2016 regional dates?

[Chief Hedgehog]

Originally Posted by jajabinx124

I'm sorry about 4607's problems at North Star with FMS, it's heartbreaking to hear about the issues you guys had with FMS at North Star. I hope you guys don't run into that issue again.

As for attending 2 regionals, that's a great idea. I understand why you guys want Duluth to be week 1, because you guys can expose yourselves to gameplay as early as possible, test/tweak issues with the robot, and use the experience you guys gained at Duluth to improve your robot even further at your second regional.

The reason I dislike week 1 regionals, even though they provide a tremendous amount of learning experience and tremendous amounts of things to improve upon, is because I'm not sure what I'm going to expect during the regional. I'm not sure what strategies will be successful or not successful, I haven't seen other regional webcasts and observed what strategies win other regionals or what type of robots I'll expect at regionals, I'm not sure whether all the metrics we've created for the scouting team will be useful, etc. I could go on a large tangent about how unprepared teams can be when tackling week 1 regionals, but at the same time it may not be as bad next year because the Palmetto regional will be hosted a week before all of next year's week 1 events, thus giving week 1 teams an opportunity to view a regional webcast to absorb everything they can from watching that regional. That's the reason I don't want Duluth to be week 1, but it won't be the end of the world if it still is week 1 next year.

I'm not really opposed to having the Minneapolis regionals being week 5, I'm fine with either week 5 or 6.

And there is no wonder why you are the lead strategist on 2052. I completely agree with you in terms of strategizing - a week 2 event greatly benefits the scout/strategy teams.

However, because MN as a whole is a relative new comer to FRC, week 1 event allows for some teams to surprise the competition (especially the more established teams). With a week 2 these established teams have some time to adjust.

A week 1 event, especially since Duluth has two Regionals, puts MN in the spotlight and allows for teams to showcase strategies straight away. This is an advantage for us as we (MN) can set the tone for the rest of the season.

It also allows FRC to train in a lot of volunteers that will then go on to other Regionals. It also allows for fields to start in Duluth and then head elsewhere rather than try to figure out how to get two fields back to MN. For these reasons alone I think that those in charge will try to keep Duluth week 1 - but that is just my opinion.

It will be interesting to see where the 5th "MN" Regional will be placed and how that effects teams choosing Duluth. I know my team would like a chance at gaining the first Winners Banner at the new regional!

See you at SRS weekend!