[FRC Blog] 2015 Events are Being Posted!

[Christopher149]

Originally Posted by Mastonevich

Week 1 2/25-2/28, 4 Events
Week 2 3/4-3/7, 5 Events
Week 3 3/11-3/14, 6 Events
Week 4 3/18-3/21, 6 Events
Week 5 3/25-3/28, 5 Events
Week 6 4/1 - 4/4, 0 Events

Week 6 events?

I'm seeing, in week 6 right now, PNW district champs, 3 FiM district events, and 1 MAR district event. So, no regionals listed (aside from the mention of an unconfirmed Smoky Mountain a few posts up).



Edit: and to avoid double-posting:

Originally Posted by MechEng83

Looks like New England events are starting to be posted - as of 3:45pm EDT

Still waiting on Indiana...

I see two Indiana events, in Indianapolis week 1 and Kokomo week 3, but no champs yet.

PPS. http://www.indianafirst.org/blog/art...site-selection lists Indiana's 3 districts and champs.

[Michael Hill]

Originally Posted by Christopher149

I'm seeing, in week 6 right now, PNW district champs, 3 FiM district events, and 1 MAR district event. So, no regionals listed (aside from the mention of an unconfirmed Smoky Mountain a few posts up).



Edit: and to avoid double-posting:



I see two Indiana events, in Indianapolis week 1 and Kokomo week 3, but no champs yet.

PPS. http://www.indianafirst.org/blog/art...site-selection lists Indiana's 3 districts and champs.

I've always wondered how an FRC in Memorial Gym (in Kokomo) would work out. (It's at my middle school/high school gym). I really wonder where all the pits are going to be.

[Zealii]

Indiana districts
Indianapolis week 1
Kokomo week 3
Purdue week 4
Champs at warren central high school in Indy week 6

[BrendanB]

NEFIRST Schedule is up. 10 Total districts plus district Championship which has moved to WPI. No competitions during week 6!


Week 1:
NE District Event #1 Nashua South High School Nashua, NH USA 26-Feb - 28-Feb-2015

NE District Event #2 Wilby High School Waterbury, CT USA 27-Feb - 01-Mar-2015

Week 2:
NE District Event #3 Mass Mutual Center Springfield, MA USA 05-Mar - 07-Mar-2015

NE District Event #4 Reading High School - Field House Reading, MA USA 06-Mar - 08-Mar-2015

Week 3:
NE District Event #6 UMass Dartmouth - Tripp Athletic Center North Dartmouth, MA USA 12-Mar - 14-Mar-2015

NE District Event #5 Androscoggin Bank Colisee Lewiston, ME USA 12-Mar - 14-Mar-2015

Week 4:
NE District Event #7 UNH Durham - Whittemore Center Arena Durham, NH USA 20-Mar - 22-Mar-2015

NE District Event #8 Bryant University - Chace Athletic Center Smithfield, RI USA 20-Mar - 22-Mar-2015

Week 5:
NE District Event #9 Northeastern University - Matthews Arena Boston, MA USA 26-Mar - 28-Mar-2015

NE District Event #10 Hartford Public High School Hartford, CT USA 27-Mar - 29-Mar-2015

Week 7:
NE District Championship Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) Worcester, MA USA 08-Apr - 11-Apr-2015

[pastelpony]

Originally Posted by BrendanB

NEFIRST Schedule is up. 10 Total districts plus district Championship which has moved to WPI. No competitions during week 6!


Week 1:
NE District Event #1 Nashua South High School Nashua, NH USA 26-Feb - 28-Feb-2015

NE District Event #2 Wilby High School Waterbury, CT USA 27-Feb - 01-Mar-2015

Week 2:
NE District Event #3 Mass Mutual Center Springfield, MA USA 05-Mar - 07-Mar-2015

NE District Event #4 Reading High School - Field House Reading, MA USA 06-Mar - 08-Mar-2015

Week 3:
NE District Event #6 UMass Dartmouth - Tripp Athletic Center North Dartmouth, MA USA 12-Mar - 14-Mar-2015

NE District Event #5 Androscoggin Bank Colisee Lewiston, ME USA 12-Mar - 14-Mar-2015

Week 4:
NE District Event #7 UNH Durham - Whittemore Center Arena Durham, NH USA 20-Mar - 22-Mar-2015

