2012 Mid-Atlantic Robotics FRC Region Championship

[DELurker]

What would people think of using #MARChamps to interact with people at the event and the volunteers that are on twitter? I think it would be a neat idea, that way the people also watching at home on the webcast can interact with us at the event.

Would you want #MARChamps or #FRCMARCh? Since I'm mostly a techno-Luddite, I won't be twittererererering, but I think it's a neat idea, too. Anything to get the messaage of FIRST spread further.

[mmrilling]

FIRST team 433 is excited to be attending MAR Champs and would like to officially invite all MAR teams (attending champs or not) to our annual Firebirds Fiesta. The fiesta is on Friday, April 13th from 7-10 at our school, which is about 30 minutes away from the event (Mount Saint Joseph Academy- 120 W. Wissahickon Avenue Flourtown, PA 19031). It's free and we'll have lots of food and a DJ (and a place for mentors to relax and socialize), so we hope to see you all there! Can't wait to see you all at the competition!

[The Lucas]

Originally Posted by George A.

I was thinking of doing something that could be fun and wanted to gauge people's interest.

What would people think of using #MARChamps to interact with people at the event and the volunteers that are on twitter? I think it would be a neat idea, that way the people also watching at home on the webcast can interact with us at the event.

What does everyone think?

Originally Posted by DELurker

Would you want #MARChamps or #FRCMARCh? Since I'm mostly a techno-Luddite, I won't be twittererererering, but I think it's a neat idea, too. Anything to get the messaage of FIRST spread further.

The official FIRST Hashtag for MAR Championships is #FRCPA. It is used by the FMS system to report the score and by various aggregators used around the community. The point of hashtags is to organize conversations about the same subject (and track trending) so it is important unite around a single one. The PA regional code is a legacy that doesn't make much sense in its new role, similar to the GL code for FiM Championship. No slight is meant to my friends in NJ and DE, the code is just there for continuity.

Originally Posted by Hallry

So if St. Louis is expecting to accommodate the maximum number of teams, and since FiM skips over those teams (for ranking spots) that are already going to St. Louis, why wouldn't MAR do the same, and also pass over teams ranked in the top 5 that are already eligible? Does anyone have an official answer if they are going to or not? The MAR rules do not seem to have a definite answer, and only states:



It says nothing about teams that qualify for St. Louis through means outside of MAR.

(Just for reference, 5 teams in the top 9 are already going to St. Louis, three of which are in the top 5)

Just a note: the FiM rules still prevent them from backfilling for already registered winners of the Region CA, EI and RAS awards. They can only backfill the Champion Alliance.

Also, I have heard nothing new to answer the Worlds qualified outside of MAR question, sorry.

[scottandme]

The only downside to using #frcpa is that you'll be pulling down the hundred+ FMS results that would drown out the actual tweets. The Connecticut regional piggybacked on the #omgrobots hashtag and used #omgct (or ctr, can't remember), which would be a nice way to have a standardized format for every regional while not having to sift through FMS results (omg + regional code). Still very cryptic given the somewhat random codes given to many of the regional/district event.

Rutgers got the "nj" suffix, and they already used "phl" for the chestnut hill competition, which is in greater philadelphia I suppose.

Still at 51 teams, don't know if FIRST works on the weekends, but hopefully we'll have a finalized list soon.

[DELurker]

I have to agree with scottandme. The #FRCPA hashtag would be bad to use for non-scoring purposes. The only thing the scoring system hashtags should be used for, especially on a competition weekend, is scoring system notifications, if for no other reason than to prevent FRCSpyder and other apps from having to filter out all of the spam to get the scores.

Can you imagine what the Liacouras Center would be like if Spyder crashed?

[The Lucas]

Perhaps, we should promote a hashtag for all of MAR (not just this event) to use in the future. It could become well known around FIRST and used for all MAR events. My suggestion is #MARobots (#MARobo, #MARFIRST, or#omgmar could be good, too). In order, to promote the new tag (whatever that is) to a larger audience, #omgrobots should be included in most tweets (the 2 championships are the only events next week anyway). #FRC(+ Regional Code) and #omgrobots are probably the only well known tags (internationally) in FIRST.

