2017 Greater Kansas City Regional

[Alpha Beta]

Today the GKC Regional filled to its initial capacity of 50 teams. Last year the pit-map had 60 slots on it, leaving one open pit for the 59 teams in attendance. I have no inside information on the actual cap for this year's event, but there are several regular attendees yet to register. (937, 2167, 2346, 2357, 5082, 5098, & 5968)

Summit Christian Academy has a team waitlisted for the local offseason event and may show up as a rookie team this year.

2 Teams who regularly attend KC made a different choice for their 1st registration. 1806, and 1939 are local perennial award winners who may try to join the waitlist during second registration.

Welcome back to Team Botman FRC 938. This is a team who attended two regionals in 2013, 2014 & 2015 before taking a break from FRC in 2016. Good to see them back.

One rookie registered thus far. FRC 6424 from Knob Noster, Missouri will come in with some experience, borrowing a bot to play in the Cow Town ThrowDown at the end of October.

CRyptonite FRC 624 is the only non KS/MO team at the event so far. I remember winning the Colorado regional in 2011 with this team on our alliance. The green hair and capes were great fun, and they brought an enthusiasm to the alliance that bonded everyone together. On top of that they build some amazing robots every year. Big fan of this team, and look forward to welcoming them to our neck of the woods.

[Ringo5tarr]

Great to see most of the familiar faces registered, I hope that SWAT(1806) and The Kuhniguts(1939) will be able to make it (Or maybe not, since both teams are probably better than us ), they're both staples for the regional for me and things wouldn't be the same with those bunny hats and SWATS... uh... Really good robot! I hope this event will be just as amazing as the last two I went to, (and maybe a couple new food trucks? Ehhhh?), I can't wait to see what Titanium will eventually wreck everyone with and how what massive oversight we'll make this year (jk, hopefully).

[rlowe61]

Aaron,

Thanks for the kind words. Funny that in 2011 my oldest was on Titanium and now that both boys are graduated, I'm still a mentor and will come visit you guys in the pits. Oh and both are planning on being at the regional, not sure which shirt Paul will wear, as he also mentored CTC Inspire last year.


Roger

[holygrail]

Unfortunately, the Kansas City Regional takes place during our Spring Break this year and we would just be missing too many of our leads and captains to make it work. Hopefully, 1939 will still have several of our team members at GKC as volunteers.

It was such a tough decision for us because we love the GKC Regional and consider it our home. We have attended every single GKC Regional until this year. We are hoping that we will still get to see some of you at the St. Louis Regional (which is finally not on the same week as GKC!) or at Midwest in Chicago (assuming we can get in).

On the good side, it will give us a chance to meet new teams and spread our Kuhnigit style around a little bit.

[Alpha Beta]

Originally Posted by holygrail

Unfortunately...

We'll miss you guys. Our team had to make a similar decision in 2015. My school still let me volunteer at the KC event (last minute orange hat), but it was oddly relaxing to be there without a team in the field.

Anxious to see where everyone ends up for their second event. Not as many options out there as there used to be without going back to back weekends.

[scottgoering]

Originally Posted by Alpha Beta

Today the GKC Regional filled to its initial capacity of 50 teams. Last year the pit-map had 60 slots on it, leaving one open pit for the 59 teams in attendance. I have no inside information on the actual cap for this year's event, but there are several regular attendees yet to register. (937, 2167, 2346, 2357, 5082, 5098, & 5968)

The regional is capped at 60 teams, just like last year. We wanted to include more, but we are simply out of space!

[langed]

We are a rookie team from Iowa and were wanting to attend the KC Regional but I see that it currently has a capacity of 0. What I am seeing in this thread is that there are still 10 or so spots available if we get on the waitlist today. Is that correct?

[Mark McLeod]

I'd suggest going on the waitlist immediately after 2nd Regional opening at noon today. That gives you your best chance of being high on the waitlist.
Then email the Regional Director to see what your chances of getting in off the waitlist are.

[Alpha Beta]

Originally Posted by langed

We are a rookie team from Iowa and were wanting to attend the KC Regional but I see that it currently has a capacity of 0. What I am seeing in this thread is that there are still 10 or so spots available if we get on the waitlist today. Is that correct?

Go for it. The regional has confirmed a hard cap of 60 teams. We currently have 53 registered. 2167, 2346, 5082, & 5968 are regular attendees that I expect to show up. Not sure if there are any other rookies lurking that the regional director is holding spots for. We are close to our limit, but Robert Dumler, the regional director, should know for sure.

FYI: The wait-list is not always first-on = first-off. Priority is a bit of a mystery, but I'll take a general stab at it.
1. Rookies looking for a 1st event.
2. Local teams who are still registering for a 1st event
3. Non-local teams registering for a 1st event.
4. Local teams who are registering for a 2nd event.
5. Non-local teams who bring something extra to the event (volunteers).
6. Other non-local teams looking for a 2nd event.
7. Teams looking for a 3rd event.

Sometimes it takes a while to get off of the wait-list because the regional director is waiting for priorities 1, 2 & 3 to fully exhaust themselves. Last year we didn't get off of the wait list until the middle of build season. But we had the assurance of the regional director that it would eventually happen. Trust the regional director.

[Bill Chapman]

I just wanted to let everyone know that the hotel across the parking lot from the venue is closed down. I drove there and it was boarded up. Alternative lodging will have to be found.

[Bkeeneykid]

Originally Posted by Bill Chapman

I just wanted to let everyone know that the hotel across the parking lot from the venue is closed down. I drove there and it was boarded up. Alternative lodging will have to be found.

Oh no! That was always super convenient, not just for lodging, but the Friday night team social was always a blast. Hope this awesome tradition can continue on somewhere else in walking distance...