Challenge to West Coast Teams for 05 Regionals

[Avarik]

Well we went to the canadian regional...and all I gotta say is we had a blast! Team 188 hosted us, making it more cost effective, and a lot more fun too. Yeah, we had to pay a good deal for shipping and airplane tickets, but it was well worth it.

We started off heading over to team 188's member's houses. They were hosting us, so 2 southern californian kids per canadian family that was willing to host (11 students and the teacher came alltogether). They took us sight seeing on wednesday. We went to Niagra falls, where a few of us saw snow for the first or second time in our lives (no joke!). After that, we went to the top of the CN tower, where one of our members conquered his fear of heights. We had dinner in the revolving tower, and then headed to the raptor vs. golden state game.

The next 3 days were the competitions. Our teams were very friendly with eachother, and we constantly went back and forth to see how the other was doing. We would help where we could, loan tools, and just hang out in the bit of spare time we had. Saturday, 188 ended up being 8th seed, and alliance 6. They turned down an invite from a higher seed, and ended up picking us as their first alliance partner! We went on to the quarter-finals with our alliance, and sadly lost to the winning regional alliance in the tiebreaker. Unfortunatly, our robot's arm broke, as did 188's hanging mechanism. However, 188 won a few awards! They won the sportsmanship award, well deserved! They also won the website award for the second time this year, and I hope they can take it home at nationals. Their mentor, Mr. Anderson, won the Woodie Flowers award as well, and from what I saw, nobody would be more deserving.

We headed out to dinner with 188 that night and had a pretty good time there. Sunday they took us shopping at the Eaton Center, and we hung around with a few of their team members. Monday they took us to school with them, and beside the below freezing weather, it was fun. Our school systems are actually different in a lot of ways, so it was interesting to see how.

All in all, we had a blast! We could not have come up there without 188's support and help. They opened up their homes to us, and made sure we had a good time. We ended up in talks of a rotational system, where they would come the next year, then we would go to Canada the year after, etc. I cannot thank 188 enough for all of their help. As you can see, we stuck together and actually became good friends with their members.

I hope other teams take this lead and begin the hosting process, because it takes the cost of hotels out of the factor, enables some sightseeing, and makes the experience better alltogether.

[J Flex 188]

I am already counting down the days until we can visit Team 22 in California next year. Adding onto what avarik said, which was a fantastic and really humbling post, we were EXTREMELY glad to be able to host Team 22. When the first few people signed up for hosting we were not exactly sure what we were getting into. Yet right from the first night when we picked them up at school, it became clear just how great this experience was going to be. Forget about staying at the same hotel at a regional competition, the same houses, strategy and scouting meetings with two teams there, it was just a unique and truly wonderful experience that Team 188 enjoyed as much as Team 22 did coming over here. The culture at times is so different from the United States' and then at times so similar. (Milk in a bag versus our own 5-6ft high lockers, combined science and math courses in grades 9 and 10, the fact that we refer to grades 9 and 10 instead of freshman/sophomore). This goes beyond robotics as well! Take into account all the exchange and work placement programs you have heard about at school, add a dash of FIRST robotics and gracious professionalism, and you have the International Robotics Exchange Program, truly something that exemplifies the spirit of FIRST.

[sanddrag]

I don't know if y'all would like us playing out east - we would win too much. j/k We would love to but money is always an issue. Anyway, we might meet the challenge by heading out to IRI this summer. It depends on how many people on our team are going to be in the country at that time, I can only count on about 4 right now including myself. Then of those people, how many could actually go. It might just me me, my tools, and the robot. LOL! Anyway, we are planing on our first ever Championship event for next year. Its about time, we will be a 5th year team.