Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?

[Brandon Zalinsky]

My first competition was probably the first ever Granite State Regional in 2003. My mom figured I'd be interested, since I had shown an interest in science and space for quite a while, and I just fell in love with it. 2003 was also the year that my team started, and since I joined in 2010, it has been a life-changing experience, with great friends and amazing times along the way.

[Karibou]

Pittsburgh 2008 for me. I think it's still my favorite event that I've competed at. I was a freshman, and most of the students on the team at the time were juniors (with maybe only two or three sophomores and three seniors). Since juniors had state testing the Wednesday we were supposed to leave for the event, we split our caravan into two groups based on who could leave when. As a result, I got put on pit crew as a freshman, and I stayed on pit crew through my senior year. We also made it to the semifinals at that event, which hasn't happened again up until this past season.

[Nemo]

My first regional as the new coach gave me a pretty abrupt picture of just how good some teams are. 2009 St. Louis regional, first qualifier match: allies with Team 71. Wow! Second qualifier match, facing Team 16. Wow! Seeing teams like that really makes an impression when you're new at this.

[Jay O'Donnell]

The first event that I attended was the 2010 Granite State Regional. The PVC Pirates were part of the alliance that ended up winning the whole thing. I joined the Pirates this year as a freshman and I'm so glad that I did. Watching how the team has changed from then to now is surreal to me. Other than that, the first event I watched was a video feed from the 2008 Granite state regional.

[ambie_o7]

Back when our team was team 1056, I went to the pacific nw regional at portland oregon. we totally sucked that time, and were so much in debt from that time on (that was in my froshie year) we wernt able to participate until this year!!! both of us (the only two remaining from that team in the school) are sooooooooooo glad to be back to the stress of FIRST... botball and HURC (underwater robotx) isnt the same kind of stress... its great!!!

gotta love chiefdelphi!

[mtaman02]

My First In-Season Event I attended as a Team Supporter was the the Inaugural NYC FIRST! Regional in '01 which was part of a school trip. But the First Event I participated in was the NYC Regional in '02.
My First Championship Event was in Orlando, FL (WDW) in '02
My First Off-Season Event I attended was at Connecticuts Bash at the Beach in '01

[Gregor]

Thread Revival Time?

My first FIRST event was an the TDSB East Toronto FLL qualifying event hosted by team 188 in December 2010.

My first FRC event was GTR East of this year.

My first travel event was the FLL North American Open in California, May 2011.

My first travel FRC event was IRI of this year.

[NaomiCS]

My first FIRST competition i attended was midwest regional 2012 (my freshman year) in UIC pavillion. I was pretty excited since i knew nothing about competitions. I walked around with 2 of my friends and we tried to start people cheering after alliance scelection with some other students from wildstang and from the two other teams on our alliance. Spending approzimately equal time in the pits and stands it was really inspiring for me

[Zebra_Fact_Man]

My first competition was the 2006 Ford Sweet Repeat held at OCC. We did terrible and didn't even make the playoffs, but I've been hooked ever since.

[Walter Deitzler]

First regional that I attended as a spectator: STL 2010. My sister's team (and my future team) were competing as rookies. They became the 5th seeded alliance captain and, along with 501 and 1448, made the semifinals, losing to the eventual champions.

First regional that I attended as a participant was STL 2011. 3397 played mediocre for their matches, but ended up getting picked by 1985 and 3284 as the 24th pick. When we ended up winning, and I have never been happier. I have become obsessed with FIRST ever since.

[jspatz1]

2007 St. Louis Regional. We were a new, small rookie team with little idea of what we were doing, and knew nothing about other FRC teams. There were some other teams there with some very funny names like Robowranglers, Thunder Chickens, Winnovation, Technokats, and Swart Dogs. Who were these teams and how good could they be with such goofy names? We learned.

[EricLeifermann]

First event was the Motorola Midwest regional in 2002, my freshman year of high school. I was sick and I mean sick, I spent the better part of 3 hours one day lying on the floor in the pits staring at the ceiling trying not to vomit or pass out from my fever. One match stands out when I think back to that event. My team at the time, 93, had to face Beatty 71 (those of you who don't know their bot from that year look it up, it lived up to their name of BEAST.). The pit crew had spent the entire time from our previous match in the pits changing out the gears in our gearbox to get faster and try and beat 71 to the goals in the middle of the field. Needles to say 3 second into the match their was a huge collision with us(93), the middle goal, and 71. 71 ended up getting stuck on the center goal and was unable to move the rest of the match. The roar of the crowd when this happened is something I have yet to hear again since. It was the most fun I've ever had at an event, even better than the ones I've won and wasn't sick at.

[RoboMom]

2002 NJ Regional in the hot old gym.

I was along as a parent chaperone.
The team won. My hearing and voice were shot for at least a day.

I had no clue what was coming.

[IndySam]

The first Boilermaker Regional in 2005. I had joined the team because my son wanted to join. I really had no idea what this whole thing was about until that event. Our bot was truly awful but after attending this event I knew it was a fundamentally good design that could have been so much better than it was.

I vowed to never let that happen again and I have been hooked ever since.

[NXTGeek]

The first FIRST competition I went to was actually a post-season scrimmage for lunacy at a local science museum, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. My best friend invited me, and I remember it being fun to take up all the duct tape holding the field together.
The FIRST official regional I participated in was an FLL regional event at a Western Digital HQ.