New Championship Layout 2015

[Chris Fultz]

one option could be two fields per division, side by side. some volunteers move back and forth between the fields, others are set to one of them - that way you don't need 2x the volunteers - maybe 1.5x. More matches, faster cycle times, faster pace for the crowd. almost no down time.

[AustinShalit]

The next time FIRST moves Championships to a new city they are going to move it to a bigger city. St. Louis just cannot accommodate more teams....

[dag0620]

Originally Posted by AustinShalit

The next time FIRST moves Championships to a new city they are going to move it to a bigger city. St. Louis just cannot accommodate more teams....

Also a hub city would be nice.

I get why St. Louis is attractive from the HQ perspective, the venue was almost built for FIRST Champs, the city works well with us, and it appears to be in the middle of the county.

BUT

The city isn't really capable of handling the influx of people, in terms of hotel and infrastructure. Also Lambert isn't a hub city, so getting flights into the city, and cheaply for that matter, is hard for almost everyone.

St. Louis has been great, but I hope for 2018 they look for a city that is a little more capable of handling us in areas outside of just the venue.

[dodar]

Originally Posted by dag0620

Also a hub city would be nice.

I get why St. Louis is attractive from the HQ perspective, the venue was almost built for FIRST Champs, the city works well with us, and it appears to be in the middle of the county.

BUT

The city isn't really capable of handling the influx of people, in terms of hotel and infrastructure. Also Lambert isn't a hub city, so getting flights into the city, and cheaply for that matter, is hard for almost everyone.

St. Louis has been great, but I hope for 2018 they look for a city that is a little more capable of handling us in areas outside of just the venue.

I dont know why they ever left Atlanta. Either go back to Atlanta or go way back to Orlando.

[Anupam Goli]

Originally Posted by dodar

I dont know why they ever left Atlanta. Either go back to Atlanta or go way back to Orlando.

I'd love for it to come back to Atlanta, but with the new dome moving even farther from the GWCC than the current one is, I don't think FIRST will move back here. Unless teams like a 1 mile walk to and from the dome floor to the pits.

[goldenglove002]

Originally Posted by Anupam Goli

I'd love for it to come back to Atlanta, but with the new dome moving even farther from the GWCC than the current one is, I don't think FIRST will move back here. Unless teams like a 1 mile walk to and from the dome floor to the pits.

Don't rule it out. It's only about 2/10ths of a mile from the door of building B to the doors of the new stadium. As long as there is a path from the convention center into the stadium for the robots, it would be a strong venue that could handle an expanded competition.

If you need visual reference, this was just released to show the idea for a convention center hotel. New stadium is in the bottom corner: http://media.bizj.us/view/img/252577...nal-sm*600.jpg

[Cam877]

A lot of people are talking about more FRC teams being able to go, but I think the addition of new FRC teams will be pretty minimal. If more divisions are added, it will be to increase the amount of matches teams will play, and adding more teams is not how you do that. While thee might be a few more positions available, I doubt it will be significant. That would defeat what I think would be the main purpose of this move.

[MarcD79]

Originally Posted by Chris Fultz

one option could be two fields per division, side by side. some volunteers move back and forth between the fields, others are set to one of them - that way you don't need 2x the volunteers - maybe 1.5x. More matches, faster cycle times, faster pace for the crowd. almost no down time.

Well Chris, have you worked as a volunteer this year? I have. Your theory of sending volunteers back & forth between fields is insane. If you have noticed, not all volunteers are young. If you didn't have these multi-aged volunteers, you would not have enough volunteers for any FIRST event. After 6 weeks of District & Regionals most volunteers are getting a little tired. It IS a rewarding experience, but we as volunteers can only stretch ourselves so much. I am all for adding more fields to CHAMPS, but add more volunteers to make it work right. I leave those thoughts to all who have made it possible this year. Thanks & I'm looking forward to be beside all those great people next year.

[Dustin Shadbolt]

Originally Posted by MarcD79

If you have noticed, not all volunteers are young. If you didn't have these multi-aged volunteers, you would not have enough volunteers for any FIRST event. After 6 weeks of District & Regionals most volunteers are getting a little tired. It IS a rewarding experience, but we as volunteers can only stretch ourselves so much. I am all for adding more fields to CHAMPS, but add more volunteers to make it work right...

This. I'm definitely looking at volunteering next year, and I can't wait to see how the new layout works out.

[Dominick Ferone]

Being a mentor of a rookie team and alumni from a veteran team I can say rookies can put up a hard fight. As 1511 may be able to tell you ( as I may have some numbers wrong). 65 rookie competed out if the 410 new ones. 16 of them were alliance captains with 5 of them being as hgh as second seed. I was apart of one of the 5 and when I told teams were second seed they would say "oh you had an easy schedule" and it isn't true. We played the part we were supposed to and so did our alliance members and when it comes down to it rookies only differ from veterans some times in just terms of overall budgets. I know veteran teams with less man power and mentors than rookies. We also had many judges, volunteers, spectators and teams say to us you don't look like rookies with how our Bot was made. Rookies have won before and continue doing so and some rookies are sister teams of big names and can be a deadly force. Don't discount them for being first year teams. Between 4 mentors we had 25+ years of first experience.

[Rebecca Wasmer]

Originally Posted by Dominick Ferone

Being a mentor of a rookie team and alumni from a veteran team I can say rookies can put up a hard fight. As 1511 may be able to tell you ( as I may have some numbers wrong). 65 rookie competed out if the 410 new ones. 16 of them were alliance captains with 5 of them being as hgh as second seed. I was apart of one of the 5 and when I told teams were second seed they would say "oh you had an easy schedule" and it isn't true. We played the part we were supposed to and so did our alliance members and when it comes down to it rookies only differ from veterans some times in just terms of overall budgets. I know veteran teams with less man power and mentors than rookies. We also had many judges, volunteers, spectators and teams say to us you don't look like rookies with how our Bot was made. Rookies have won before and continue doing so and some rookies are sister teams of big names and can be a deadly force. Don't discount them for being first year teams. Between 4 mentors we had 25+ years of first experience.

This, this, and more this.
Being a mentor for rookie team 4930 this year we played our very first match at championship against 33 and won. Our coach was also an alumni of a veteran team, 340, so our drive team was guided by capable hands. Our robot could do some things that veteran teams we played with could not do. Although the thought of a rookie division is something that has crossed my mind, being able to play against and with some "big name teams" is inspiring and also a great experience. Throwing the rookies in their own division makes it so they don't get to see teams who have been doing this for a while unless they specifically go to another division. Our students spent a lot of their time at Championships scouting the teams we were going to play with and against so we could figure out the best strategy. I feel like they would have learned a lot less had they not had to watch the veteran teams compete.

[scooty199]

I heard some mention of Round Robin.

I'm against a Round Robin after the past 2 years watching VEX attempt at one. With the possibility of more fields and teams, I think things are better off in groups of 4 or 8 than a round robin.