Tips for First Time Championship Attendees

[Dancin103]

Originally Posted by Meredith Novak

The Championship is a celebration of all FIRST programs. There is so much stress when you compete, but try to take time and visit with some FLL and FTC teams. Invite them to your pit.

This! 100% agree. These teams are absolutely incredible and will just brighten your day!

[Cynette]

Read the A-Z guide and plan out your schedules to include time away from the pits or scouting responsibilities to see the rest of the activities. http://www.usfirst.org/sites/default...RC_CMP_A-Z.pdf

Originally Posted by Carol

Take care of yourself. Make sure you get enough sleep. You can go one day, maybe two, on little sleep, but it catches up to you. And drink plenty of water (not soda, coffee, energy drinks). You don't want to come back from the trip with a cold or anything worse.

I hate seeing people sleeping in the stands - besides being a bad image, think about what they are missing out on.

Our team uses a version of the Healthy Hero slogan (5-2-1-Zero) that goes along with Carol's tip. Get a minimum of 5 hours of sleep a night, eat at least two meals a day, take one shower a day, and ZERO DRAMA! The days are very long, so remember to just relax and enjoy it and be nice to everyone! (I have to confess that by Saturday afternoon, I'm pretty tuckered out and have been caught snoozing in the stands between matches. )

[Nyxyxylyth]

Originally Posted by Cynette

Read the A-Z guide and plan out your schedules to include time away from the pits or scouting responsibilities to see the rest of the activities. http://www.usfirst.org/sites/default...RC_CMP_A-Z.pdf

Did anybody else notice the pit emergency number is one digit short? Who do we contact to fix it?

[toddhans]

The first thing I would recommend would be to know how to get around the Edward Jones Dome area, inside and out. Many places from the pits to the playing field are difficult to determine the quickest way possible. It can get easy to lose someone - have a contingency plan such as meeting at the pit or somewhere specific in the stands in case something like this comes up. Sometimes, a quick jaunt outside or using an elevator will save you time inside if you are trying to get to see a match from the stands as soon as possible. Unless you are with the robot, they really don't want you taking the robot way into the area.

Other fun things - the City Museum, as you can tell from these posts, is a popular one. The kids loved it. The Gateway Arch is a must at least one time when you're in St. Louis - bring a camera and a non-claustrophobic mentality as the cars that bring you up are quite tight in area. Some of us are going to the Cardinals/Pirates baseball game on Friday this time - last time our old team went (3747), we missed out on signing up early enough for that one.

Eating at the EJD can be expensive. You may have to walk a ways to get to an eatery - going toward the city's center you will find some restaurants, mainly slow food, so be aware of that. Go away from the city's center toward the casino or along the Arch's area did not have anything for eateries. I believe there is some pizza delivery that comes to the place as well. Our 3747 team actually had one vehicle park out in the parking lot and had a picnic from things we bought at Sam's Club the night before in coolers each day in order to save money - kind of like FRC tailgating at the big game!

Some other things I noticed in my two previous trips - 2011 we lost in the finals of Archimedes, so we were able to stay down on the field during Einstein as a replacement robot - 4 team alliances will pretty much take care of that idea - but it is an awesome feeling looking up in to the stands with tens of thousands looking down onto you. We won a national award, and due to us being down low, we did not get to hear the instructions of who should go up to get the award (we learned as we started to move that direction only two). If you feel you were not informed of something, ask someone who looks like they should know. Also, other FIRST championships take place there as well. It was fun to see them all. In 2011, they even had a college challenge with teams who created helipads competing. Definitely a lot to see all around.