NE District Event #8 Bryant University - Chace Athletic Center Smithfield, RI USA 20-Mar - 22-Mar-2015

Week 5:
NE District Event #9 Northeastern University - Matthews Arena Boston, MA USA 26-Mar - 28-Mar-2015

NE District Event #10 Hartford Public High School Hartford, CT USA 27-Mar - 29-Mar-2015

Week 7:
NE District Championship Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) Worcester, MA USA 08-Apr - 11-Apr-2015

This year will be different for my team...we've never done a week 1 event or even anything before week 5 before. We're definitely not going to miss a district event in our own city. We usually go to Pine Tree for week 6 (which this year is a week 3 event to my surprise.) We're going to have to much, much better with time this year.

I guess the lack of a week 6 event is better for planning for the NECMP (my team didn't know we made it to the NECMP until only days before it because of Pine Tree and as a result we had only days to prepare.)

I really enjoyed the atmosphere of the NECMP in Boston; I hoped it would have stayed there.

[BrendanB]

Originally Posted by pastelpony

This year will be different for my team...we've never done a week 1 event or even anything before week 5 before. We're definitely not going to miss a district event in our own city. We usually go to Pine Tree for week 6 (which this year is a week 3 event to my surprise.) We're going to have to much, much better with time this year.

I guess the lack of a week 6 event is better for planning for the NECMP (my team didn't know we made it to the NECMP until only days before it because of Pine Tree and as a result we had only days to prepare.)

I really enjoyed the atmosphere of the NECMP in Boston; I hoped it would have stayed there.

Yes the new schedule will be interesting. Glad to see more Saturday/Sunday alternatives for teams to compete at to avoid days out of school. I am also really excited to see the UNH event moving to the Whittemore Arena instead of the field house that wasn't the most ideal location.

I'll agree with you on the DCMP. Of all the regionals in New England the Boston Regional was one of the best run events I have been to. Being in Boston really made it feel like the hub for the NEFIRST district and it had a lot of great food choices in the venue and surrounding. It wasn't the easiest commute and doesn't have a the biggest selection of local hotels but it wasn't impossible. We commuted each day without a problem. I personally have reservations about WPI being able to adequately host such a big event considering the size of their facilities. They have hosted Battlecry for years which has had a higher number of teams in attendence in an overly crowded and chaotic pit area however Battlecry doesn't draw the same volume of attendees from the public and teams. I foresee a very crowded pit area which I'm not looking forward too. There is also no cell service in the pits which is a massive downside.

[Metonym]

Huh, this is interesting. Some of the Washington PNW events have become Saturday-Sunday events. This is an unexpected change, but welcomed change. I guess this means I can volunteer event more

[VeqIR]

Since I was curious about how sub-optimal the placement of the PNW District Championship was -- and because I'm an engineer that likes to overdo things -- I decided to do some calculations...

I threw the addresses of all of the teams in the PNW district into a geographic midpoint calculator (www.geomidpoint.com). This calculates the "center of gravity" of all of the teams in the PNW (assuming equal weighting of each team).

The results weren't entirely surprising -- the DCMP site is over 200 miles from the average PNW FRC team.

The center of gravity of FRC in the PNW is about 7 miles due south of Mt. Rainer or (46.746897, -121.732176) if you're wanting to be exact. I say we just have it on top of Mt. Rainer next year -- snow game, anyone?

Here are some (straight line) distances from that center for reference:

• 51mi - FIRSTWA Headquarters, Kent, WA
• 65mi - Downtown, Seattle, WA
• 95mi - Memorial Colosseum, Portland, OR (this year's site)
• 200mi - Eastern Washington University, Spokane, WA (next year's site)

That means that the "average" PNW team will be travelling an extra 105mi to DCMP this year.

Here's the team map with addresses (from FIRSTWA):
PNW Team Map

Here's a Google map pinpoint of the location:
PNW District Team Midpoint

[pastelpony]

Originally Posted by BrendanB

Yes the new schedule will be interesting. Glad to see more Saturday/Sunday alternatives for teams to compete at to avoid days out of school. I am also really excited to see the UNH event moving to the Whittemore Arena instead of the field house that wasn't the most ideal location.

