Choosing between Richmond, VA and Palmetto, SC Regionals

[ttldomination]

I cannot speak to the VA Regional, however, I have attended the Palmetto regional for the past two years.

The venue, location, and the teams are all excellent. You're playing in a great venue at the heart of Myrtle Beach. Along with your basic "beach town" attractions, rides, and shops, you have the actual beach, which is remarkably close to the stadium.

The stadium itself is fairly nice. The seating is plentiful, the pits are spacious, and the lighting is nice. The practice field could use some work, as in the past, they've just been basic wooden pieces shoved in a corner.

I will say, however, that our experience with the refereeing at the Palmetto regional has been less than positive. While I understand that week 1 regionals have issues and last year's game was particularly brutal, the reffing at the Palmetto regional has consistently been below par.

To address the regional difficulty, I definitely think that the regional is average, if maybe slightly above average. The regional powerhouses have a strong showing, and the Palmetto regional usually draws powerful teams from all over the south east region plus a few teams from the north who think they're going to get the easy win. However, if there is another event is added in the SE, the competition level at the Palmetto regional could drastically decrease.

Overall, I'd recommend the regional, but Palmetto comes with its set of week 1 and reffing issues.

- Sunny G.

[PayneTrain]

Originally Posted by ttldomination

I will say, however, that our experience with the refereeing at the Palmetto regional has been less than positive. While I understand that week 1 regionals have issues and last year's game was particularly brutal, the reffing at the Palmetto regional has consistently been below par.

If you're choosing between VA or SC (or what feels like any event in the southeast) based on referee quality, God help you.

Palmetto is a very popular travel regional and Virginia is a very popular local regional ever since MAR went to districts. If you want to meet a lot of teams from across the East Coast, going to Palmetto is a good idea. If you want to go to a regional with a lot of teams with a lot of history together, go to Virginia.

With Palmetto in Week 1 you get the baggage that comes with being a Week 1 regional and in Virginia you get the baggage that comes with it being an FRC Regional in Virginia (insert grinding axe here).

The Virginia Regional benefits from being in probably the coolest city around and has a lot of fun parks and good museums to visit.

[brrian27]

I can't say much for Palmetto, but Virginia is great!

We attended the Virginia Regional this year as our first out-of-state regional, and we had an awesome experience. All the other teams were very welcoming and interested in us being there. We quickly made friends with 1418, 1533, and others. We ended up being picked by 1418 for eliminations and made it to the finals with them and 435 (who are from NC like you guys). Before we had never even made it past quarters, but that's not to say the competition was a cakewalk. There were many amazing teams and robots, and the competition was tough. It was nice for us to get out of our usual Florida regionals, and experience something new.

Virginia was the perfect place to do that. Welcoming people, nice area, good competition, and a great experience!

[Billfred]

As someone who has attended all eleven Palmetto Regionals and none of the Virginia events, here's my pitch:

1) Palmetto is the first regional in the nation. Say what you want about Week 1, but my understanding is that at least one of the two years (and maybe both) we've been there, we got off the first this-really-counts qualification match in the world. Take from that what you will.

2) Palmetto is the largest regional in FIRST. Or at least it was last year, at 67 teams--FIRST's usual limit is 65, but some late-registering local rookies made the organizers twist FIRST's arm on that.

3) Palmetto has a heck of a crew. The volunteers are super nice, and 10-year head ref Terrell Burch has been a Championship division head ref and has worked multiple Einstein crews. If there's a problem with the reffing, it's garbage in garbage out. The judges also seem to call it down the middle for awards, definitely more so than some regionals I've attended elsewhere (no names). Aside from 4451's inexplicable lack of an Imagery Award win (I mean, come on!), the hardware seems to find the best homes regardless of where the teams are from.

4) Anyone can win Palmetto! In the eleven years of the event, only four teams have won it more than once: 11 (2004, 2006, 2013), 281 (2004, 2012), 1261 (2010, 2014), and 2815 (2011, 2012). I'm sure that Simbotics or Cheesy Poofs could come in here for a few years and change the math, but in practice nobody runs away with it.

5) You're at the beach! Okay, sure, it's February and you're probably not going in the water. Still, we've had good luck finding food and things to do. Palmetto has been one of the last to host a proper Team Social; there wasn't one in 2014, but they still gave out ice cream Friday night in the lobby, which is 80% of the fun and 0% of the busing.

[Monochron]

Thanks for all the great feedback everyone. The whole first week thing is definitely intimidating, but Palmetto really looks attractive aside from that. It's going to be a tough choice but we'll put it to the students and see what feedback they have as well. Thanks again!

[Gary Dillard]

Originally Posted by Billfred

As someone who has attended all eleven Palmetto Regionals and none of the Virginia events, here's my pitch:

Palmetto Regional Pro: Billfred is there

Palmetto Regional Con: Billfred is there