2015 Gitchi Gummi Get Together

[allgoodthehood]

What:
Gitchi Gummi Get Together
(Ojibwe for Lake Superior)

When:
August 14-15

Where:
Duluth East High School
301 N 40th Ave East Duluth
Minn US 5504

We expanded it to a two day event this year with the hopes of having more competition time and team bonding activities. Visit our website for some more information and make sure to check out the schedule.

If you have any questions feel free to post them or email us at daredevils2512@gmail.com

[Jon Stratis]

Question for you guys... based on that schedule, what are your expectations for inspection? There really isn't much time to do much - if we assume 30 teams attending and 10 inspectors, we could probably get it done in the hour between pits open and opening ceremonies, assuming all teams were ready for inspections at the start. And I would love to have 10 volunteers as inspectors there! We need to work on training up more and more volunteers, and (obviously) my area of concern is inspection. If at all possible, I'd love to run any inspectors through plenty of training over the course of the event (in fact, if you have a couple of old robots laying around gathering dust, we could use them for visual aids in training)!

Don't know yet if I'll make it there (still figuring out commitments for the rest of the summer, everything got upended a bit ago... long story), but we'll make sure one of the LRI's in the state is on-site for inspections and to help fix broken robots - We try to make sure we have an LRI at every fall event, and as many of the week-0's as possible!

[ice.berg]

Originally Posted by Jon Stratis

Question for you guys... based on that schedule, what are your expectations for inspection? There really isn't much time to do much - if we assume 30 teams attending and 10 inspectors, we could probably get it done in the hour between pits open and opening ceremonies, assuming all teams were ready for inspections at the start. And I would love to have 10 volunteers as inspectors there! We need to work on training up more and more volunteers, and (obviously) my area of concern is inspection. If at all possible, I'd love to run any inspectors through plenty of training over the course of the event (in fact, if you have a couple of old robots laying around gathering dust, we could use them for visual aids in training)!

Jon, we plan on doing an "on your honor" system. We are going to trust teams to get inspected if they have made any changes since their last official event. We know that by this time of the year the robots have seen quite a bit of use and may have some rough repairs just to keep them going. If teams are running new mechanisms then they are expected to grab an inspector just to get it checked out. We have a few volunteers locally already who have experience with inspecting at official events who will doing these inspections. However, of course you are welcome to come to the GGGT and be the official LRI for the event. Email the team for more info if you want to do this so we can get you all set up with the details.

[JohnChristensen]

Any infromation regarding who is planning on attending yet?

[Christopher149]

Originally Posted by JohnChristensen

Any infromation regarding who is planning on attending yet?

Well, 857 (Superior Roboworks, Houghton, MI) is planning to attend. We might be able to drag 2586 along too.

[Shrub]

Does anyone know when the MN State Fair robots need to be dropped off at fairgrounds? Even though there is a slight rules change-some teams may only have their RR robot left.

It would be a blast to be able to attend this year!

[Jon Stratis]

The fair starts on Thursday, Aug 27. Gitchi Gummi should be far enough in advance that there won't be a conflict.

[Shrub]

Sounds good. Thanks Jon! c:

[jajabinx124]

I have a question for you guys. Are you guys planning on tweaking the rules for recycle rush for the competition?

Just wondering whether you guys had a plan for that or not.

[jvriezen]

Originally Posted by Jon Stratis

The fair starts on Thursday, Aug 27. Gitchi Gummi should be far enough in advance that there won't be a conflict.

Just by a bit. Bots going to the fair have to be dropped off on Aug 17th or 18th.

[llamadon]

Originally Posted by jajabinx124

I have a question for you guys. Are you guys planning on tweaking the rules for recycle rush for the competition?

Just wondering whether you guys had a plan for that or not.

I feel like the safety aspect that concern teams at other events wouldn't really apply at the Gitchi Gummi. There is not going to be an arms race coming from Minnesota teams, and none of us have burglars that are nearly as dangerous as some of the top tier teams (1678's, 118's, etc., etc.) I'm pretty sure 2169 (my team) has one of the fastest in MN (nothing crazy), and it's fairly easy to stay safe around the things, I'd say they are similar in safety to catapults from last year, or just moving robots in general. Common sense is all it takes to prevent most accidents.

I think our team would enjoy traditional play, but obviously we are pretty biased design wise. Can battles are fun. Definitely excited to see what is decided.

[jajabinx124]

Originally Posted by llamadon

I feel like the safety aspect that concern teams at other events wouldn't really apply at the Gitchi Gummi. There is not going to be an arms race coming from Minnesota teams, and none of us have burglars that are nearly as dangerous as some of the top tier teams (1678's, 118's, etc., etc.) I'm pretty sure 2169 (my team) has one of the fastest in MN (nothing crazy), and it's fairly easy to stay safe around the things, I'd say they are similar in safety to catapults from last year, or just moving robots in general. Common sense is all it takes to prevent most accidents.

I think our team would enjoy traditional play, but obviously we are pretty biased design wise. Can battles are fun. Definitely excited to see what is decided.

Right, I wasn't expecting dangerous can battles at gitchi gummi or any other MN offseason events I had in mind either. I was wondering whether they had any interesting rule changes in mind, like the rule for IRI this year where each alliance gets 2 extra cans on their side of the field that they can place anywhere. Just anything to change the flow of recycle rush or add an interesting element to the game. I'm not asking for rule changes here, just wondering if they had any in mind, but regardless of whether the game at this competition is traditional or tweaked, sounds like it'll be a fun event.

Props to 2169 on the can burgulars, they were pretty impressive this year.

[llamadon]

Originally Posted by jajabinx124

Right, I wasn't expecting dangerous can battles at gitchi gummi or any other MN offseason events I had in mind either. I was wondering whether they had any interesting rule changes in mind, like the rule for IRI this year where each alliance gets 2 extra cans on their side of the field that they can place anywhere. Just anything to change the flow of recycle rush or add an interesting element to the game. I'm not asking for rule changes here, just wondering if they had any in mind, but regardless of whether the game at this competition is traditional or tweaked, sounds like it'll be a fun event.

Props to 2169 on the can burgulars, they were pretty impressive this year.

Thanks! 2052 was yet again one of the best in MN, so props to you guys as well.

I gotcha, I guess I went off on a tangent about the safety factor of burglars.

I think this is definitely one of the better opportunities for MN teams to hang out and really get to know one another. Should be a blast!

[allgoodthehood]

Hurry and register while there's still time! The registration deadline is July 30, and we currently have 14 teams registered.

[BJT]

I guess we have had to cancel too many people couldn't come. Bummer.