Official: New England Districts in 2014

[DonRotolo]

To all NEFIRST teams: Be sure to give very serious consideration in your 2014 design to durability and repairability. Now your robot will have to endure at least two events, possibly 3 or, if you make it to STL, 4 and a half. All with more matches than usual.

The robots you used to build might just fall apart, so think Robust.

I think you will really like the district model.

[IKE]

I agree with Don. Plan on making it to Worlds and plan on doing 60+ matches with your bot.

[Siri]

Originally Posted by DonRotolo

To all NEFIRST teams: Be sure to give very serious consideration in your 2014 design to durability and repairability. Now your robot will have to endure at least two events, possibly 3 or, if you make it to STL, 4 and a half. All with more matches than usual.

The robots you used to build might just fall apart, so think Robust.

I think you will really like the district model.

Yes - also think about maintenance. Not only are there more matches in districts, there's less time between them. It's not actually true, but think perpetual quarterfinals. It's definitely a change! You do (presumably) get unbag time at home, though.

You'll grow love it, don't worry.

[MooreteP]

From ingenuityNE (our new Overlords)

There are still many details to be worked out, but this is what we can share right now. We will have a total of 9 District Qualifying Events throughout New England 2 in New Hampshire, 1 in Maine, 2 in Massachusetts, 1 in Rhode Island and 3 in Connecticut. Teams will play in two of these events, collect points from both on- field play as well as awards and the top teams will then have the opportunity to play at the Region Championship to be held at the Agannis Arena in Boston. Teams from the New England Championship will then qualify for the FIRST Championship in St. Louis. We in the process of finalizing contracts and as soon as we do, we will share the locations of the District Qualifying Events.

This is our future.
Let's make it work.

[Jay O'Donnell]

Originally Posted by MooreteP

From ingenuityNE (our new Overlords)

There are still many details to be worked out, but this is what we can share right now. We will have a total of 9 District Qualifying Events throughout New England 2 in New Hampshire, 1 in Maine, 2 in Massachusetts, 1 in Rhode Island and 3 in Connecticut. Teams will play in two of these events, collect points from both on- field play as well as awards and the top teams will then have the opportunity to play at the Region Championship to be held at the Agannis Arena in Boston. Teams from the New England Championship will then qualify for the FIRST Championship in St. Louis. We in the process of finalizing contracts and as soon as we do, we will share the locations of the District Qualifying Events.

This is our future.
Let's make it work.

Interesting choice of Boston for District Champs, How many teams can the Agannis hold? I personally loved Boston when my team went there in 2012 but I'm having trouble remembering how much space there was.

[Steven Donow]

Originally Posted by Jay Money 1058

Interesting choice of Boston for District Champs, How many teams can the Agannis hold? I personally loved Boston when my team went there in 2012 but I'm having trouble remembering how much space there was.

Last year's Boston Regional had an open capacity of 52 teams (according to FIRST's website), but the previous years had up to 53 teams.

[Nathan Streeter]

Originally Posted by DevenStonow

Last year's Boston Regional had an open capacity of 52 teams (according to FIRST's website), but the previous years had up to 53 teams.

Hmm... so either they will have to have the District Championship be a fair bit smaller than initial hopes, or they plan to somehow house another 10-20 teams...

Boston seems like a reasonable location. Ideally it'd be closer to Connecticut though... I'm sure there'll be a significant contingent coming from CT who would all be well out of "daily-commute" range. That said, even teams that do live in the 30-60 miles range will have to consider whether or not they want to fight there way into Boston on Thursday and Friday morning...

[Steven Donow]

Originally Posted by Nathan Streeter

Hmm... so either they will have to have the District Championship be a fair bit smaller than initial hopes, or they plan to somehow house another 10-20 teams...

Boston seems like a reasonable location. Ideally it'd be closer to Connecticut though... I'm sure there'll be a significant contingent coming from CT who would all be well out of "daily-commute" range. That said, even teams that do live in the 30-60 miles range will have to consider whether or not they want to fight there way into Boston on Thursday and Friday morning...

MAR Championships this year(and next year) is ~1 hour away for most teams, to put things into comparison.

And in regards to team numbers, in FiM last year, there were 207 teams registered. Of those 207 teams, there were 64 region championship spots, meaning 31% of teams made it the region championship. In MAR last year, there were 110 team registered with a total of 50 teams registered, so 45% of teams making it.

In New England(data taken from this map, there are 151 teams currently in NE, so 53 teams at Region Championship would be 35% of teams making it. (realistically, I assume if 53 is the max capacity it would be bumped up to 54 teams to limit the usage of surrogate matches)This blog says their goal was 60 teams(I believe this was the initial number MAR was going for), so that would be about 40% of all teams. Overall, this provides a fair/similar percentage of teams in comparison to FiM and MAR.

[Pault]

Yea, the Boston pits were a little crowded with 50 teams last year, but I can definitely see "our new overlords" finding the space for 10 more teams. Even if they have to downsize the pits a little from the usual 10x10, I think I would be OK with that. And I think that having the champs in a big city will do good for publicity. But mostly I am just biased towards Boston because my team is in Boston (I did a little dance when I found out the champs would be here ).

Also, am I the only one surprised that the number of events south of MA went from 1 to 4, but there was only 1 event added for the rest of New England. I'm not an expert on NE FRC geography, but I just find it very strange.

[Jay O'Donnell]

Originally Posted by Pault

Also, am I the only one surprised that the number of events south of MA went from 1 to 4, but there was only 1 event added for the rest of New England. I'm not an expert on NE FRC geography, but I just find it very strange.

