What happens to the 2016 game pieces?

[AriMindell]

I am going to be head of programming on my team next year, and I wanted to start preparing by overhauling our 2016 robot code. As any coder knows, it's impossible to write successful code without testing, and in order to test, it would be helpful for me to have some of the real game elements to play with. I figured, what could FIRST possibly need the game pieces for, now that the season is over?
I know that full fields are available for rental from AndyMark for off season events, but I am more interested in having just a defense base and a few defenses to play with. Is it possible to purchase the previous season's game Elements? If so, how would I go about doing so?

[Tyler_Kaplan]

You should have talked to the people running world's yesterday, there's a chance they might have let you have a couple. Except the portucullis, they're apparently destroying those.

[PVCMike]

FIRST rents/loans the fields for offseason competitions and events. Maybe when the new game next year is released they'll dispose of them but otherwise I imagine they'll be hanging on to them for a while

[ObeyQuietKoala]

Originally Posted by Tyler_Kaplan

You should have talked to the people running world's yesterday, there's a chance they might have let you have a couple. Except the portucullis, they're apparently destroying those.

3546 will destroy all of the portcullis's.

[protoserge]

Too many hands were almost lost (literally) to improper portcullis disassembly. I approve of complete annihilation.

As far as game pieces go, you may be able to arrange something with the STEMAction center in Columbia. That is where all of the boulders from the CHS 1 field field went. There may be some mockups of the defenses still assembled, but I do not know for how long.

[Sperkowsky]

Originally Posted by protoserge

Too many hands were almost lost (literally) to improper portcullis disassembly. I approve of complete annihilation.

As far as game pieces go, you may be able to arrange something with the STEMAction center in Columbia. That is where all of the boulders from the CHS 1 field field went. There may be some mockups of the defenses still assembled, but I do not know for how long.

The person leading field reset on the Newton Field was the reason for the caution pinch zone signs on the portcullis.

[plnyyanks]

You'll be more likely to obtain used boulders than the defenses, I think.

The defenses all get shipped back to FIRST (although you can contact HQ and see what they're doing with them - it can't hurt to ask). I think the districts have only a few weeks (?) before FIRST is expecting the game specifics back, unless they've agreed to keep a set for offseason events, so you may have some luck if you move quickly.

At regionals, they were instructed to keep used game pieces with the truck for the season. Which means there were all given away in St. Louis or headed back to New Hampshire now. I don't know of any specific instructions given to districts regarding their game pieces, you might have some luck following up on Tim's lead.

[Koko Ed]

I'm more interested what's going to happen to the field standards. I saw them spirited away off the stage at the end of the event.

[protoserge]

Originally Posted by Sperkowsky

The person leading field reset on the Newton Field was the reason for the caution pinch zone signs on the portcullis.

There were a few people who got their fingers crushed this season in the portcullis.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by ObeyQuietKoala

3546 will destroy all of the portcullis's.

Gotta leave one for 4276.

I suspect you'll see why in a week or two...

[Karibou]

Originally Posted by protoserge

There were a few people who got their fingers crushed this season in the portcullis.

Portcullis victim checking in. Had my fingernail ripped out and fractured two fingers during teardown of a week 5 district. 2.5 hours in the ER on a Sunday night. I've got about two weeks of recovery left on the fractures, and my fingernail should be fully regrown in about two months. The good news is, at least I'm up to date on my tetanus shot now!

Originally Posted by Sperkowsky

The person leading field reset on the Newton Field was the reason for the caution pinch zone signs on the portcullis.

I don't think there was any one incident that singlehandedly caused those signs to appear (I first saw them Week 7 at MAR Champs). What I found most shocking was the amount of "Someone hurt themselves at my event too!" comments I received when I posted the above picture on Facebook. Considering I did that at a week 5 event, I was appalled that so many other people had been injured and nothing was done about it until week 7 other than "wear gloves and use a ratchet strap to keep the portcullis open when removing the springs!", which was what the response was after week 5. Granted, I haven't heard of anyone else who had their fingernail ripped off before me, but fractures/breaks are bad enough and IMO there should have been more proactive preventative action after the first incident.

Good riddance to those things.