Arizona Regional Feedback- The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

[Don Knight]

FIRST of all thanks to all 37 teams who attended the event. We worked hard to put on a FIRST class show for you all.

Congratulations to the Winning alliance of teams 968, 606, and 460.

And to team 234 Team Cyberblue on winning the Az Regional Chairmans Award.

Would you please post some feedback on what you enjoyed, liked and what to see return next year, also let us know what things you think we could do a better job at.

Getting to the event, lodging?

Did you like the set up at the Coliseum?
Pits, Field, Seating, Music, Food, Parking

Did you enjoy the team social?
Science Center, Food, Activities, Parking

Please give us your feedback both good and bad. We'd love to hear from you.

[Collin Fultz]

i had a BLAST. the pits were set up very nicely, the announcers were great. the matches moved quickly. everything was awesome. if there could have been one thing changed, i would have had a place for the competing teams to stand. i was tough for everybody to see what was going on all the time. other than that, i was GREAT. everybody was SO great. congrats to all the teams. 234 had a great time and we look forward to seeing you all again.

[Daniel Brim]

I had a good time. A couple of things though...
Our hoitel was extremely unorganized and gave us 8 rooms instead of the 14.

Oh, yeah, thanks for the frisbee 234 (kept us entertained for hours lol)

[Redhead Jokes]

Originally posted by Don Knight
FIRST of all thanks to all 37 teams who attended the event. We worked hard to put on a FIRST class show for you all. Would you please post some feedback on what you enjoyed, liked and what to see return next year, also let us know what things you think we could do a better job at.
Getting to the event, lodging?
Did you like the set up at the Coliseum?
Pits, Field, Seating, Music, Food, Parking
Did you enjoy the team social?
Science Center, Food, Activities, Parking

It was a FIRST class show, and we had a great time.

Loved the event.
Lodging rooms were great once we were in them, the pool and jacuzzi great, but didn't seem like they handled large groups' reservations well at all.
Loved the coliseum, pits, field, seating, music, parking.
Got food elsewhere.
Loved the social.

[sanddrag]

The machine shop was great and so was the competition overall. I may even dare say it was better than LA last year. The social was a blast! The only things I would change would be the accessibility to the grandstands and the food both at the site and at the social.

Anywhoo, it was GREAT FUN!

[Mark Pettit]

The regional was outstanding, Don! Thanks for all of your hard work to put it on. There should have been one more volunteer award and it should have been yours!
I am so happy that our school administration and the families and friends of our local teams finally got to see us all compete and see firsthand what FIRST is all about. You and the planning comittee treated them to a top-notch event that couldn't have been better.
Congratulations!

[WakeZero]

I don't think we had ANY DQs right? That is amazing in itself, and just shows how well the refs REALLY told the teams what they expected, and how they would rule.

The AZ regional was amazing, I can't wait until next year. And Don... you are the best announcer ever

[Billius]

The whole thing rocked except for the whole "no outside food" bit. I think that the team social was second to none and I had a great time!

[Libby Ritchie]

Good job, Cyber Blue! And Colin...we are Full Metal Jackets, not "Morristown!"

See you in Houston!

[futtrich]

Thank you for a fabulous experience! I don’t need to mention the food/venue thing ‘cause you already know about it. We coped and moved on. (Made McDonalds and Dominoes very happy too…) Everything else was “Gracious Professionalism” personified. The Social was SUCH fun. Our kids are still talking about it! Can’t wait ‘til next year. Thank you so much, you all did a great job!

Martha Calkins

[Redhead Jokes]

Originally posted by futtrich
I don’t need to mention the food/venue thing ‘cause you already know about it. We coped and moved on. (Made McDonalds and Dominoes very happy too…) Everything else was “Gracious Professionalism” personified.

We went to McDonald's the first day and they were troopers who certainly came thru.

We went to Subway the 2nd day, and again they were troopers who came thru for us despite their HUGE lunch line already there. We got her card to write her a thank you.

Third day it occurred to me to find out ahead of time where Domino's was cuz they're a CA food sponsor of ours. We went at 10a, showed their name on our shirts, asked for donation or special price, got $6 a pizza, then when we were driving to pick up the pizzas at noon, we stopped at produce dept in the market, got empty boxes (I'd learned from the day before), dropped off the 2 kids with money and boxes at Sonic across the street from Dominos for 37 sodas, and I picked up the pizzas.

[David Kelly]

Originally posted by Libby Ritchie
Good job, Cyber Blue! And Colin...we are Full Metal Jackets, not "Morristown!"

See you in Houston!

Thanks Libby!!! You are one of the reasons we won!

[Ryan Dognaux]

Arizona Regional... what can I say? It was awesome. The matches, the teams, the people, everyone and everything - awesome. Congrats to the winning teams 606, 460, and 968 - you guys put up a really good fight. And of course I have to thank the judges for The Chairmans Award, and all the people for the Website Award... Maybe I'll find more to say about this once the shock has worn off.

Oh yeah, and did anyone see our match again 980? (the 2nd one that is).. very good match, 2 arms going up against each other. Hopefully someone on our team taped it. Good job guys.

[Eismann]

The only problem was that someone needed to come out and vacum the carpet up. It was pretty dirt with debris. Other then that it was great.

[Travis Covington]

I just HAVE to thank team 60 and Laron Engineering for the machine shop!!!

We would not have done as well as we did without their help... they bored and broached 2 sets of 4 sprockets for us in less than 20 min !!!

We frantically went out and bought new 25 and 30 tooth sprockets when we realized how slow our robot was on the field...

The turnaround with those guys was great!! THE BEST machine shop at any regional or national competition.

Thanks guys!!

As far as the regional went...very organzied, very professional, and one of the best regionals i have been to. The teams were extremeyl nice, and the entire event was very relaxed and enjoyable.

Only things i would change: Easier access to the pit from the stands, and for those teams stuck in the center row, slightly larger pit areas (we were lucky enough to have a corner)

Thanks to teams 460, and 606 for a great alliance, we couldnt have done it without you.

Travis - Advisor, Team Mentor