Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?

[PVCpirate]

Granite State Regional 2009, my first event as a member of 1058, the PVC Pirates. We came in last place, and I mean dead last. We couldn't pick up balls off the floor, our drivetrain didn't work right, we got stuck on the carpet around the edge, and we had connection issues. But I was only a freshman, and I knew we would get it right the next year. We did, and won the event in 2010! I was inspired from the start and continued to be for 4 years.

[cpeister]

For me it was the Waterloo Regional in 2007. I was a Grade 8 student at the time, and 781 sent a bus for interested FLL students to come watch for Saturday. I don't remember a whole lot of it, but I did get to ride a segway, and watch lots of robots. I joined 781 in Grade 9, and I haven't missed a Waterloo Regional since. Now I am in my second year of Mech Eng at uWaterloo, and will be sure to drop by the regional again this year.

[racesick222]

My first FIRST competition was at the 2007 Boston regional where I got to watch my older brother win his first regional. This was where I saw his team 125 win in a last second balance that erupted the whole arena. That weekend was why I got obsessed with robotics and hoped I could do the same thing one day.

[Anupam Goli]

my first FIRST Competition was the FLL State Tournament in Georgia in 2005....

but if we're talking FRC, there's my first one and my "first" one. The first competition I went to was the Peachtree Regional in 08. My brother was on team 1002 at the time, so I went up with my parents to watch. It was pretty cool, but I think my 8th grade mind was elsewhere during the competition.

The one event that really stands out in my mind as the first competition in which I was inspired was Championships in '09. My team (1002) won the regional EI award and we went to championships. We were in the same division as some of the really big names. I just remember walking around the pits, and seeing the robots of 1114 and 67. I was just amazed when I walked by their pits with the robots and the teams themselves. When our team lost in the Quarterfinals to 1114 and 2056, I wasn't even mad. Seeing the best teams at Championships was what got me addicted to FRC.

[coalhot]

My first event was the 2008 Philly Regional. A few memories.

Being put on the lead of the scouting team, being a freshman rookie in the team, and knowing nothing about scouting. If your team is not in the position to pick, it's really good training, and it's how I learned the basics of scouting. Philly that year was quite interesting to scout also.

The final matches that year were the most epic I've ever witnessed. You had 103/272 which were highly ranked as a first alliance, and you had 365/314 as the underdogs. And the underdogs found a way to win. I still get goosebumps when I watch those matches on TBA.

Oh, and my team got into the Inquirer (largest Philly newspaper at the time), and were featured on channel 6, one of the largest TV news stations here. And my brother got his pic in the paper. I still have the article somewhere...

My ramblings...

[c_hartman_00]

I remember my first FIRST competition was back in 2005 at IRI. I went as a spectator because my cousin was on Team Roboto, and I was only nine years old. I do not remember much about the actual competition, but I do remember how cool it made me think FIRST is.

[JJackson]

The 2004 Canadian regional was the first FIRST event i attended. My oldest brother was (a grade 9) on the team, and my dad was a first year mentor. I was in grade 4 at the time, but went to the competition with my family. I can remember the massive size of the competition with the two fields and like 70 teams. I also remember a lot of the great robots that were there. My most vivid memory form the event was after Code Red with the Tulip and the Killer Bees won the regional, the blizzard of confetti that covered the field to We Are The Champions. I remember thinking that I wanted to be in that position someday and have been hanging aroud the Kinetic Knights ever since.

[brrian27]

Florida (Orlando) Regional 2011

As a mechanic, I was proud of the hard work we put into our robot for the Logo Motion game. But alas it didn't perform too well :/

But randomly, we began to really get into the cheering and dancing side of the competition. Our already super-enthusiastic group become super-spirited! Even when we missed the playoffs, we came back and continued to cheer! And we won the Spirit Award. And have won every Spirit Award since

And our robots have been giving us more to cheer about too in the years since

[Damiaen_Florian]

2007 UTC Connecticut Regional, I was in 5th grade at the time and I remember going around the pits trying to collect a button from every team, everyone was very nice and willing to help or teach me about their robot. My team ended up partnering with 1124 and 558 and ended up winning the regional, the amount of excitement that was going through the stands was incredible and it had to have been one of the most fun experiences I've had in a while, after that I was hooked and couldn't wait to go to the next one or be in high school and do it for myself.

[2348humanplayer]

Originally Posted by waialua359

Sorry Todd, but Mark wont be there.
He will be at SVR during week 6.
Instead we have our former student and current Miss Hawaii USA Brianna Acosta as the MC and Jenny Yang from team 604 as her backup.
I tried to get Karthik and managed to get our Hawaii ROC to pay for his expenses.......however, he plans to be at the inaugural Calgary regional that week as well.
Karthik, there is always next year!

Ah, thanks, Mr. Lee. Makes sense since our competition changed from week 4 to week 6 that he may not be there. Thanks!

[savage]

2003 Robot rodeo in orlando. Thanks 79 for the practice Bot!

[ElliottB]

My first competition was the 2015 CAGE Match in my rookie year(well its still my rookie year all of us rookies rebuilt the teams 2015 bot. We had a great design, but went back to pretty much to square 1 on the Saturday before competition, but we got into the finals at CAGE.

Walking into the whole place was just a great atmosphere with all the cheering and coopertition so Im pretty excited for competitions this spring for Stronghold.

[MrForbes]

Neat thread....I've been doing FIRST for a while now, and I started well after this thread started!

Arizona 2006 Aim High regional, we were rookies, and our pit neighbors went on to do some really neat things. They went to black jumpsuits soon after this, which made them more recognizable as penguins. We'll miss them.

[mrnoble]

Colorado 2004. I didn't like it much at the time. Looking back, a fair chunk of my attitude about FRC had to do with some limits I pre-set for myself and my students. No WAY could we ever make something as fancy as the other robots we saw there, they must have been made by adults, etc. I am so proud of my team and what they've accomplished since then. We've never made it to Worlds, but I have a feeling this is the year...

[221Sarahborg]

Greater Kansas City Regional at Kemper Arena in 2013. It was the last time the regional was hosted at that arena because of how expensive the rent was. We got chosen for the 8th alliance's second choice and we had to go up against the 1st (and winning) alliance that year. I didn't get to watch all of the Eliminations since I had to go to a piano competition. I got back just in time to watch our last match where we fully climbed successfully. Getting out of the car when I got back to the arena I slammed my thumb in the car door, then later had a ton of the skin on my other thumb get ripped off taking apart out pit.
Given that we lost the match still, it was a success for us.