2017 - New England District Event Schedule

[Nathan Streeter]

Great to see the schedule released! As Chris said, thank you for all the volunteers who plan and schedule the events... it's not easy and takes a lot of time!

That said, I'd just like to raise a few concerns I have with the schedule...

1. Scheduling 8 of 10 districts for Saturday-Sunday
I realize many people prefer Saturday-Sunday events, but our team would appreciate more Friday-Saturday events (Pine Tree is the only one in 2017!). We'll be planning to attend WPI and Pine Tree, based exclusively off not competing on Sundays. It really seems like a 50/50 split (perhaps one F-S event and one S-S event per weekend?) would be ideal. Last year the tone that we heard with the 3 non-Sunday events was that "our hands were tied by other factors, our goal is a better balance in 2017." I'm curious if this was just some people trying to tell us what we want to hear or if a balance of F-S and S-S actually isn't a goal.

Also, I'm curious, what drove WPI to be Thursday-Friday again (I believe it was S-S last year, but R-F once before)?

2. Interesting geographic distribution
I felt like the geographic distribution in previous years was generally pretty equitable. Event density roughly followed team density, with a little preference towards the remote teams (as it should be, in my mind). Ideally, if there are too many events for teams, it's in an area pretty central to NE (pretty much means in Massachusetts). This year it definitely looks like the CT teams have the short end of the stick... two districts under-represent their teams (although the one in RI makes up for it somewhat) and the DCMP is also the furthest from CT that it's been to date. I like the idea of rotating the DCMP around, but I also wouldn't mind if it was just in a more central location each year (WPI or Boston, perhaps?).

3. Event timing (given location)
Having all 4 MA events in Weeks 2 and 3 is inconvenient for those teams. NH and CT are closer to being balanced.

4. DCMP Week 6
I'm not sure if this is good or bad (compared to Week 7). It's nice to have that break between the districts and CMP to reduce the likelihood of having back-to-back events, but at the same time, having more time before CMP will definitely be a plus... It's a lot harder to organize travel to CMP than to DCMP!

Back on the positives though, it is cool to see some new locations hosting districts... Bedford HS and Bridgewater-Raynham HS are both new locations, as far as I know.

I'm just quoting some of the other folks who I'm echoing:

Originally Posted by Chris is me

I'm sure this was the best that could be done with date and scheduling conflicts everywhere, and that lots of people worked hard to get us this, but like a lot of regions in the country this year, this isn't quite ideal. Every event in MA is within the span of two consecutive weeks. The two week 3 MA events are 20 minutes apart. NE Champs is week 6. Most teams iin the region this year will end up competing back to back in one way or another.

I'm also a little anxious about DCMP. The location isn't very central to the region, and I'm a bit worried about finding close hotel space. I've also heard some difficulties with UNH in the past - e.g. in 2015 they infamously didn't allow drilling or filing metal in the pits. I'm sure that particular issue is solved for this event, but it does raise some concerns.

Regardless, lots of great venues this year, and there seem to be multiple events local to almost anyone in NE, so that's good.

Originally Posted by Dan Petrovic

You should be. There really isn't that much hotel space within walking distance. Hartford isn't centrally located, either, so I'm glad that NE FIRST is still moving the championship location around.

I believe the issue here was that they needed to put ice down immediately after the event and having a lot of metal shavings on the floor would interfere with that. The college hockey season should be over by the time NEDCMP comes around, so I wouldn't worry too much about that.

Originally Posted by jwfoss

I appreciate the hard work that goes into the locations and plannings for the district events every year but I am more disappointed with the locations than any other year. Based on team density, CT only having two districts seems wrong. Last year the Springfield event made up for this by its close proximity. This year the closest non-CT events appear to be RI and WPI.

With that being said, 558 is excited for a new season and exploring our options for playing both inside and outside the district for the first time.

Originally Posted by jweston

Sorry to see no UMass Dartmouth this year. I know we'll be thinking long and hard about our options. Typically we like to do 3 district events that are well spaced. 5 weeks with NECMP on week 6 makes this tough. We'll see what shakes out.

[Jay O'Donnell]

I think DCMP in week 6 is the biggest good thing to come out of this. It'll give teams a little more breathing room for preparing their champs travel.

[Hitchhiker 42]

Originally Posted by Jay O'Donnell

I think DCMP in week 6 is the biggest good thing to come out of this. It'll give teams a little more breathing room for preparing their champs travel.

On the other hand, it gives less prep time for travel to DCMPs, especially for teams that qualify only after week 5.

[Connor McBride]

Originally Posted by Hitchhiker 42

On the other hand, it gives less prep time for travel to DCMPs, especially for teams that qualify only after week 5.

I'm a little torn on DCMP being a week 6.

1. With the lack of nearby hotels, finding one will be a pain.

2. With the extra week between DCMP and CMP, teams have more time to prep such as airfare (or bus), hotel arrangements, shipping the robot and their pit items (if they choose to do so).

[BrendanB]

Originally Posted by Connor McBride

I'm a little torn on DCMP being a week 6.

1. With the lack of nearby hotels, finding one will be a pain.

2. With the extra week between DCMP and CMP, teams have more time to prep such as airfare (or bus), hotel arrangements, shipping the robot and their pit items (if they choose to do so).

