UTC Regional (NOT competition results) (Thoughts - Suggestions - Improvements)

[Mike Persico]

I have to say that I enjoyed the whole thing... the pits though I agree were packed (although i am thankfull they werent outside, like that one year with the flodding in the tents) and it was hard sometimes to get the robots to the staging area... the food was great... but the line... it might have helped if the caterers set up on different ends of the theater..but everything else was great.

[BoyWithCape195]

1. The speed from match to match was excellent. Also the announcers, in my opinion where much better then a few of theother regionals. Everything happend on time, and if it didn't, we were ahead!

2. The team social was great this year. The only porblems i had with this was the following: Not a varity of food like in previous years. Also there was only one line. At lkast year there was four lines total and it was buffet side. The only other problem was, teams didnt really get a chance to "socialize" since everyone was sitting in their own area. Besides that the comedian and the hypnotist where great.

3. The seating was alot more team friendly. Many teams decorated their seating areas and their boxes. Also when you walk through the center aisles, teams would hand you buttons from their team and many other things such as that. The feild was still a pain to see, but the video helped alot. The only thing about that was, there was not much camera to team acction, as in teams in stands cheering on camera. The pit congestion was also a problem, but that can be easily fixed.

4. I have one main improvment. Show a list on the screen while alliance selections are going on with the teams that are already allianced, and the teams who havnt been picked yet. This would have cleared up many problems that happened while on stage and the teams that were forgotten. Get better food selection for the social. Thats all.

[Brian(1)]

1) It was very awesome..
2) This years social was a lot better then last years
3) I would like to see a camera mounted somewhere on the field - like under the balls, or from the projector
4)I would have liked more of the screens displaying the scores in the stands.
Maybe turn the music down a bit.. it was hard to talk to people next to you if you were anywhere near the speakers

[Gabriel]

Traffic control was actually pretty impressive this year. I know that the Meadows people put a lot of pressure on the volunteers to make sure the aisles are clear and the volunteers than put that pressure on the teams to move quickly. The volunteers doing traffic control were occasionally nasty, but they were very effective, this was a lot better than in past years.

However, I think FIRST needs to get out of the Meadows, its a terrible site for the competition, the pits are cramped and having the playing field on a raised stage just doesn't work. I wish we could get the civic center of Gampel pavilion at UCONN but I think the NCAA gets preference over those sites. At least its better than the New Haven Colliseum where they won't let you move a table but the meadows is a lousy site.

[Gabriel]

Oh and the Meadows vendors were terrible! $2.00 for a Mountain Dew that expired in 2001!?

[Brian(1)]

Originally Posted by Gabriel

Oh and the Meadows vendors were terrible! $2.00 for a Mountain Dew that expired in 2001!?

Yea, I got a pepsi that expired in 2001.. but I didn't notice until I finished it, so I couldn't do much.. but I did check the other sodas I got after that..
I remember getting an expired one last year, so this wasn't a one time thing

[Mike Persico]

Originally Posted by Brian(1)

Yea, I got a pepsi that expired in 2001.. but I didn't notice until I finished it, so I couldn't do much.. but I did check the other sodas I got after that..
I remember getting an expired one last year, so this wasn't a one time thing

I didn't bother to check... but I'm not dying so I'll asume the sodas were fine... I hope...

[kid robusto]

with the congestion in the pits, they should do like what they did 4 yearsago, and just move some of the teams outside (under tents). anyone who was there should remember the flooding, but that was the rains fault,not the set up. pits half outside made a lot of room for people and robots to move around in

[cybrsabr]

Originally Posted by kid robusto

with the congestion in the pits, they should do like what they did 4 yearsago, and just move some of the teams outside (under tents). anyone who was there should remember the flooding, but that was the rains fault,not the set up. pits half outside made a lot of room for people and robots to move around in

I remember that, it was quite nice. Not only was there plenty of room to move around when walking through and looking at other robots, the pits weren't squished together. We had a little more room to spread out. I dont remember flooding exactly, more of just the ground was a little damp. You wouldnt want to throw your coat on the ground but it wasnt a problem for most of the equipment used in the pits.

Edit: and on another note i kinda thought the music wasnt loud enough.

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by Gabriel

Oh and the Meadows vendors were terrible! $2.00 for a Mountain Dew that expired in 2001!?

In NJ we paid 4.50 for sodas that were very watered down with ice. Be glad that you got a good deal.

Originally Posted by cybrsabr

I remember that, it was quite nice. Not only was there plenty of room to move around when walking through and looking at other robots, the pits weren't squished together. We had a little more room to spread out. I dont remember flooding exactly, more of just the ground was a little damp. You wouldnt want to throw your coat on the ground but it wasnt a problem for most of the equipment used in the pits.

And all I have to say to you is, ARE YOU INSANE?? You were obviously not one of the teams that had to camp out in the flooded pits all weekend long like some of us had to. Some teams like 236 were relocated because of the water puddles in their pits. Water and robots do not go very well together in a FIRST environment.

That set-up totally sucked. Tell you what, if you want to have your pits outside next year, we can arrange for that. But as for my team, we are staying in the lobby. (even though it was pretty warm in there compared to the stands) But better than 2001 in the flooded pits.

I remember we had signs in the doorways that said "Welcome to Florida" when going into the lobby, and "Welcome to CT" going into the tents....

[cybrsabr]

we were positioned outside that year. maybe we didnt have a problem because we werent far from the door, only about 20 ft outside i would say. also are robot wasnt very tall so we kept it up on the cart, so no problems there. i didnt realize other teams had problems, oops.

[MrToast]

My suggestion:

The cue-ers were nazis! Why were they cueing robots 5 matches in advance? That means that at any given time, more than 52% of all the robots there were on stage! Ridiculous! IMHO, you don't need to cue more than 3 matches ahead....

[KathieK]

Apparently the "Best if Used By" dates are an indication of quality, not food safety. I am annoyed that they were continuing to sell the outdated soda even on Saturday, after being alerted to it on Thursday and Friday. But that is a vendor issue, not a FIRST issue.

And the food was reasonable in price compared to other regionals.

[teno121]

A 3.25 chicken basket was definately a better deal than BAE's 8.00 chicken baskets were, but the quality was a little worse. Both sodas I got were from 2003 also. Oh well, I'm alive.

[kid robusto]

the flooding was pretty bad on one of the days, and the team party was great. where you there till the end for the wet t-shirt part?