[WRRF]: It's back! Announcing 2006 California Robot Games!

[Ken Leung]

WRRF and Northern California FIRST Robotics Teams!

The 2006 Cal Games Planning Committee is thrilled to announce the return of the most anticipated Bay Area off-season robotics competition, the 2006 WRRF California Robot Games! Take out your calendar and mark this event down - you don't want to miss this opportunity to prepare your team for the 2007 season!

The When: Cal Games 2006-- weekend of October 27 and 28. Registration, inspection, field and pit setup on Friday; competition on Saturday.

The Where: Cal Games will be held in Pioneer High School at 1290 Blossom Hill Road, San Jose, CA.

The What: Cal Games 2006 will be a replay of the FIRST Robotics 2006 Aim High game.

We need your help! Cal Games is a community event, we need everyone in the Bay Area FIRST community to join the Cal Games Planning Committee to help put the competition together over the course of the summer! The Cal Games Planning Committee is open for all to join, whether you are a student or an adult. So think about what kind of event you want, what side events, what awards, what speakers, what displays, and come speak your mind at the summer meetings!

A NEW Registration process: This year's registration process includes a Tiered registration system on a first-come-first-served basis, with a $500 registration fee plus a $100 support deposit. The support deposit will be refunded after CalGames 2006 if that club puts in a significant amount of volunteer time, at the event. The set-up and take-down activities take a lot of willing bodies. So, plan to get the $100 back for your club by volunteering that day.

There will be a Cal Games kickoff meeting in June. Information regarding the meeting date, time, and location, will be sent out shortly. It is vital we obtain contact information for your team: send emails to Ken and Ceal below to confirm the email addresses we have for your team!

Inform everyone on your team about this event, and think about what you and your team can do to help. If you have any immediate questions, please feel free to make contact with:

Ceal Craig
Ceal at wrrf dot com
WRRF BOD Liaison

And

Ken Leung
Cal Games 2006 Manager
(PM or e-mail me through my profile)

[Ken Leung]

For those of you who hasn't seen Cal Games before, let's look back at some of the special moments we had in 03' and 04'.

The 4th annual California Robot Games, our first year at Woodside High school, featuring the 2003 Stack Attack. (Now you know the logo I've been working on to adapt to the new logo standard)


The playing field inside the main gym.


One of our side event that year: Sumo Wrestling!


Anyone recognize this dance?

[Michael Corsetto]

YIPEEEEE

I am so glad Cal Games are back this year. I remeber Cal Games from 2004 and that was a blast. I missied the 2003 event, and last year I was really bummed out when there were wasn't a Cal Games. The next closest off-season event was in San Diego. Kind of a treck for us Bay Area teams.

I'm glad it all came together this year and you can count on me going to as many of the planning meetings as possible. Should be a lot of fun and look forward to seeing everyone there!!!

Mike C.

[Ken Leung]

Flash back #2 from Cal Games 03' and 04'. (Boy, those were the days...)

That's me talking to the teams about schedule and traffic to and from the pit area.


Our team 217 guest MC from Michigan, Paul Copioli! Paul came out to help us out after I met him the 2nd time at IRI 03', and after he found out Mark Leon couldn't make it to our event that year. He was grrrreat!


WRRF volunteer of the year winner: Norma Hammes! She did a ton of work to help turn WRRF into a 501c3 organization that year. She is also "Mom of Bill and Jim Gold"! Notice how cool looking our Cal Games Awards are .

[Cory]

Originally Posted by Ken Leung

Notice how cool looking our Cal Games Awards are .

I've got to agree with this. I far prefer the Cal Games awards to the official FIRST awards. They're very cool.

[Ken Leung]

Flash back #3 from Cal Games 03' and 04'. (Has it really been 2 years since 04' already?!)

This is the Pit Area inside the Multi-Use-Room.




Our very own MC from the bay area, one of the greatest MC across the country, Mark Leon!




The 04' Cal Games featured FIRST's 2004 FIRST Frenzy: Raising the Bar! This was taken during a very exciting QF3.1 in the finals. By the way, who is that guy with the blue shirt in the back?

[Michael Corsetto]

Originally Posted by Ken Leung

The 04' Cal Games featured FIRST's 2004 FIRST Frenzy: Raising the Bar! This was taken during a very exciting QF3.1 in the finals. By the way, who is that guy with the blue shirt in the back?

