2007 Waterloo Regional feedback

[bilal1219]

Good Day Everyone,

We Team 1219 went to Waetrloo this year. It was the best reagional i ever saw interms of less teams and more fun and more matches to play. Even though our results were surpurising this year because we lost some of the grade 12 students and our mentors and it was a student build robot. Apart from this more than 80%students were from grade 10 and there were 2 grade 11 and 2 from grade 12. so we were the senoir people staying late nights. and in addition ur mechanical team made up of grade 10 students had no idea about how everything works and their pros and cons. In total we had 40-45 students last year and 15-20 students this year.Interms of matches, I would say FIRST needs to work on their algorithim. I saw a team playing with 1114 5times and some teams playing against them 5 teams.So my point is a team should get to play most of the teams in the 11 alloted matches.
Our team social was also good. Although we never participated in vex Competetion. We had dinner and made some new good friends.
I hope to come back next year for Waterloo 2008.
So i hope next year we Have a Good season since its gonna be my last year.

[Jeff Waegelin]

Team 830 has been to Waterloo twice, now, and it's definitely our favorite event! We love the small-regional feel, and getting to play 11 matches is a great thing. It can get somewhat hectic at times - we had one match where we only had two matches off until the next one - but the benefits of playing that many times outweigh the downsides, in my opinion.

One of the great additions this year was the practice field. It was really nice to have a full rack available for practice. Last year, we spent a lot of time working on our tracking code in conditions that were less than favorable. This year, having the practice rack right there made it so much easier to practice and test things out.

Overall, Waterloo was a great event, and there's a pretty good chance we'll be back next year!

[Ian Mackenzie]

Originally Posted by JBotAlan

I can't honestly think of anything else. except for the awful bleachers that you could drop...anything...down. I'd love to know what the strangest thing someone hauled out of there is

Apparently the university has been looking at improving or replacing those bleachers for a while, so let's keep our fingers crossed for next year; not only are they a hassle for dropping stuff, but they're also a significant safety hazard for small children (who have the potential to fall between the seats). I've talked to a few people about it already.

Originally Posted by Jonathan Norris

The team social was a lot of fun, you did a good job trying to get as many teams as possible involved in the activities. It was a nice to be able to sit and talk with everyone, or go down and have some fun in the arcade. My only suggestion is to have a few more directions up so people knew were the arcade is, and where the food is at ect. if I was a rookie I would be a bit confused where everything located.

Good point. I think we had a lot more signage in general this year than last, but that's certainly one place we could have more.

Originally Posted by Jonathan Norris

My only real complaint this year would be how crowded the field got during the elimination matches. During the quarterfinals matches it was almost impossible to move around without walking through the drivers station. That side of the field felt very cramped (especially when we were trying to fix our bot after every match). My suggestion would be to try and move the guard rails back as far as you can during the elimination matches to allow the teams more room. Some teams even set up their 'pit' outside those railings

Another good point - we were working the whole weekend to try to get a good balance between space inside and outside the playing field area. Now that we know what it's like with both sets of bleachers fully out, we'll be a bit more prepared for next year, but unfortunately there's only so much room in that gym.

Originally Posted by Jeff Waegelin

One of the great additions this year was the practice field. It was really nice to have a full rack available for practice. Last year, we spent a lot of time working on our tracking code in conditions that were less than favorable. This year, having the practice rack right there made it so much easier to practice and test things out.

I'm glad everyone liked the practice field, but we can't take too much credit for that - FIRST supplied it