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Unread 04-03-2007, 16:34
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Re: What to Expect at Nationals

I'm just writing thoughts as I think of them as my timelapse video of the pits->field tunnel uploads to youtube.

Make sure you bring good shoes. The walk from the pits to the field can take a about 5-10 minutes one way, and if you do the round trip for every match, that adds to a substantial amount of distance in one day. If you're staying in the pits to work on the robot, you'll be standing for all the time you aren't walking or watching your 2 minute match. By the end of the first day, my feet were just destroyed, and I'm an athletic guy.
Edit: Measured it on google earth. You can expect to walk a half-mile from the middle of the GWCC to the furthest quarter of the Georgiadome. So if you return to the pits after each match, that's a full mile per match.

Bring some decent food in a backpack if you're into that kind of thing, because subsisting on hotdogs and food-court fast food for 3 days isn't fun.

Bring all your nerdy toys. People were in awe of my powerball all weekend. I lost count of how many strangers asked me what it was. Also, if you're just watching or are media, there'll be plenty of time to waste.

For the love of Dean, get into the stands for the einstein matches early, and try to get on the lower level. They fill up very fast once they open. Last year they had balloons full of confetti for the chairman's award winner that quite badly blocked the view from the upper stands. Don't try to keep your team together for the einstein matches, because you probably won't be able to and you're going to waste valuable potential seats while you search in vain for a contiguous block of seats.

In contrast, seats are plentiful around the individual fields. Spread out and get comfortable. We hung a canadian flag from the 2nd level somehow (possibly through rule-breaking, I wasn't there for its hanging), and that was a good marker so you knew which tier of seats to head down when you were walking around the outside.

Remember to use your media pass! We had ours for 2 days before we realized that nobody was using it, and I finally got to go down onto the field.


Make sure you save some camcorder space and batteries for the fireworks on Saturday. I've never seen a better show in my life, and don't really expect to see another one like it. No one will believe how good they were unless you have video to show them. It's kind of surreal seeing central Atlanta covered in firework smoke in between the skyscrapers.

Sign up early and often for time on the practice fields. There aren't many, and there are LOTS of teams that want to use them. There are no power outlets near the practice field, so if you want to change programs while on the practice field, make sure that your laptop has a decent battery. The practice fields will be (or at least were last year) fully operational competition fields, not wooden mockups like at regionals I've been to.

Buy a tshirt/souvenir, even if you're feeling cheap that particular day. You may never be back.

It may be too late for this, but make sure that your team has distinctive teamwear. With 300 teams there, navy blue or black with some writing on it doesn't really cut it when you're trying to pick your friends out from the crowd. Our team actually got an entire new set of tshirts for Atlanta because we could never find each other in the stands at GTR. Also make sure that everyone is wearing their stuff. It's much easier to pick someone out across the dome if you're looking for a known shirt rather than a known face.

The weather was a gorgeous 20 degrees celcius (low 80s fahrenheit? I don't know) when I was there in 2006, and I don't remember any rain during the competition. MARTA was pretty straightforward to use from the airport.

This video is taking forever, so I'll stop here and edit it in later.

Last edited by Bongle : 04-03-2007 at 16:41.
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