You just had to choose the picture of us when we were flipped, didn't you.

Mike C.

[NoodleKnight]

Originally Posted by Ken Leung

I remember that match, it was one of the few times I got our robot with it's ghetto-rigged winch mechanism to actually hang. The judges were considering not giving us the extra points because of the little rubber "hairs" on our tires.

[Ken Leung]

Flash back #4 from Cal Games 03' and 04'. (I wonder which FIRST celebrities we will ask to come this year...)

The award ceremony after a long day of competition.



For those of you who guessed it, that's right! The guy in the blue shirt was Dan Green, our team 111 guest announcer who came all the way from Illinois when we needed an announcer! Dan's the man! He is one of the greatest announcer in FIRST!



Another FIRST celebrity who came to visit Cal Games 04'. Can you guess who he is? I will give you a few hints :

"He" has never lost a FIRST match he coached. Sometimes however he chooses not to win.
FIRST used a carpet-playingfield in 1993 because "he" ate the corn.
"He" used to be illegal in FIRST competition, per the exotic materials list.

[Koko Ed]

I guess this means there won't be any California teams comming to the Rah Cha Cha Ruckus.

[Cory]

Originally Posted by Ken Leung

"He" has never lost a FIRST match he coached. Sometimes however he chooses not to win.
FIRST used a carpet-playingfield in 1993 because "he" ate the corn.
"He" used to be illegal in FIRST competition, per the exotic materials list.

You made it way too easy, Ken. You can see Andy standing there right between Jason and Steve

[Ken Leung]

Important Cal Games Announcement: Event Details

Hi folks!

After months of planning and numerous meetings over the summer, we are finally ready to announce the details for our WRRF event of the year, the 6th Annual California Robot Games! So ready your robot, prepare your team, rally your school administrations, and talk to your friends, because we got a great show for you!

Where: The 6th Annual California Robot Games will be held in Pioneer High School at 1290 Blossom Hill Road, San Jose, CA. The playing field and the game will be held in the Main Gym (seat about 1000 people), and the pit area located in the Mini Gym (enough room for 30 teams).

When: Cal Games 2006 will be held on the weekend of October 27th and 28th. The setup process will begin evening of Thursday Oct. 26th until the evening of Friday Oct. 27th. Registration and inspection will begin Friday afternoon after 3pm until the morning of Saturday Oct. 28th right before qualifying rounds.

Here is the Event Schedule:

7:00am - 9:00am Registration and Inspection
9:00am - 1:00pm Qualifying Rounds
1:00pm - 1:30pm Lunch Break
1:30pm - 4:30pm Elimination Rounds
4:30pm - 5:00pm Awards Ceremony

Tear down and clean up will begin immediately after the awards ceremony until 7:30pm.

What: Cal Games 2006 will feature a replay of the FRC 2006 Aim High Game with currently 21 competing teams! Once again, our favorite Emcee, Mark Leon, will be returning to be our Master of Ceremony! There will also be demos presented by local FLL and Vex teams, and snacks and drinks at the concession.

The following teams are now registered and paid their entry fee, with 2 more teams waiting to register, so we got an exciting competition!

Currently registered teams: 100, 114, 115, 192, 254, 256, 581, 604, 670, 668, 766, 840, 841, 846, 852, 1072, 1120, 1280, 1351, 1458, 1516.


Finally, Cal Games 2006 will be featuring the following awards for the competing teams:

Champions of the 2006 Aim High Game
Finalists of the 2006 Aim High Game
Champion of the Autonomous Mode Challenge
Finalist of the Autonomous Mode Challenge
Safety Award
Gracious Professionalism Award

Plus two new awards for robots this year:
The Wacky Award
&
The Most Unusual use of KOP Award


So, we got a great show for you! Look forward to seeing you at Cal Games 2006! For volunteer opportunity, for more information about the event, or if you have any questions, please contact me @ wheres_kenny at hotmail dot com.

-Ken Leung
06' Cal Games Manager

[Billfred]

Mark Leon emceeing Cal Games? I always thought he'd do better at scorekeeping (for that is, after all, all about the math). (I can see it now: Some anomaly from NASA will delay my flight from Atlanta to San Francisco by, oh, a week and a half.)

I can't wait for Cal Games--ignoring the problems that come with flying with shampoo and toothpaste these days, it's gonna be great!
Don't worry, I will be using both while in California, even if it means (twitch) checking a bag.