NEFIRST Championship

[electroken]

It's my understanding that the event will be in Harrington, all of the practice fields (including a real competition field) will be in the adjacent recreation center, and the pits will be under the rec center, just like Battlecry. The back corner of the pits has a freight elevator to get to the practice fields.

The pits are going to be tight. The last map I saw had 11 teams in the loading dock!

[ColleenShaver]

Happy to provide some clarity on this.

Like our many past Regional, District, and Off-season events, the NE FIRST Championship will be hosted in Harrington Auditorium & the Sports & Rec Center.

Harrington (and its 2500+ seats.. meaning each of the 60 teams can have 40+ people with plenty of room) will host the competition area, mentor lounge (with birds-eye view of the field), scholarship row, t-shirt sales, and other displays.

And yes, they are just bleachers. Seat cushions are recommended!

In the connected Rec Center will be the pit area. No doubt, this will be a cozy fit! Like BC last year, it will feature up to 60 teams. In the choice between a little more elbow room and a few more teams, we decided more teams is better.

In the lobby between Harrington and Rec Center there will be inspection, as well as displays from EI and RAS winners who are attending without their robots.

One floor up from the pit, accessible via the freight elevator in the pit, is the practice area. This will include a full field (with full electronics running matches), 2 quarter fields (what is typically provided at a district), and an open carpeted area (teams are encouraged to bring their own totes/bins for this area).

I hope this clarified the locations of the event. WPI is looking forward to hosting the top teams in New England in an awesome event!

[Trey178]

Where is the Chairman's interview location?

[Riverdance]

Does anyone know how many qualification matches there will be, or how many matches each team is supposed to get? Either works. Just for match planning/scouting sheet printing purposes.

[Nathan Streeter]

Originally Posted by Riverdance

Does anyone know how many qualification matches there will be, or how many matches each team is supposed to get? Either works. Just for match planning/scouting sheet printing purposes.

Each team will (or is supposed to) get 12 matches, as with all district events... the points work best that way.

[KathieK]

We will be holding a NEMO (Non-Engineering Mentor Organization) meeting for adult mentors who are interested in the non-technical areas of FRC teams, on Friday, April 10, 2015 from 10am to 11am in the Mentor Lounge, Harrington, WPI, Worcester, MA. You do not have to be a member of NEMO to attend.

[Steven Donow]

[MikeE]

It looks like there has been an adjustment to the lineup with the next 2 ranked teams being invited (663 & 1099)

[MooreteP]

I think 663 was already in, but 1099 is fresh, so we have an even 60 teams now.
Yay!
No Surrogate Matches.

[MikeE]

Originally Posted by MooreteP

I think 663 was already in, but 1099 is fresh, so we have an even 60 teams now.
Yay!
No Surrogate Matches.

There are never surrogate matches as long as we have 12 qualifying matches per team*, so basically no surrogate matches in District events ever!

* if #teams x #rounds is a multiple of 6, there are no surrogates. Therefore if #rounds is 6, 12, or 18(!) you guarantee no surrogates whatever the number of teams

[MooreteP]

Originally Posted by MikeE

There are never surrogate matches as long as we have 12 qualifying matches per team*, so basically no surrogate matches in District events ever!

* if #teams x #rounds is a multiple of 6, there are no surrogates. Therefore if #rounds is 6, 12, or 18(!) you guarantee no surrogates whatever the number of teams

You are correct. Me = Bad Maths. :-(

120 Matches! Glad that we have 3 Game Announcers and lots of throat lozenges.

[esquared]

Originally Posted by MooreteP

You are correct. Me = Bad Maths. :-(

120 Matches! Glad that we have 3 Game Announcers and lots of throat lozenges.

120 Matches! I'm going to need new shoes after this competition!

[cjl2625]

Wow, what a crazy day.
Toward the end of quals, we started to fall apart. We seemingly lost our ability to harvest well and align totes in the robot, leading to catastrophic stacking.
But with the help of 195 and 1519, we managed to pull ourselves together over lunch. They helped us fix both our harvesting and RC grabber which got severely damaged in our last qualification match. Because of that, we worked great in the elims.
A huge thanks to 195 and 1519 for picking and helping us.

I'm happy that we finally get to work with 195. We've been quite familiar with competing against the Cyber Knights and meeting an inevitable doom, being beaten in the elims in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and earlier in 2015.
I'm happy that we finally got to be on the same side of the glass and had the pleasure of working with you.

[Riverdance]

Just wanted to thank everyone at the event for making it so fantastic! We had a blast. A special thanks goes out to our amazing alliance partners, 1768 and 2170, who we were incredibly grateful to have the opportunity to work with, for giving us the push we needed to make it to Saint Louis for the first time since 2010! My eyes hurt a little bit from all the happy tears, but in my opinion it's well worth it. Hope there will be pictures soon!

[KathieK]

Originally Posted by MooreteP

I think 663 was already in, but 1099 is fresh, so we have an even 60 teams now.

Team 3464 was also invited and accepted (I think someone cancelled) so I'm pretty sure the 60-team accurate list is now here: http://www3.usfirst.org/whats-going-...rogramCode=FRC