Split Champs in '17 and '18

[Kevin Sevcik]

Originally Posted by Michael Corsetto

This is what they did in 2011 when 2 of the division fields were in the same area as the pits, right?

Looks like we might want to motorize our pit boxes in anticipation of the move...

-Mike

The good news is that it'd only be 16 teams that have to haul a robot and mobile pit across the street and down some ramps, once. As opposed to the entire Champs having to hoof it up ramps and down ramps for every match in 2003...

Originally Posted by Thad House

It was only 8 teams back then anyway that advanced (6 mains plus 2 backups). Plus the walk from the pits to the dome is for sure to be much shorter then the walk to a completely different building.

That probably depends on what end of GRB your division is. There's 2 blocks between GRB and Minute Maid, and GRB itself is 5 blocks long.

[serenagh]

Related question: what happens to the deans list? Do they have the finalists whose teams are competing in Houston come out to St. Louis? That's cost, in time and air fair. Do they hold the ceremonies/luncheons twice? Do all teams with a finalist get routed to the second competition?

[Knufire]

Originally Posted by Kevin Sevcik

There's 2 blocks between GRB and Minute Maid, and GRB itself is 5 blocks long.

I'm a bit more worried about Detroit. Cobo to Ford Field is about a mile walk through the heart of downtown.

[CalTran]

Originally Posted by serenagh

Related question: what happens to the deans list? Do they have the finalists whose teams are competing in Houston come out to St. Louis? That's cost, in time and air fair. Do they hold the ceremonies/luncheons twice? Do all teams with a finalist get routed to the second competition?

Assumedly they just double the number of winners, 20 at each.

[PayneTrain]

Originally Posted by Knufire

I'm a bit more worried about Detroit. Cobo to Ford Field is about a mile walk through the heart of downtown.

Does Don Bossi have a CDL?

[BotDesigner]

Do we know yet about what will happen to Einstein Field? Will both championships have Einstein or will one keep it and the other gets a new field name?

[Rangel]

Originally Posted by techtiger1

The Champions can meet at IRI.

That's a pretty big assumption considering many great teams don't go to IRI or at least every year. Just taking last year into consideration, 254, 359, 987, 368, 971, 1678, 1671 all didn't attend IRI last year. In fact only one member team 118 of last year's world champions attended IRI.

[Karthik]

Originally Posted by Kevin Sevcik

I'm unclear on division finals locations, but Einstein and Closing Ceremonies are to be in Minute Maid.

This actually sounds pretty cool.

[MechEng83]

Originally Posted by Rangel(kf7fdb)

That's a pretty big assumption considering many great teams don't go to IRI or at least every year. Just taking last year into consideration, 254, 359, 987, 368, 971, 1678, 1671 all didn't attend IRI last year. In fact only one member team 118 of last year's world champions attended IRI.

Last year wouldn't be a good year to judge this. Many teams made the decision that it wasn't worth traveling far for another round of Recycle Rush... Plus I believe several of those teams were doing an event in China. 2015 was the most "local" IRI's been in several years.

[protoserge]

Originally Posted by PayneTrain

Does Don Bossi have a CDL?

I'm not sure, but Dean has a pilot's license

[nikeairmancurry]

Originally Posted by Knufire

I'm a bit more worried about Detroit. Cobo to Ford Field is about a mile walk through the heart of downtown.

This is a very easy walk and pretty safe. Ive done it many times myself. It isn't much different than the old Atlanta walk from the furthermost hotels to Georgia-Dome (and its not uphill).

There are also options of the people mover (.4 mile from the stop to ford field) and the M1 rail that will help take walking out of the equation.

[Michael Corsetto]

Originally Posted by nikeairmancurry

This is a very easy walk and pretty safe. Ive done it many times myself. It isn't much different than the old Atlanta walk from the furthermost hotels to Georgia-Dome (and its not uphill).

There are also options of the people mover (.4 mile from the stop to ford field) and the M1 rail that will help take walking out of the equation.

Have you done that walk with your entire pit and robot?

-Mike

[IKE]

Originally Posted by Michael Corsetto

Have you done that walk with your entire pit and robot?

-Mike

They did block off a good chunk of the roads for Shells Ecomarthon last year around Cobo, and that was for 3 days.

[bdaroz]

Originally Posted by Kevin Sevcik

Champs webpage has better info:
2017 and Beyond

Highlights:
Champs will be on subsequent weekends, Houston then STL, Houston then Detroit. (First Champs, best Champs. (Also, poor Al, Jess, MCs, etc.))
This is the plan from 2017 - 2020.
No details on regional split or anything like that. One presumes FiM teams and others with DCMPs in Week 7 likely won't be heading to Houston Champs in Week 8. Maybe HQ is going to compress some of the regions schedules to get them into the Houston Champs.

I hadn't seen that page -- thanks.

(And side note - Why the Heck did they blur the FIRST logo on Don's shirt in the video!?)

I'm just hoping that a lot more information, especially location assignment/logistics gets released before fundraising for next season kicks into high gear. (I can see the conversation, "Well... Championship could be this week, or it could be the week after, in Detroit or Houston, and it could be bigger, or not, and we can't pre-reserve hotels because we don't know where we're going, so we'll probably have to spend more and....")

The more I think of it the hotel problem could be a real nightmare. If you get "assigned" a championship, do you try to hold a block of rooms in both cities until you find out? If the total # of teams in both championships is more than this year in St. Louis, doesn't this actually make hotels harder to find if many teams do this?

[PayneTrain]

Originally Posted by bdaroz

I hadn't seen that page -- thanks.

(And side note - Why the Heck did they blur the FIRST logo on Don's shirt in the video!?)

~BRANDING STANDARDS~

I'm anticipating an announcement sometime on Thursday, giving it timing similar to last year's well-received announcement.