UNC Asheville's Wild Ride

[ty.sayman]

Originally Posted by marshall

Yeah she is! Best FRC regional/district director ever!!!!

I'll pile in on this sentiment!
Marie does a fantastic job for NC.

[Monochron]

Originally Posted by PayneTrain

While all of this is true, I don't see why NC FIRST didn't try to push teams into the Asheville event by only running 3 districts and eliminating either Guilford, Wake or CU/JCC. There are not as many teams in Southwest VA as there are in Central VA, but a lot of us hoofed it out to the western part of the state for a travel play instead of relying on two district events in our metro area.

Hhm, yeah I'm not entirely sure. As a team located 20 minutes from Wake about an hour from both Guilford and CU, it sure it nice
There was an effort made to get more NC teams to Asheville though, Marie was in talks with teams after the registration process (likely when you were asked to move to Asheville) to help them attend as well. I'm not sure how successful it was, but I know that it was a situation that was actively being worked on.

[Jacob Paikoff]

Originally Posted by PayneTrain

While all of this is true, I don't see why NC FIRST didn't try to push teams into the Asheville event by only running 3 districts and eliminating either Guilford, Wake or CU/JCC. There are not as many teams in Southwest VA as there are in Central VA, but a lot of us hoofed it out to the western part of the state for a travel play instead of relying on two district events in our metro area.

I believe the original idea was to run 4 32 team events as opposed to 3 40 team events to both try to lessen travel for teams and spread the events out a little bit more. All the other NC events averaged 32 teams. A couple more third plays from NC teams and the number of teams in Asheville wouldn't have been a problem.

[bpw823]

Us at 238 enjoyed our break from the freezing clutches of NH, and loved the venue, the people, and the environment of the competition. Thanks to 422 and all other teams who put on a great challenge for everyone! We hope to come back next year!

[MikLast]

Originally Posted by wilsonmw04

We all know that certain teams are geographically isolated from the population centers in their districts.

basically any north Idaho team.

(we really want you guys over here)

[JohnM]

Here's a segment that Western North Carolina's biggest news station did for the UNCA competition.

http://wlos.com/community/carolina-m...nt-team-glitch

[Moretti]

Asheville definitely was a wild ride. There were a lot of close matches decided by really small details: One robot on an alliance who weakened the tower had one wheel on the carpet (so they didn't get an extra 30 points because of that), A high goal in the last 20 seconds decided a match, you get my point.
The 24 team list was definitely awkward during alliance selection, I talked with a team who purposefully went for a middle-ranking position so they didn't get one of the last picks. In the future, the playoff bracket should be reduced or more teams should be encouraged to join.

[Monochron]

Originally Posted by Moretti

In the future, the playoff bracket should be reduced or more teams should be encouraged to join.

More teams were encouraged to join, very much so. Fixing the issue here sadly isn't as simple as asking more teams to come out.

[marshall]

Originally Posted by Monochron

More teams were encouraged to join, very much so. Fixing the issue here sadly isn't as simple as asking more teams to come out.

Yeah... I think there were a lot of factors playing into it but I suspect next year that there is going to be a lot more inter-district play and the number of teams at NC's districts will increase.

[PayneTrain]

Originally Posted by marshall

Yeah... I think there were a lot of factors playing into it but I suspect next year that there is going to be a lot more inter-district play and the number of teams at NC's districts will increase.

We will be campaigning for more teams to play more. If we had more bandwidth at the mentor level, I'd love to compete in as many events as there are weeks in the season, as long as all of the events were as fun as NCASH.

[Dezion]

Originally Posted by OccamzRazor

Most teams will only do two events in NC. I know T-Rex is going to all of the NC events and we are going to 4/5 of them counting State Championships.

So far, we have played 48 matches. It has been great to attend every event, and I am very excited to attend two more! I guess I'll explain that first.
First, you get more interaction with teams. If you play all twelve of your matches, odds are you've probably played at least once with each other team. If not, you've definitely played against them. Sometimes, you'll play either with or against a team five times in a row... (1533) We even get to have interaction with teams throughout events, since we'll meet them every time they play. 3336 was an alliance partner with us at Guilford, but we played against them in the QF at Wake. It creates friendly rivalries and great partnerships between teams. It's also really amazing to keep up with teams throughout the season and see them modify and improve their robot or add new features.

Originally Posted by bpw823

Us at 238 enjoyed our break from the freezing clutches of NH, and loved the venue, the people, and the environment of the competition. Thanks to 422 and all other teams who put on a great challenge for everyone! We hope to come back next year!

It was great meeting all the out-of-state teams (at this event and the others). I hope you all had time to check out a bit of what Asheville looked like and take in a bit of North Carolina. Hope to see you again next year!

Originally Posted by JohnM

Here's a segment that Western North Carolina's biggest news station did for the UNCA competition.

http://wlos.com/community/carolina-m...nt-team-glitch

Really great that this competition got noticed! 5854 did amazing and are well deserving of the credit. It's great to see that you guys are improving your robot throughout competition season too!

Originally Posted by PayneTrain

1) Should there have been a full elimination bracket at this 24 team event? Why or why not?

As for this, I'll say yes. Like you pointed out, reformatting the bracket would devastate the amount of points earned. If FIRST ever did decide a way to reshape 24-team events, there must be serious consideration on how District Points would be gave. Since that didn't exist at this time, it was definitely best to continue with 8 alliance captains.

Also, the best fix is for more teams to be encouraged to register for this event. How, I'm not sure though.