Dome and thru multiple sides of the convention center. I don't understand why you could only enter from one area.

Lack of trash cans. This has been mentioned, and I'm glad to see I'm not the only one that thought this was a problem. One day I carried trash to several overflowing trash cans before I finally just sat my trash down next to an overflowing can.

Three stalls. The 2 women's restrooms closest to the Newton field and pits had 3 stalls each. There was always a line...usually a long line. Why were some of the restrooms in the pits blocked off? Perhaps they were under construction, but we really could have used them.

Layout in the pits for robot traffic. When you entered the pit area, you were immediately crossing the robot lane to get to the dome. This was not safe. I am careful and pay attention so I didn't get clobbered, but I'd be surprised if no one else did. Maybe a crossing guard is needed.

Seating for the Pit Fields. The seating was terribly inadequate. If Championships continues to be run in this way, they will see a drop in attendance. I for one will not bring my family and will discourage extended family from coming. It was too difficult and uncomfortable to sit in the pit fields all day on Saturday. I would expect this to also effect large teams. You can't bring all your students and supporters if you don't have anywhere to put them.

[cluksic]

the fields and pit areas in the same place was cool. not a long walk and everything was nearby. the only thing about the championships is that saint louis is a dead town, not much at all to do or see.

[mgurgol]

I currently live in St Louis and it is not a dead town. Here is a link to 52 things to do in St. Louis to start with. There are plenty of things to do/visit in town if you are willing to look.

http://www.archcityhomes.com/2010/05...s-attractions/

[Debbie]

Originally Posted by mgurgol

I currently live in St Louis and it is not a dead town. Here is a link to 52 things to do in St. Louis to start with. There are plenty of things to do/visit in town if you are willing to look.

http://www.archcityhomes.com/2010/05...s-attractions/

That is a great link. I found a lot to do also... unfortunately.. i couldn't find the time to do any of them.. LOL I had really hoped to get to the zoo, especially since it is free... BUT.. some robots kept me too busy to do anything else...

[Shof]

Originally Posted by mgurgol

I currently live in St Louis and it is not a dead town. Here is a link to 52 things to do in St. Louis to start with. There are plenty of things to do/visit in town if you are willing to look.

http://www.archcityhomes.com/2010/05...s-attractions/

compare to new york city life, i think overall st louis is somewhat of a dead town with everything closing by 8-9pm. The closest subway near the dome closed by 5pm which is a bit strange considering subway here in the city closes around 11pm-12am. Making getting some food nearby around 7pm is a bit of a challenge

[EricH]

When you're comparing to a city that never sleeps, then yeah, you *might* have a point.

But you're comparing a city in the Midwest to a city that never sleeps, and you aren't looking anywhere near hard enough. Admittedly, I've heard that the Landing area near the arena is a place that maybe HS students don't want to go at night--even college students want to go in largish groups. But there are other places to go, within walking distance, that should be open. Like quite possibly the TGI Friday's over near the Capitol building would be open, some pizza places are quite probably open--and those are within walking distance.

[Joe Ross]

Originally Posted by EricH

But there are other places to go, within walking distance, that should be open. Like quite possibly the TGI Friday's over near the Capitol building would be open, some pizza places are quite probably open--and those are within walking distance.

It was frustrating to walk past place after place that was closed at 9:30, and find that the places that were open (like TGI Fridays) had lines 1+ hours long.

[Mr V]

Originally Posted by Acerflamma

Well, team 3588 built a wooden bench out of extra wood for us to sit on since we had no chairs. We did end up carrying the bench around the pit area to have other teams sign it though! Overall we got several thousand signatures, including Dean Kamen and Woody Flowers! Anyone on here sign our bench?

Yup I signed it on the left side of the back and used it too for a brief rest while touring the pits. It was great to see you guys there!