Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?

[wtfsam_tha_man]

my first FIRST experience was when i was 11, in 2001, it was the Philadelphia regional and one of my mom's friends from church's son was competing, I remember that the power went out for a while and everyone did the maucharena on the field, it was great, and then 5 years later i'm on this brand new team in idaho, oh yeah, bowchicabowwow...FIRST kicks approximately 30 metric tons of butt!!!

[Athleticgirl389]

Oh man.... It was Brunswick Eruption... it's like first year I believe. My brother in Robotics and my dad took me. First thought: I WANNA DO THAT!!! And a few years later, here I am

[SPurekar]

My first FRC competition was Pittsburg in 2005. It was probably the best regional I’ve been to, even though we had some bad luck... We were picked by MOE (seeded 1st) an alliance partner for eliminations and were celebrating afterwards cause we were sure we’d definitely win the competition, when the judges realized there had been a mistake in the rankings and we had to redo alliance selections. We were picked the second time around by the seventh seeded team and lost early in eliminations. I don’t remember if MOE won, but we were really disappointed…

But I made a new friend from 365 out of it… and found a name for my new hammerhead shark (it’s a stuffed toy), so it was all good in the end.

~Smita

[mrs. p]

well, my FIRST competition was at KSC in 1999. Don't think we had our robot working until late Friday or maybe even Saturday. we weren't as pink as we are now but it was there. I still miss being in the rocket gardens and being able to watch a shuttle or rocket launch while at the competition. don't miss the lightning storms that pass through though.

[Kyle]

My First FIRST competition was Duel On The Delaware 1. It was great I remember the whole day and how much fun it was meeting new people and seeing the robots move around and do something, It was a day that I will never forget.

[Kyle A]

My first competition was the Buckeye Regional when i was in 7th grade. Our mentor does both lego and high school robotics so he took a bus of lego kids, so they could see what it was like. I didn't understand anything back then, but it was cool. My first event as a member of the team was the Maryland State fair competition. I didn't know anything then either but, I had fun, and i have continued to have fun at the FIRST events, and i have also l learned alot of useful skills.

[Jonathan Norris]

My first competition was the first ever Greater Toronto Regional in 2002, I was only in the seventh grade (12 years old) and my brother was on our team. It was my first competition, and our team's first and only regional win. I also went the next year when my brother was leading the team and we won our first and only chairman's award. Its funny to look back at the pictures and see myself on the field when we won chairmans, I really didn't know what it meant back then. Now that I think of it I have been to GTR every year... and the only regional in Canada I have missed is the Waterloo regional in 2005.

[gren737]

My first event was the 1995 Manchester Regional. It was at my highschool so everyone on the team had to be a volunteer. I got field reset, which is just about the sweetest job cuz you get to see all the matches.
I remember so much from it too...like Sunny D, grabbing the big 3 point ball, zipping up the middle ramp, deploying velcro outriggers (hrm..i wonder why there's a rule about velcro) and owning the goal and top scoring spot for the remainder of the match. ChAOS 131 was just as good, it was a shootout as to who was faster.

Our team only managed to launch one shot and we missed. That team later went on to become 238 the Cruisin Crusaders.

It was so different from what it is now. Drivers standing on a platform behind the goal, 2 milwaukee drill batteries powering the robot...battery charging station! back to back fields for non-stop action, and Woody as the emcee

And if I remember correctly a grand total of about 76 teams, not all attended Manchester, some just went straight to nationals.

[anna~marie]

FLL in fourth grade... and then GLR, I believe, that same year...
I found an essay I wrote about FLL when I was little. My friends shook their heads and said I was addicted young. My essay even mentioned HOT.

[Pavan Dave]

I didn't know FIRST even existed until after I joined the team and they explained everything. My first competition that I saw was when I volunteered at the Lone Star FLL Tournament and my first FIRST Robotics competition I attended was last season.

[Matt Gardner]

The first competition for everyone in our team will be Waterloo this year . We can't afford multiple competitions, but are also still hoping to attend the larger Toronto regionals so we can witness the full-scale FIRST experience, though. Hey, maybe we'll make it to the finals, then we'll REALLY see some FIRST madness...

[AustinSchuh]

I was field reset at the first Silicon Valley Competition held in NASA AMES Hanger One (1999?). I learned about the competition since my Dad workes at NASA, and they were looking for employees to help run the competition. We both volunteered, and I became hooked on robotics. That was in Fourth Grade. I started with FLL the year after, and I haven't looked back after over 19 seasons of robotics competitions.

[LightWaves1636]

2005 Colorado Regional would have been my first time to attend a FIRST event but I couldn't in the end because my family wanted to go to Texas. Last year I finally got to join the team(Team 1636 has a pre-requisite in oreder to join). My rookie year, I ended up being the Electronics Head and one of the drivers. The energy rush I felt when my first very first match began was so cool. Match after match I had more and more fun and seeing Gracious Professionaliam in action was very cool. I loved seeing how teams helped out other teams, that was the coolest( and a breath of fresh air because while I was in the marching band, that's another story). It's my senior year and I'm dissappointed I wasn't able to join Team 1636 in it's rookie year(my sophomore year) but I'm a part of it now and become one of the most crucial members. After my last year as a student, I really hope in planning to always volunteer and maybe mentor(depends on my schedule because I'm also helping out students learn about lighting in tech theatre).

[Lifelessimp]

2005 SVR. 192 didn't have a robot that year, but some of us went to the competition anyways. It was pretty cool. I remember seeing 114's swerve drive. It was freaking AWESOME. I think it was in their animation that year, too.

[Ken Loyd]

!998 Moffet Field San Jose, Calif.

WOW! Held in a blimp hanger at JPL. I think it was the first time I saw teams 330 and 254.

1998 EPCOT Nationals

WOW! WOW! Atlanta is nice but the early EPCOT's were fantastic!

Ken