In 2012 when we went (I missed last year, but the team we are currently on was able to go in 2013), it was interesting. We were able to see Team #1 (Juggernauts) in our division, so that was pretty cool to see. Get a bunch of kids together and walk around the pits of your division and others - there are a lot of awesome robots to see. We also had a tornado warning going off while Einstein was taking place, and some our vehicles did suffer some hail damage. We all stayed in our seats and watched the finals while the warning was issued - I am thinking there should be a better way of dealing with such an event in the future. Both years, there is an FIRST store that will sell FIRST stuff. You can get there early and have them add items to your clothing ordered (like names) if you are interested in that. Bring a good amount of cash for things like that and for food unless you have a credit or debit card.

Just some things I have noticed. St. Louis is a cool town during the day, and in some areas during the night, so enjoy it!

[Bill_B]

Just think of your outreach distance by inviting a team from Chile or Indonesia to a pit visit. FLL is the main reason FIRST gets to fly so many flags over the Einstein field. Remember also that FLLers get to Einstein first. Maybe some of that luck will rub off.

[cadandcookies]

Deodorant. Make sure all your students have it (I'd say mentors too, but most mentors are significantly better with personal hygiene than the students).

[Michael Hill]

Originally Posted by cadandcookies

Deodorant. Make sure all your students have it (I'd say mentors too, but most mentors are significantly better with personal hygiene than the students).

In Before Karthik

[Richard Wallace]

Originally Posted by Michael Hill

In Before Karthik

Morning or evening?

[Doc Wu]

Originally Posted by cmrnpizzo14

Top 4 things to bring (besides the necessities):

1.) Good shoes
2.) Camera
3.) Chapstick
4.) Extra shirts!

You will be doing a lot of walking wanting to take pictures of everything and will probably end up with very dry lips at some point during the competition. Shirt trading can be pretty big and pretty fun too, especially if you have a cool design!

+1 on the good shoes. I literally had blisters on my feet two years ago from running from the pits to the stands and back. And I could take a shortcut!

Good insoles are a must. This is the time to be gellin'!

I also like to bring menthol cough drops or lemon drops, 'cuz your voice will be shot from cheering!

Remember to hydrate. You'll forget, until it's too late.

[jaykris284]

There is a place called WhirleyBall in St.Louis. It's a great place to blow off steam especially before Saturday eliminations or even after Championships.

[rich2202]

Originally Posted by Nyxyxylyth

Did anybody else notice the pit emergency number is one digit short? Who do we contact to fix it?

I reported the typo.

[Jon Stratis]

And even though you hear this a lot leading up to regionals: GET INSPECTED EARLY! Qualification matches start in the morning on Thursday this year, which means you only have a 5.5 hour period (3-8:30) Wednesday night to get inspected. Don't risk it by pushing it off until the last minute, or trying to squeeze it in Thursday morning before your first match.

And even though you passed inspection at your regional, that's not an acceptable argument if the inspector finds something you need to fix/change at champs!

[Koko Ed]

When you que up for matches it will be VERY different than from regionals. Matches are not announced in the pits at all (there are four divisions and two other sections of FIRST it's not possible. You should start heading towards your match 30 minutes in advance. The walk from the pits to the field is not as wretched as it was in Houston or Atlanta but there's alot of traffic in the tunnel leading to field including FTC teams and even pedestrians. Learn immediately the location of your field. Galileo is the closest to the exit from the tunnel and will be to your right. Newton will be to your left. On the other side of the arena Curie will be straight ahead and Archimedes left of Curie.
To the right of Curie is the FTC fields and to the right of Galileo is Einstein.
Security is tight down on the field. They are instructed to be very strict with who has access to the Dome floor so take good care to keep track of your Driver's button and media badge. You don't want to miss a match because of a misplaced button.

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by Nyxyxylyth

Did anybody else notice the pit emergency number is one digit short? Who do we contact to fix it?

It looks like it got corrected today.

[NickTosta]

Originally Posted by Jay O'Donnell

Take the opportunity to go check out some of the best robots in the world up close. I was lucky enough to get a close look at 67 and 1114s robots at CMP in 2012 and that's something I will never forget.

This, right here. This is what puts the "Inspiration" in FIRST.