I think its a good move. Week 7 made it really difficult to arrange travel especially with airlines.

The benefit to having a short turn around for the DCMP is we are all familiar with New England and while finding close hotels isn't easy there are still plenty a little further away.

[TD78]

Originally Posted by BrendanB

I think its a good move. Week 7 made it really difficult to arrange travel especially with airlines.

The benefit to having a short turn around for the DCMP is we are all familiar with New England and while finding close hotels isn't easy there are still plenty a little further away.

Week 7 next year is Easter weekend too...it was definitely a good move to make DCMP week 6.

[rwodonnell]

Here's a map of the events (posted in another thread before I realized this one was created.)

[Nathan Streeter]

Originally Posted by rwodonnell

Here's a map of the events (posted in another thread before I realized this one was created.)

Thank you for sharing!

This pretty much confirms three things:

1. CT teams are definitely getting the short end of the stick.
2. Greater Boston teams are definitely "winning out" with ~5-7 events within approximately a one hour drive.
3. There's still a gaping hole of events (and dramatically fewer teams) in VT. The Pine Tree event and concerted effort by individuals and teams in Maine (Jamee Luce, 2648, and others...) helped spark a ton of Maine growth over the last 4 or 5 years... Something similar would be great in Vermont... but that's not easily carried out at all!!!

[Ty Tremblay]

Originally Posted by Nathan Streeter

1. CT teams are definitely getting the short end of the stick.
2. Greater Boston teams are definitely "winning out" with ~5-7 events within approximately a one hour drive.
3. There's still a gaping hole of events (and dramatically fewer teams) in VT. The Pine Tree event and concerted effort by individuals and teams in Maine (Jamee Luce, 2648, and others...) helped spark a ton of Maine growth over the last 4 or 5 years... Something similar would be great in Vermont... but that's not easily carried out at all!!!

The map looks pretty well distributed for me. The locations of districts are entirely dependent on the locations of venues capable of hosting a district (within the price model of a district) and those venues almost entirely exist in areas populated enough to warrant one. It looks like the density of teams and the locations of the venues follow the population density of NE pretty closely. It would make sense that most of the teams and most of the events are within an 1-2 hours of Boston.

I wouldn't call the lack of an event in VT a "gaping" hole. There are 4 teams on that map in VT and there were definitely more than 4 ME teams (even if you adjust for state / population size) before the Pine Tree event started.

[jweston]

Originally Posted by rwodonnell

Here's a map of the events (posted in another thread before I realized this one was created.)

I have a hunch that Waterbury and Hartford will be filled with CT teams after 2nd event selection, given that there are nearly 50 CT teams and UMass Dartmouth was popular with CT teams (CT accounted for 10 of 32 teams last year at MANDA).

Am I correct in remembering that a district event is typically restricted to 40 teams? I can't find confirmation of any kind of limit but that's my recall. Having been to a couple of 40 team district events, I can't imagine making it work for much more.

[Hitchhiker 42]

I agree that most of the distribution looks fine, but CT definetly needs another event (maybe towards the shore - New Haven would be great). Anyway, satisfied for this year. Good job NE! #weAreNE

[BrendanB]

Originally Posted by jweston

I have a hunch that Waterbury and Hartford will be filled with CT teams after 2nd event selection, given that there are nearly 50 CT teams and UMass Dartmouth was popular with CT teams (CT accounted for 10 of 32 teams last year at MANDA).

Am I correct in remembering that a district event is typically restricted to 40 teams? I can't find confirmation of any kind of limit but that's my recall. Having been to a couple of 40 team district events, I can't imagine making it work for much more.

Correct. Districts are capped at 40.

While Connecticut is in need of another event near them their two districts are centrally located for most teams and spread apart so attending both has a three weekend gap.

With the rotating DCMP we'll see events like Springfield in 2015 and Bedford this year, step in for a season and then disappear. Bedford is nice for teams in VT/Northern NH because it puts a second event slightly closer to them.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by BrendanB

Correct. Districts are capped at 40.

While Connecticut is in need of another event near them their two districts are centrally located for most teams and spread apart so attending both has a three weekend gap.

With the rotating DCMP we'll see events like Springfield in 2015 and Bedford this year, step in for a season and then disappear. Bedford is nice for teams in VT/Northern NH because it puts a second event slightly closer to them.

Partially Correct - Districts may be capped lower if the venue has restrictions.

[plnyyanks]

Originally Posted by jweston

Am I correct in remembering that a district event is typically restricted to 40 teams? I can't find confirmation of any kind of limit but that's my recall. Having been to a couple of 40 team district events, I can't imagine making it work for much more.

It's more of a practical cap: district events are typically held in smaller venues, which means there isn't acres of pit space available like at bigger events. And the district system requires that teams get 12 matches, and the finite number of hours in the day limits the number of matches that can be scheduled. Typically, these factors lend themselves to about 40 teams being the maximum a district event can sustain.

[electroken]

Originally Posted by jweston

Am I correct in remembering that a district event is typically restricted to 40 teams?

If I'm remembering correctly, Waterbury is a 32-team event. UMASS Dartmouth may have been even smaller.