Maybe LibbyK can help originate a new tag for MAR. She is coming to MAR champ and didn't she originate #omgrobots?

Originally Posted by scottandme

Still very cryptic given the somewhat random codes given to many of the regional/district event.

Rutgers got the "nj" suffix, and they already used "phl" for the chestnut hill competition, which is in greater philadelphia I suppose.

Since Rutgers was the site of the NJ regional before 2004, I think that is why it got the NJ legacy tag. The standard format for new regional codes seems to be 2 letter postal code for state (or province) + first letter of town: (not that eveyone follows it)
NJF - New Jersey Flanders
OHC - OHio Cincinnati

Many of the FiM codes are based off of Michigan counties or their 3 legacy regionals (GL MI DT). Gull Lake district (MIGL) is the only 4 letter code. It is in Kalamazoo County so I guess they passed on KZOO

[Grim Tuesday]

The funny thing about OHC tag is that it could either apply to OHio Cleveland or OHio Cincinnati. For that matter, it could also apply to OHio Columbus!

[The Lucas]

Originally Posted by Grim Tuesday

The funny thing about OHC tag is that it could either apply to OHio Cleveland or OHio Cincinnati. For that matter, it could also apply to OHio Columbus!

Even more confusing:
The 3 Washington events (all "S" towns) and the DC regional:
wa Seattle Olympic
wa2 Seattle Cascade
was Spokane (Cheney, WA)
dc Washington DC

Also, numbers are used differentiate events in the same general area. Most places use '2' for the second one but Oakland County Michigan uses '1' (prob better way for engineer/programmer to count 0,1...) :
oc Troy FiM
oc1 Waterford FiM

[Akash Rastogi]

@Brian Lucas - did you receive and email regarding the change to judging for Rookie All Star? (assuming you are one of the contacts for 4342)

Our team was extremely disappointed in the change presented to us.

To MAR FRC Teams competing for either the Engineering Inspiration Award (#75, #321, #433, #1923, #3142) or the Rookie All-Star Award (#3929, #4128, #4342, #4347) at the upcoming MAR FRC Region Championship being held next week at the Liacouras Center, Temple University, Philadelphia PA . . .



Teams - please verify back to me receipt of this email - thank you!



From Judge Advisor Dave Greenley:



The judging process for the 5 teams competing for the Engineering Inspiration Award and the 4 teams competing for the Rookie All Star Award at the MAR Championship will consist of 10 minute dialogs with a group of judges. The judges for these two awards will not be visiting teams in the pits, instead the discussions will take place in a judging room in the Liacouras Center. Teams are asked not to make prepared presentations or to create any special material for the judges. A sign-up sheet will be placed in Pit Admin on Thursday, teams will be able to pick their time slot with the judges. At this time, Judging for Engineering Inspiration and Rookie All-star is scheduled to take place on Friday. If any of the eligible teams are not planning to attend the event please let Dave Greenley, dgreenley@comcast.net Judge Advisor for the MAR Championship know as soon as possible so that we can arrange a time for your team to meet the judges.



Best Wishes and Good Luck to all teams . . . we hope you have and will celebrate the awards your team has won at the five MAR FRC District events!

Donald http://us.mg5.mail.yahoo.com/ya/down...YahooMailNe o



Donald H. Bowers

FIRST Regional Director

DE-NJ-Eastern PA

I feel that this is extremely unfair to the students who, at district events, put in countless hours preparing materials for the judges to take into consideration only to have none of the same materials taken into consideration at the MAR Championship. It creates, in my opinion, a different judging criteria than it did for our district event. What do other people feel about this?

[The Lucas]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

@Brian Lucas - did you receive and email regarding the change to judging for Rookie All Star? (assuming you are one of the contacts for 4342)

Our team was extremely disappointed in the change presented to us.

