[FRC Blog] 2015 Events are Being Posted!

[Hallry]

Posted on the FRC Blog, 6/25/14: http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprogr...e-being-posted

2015 Events are Being Posted!

Blog Date: Wednesday, June 25, 2014 - 17:58

Event Dates

Check it out: http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprogr...egional-events

We’ve just started posting event dates and locations for which we have confirmed information. ‘Confirmed’ means either that FIRST HQ has a signed agreement with the venue, or that District organizers have passed along to us firm information on their events. Please keep in mind that even though we may have signed contracts with the venues, things still can change! It’s very unlikely, but still possible. We have a few more event dates and locations ready to post, we’ll be getting those up shortly.

Events will be posted not later than a week or so after the information is confirmed.

More Dates

We’ve also recently posted some other important dates for the upcoming season. You can see them here: http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprogr.../calendar/list This list will continue to grow also.

Another FRC Season is in the air! I’m getting really excited!

Frank

[Gregor]

Greater Toronto Central Regional!

I guess we're up to 6 Ontario regionals now.

[Kpchem]

Either those are typos on the website, or events are now 4 days instead of 3?

[Michael Hill]

Originally Posted by Kpchem

Either those are typos on the website, or events are now 4 days instead of 3?

It looks like they may be counting load in day (Wednesday) as part of it.

[jvriezen]

Originally Posted by Michael Hill

It looks like they may be counting load in day (Wednesday) as part of it.

From FIRST's point of view the events are four days, day 0 is field build and pit setup, etc. They have to have the venue reserved!

[Billfred]

Welp, guess we can book our rooms for Palmetto now!

[XaulZan11]

Originally Posted by Gregor

Greater Toronto Central Regional!

I guess we're up to 6 Ontario regionals now.

Looks like the new regional as capacity for 32 teams. Is there a reason the Ontario regionals are seem to be typically smaller than other regionals?

[Aren Siekmeier]

Originally Posted by XaulZan11

Looks like the new regional as capacity for 32 teams. Is there a reason the Ontario regionals are seem to be typically smaller than other regionals?

Regionals usually start with a low cap and raise it later in the registration timetable, to reserve spots for rookies, local teams, etc. This cap will likely go up at a later date.

GTR West last year (2014) was only 30 teams, and was hosted at Crescent High School, where 610 originates. It's possible that the venue for GTR Central is also smallish, and they only plan to invite 30-40 teams.

As Ontario continues to develop their infrastructure (fields, volunteers, etc.) I could see that they are gradually moving towards something like a district system, with more, smaller events hosted in venues which aren't quite as fancy as expensive, and which keep the competition pool small and each team's match count high. Even if they aren't officially a district, they can still get some of benefits while slowing building towards the transition. But someone from FIRST Canada would have to say more about this, if it's even anywhere close to the truth at all. Merely speculation on my part.

[waialua359]

5 years ago, we would never have gotten to see which events were secured early on.
I'm glad FIRST is doing this. It sure helps teams that travel outside their area, plan a lot earlier. Fundraising when the school year starts makes more sense than waiting until September/October to decide where to go.

[Ernst]

Originally Posted by compwiztobe

Regionals usually start with a low cap and raise it later in the registration timetable, to reserve spots for rookies, local teams, etc. This cap will likely go up at a later date.

GTR West last year (2014) was only 30 teams, and was hosted at Crescent High School, where 610 originates. It's possible that the venue for GTR Central is also smallish, and they only plan to invite 30-40 teams.

As Ontario continues to develop their infrastructure (fields, volunteers, etc.) I could see that they are gradually moving towards something like a district system, with more, smaller events hosted in venues which aren't quite as fancy as expensive, and which keep the competition pool small and each team's match count high. Even if they aren't officially a district, they can still get some of benefits while slowing building towards the transition. But someone from FIRST Canada would have to say more about this, if it's even anywhere close to the truth at all. Merely speculation on my part.

I'm pretty curious about how this event will work. The venue, listed as Mattamy Athletic Centre, has a basketball court with seating for 1000 on the second floor and a hockey rink with seating for 2500 on the third floor. Their website has pictures showing the ice rink covered and in use for other events. There's a lot of space on the fourth floor, which circles the rink.The venue also has Google Streetview of some of the interior, but I don't see any large ramps or a way to move robots between floors other than the elevators. Load-in might be fun if you're limited to what would fit in a standard elevator (unless I'm missing a freight elevator or some large ramps). I'm concerned about queuing involving moving between floors, assuming that the pits are in the basketball court and the field is over the hockey rink or vice versa.

Also, one side-effect of smaller Canadian Regionals is that a higher percentage of Ontario teams make it to the Championship than in other regions. If they switched to districts they might actually lose spots. Last year Ontario had 115 teams and 5 Regionals, giving them a maximum of 30 unique spots at CMP, which comes out to 26% of Ontario teams. Just under 15% of all teams made it to CMP last year. I can't think of any way that that over-representation would cause any problems, especially given that CMP is growing for next year. Then again, if 26% of all teams went last year, there would have been 704 to deal with.

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by compwiztobe

Regionals usually start with a low cap and raise it later in the registration timetable, to reserve spots for rookies, local teams, etc. This cap will likely go up at a later date.

This. Palmetto is listed with capacity at 54; last year, we had 67.

(Now, would I mind if it really was 54? Not at all--the 60-some-team events are just a little too big for my taste. But I had to provide a data point.)

[Koko Ed]

Good I can start planning my 2015 tour early.

[Jonathan Norris]

Originally Posted by ZehP

I'm pretty curious about how this event will work. The venue, listed as Mattamy Athletic Centre, has a basketball court with seating for 1000 on the second floor and a hockey rink with seating for 2500 on the third floor. Their website has pictures showing the ice rink covered and in use for other events. There's a lot of space on the fourth floor, which circles the rink.The venue also has Google Streetview of some of the interior, but I don't see any large ramps or a way to move robots between floors other than the elevators. Load-in might be fun if you're limited to what would fit in a standard elevator (unless I'm missing a freight elevator or some large ramps). I'm concerned about queuing involving moving between floors, assuming that the pits are in the basketball court and the field is over the hockey rink or vice versa.

I have no insight into how this regional will run, I'm sure there are elevators between the floors. I'm just really excited by the location, right in the heart of downtown Toronto, the 'Mattamy Athletic Centre' is actually the converted old Maple Leaf Gardens, holding a regional at the Gardens is going to be amazing (maybe we can put up some new banners ). Congrats to FIRST Robotics Canada for getting access to this great space!

[TikiTech]

Originally Posted by waialua359

5 years ago, we would never have gotten to see which events were secured early on.
I'm glad FIRST is doing this. It sure helps teams that travel outside their area, plan a lot earlier. Fundraising when the school year starts makes more sense than waiting until September/October to decide where to go.

^^^ THIS ^^^

Great to hear this. Planning travel early will really help keep our costs down for sure!!

Looking forward to, hopefully, doing some beta testing this summer.

Aloha!

[Link07]

Two more events have been posted:

Lake Superior - Week 1
Northern Lights - Week 1