Predictions Week 6: Damaged Defenses

[The other Gabe]

Originally Posted by MikLast

If the info i heard is correct, it wont be next year, but back in Cheney. Better make it count. Good luck to all teams this weekend!

my guess is that they'll cycle it... 1 year in Portland, 1 year in Cheney, ad infinitum. probably so that sometimes the teams in the south get a short trip, and so that sometimes everyone has to drive really far - I mean, so that sometimes the teams in the north get a short trip

[Rangel(kf7fdb)]

Watch out for 3944 at Arizona West this weekend. Last year division winner and Arizona East winner. They are likely to come back even stronger for this year.

[Donut]

Originally Posted by Rangel(kf7fdb)

Watch out for 3944 at Arizona West this weekend. Last year division winner and Arizona East winner. They are likely to come back even stronger for this year.

They certainly had an interesting looking frame design during robot load in today.

Also a shout for 167 getting their first mention by LF at North Star! Glad to see the team continuing to build on the competitive trajectory we started back in 2012.

[Tom Bottiglieri]

I'm really excited for this year's SVR. There are so many great teams from the Bay Area and all over Northern California coming in. Should be one for the ages.

[MikLast]

Originally Posted by The other Gabe

my guess is that they'll cycle it... 1 year in Portland, 1 year in Cheney, ad infinitum. probably so that sometimes the teams in the south get a short trip, and so that sometimes everyone has to drive really far - I mean, so that sometimes the teams in the north get a short trip

I thought we were talking about districts, not Worlds!

The reasoning behind it (if i remember correctly) is to help the presence of teams in eastern Washington and Oregon grow (and if Idaho ever joined too north Idaho) as there is about 35ish teams in eastern Washington and Oregon. Compared to Seattle and Portland, we are a small minority of teams that are also hurting for money (as maybe 1/4 of the teams are community teams of some sort) as some barley afford to even pay the registration fee (and some were really ticked off about the "paying for DCMP even if you are not going" system this year.) While it is a pain for many teams over on the western side, without some big events being hosted here, a lot of teams in eastern Washington and Oregon will fail, leaving even less teams out here than they already are, and would leave a huge chunk geographically of the PNW district "Dead in the water" with only the schools with huge budgets to throw money at stuff surviving.

Its also great for us because it means no 8 hour drive every other year

[rsisk]

Captains in the North- 1165, 1492, 2493, 4183

Well shiver me timbers... that's never happened before

[Mr V]

Originally Posted by The other Gabe

my guess is that they'll cycle it... 1 year in Portland, 1 year in Cheney, ad infinitum. probably so that sometimes the teams in the south get a short trip, and so that sometimes everyone has to drive really far - I mean, so that sometimes the teams in the north get a short trip

Originally Posted by MikLast

I thought we were talking about districts, not Worlds!

The reasoning behind it (if i remember correctly) is to help the presence of teams in eastern Washington and Oregon grow (and if Idaho ever joined too north Idaho) as there is about 35ish teams in eastern Washington and Oregon. Compared to Seattle and Portland, we are a small minority of teams that are also hurting for money (as maybe 1/4 of the teams are community teams of some sort) as some barley afford to even pay the registration fee (and some were really ticked off about the "paying for DCMP even if you are not going" system this year.) While it is a pain for many teams over on the western side, without some big events being hosted here, a lot of teams in eastern Washington and Oregon will fail, leaving even less teams out here than they already are, and would leave a huge chunk geographically of the PNW district "Dead in the water" with only the schools with huge budgets to throw money at stuff surviving.

Its also great for us because it means no 8 hour drive every other year

Portland definitely is not the "rightful home to the PNW DCMP". From the get go it was always intended to move around the area. The reasons it was in Portland the first year was because the previous Portland RD had already reserved the venue and it was possible to move the date w/o penalty while a cancellation could cause a penalty and it could jeopardize the use of it in future years.

If any place could be called the rightful home to the PNW DCMP would be Seattle. It is the largest city in the district's boundaries and W. WA is home to about 1/2 of the teams in the district. Unfortunately it is also the most expensive area in the district. The venue used in the past would cost almost as much as 9 or 10 District Events as well as DCMP. It also has the most expensive hotels if you want something relatively near the venue.

So yes it will continue to rotate around the region and Portland will probably be used in even years while Cheney will be likely for most of the odd years. If a good deal can be made then we might see a DCMP in Seattle every once in a while and CWU is not out of the question for DCMP either.

[Dunngeon]

I'm extremely excited to watch SVR this year. Alongside Waterloo, SVR will be one of the most competitive regionals in Elims.

Originally Posted by Mr V

Portland definitely is not the "rightful home for the PNW"

If any place could be called the rightful home to the PNW DCMP would be Seattle. It is the largest city in the district's boundaries and W. WA is home to about 1/2 of the teams in the district. Unfortunately it is also the most expensive area in the district. The venue used in the past would cost almost as much as 9 or 10 District Events as well as DCMP. It also has the most expensive hotels if you want something relatively near the venue.

So yes it will continue to rotate around the region and Portland will probably be used in even years while Cheney will be likely for most of the odd years. If a good deal can be made then we might see a DCMP in Seattle every once in a while and CWU is not out of the question for DCMP either.

I understand why FIRSTWA wants to move it around for symbolic reasons, but I honestly thought Cheney was a terrible venue since it was a far extreme of the district boundary. This meant the vast majority of teams needed to travel as far as they did for Portland, or further. Portland is more centrally located, for Seattle region teams the drives are very similar. Also, the Portland venue has much more to offer in terms of food nearby, local amenities, and potential partnerships with tech firms in the area. Cheney is... a 30 minute drive from Spokane, and has limited access to hotels and food in the immediate area.

If you're going to use the argument that Seattle is the rightful home because 1/2 of the teams are in WA. I could equally as well make the claim that Portland is the rightful home because 1/2 of the teams are in Oregon AND Portland is a significantly cheaper location for most parties.

I digress. There isn't a rightful home, but out of the two venues DCMP has been held at, Portland makes a lot more sense.

Im not in the PNW district any more, but I'd prefer to see CWU over EWU just due to location. Although a quick search for hotels indicates that CWU may not have sufficient infrastructure to support 64 teams plus volunteers.


I'll stop derailing the thread now

[Thad House]

My biggest problem with Cheney wasn't the drive. My biggest problem is that it was one of the worst venues I'd ever been to dor an FRC event. The janitorial and school staff definitely was not prepared for an event of that scale, and it clearly showed. It seemed that when FIRSTWA decided they wanted to do a cheeper district championship, they went all out on making it as cheep as possible and it showed. District Championships is supposed to be the big show, however it definitely did not have that feel, and honestly felt like a worse run regular district event then a championship. It's location relative to the city was definitely bad too just like Ryan said above. It's too far away from the city to actually be a viable venue, especially for what is supposed to be the big show.