I'll agree with you on the DCMP. Of all the regionals in New England the Boston Regional was one of the best run events I have been to. Being in Boston really made it feel like the hub for the NEFIRST district and it had a lot of great food choices in the venue and surrounding. It wasn't the easiest commute and doesn't have a the biggest selection of local hotels but it wasn't impossible. We commuted each day without a problem. I personally have reservations about WPI being able to adequately host such a big event considering the size of their facilities. They have hosted Battlecry for years which has had a higher number of teams in attendence in an overly crowded and chaotic pit area however Battlecry doesn't draw the same volume of attendees from the public and teams. I foresee a very crowded pit area which I'm not looking forward too. There is also no cell service in the pits which is a massive downside.

Although I personally wasn't at BattleCry this year, I've heard that the pits are much darker and smaller compared to more open pits such as the ones at Pine Tree and the district championship last year. Hopefully they'll find a solution to alleviate the crowding and overall poor condition of the pit area.

Last year's district championship had a great atmosphere and venue and almost felt as big as the FIRST Championship. It'll be difficult to recreate that in Worcester.

[Metonym]

Originally Posted by VeqIR

Since I was curious about how sub-optimal the placement of the PNW District Championship was -- and because I'm an engineer that likes to overdo things -- I decided to do some calculations...

I threw the addresses of all of the teams in the PNW district into a geographic midpoint calculator (www.geomidpoint.com). This calculates the "center of gravity" of all of the teams in the PNW (assuming equal weighting of each team).

The results weren't entirely surprising -- the DCMP site is over 200 miles from the average PNW FRC team.

The center of gravity of FRC in the PNW is about 7 miles due south of Mt. Rainer or (46.746897, -121.732176) if you're wanting to be exact. I say we just have it on top of Mt. Rainer next year -- snow game, anyone?

Here are some (straight line) distances from that center for reference:

• 51mi - FIRSTWA Headquarters, Kent, WA
• 65mi - Downtown, Seattle, WA
• 95mi - Memorial Colosseum, Portland, OR (this year's site)
• 200mi - Eastern Washington University, Spokane, WA (next year's site)

That means that the "average" PNW team will be travelling an extra 105mi to DCMP this year.

Here's the team map with addresses (from FIRSTWA):
PNW Team Map

Here's a Google map pinpoint of the location:
PNW District Team Midpoint

I'm almost certain the FIRSTWA staff knows that the new DCMP site is sub-optimal, but you have to consider how sustainable the Portland site was for them. FIRSTWA has to fundraise all the money for the event site every year.

[Peyton Yeung]

Originally Posted by Michael Hill

I've always wondered how an FRC in Memorial Gym (in Kokomo) would work out. (It's at my middle school/high school gym). I really wonder where all the pits are going to be.

If I recall correctly the swimming pool in Memorial Gym was removed and had been replaced with another basketball court. I believe that alleviates some space issues.

[Tom Bottiglieri]

Why don't the districts have names? Are we moving to a Hunger Games style naming convention?

[PayneTrain]

Originally Posted by pastelpony

Although I personally wasn't at BattleCry this year, I've heard that the pits are much darker and smaller compared to more open pits such as the ones at Pine Tree and the district championship last year. Hopefully they'll find a solution to alleviate the crowding and overall poor condition of the pit area.

Last year's district championship had a great atmosphere and venue and almost felt as big as the FIRST Championship. It'll be difficult to recreate that in Worcester.

I'm not from New England so don't shoot me, but I think it'll be fine. FiNE seemed to have a very smooth first year (because it's run by a lot of intelligent grizzled ancients) and WPI has never put on even a mediocre event, much less a bad one. I imagine the goal is to move some money to a more needed area of the budget to help the program grow.

I think they earned a shot at it.

[PayneTrain]

Originally Posted by Tom Bottiglieri

Why don't the districts have names? Are we moving to a Hunger Games style naming convention?

6 years later and still no one can get the district naming conventions formatted (or even spelled) correctly, so maybe they're just trying to make it as painfully basic as possible.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Tom Bottiglieri

Why don't the districts have names? Are we moving to a Hunger Games style naming convention?

I would guess it was because the districts moved around a lot. They'd move, they'd change names. They'd sometimes not bother moving before changing names. As a Fantasy FIRST player, it was always tough keeping districts straight between years. Not to mention the late-adding districts (Michigan, I'm lookin' at you).

So, now they don't have to worry about that--just number 'em, and apply the names later, after they've settled down a bit if they want to.