I feel that this is extremely unfair to the students who, at district events, put in countless hours preparing materials for the judges to take into consideration only to have none of the same materials taken into consideration at the MAR Championship. It creates, in my opinion, a different judging criteria than it did for our district event. What do other people feel about this?

Dan (4342 leader) hasn't forwarded it yet, so it is news to me.

In my opinion, the no pit interviews is an attempt to even the playing field for the EI & RAS teams that did not qualify for MAR Championship. Only 3 of MAR 10 rookies qualified for Championship, 4342, 3926 and 3974 (Double Rookie Inspiration winner). I always thought the robot was a part of the judging for the RAS at most events but I guess not.

The prepared material restriction is a little bit confusing to me, especially for EI. Are the students expected to give a speech or just answer questions? If it is a speech, it is customary to prepare for it. Also, all rookies are encouraged to create a Chairman's style essay.

Originally Posted by FRC Admin Manual

Because the Chairman’s Award recognizes sustained excellence and impact, not just a one (1) year team effort, it is not possible for a first year (rookie) team to receive this honor. FIRST does, however, invite and encourage rookies to develop a Chairman’s Award submission which may be evaluated by the judges determining the winner of the Rookie All-Star Award. This submission will document where the team started its FIRST journey and will also provide background for documenting the results of the team’s efforts – it will be a great way to start the team’s efforts to earn the Chairman’s Award in the future.

Rookie Teams: If you prepare a Regional Chairman’s Award submission, you must print a copy to give the Judges when they visit you at your Pit Station. Judges will not be viewing them online.

I was never directly involved in the MOE's Chairman's Award Judging process, but I tried to give 4342 the best second hand advice I could. I guess writing their story will just have to be a good experience, rather than a handout.

Anyone from FiM care to share their judging process for EI and RAS?

[Alexa Stott]

Originally Posted by The Lucas

Perhaps, we should promote a hashtag for all of MAR (not just this event) to use in the future. It could become well known around FIRST and used for all MAR events. My suggestion is #MARobots (#MARobo, #MARFIRST, or#omgmar could be good, too). In order, to promote the new tag (whatever that is) to a larger audience, #omgrobots should be included in most tweets (the 2 championships are the only events next week anyway). #FRC(+ Regional Code) and #omgrobots are probably the only well known tags (internationally) in FIRST.

Maybe LibbyK can help originate a new tag for MAR. She is coming to MAR champ and didn't she originate #omgrobots?

I like #omgMAR. It fits with the #omgrobots, #omgiri, #omgcmp, etc. tags.

Originally Posted by The Lucas

Even more confusing:
The 3 Washington events (all "S" towns) and the DC regional:
wa Seattle Olympic
wa2 Seattle Cascade
was Spokane (Cheney, WA)
dc Washington DC

Off-topic, but DC makes sense to me. No one from around here really calls it "Washington." Most just say "DC" or "the District," unless they actually work for the government (a lot of my friends are congressional interns), in which case they will say they intern "on the hill." For the greater Washington, DC metro area, everyone says "DMV" for DC-Maryland-Virginia.

And now back to robots with you all...

[dellagd]

Can someone post the link for where the event will be wecast? Ive looked and cant find it.

Sorry if I missed it. Im on my phone.

[Kristian Calhoun]

Originally Posted by dellagd

Can someone post the link for where the event will be wecast? Ive looked and cant find it.

Sorry if I missed it. Im on my phone.

In an e-mail sent out last Thursday, MAR was still looking for a team to volunteer to webcast the event. I'm not sure if anything has happened since then.

I'll be attending the event Friday and Saturday, so I hope there's a webcast so I can watch Thursday night's matches!

[waitwhat?]

Team 869 would like to announce that we will be providing the webcast for the 2012 MAR Championship! We just talked with the even coordinator today and are in the process of setting up the link! I should be posting a link within the next two days. Good Luck to everyone and see you all at the competition!

[Horsegirrl]

Originally Posted by waitwhat?

Good Luck to everyone and see you all at the competition!

Great job on the direct quote from the game animation