[FRC Blog] 2015 Events are Being Posted!

[Jon Stratis]

Originally Posted by pwnageNick

It doesn't seem very smart to have Wisconsin, Central Illinois, and St. Louis Regionals all in the same weekend. Outside of the Midwest regional, with Indiana going to districts now, the next closest event for any team in the Illinois/Iowa/Wisconsin area is the Minnesota Regionals. This is even more an issue as 2 of them (Duluth) are still pretty far as well as week 1 and tend to fill up quickly due to the large number of Minnesota teams. The other two Minnesota events (Minneapolis/St. Paul) tend to be later in the season which mean it will either land on the same week as one of the 4 Regionals listed previously or land at an undesirable time in week 5. Outside of Minnesota, the next closest for the region becomes Kansas City, Pittsburgh, and Ontario.

Or land on week 6. Never forget week 6!

[BigJ]

Originally Posted by pwnageNick

It doesn't seem very smart to have Wisconsin, Central Illinois, and St. Louis Regionals all in the same weekend. Outside of the Midwest regional, with Indiana going to districts now, the next closest event for any team in the Illinois/Iowa/Wisconsin area is the Minnesota Regionals. This is even more an issue as 2 of them (Duluth) are still pretty far as well as week 1 and tend to fill up quickly due to the large number of Minnesota teams. The other two Minnesota events (Minneapolis/St. Paul) tend to be later in the season which mean it will either land on the same week as one of the 4 Regionals listed previously or land at an undesirable time in week 5. Outside of Minnesota, the next closest for the region becomes Kansas City, Pittsburgh, and Ontario.

We all knew that Indiana going to districts was going to leave the Midwest with even less scheduling options, and now with all of these Regionals occurring either on the same weekend or in back-to-back weeks, this definitely does not improve the situation.

I know venue conflicts and such are hard to avoid, but this seems very undesirable. But I guess this is the way this district-transition period goes.

-Nick

It's better than the year Wisconsin and Midwest were both Week 4, at least

[Kevin Pardus]

Orlando Regional has fallen off the official FIRST events post, had been shown as 11-14 Mar 2015 (Week 3).

[scca229]

New posting:

Arizona West Regional @ Grand Canyon University, Phoenix, AZ - Week 6

Pairs up with the already posted Arizona East Regional @ Hamilton High, Chandler, AZ - Week 4


Nate

[PayneTrain]

Originally Posted by Kevin Pardus

Orlando Regional has fallen off the official FIRST events post, had been shown as 11-14 Mar 2015 (Week 3).

I'm sure Florida teams love having fewer confirmed dates for in-state regionals a week before Registration than there were two weeks ago.

This is getting rough. No confirmation about South Florida, and if it's a week 1 that will make for 3 of the 6 regionals on the southeast Atlantic coast on week 1.

[dodar]

Originally Posted by Kevin Pardus

Orlando Regional has fallen off the official FIRST events post, had been shown as 11-14 Mar 2015 (Week 3).

Its back

[waialua359]

tl;dr.
We are waiting for the Australia event to post for Week 3. Looks like the Greater Toronto East will be held in Australia according to the posted events.

[mwmac]

Originally Posted by waialua359

tl;dr.
We are waiting for the Australia event to post for Week 3. Looks like the Greater Toronto East will be held in Australia according to the posted events.

Glenn, it would seem Oshawa ON has been relocated to Australia!
ozzyozzyozzyoioioi!

[Kingland093]

Originally Posted by Jon Stratis

Or land on week 6. Never forget week 6!

I hope Minneapolis isn't week 6. My team is not allowed to go to a competition over Easter weekend...

[Link07]

South Florida - Week 1
San Diego - Week 6
Arizona West - Week 6

Edit: Ventura - Week 5

[pwnageNick]

Originally Posted by Jon Stratis

Or land on week 6. Never forget week 6!

Okay, which would put it the same week as Midwest.

So if it's 4, it conflicts with Wisconsin and Central Illinois, and if it is week 6, it conflicts with Midwest. And if it is week 5, then it is squeezed between the other events, making anyone with a desire to do 2 events have them either back to back or go to Duluth week 1.

I have a feeling GTRC and Pittsburgh will be seeing a much larger crowd of teams from other parts of the continent.

I feel really bad for Ohio and NY. I understand baby steps are good for going to districts but some teams are really starting to get left behind.

[Klamath Mom]

PNW Championship is 508 miles from our town (Klamath Falls, OR) AND the event is over Easter weekend. Not sure how this will all play out!

[Klamath Mom]

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

PNW Championship is 508 miles from our town (Klamath Falls, OR) AND the event is over Easter weekend. Not sure how this will all play out!

[mathking]

Originally Posted by pwnageNick

Okay, which would put it the same week as Midwest.

So if it's 4, it conflicts with Wisconsin and Central Illinois, and if it is week 6, it conflicts with Midwest. And if it is week 5, then it is squeezed between the other events, making anyone with a desire to do 2 events have them either back to back or go to Duluth week 1.

I have a feeling GTRC and Pittsburgh will be seeing a much larger crowd of teams from other parts of the continent.

I feel really bad for Ohio and NY. I understand baby steps are good for going to districts but some teams are really starting to get left behind.

Those of us in Ohio are waiting to see when Queen City will post. Buckeye and Pittsburgh are the only other regional events that don't require missing at least part of another day of school.

[Jon Stratis]

I've finally been given the go-ahead to tell teams that North Star and 10,000 Lakes is week 6. The contract is signed and delivered, and we expect it to be posted to FIRST's site soon.