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

[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?

[K.Shaw]

Originally Posted by 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.

Ill say. At NJ though i think the Chicken was 6$ but the meadows def had cheaper food all around. As for the soda i didnt even notice it was that old lol but its not the end of the world it still tasted good because Mt. Dew never tastes bad!

[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....

[Tom Bottiglieri]

Originally Posted by 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....

actually, this was a good thing. No one was ever late for a match. Every match was on schedule. And even if you got nothing else out of this, you got an extra 10 minutes to strategize with allaince partners.

[MrToast]

Originally Posted by ToMMan b182

actually, this was a good thing. No one was ever late for a match. Every match was on schedule. And even if you got nothing else out of this, you got an extra 10 minutes to strategize with allaince partners.

Maybe that was a good thing for the drive team, but it means the pit crew loses 10 minutes to work on the robot....

[Heretic121]

you do have a point tom but Tom there was one time where we were in match 47 and 50... we need to change the battery, and reset the hook and tehter our arms back to starting position... SO... we had to run back and forth up and down the ramp to get 2 of our pit crew onto the stage to fix it... we also ran out the "interviews and guests only" door a few times because its convient to run out of to get to the pits rather the other way... LUCKILY... one of the 157 guys gave our pit crew member his badge which cause another problem!!! lol... the stage crew thought we had 5 members up (which we did but with one 157 badge) so we got yelled at for that too!!! UGH!!!

so then we had to find our 2 members of our team to give them back thier badges before match 49 ended to get on the field and find the 157 driver!!! so then i ran through the door again we aren't suppose to so i got yelled at for a good mintue plus and this was when they were starting to reset the field so i had to run back down and around the staging to get to the field and set up the robot, then was kind of yelled at to hurry up on the field =( oh well... i think there needs to be AT LEAST a 6 match diffrence between every match to at least give teams 1 match in the pits to reset and make the robot up and running for the next match... but thats scheduling so oh well =(

[MrToast]

Originally Posted by Heretic121

we had to run back and forth up and down the ramp to get 2 of our pit crew onto the stage to fix it... we also ran out the "interviews and guests only" door a few times because its convient to run out of to get to the pits rather the other way... LUCKILY... one of the 157 guys gave our pit crew member his badge which cause another problem!!! lol... the stage crew thought we had 5 members up (which we did but with one 157 badge) so we got yelled at for that too!!! UGH

Yes, that was horrible. I remember flipping out at Goulart (sp?) over that. We were running circles looking for eachother. I ran out the "VIP" door, just as he ran up the ramp, so then I ran up the ramp just as he ran out the "VIP" door... =P Yeah, more time would've been very nice. I also got yelled at by the door nazis...

[Jon K.]

I was helping que on Thursday becuase I was working with the student host program, they were just trying to get the teams up and ready so they didn't miss matches or get behind schedule becuase you would just be complaining about that anyways. Also if your drive team doesn't know how to basic maintenence on your bot that is your own fault not the que people, they had a job to do and they were just doing it, you also have to remember that these people are volunteering 3 days to help you out so watch what you say becuase the regionals are volunteer driven.

[Ericente]

Yeah, a few people from my team bought some ancient sodas, but I didn't buy anything in the meadows, so I don't know how the food they sold was. The food at the social wasn't too bad, though.

The entertainment at the social was awesome, but at both of the regionals I've been to (BAE and UTC) I was kinda disappointed that there wasn't much time for socialization between the teams. Before the comedian started, the Aztechs, team 1027, a couple members of Gael Force (I think), and possibly a few people from other teams had fun dancing up on stage together, but it would've been nice to have more socialization time. (BTW, I was the blue-haired hippie)

The meadows is a difficult venue for viewing the competition. It's kinda tough to have to try to look up at the stage to see the field. The Aztechs missed the aluminum temporary seating from the Verizon Wireless Arena at BAE because you can make a lot more noise on aluminum then cement . On friday, we had one of the longest conga lines I've ever seen, but it got a bit difficult on the stairs.

I thought that the competition itself was much better at UTC than BAE, though, because a lot of teams probably had been to BAE or NJ to practice before coming to UTC, and there were a lot of very good matches. In our first match of the day on friday, we won with the highest score I had ever seen until later in the UTC competition.

Overall, I thought UTC was awesome, apart from a few viewing/venue issues.

[Tom Schindler]

Originally Posted by 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....

In the meetings we had Wednesday night, and Thursday morning, we chose to have 4 matches in the queue, in addition to the current match that was playing. The design of the meadows, and the tricky ramps make it very risky to queue any less. If we only queued two or three matches, by the time your "second call" came around, you would already be on deck.

If you think hte cue-ers were nazis, i suppose you are entitled to your opinion, but remember they were just doing their job, and that they were volunteers. From what i saw of the direction of these folks, they were doing it with a friendly attitude and a smile.

Beyond that, i just wanted to say that the teams were incredible in being where they were supposed to be at the right time. You guys sure made my job, and the jobs of the queueing people a heck of a lot easier than it could have been.

As it has been said in a few other threads-- all the teams at UTC were awesome, very competitive, but also very gracious. You guys rule.

Tom Schindler

[K.Shaw]

hey life is life. you do what you are told and what you are told is usually for the better. Though it did become hectic it ran smoothly. the only big problem i saw was the conjestion in the pits with the spectators walking through and everyone else walking through the narrow paths

[Tanya237]

Originally Posted by Gabriel

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

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

It's alot better than $3 for warm water in NJ... Though, the coffee at the meadows, was definately not the best. I just wanted to wake up a little and to get some energy! We're lucky to have gotten what we did get.
(Also: The heat problem 237 encountered in NJ, wasn't there in UTC- so that made me happy. )