Shipping from Regional to Championship?

[Ricky Q.]

Originally Posted by chakorules

I have a question for the veteran teams.

Occording to the rules, a robot must ship from event to event. What if we don't know if we are going to the championship event? Must we be prepared to ship our robot from regional to championship if we was to win the regional?

Has anyone been in the situation before? Win a regional and now must think about going to the championship along with all the logistics of getting the robot there and the team?

Are the regional champions required to ship the robot direct from regional to championship in Atlanta according to the rules?

This happened to us last year after winning the Midwest Regional. We as a team had decided at the beginning of the season that since we had not prequalified to attend the championship that our goal was to win a regional and get there. We succeeded and there was no debate over the decision, after heading back to the pits from the field after the finals I celebrated by going over to the shipping desk and taking care of the logistics. Cost should not be an issue for shipping unless your crate is overweight because FedEx pays for a robot to goto the a regional and the championship.

We called FIRST on the Monday after the event and registered and worked out payment details.

The logistics of getting an entire team there is a different story, it was a struggle but we managed to fundraise and secure our reservations and all that and have a great time.

I suggest that you make the descision ahead of time. If you decide to go if you win, start securing some funds now and putting together plans slowly. If you don't win then you have a head start for next year.

[Stephen Kowski]

Last year we won @ Peachtree.....we had the airbills with us because we knew that if we qualified we would definitely be going....our alliance won the regional and we shipped it straight to the drayage location for the championship...

whatever you do if you WISH TO ATTEND IF YOU QUALIFY.....DO NOT SEND YOUR ROBOT BACK TO YOUR SCHOOL/SPONSOR or you will end up like the guys in the pit station next to us with no robot....ppl from all over pitched in and they got a robot built and ready for competition in about 1 day but that is probably not the best route.....

Just be prepared in the event you qualify....bring the shipping info with ya...