Considering there are <5 teams in Vermont, I'm not surprised at a lack of an event there. Maine and Rhode Island were both close to 3-6 teams not too long ago, but are growing fast and do need one event per state. New Hampshire is at around 30 teams currently, so two does seem reasonable. MA and CT are the major sites for FRC teams in New England (I believe it's about 50 each) so 3-4 makes sense, especially considering everyone needs two events. I can't wait to see the venues for district events close to home, that'll be a major factor in our choice of events (most of our team seems to be willing to sacrifice distance for a great venue). Great job with the quick updates NE FIRST!

[IKE]

Originally Posted by DevenStonow

MAR Championships this year(and next year) is ~1 hour away for most teams, to put things into comparison.

And in regards to team numbers, in FiM last year, there were 207 teams registered. Of those 207 teams, there were 64 region championship spots, meaning 31% of teams made it the region championship. In MAR last year, there were 110 team registered with a total of 50 teams registered, so 45% of teams making it.

In New England(data taken from this map, there are 151 teams currently in NE, so 53 teams at Region Championship would be 35% of teams making it. (realistically, I assume if 53 is the max capacity it would be bumped up to 54 teams to limit the usage of surrogate matches)This blog says their goal was 60 teams(I believe this was the initial number MAR was going for), so that would be about 40% of all teams. Overall, this provides a fair/similar percentage of teams in comparison to FiM and MAR.

The first year for FiM, there were about 120 teams and 60-64 at MSC. in other words about 50% of teams were invited to teh state championship. Somewhere between 33%&50% feels about right. much lower than 33%, and it starts making it so that one bad event requires a spectacular event to qualify...

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by IKE

The first year for FiM, there were about 120 teams and 60-64 at MSC. in other words about 50% of teams were invited to teh state championship. Somewhere between 33%&50% feels about right. much lower than 33%, and it starts making it so that one bad event requires a spectacular event to qualify...

Depending on how you define "bad event," even at around 40% it's already that way. If you miss the eliminations at your first event, it often requires a trip all the way to the finals at your second district to qualify for the region championship event.

[Steven Donow]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

Depending on how you define "bad event," even at around 40% it's already that way. If you miss the eliminations at your first event, it often requires a trip all the way to the finals at your second district to qualify for the region championship event.

Example this year: 2495. Finished second to last at TCNJ then went on to win Lenape, and even with that, they barely made it in.


Also, it should be taken into account that at 9 Districts, that means 9 Chairmans winners possibly "taking away"(not saying that to be demeaning/condescending) point-slots. IMO with that many Chairmans there should be more spots at the Region Championship(of course, that is, if the NE FIRST points system autoqualifies Chairmans winners, which per Jim Zondag's FiM FAQ is probably the case)

[scottandme]

Originally Posted by DevenStonow

Also, it should be taken into account that at 9 Districts, that means 9 Chairmans winners possibly "taking away"(not saying that to be demeaning/condescending) point-slots. IMO with that many Chairmans there should be more spots at the Region Championship(of course, that is, if the NE FIRST points system autoqualifies Chairmans winners, which per Jim Zondag's FiM FAQ is probably the case)

To date (2012 and 2013), this has never happened in MAR - all 11 winners (5 in 2012 and 6 in 2013) would have qualified for the Region Championship without the auto-bid.

2012 DCA Ranks: 2, 9, 22, 53, 55 (cutoff dropped to the 64th ranked team)
2013 DCA Ranks: 2, 6, 10, 23, 31, 38 (cutoff dropped to 65th ranked team)

[mdituri]

Originally Posted by DonRotolo

Odd way of putting it.

Much like the quote from Pogo, the MAR overlords are us. Any person wishing to become a member of MAR becomes one, with voting rights. We control (to a reasonable extent) what happens in MAR.

If you are not 100% totally satisfied with ingenuityNE, join the board and change it. Or don't complain.

Don

Here is the link to join MAR if you are in our district reading this:
http://www.midatlanticrobotics.com/contact-form/

We hold board meetings every month or two except during build season. We hold committee meetings ALL THE TIME. Get on one of them and give your opinion.

I am sure that NE feels the same way. Don't complain, join, and do something about any problems you might see. Don't just give us the problems, propose a solution. MAR runs MAR...and we try to get better each year.

Also, I must agree with the posters on the previous page...build a ROBUST robot. In MAR we play tons of matches and have lots of off season events as well as joint community outreach events. Our robots get beat up. Our robots play DEFENSE. You have time between matches, but it is limited; you must build spare parts to just switch out. I know many budgets don't allow it, but if you have to hunt for a 1/4-20 of a certain size it takes too much time. Your teams really need to take a different mentality when going to district. You may go two or three matches without a huge break. Be prepared to fix during lunch and really plan out your day. It is a big help to look at the entire day. My drive team is not my pit team. They used to be, but now it is better that we have a dedicated pit team like in NASCAR. It is overwhelming for your drive team to be on the go non-stop for 10 hours. They need down time or they get burned out.

And...you are competing more. You need to adjust your homework, project, schedule as well. Discuss it upfront with your teachers. Tell them you are gone the entire weekend. Use the time during the week before your competition wisely. Have your mentors schedule days where you are just doing homework and projects, not robots. I get frustrated when my team tells me they can't come to robots because they didn't do their homework and I find out they were playing videogames for four hours. I don't watch TV from Jan to May. There just isn't time and honestly...you just wasted an hour you can never get back. And really, does Game of Thrones truly affect your life?