2016 Smoky Mountains Regional

[samfruth]

1710 from Olathe, KS is excited to attend! We're ready to take the 13 hour drive down. Does anyone know where the pits will be located in regards to the field by chance?

[jspatz1]

Originally Posted by samfruth

1710 from Olathe, KS is excited to attend! We're ready to take the 13 hour drive down. Does anyone know where the pits will be located in regards to the field by chance?

The pits are adjacent and close to the field. A venue map with the pit assignments was sent to your lead contact with the event info.

[M. Mellott]

Team 3193, Falco Tech, is amped to be traveling down to Tennessee for the first time...looking forward to some hard-hitting action! It's an 8 hour drive for us, and thanks to our bus company (trying to charge us for an extra day if we leave too early), we'll be leaving at 12:01am Thursday morning...

[Cothron Theiss]

Hey everyone! I'm looking forward to competing at Smoky Mountains Regional this year. The link below is to a spreadsheet that contains some pre-scouting data for the teams that will be attending SMR and for the Regional in general. If you notice any mistakes or want to comment, please just reply in this thread.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing

As soon as results come out from Rocket City, I'll complete the spreadsheet and try and let teams have access to it.

Some interesting things to note about SMR this year:
It's regrettable to see that we only have 2 Rookies this year, but I am glad that one of them is a Nashville team. Knoxville and the surrounding area is very dense with FIRST teams, while Nashville (which is a much larger city) has only a handful. I hope that over the course of the next few years, we can start to see FIRST take off in Nashville the way it already has in Knoxville.
SMR has had a large influx of teams that have never competed at SMR, 11, counting the Rookie teams. Also, 16 of the 48 teams at SMR this year were not there for Recycle Rush. This means that the landscape of the Regional will be very different this year.
While local powerhouses such as 3824, 2393, 3140, 2614, and 4265 will be bringing robots that are as competitive as ever, there are some newcomers that will give the locals a run for their money. 1986, Team Titanium, took 1st seed and Regional Winner at Kansas City. The Roboteers, 2481, also were 1st seed and were the Regional Winners at Central Illinois. If these two teams get a chance to form an alliance, we may see some of the highest scores of the season. Some other teams new to SMR to look out for are 1785 and 3937.
Finally, SMR will be a more experienced Regional than ever this year. Almost 60% of the teams attending will have competed in at least one Regional, and at least a third of teams attending will have already seen play in the Elimination rounds. To sum all this up, Smoky Mountains Regional will be a very exciting, and very different Regional that I am very much looking forward to.

Go Full Metal Jackets!

[guniv]

For those of you staying downtown or plan on going downtown: please note that the Big Ears music festival will also be happening downtown this weekend. Parking may get hectic and some restaurants might be crowded. Knoxville has a wide selection though, so you should be able to find something, and the competition is at UT campus anyways.

Again, I'm happy to offer suggestions on things to do and places to eat around downtown if anyone's interested.

Looking forward to seeing all the teams!

[MrMARVINMan]

I know everyone at MARS is excited to come down to Knoxville! This will be our fourth time at the Smoky Mountains Regional, and we can’t wait to see all the regular teams again(and all the newcomers this year)! Plus, we’ve been hard at work gearing up for this competition – good luck to everyone competing!

[Rowley]

The stars aligned to bring Team 1912 Combustion to our first Smoky Mountains Regional and I'm looking forward to it. The trailer went up Sunday and the rest of the group is traveling tomorrow.

Say, is there a common hashtag for the event besides the #frctnkn on TBA? Just #tnfirst?

-- cdr

[guniv]

Originally Posted by Rowley

Say, is there a common hashtag for the event besides the #frctnkn on TBA? Just #tnfirst?

I don't think so. TNFIRST isn't really active on social media, and their @TN_FIRST account only pops back to life from time to time.

[M. Mellott]

Any suggestions on a "gotta-go-there" restaurant for dinner for us out-of-town teams...preferably one that can handle a party of 25, and preferably west of the venue?

[Rebecca Pelzer]

Originally Posted by M. Mellott

Any suggestions on a "gotta-go-there" restaurant for dinner for us out-of-town teams...preferably one that can handle a party of 25, and preferably west of the venue?

Big Ed's PIzza! Call ahead and make sure they can handle all of you at once, if you decide to go.

[guniv]

Originally Posted by M. Mellott

Any suggestions on a "gotta-go-there" restaurant for dinner for us out-of-town teams...preferably one that can handle a party of 25, and preferably west of the venue?

Big Ed's mentioned above is really far out in Oak Ridge - maybe 45mins from downtown. Out west, I'd recommend Tomatohead. I would really suggest trying downtown restaurants though, there are a lot of great places to eat (including the primary Tomatohead location). Out west is mostly chain restaurants. If you're from Ohio, there's also a lone LaRosas out west.

Downtown suggestions would be Tomatohead again, Barley's (both of those are pizza), or Cafe 4. They're a little pricey but they're also all great.

[Rohawk1]

Originally Posted by guniv

Downtown suggestions would be Tomatohead again, Barley's (both of those are pizza), or Cafe 4. They're a little pricey but they're also all great.

+1 For Barley's. They have Team Trivia tomorrow night at 8 and live music the rest of the week around 10pm if you're looking for great pizza and beer (for the mentors of course). Oh, and they have a game room upstairs with pool and old pinball machines (and more beer). Your bus driver might have a fun time parking though since it's downtown.

[guniv]

Originally Posted by Rohawk1

+1 For Barley's. They have Team Trivia tomorrow night at 8 and live music the rest of the week around 10pm if you're looking for great pizza and beer (for the mentors of course). Oh, and they have a game room upstairs with pool and old pinball machines (and more beer). Your bus driver might have a fun time parking though since it's downtown.

Yeah, I love Barley's and the trivia is fun. Buses could probably fit in the lot under i-40 next to it.

[ctt956]

Originally Posted by Rohawk1

+1 For Barley's. They have Team Trivia tomorrow night at 8 and live music the rest of the week around 10pm if you're looking for great pizza and beer (for the mentors of course). Oh, and they have a game room upstairs with pool and old pinball machines (and more beer). Your bus driver might have a fun time parking though since it's downtown.

Old pinball machines?! Awesome! Now I want to go there!! Any other interesting stuff in that game room? Anyone have a link to the webcast?

[Boltman]

Any webcast?