2008 New York City Regional

[ChristinaR]

This was my first time making an appearance at the NYC Regional, and only second time volunteering at a FIRST event. What a crazy weekend!
So here's what I have to say-
All the key volunteers were very pleasant. Unhappy with my placement at the safety glass station, I was able to transfer over to field reset (thanks Bharat!) within a few hours. That was great! Everyone on field reset, at the scoring table, and all the refs were fun people and a blast to work with. I became quite skilled in the art of ball placement (after several humorous failed attempts to get the balls on the overpass when I first got there).

The pit numbering was a bit funky, but I understand the reasoning behind it. Lots of confused team members came up to me Friday morning asking where their pit was, and I always did my best to point them in the right direction. I second Rich's idea of naming the aisles next year. It would make scouting interesting. "Ohh, 555? They're on Kamen Boulevard."

Having FRC, FTC, and FLL all in the same place was really neat, though the noise sometimes became a problem. From the field, it was easy to hear what was going on at the other events, which drowned out the music at ours. However, the pit announcing was loud and clear.

I know there were some complaints about us getting behind schedule, but shift happens. We kept having trouble with the field, especially after a few hybrids where the alliance station was hit so hard that it lost power.

I had the pleasure of meeting many amazing people this weekend, and I hope to see all of you in the near future! A shoutout goes out to Jose who was the only person on field crew who was brave enough to dance on the field with me. And a special thanks goes out to Koko Ed for letting me try his popcorn.

And thank you everyone who repeatedly asked if I was alright after my incident with the gate. For those who didn't hear, while closing the gate before the start of a match, I got "bit" by the latch. I didn't notice at first, but then realized that I had essentially skinned the knuckle on my right index finger! In retrospect, I should have gone to get stitches, but I'm okay now.

The robots were strong and competitive, the crowd was enthusiastic, the MCs were vibrant, Dean Kamen and Michael Bloomberg...it all made for an excellent event. One that I hope to be attending next year.

Congratulations to 555, 1989, and 41 for the win! Also, a big congrats to 348, 375, and 637- you guys put up a tough fight. That third semi-final match was a nail biter for sure!
Also congrats to 694 for EI and 116 for a well deserved Chairman's.

I already posted it once, but congrats again to Wayne! Everything he does is the epitome of what an excellent mentor is. The way he cares for his team and always put them ahead of his own needs is truly astounding. It's impossible to name all the reasons why he deserves it, but I believe his actions speak volumes.

I also hope to add more photos to my Flickr account sometime this week, so keep an eye out.

Phew, long post. I'm done.

[DudeWithAMood]

By chance did anyone find an IR gun at Javits. We had it at the competition, but somehow we seemed to have misplaced it in transit.
It is a remote ziptied to a ~14" pvc pipe. There are 20 IR led's wired to the front, the IR's have a blue-ish tint.

If anyone has seen this please PM me. I think it went missing right after our last semi-finals match.

Thanks

[Rich Wong]

Originally Posted by DudeWithAMood

By chance did anyone find an IR gun at Javits. We had it at the competition, but somehow we seemed to have misplaced it in transit.
It is a remote ziptied to a ~14" pvc pipe. There are 20 IR led's wired to the front, the IR's have a blue-ish tint.

If anyone has seen this please PM me. I think it went missing right after our last semi-finals match.

Thanks

By the end of Sunday, no item like that was turned in at the LOST & FOUND (L&F). Hopefully another team pick it up and will contact up.

On the same topic- At the L&F table, there was over 1.5 dozen jackets and coats, really nice ones, they have been turned over to the Javits Center Lost & Found but they are keeping it for 1 week only. Then, probably, it will be donated to the homeless.

We will TRY to get them down to Atlanta but if you are from the NYC area and you lost your valuable jacket or coat, return to Javits and check with L&F.
The L&F is right next to the FEDEX/Kinko station.

[popnbrown]

O yea, one of them is probably mine a dark green and white reebok light jacket. I'm from central NJ...so you can tell them to donate it.

[Scott Carpman]

Originally Posted by ChristinaR

I know there were some complaints about us getting behind schedule, but shift happens. We kept having trouble with the field, especially after a few hybrids where the alliance station was hit so hard that it lost power.

I'll apologize on behalf of the team for that one. Our knocker-downer was guilty of destroying the field twice according to the FTA. Each time we hit into the opposing alliance stations with our KDer in the up position, it was perfectly aligned so that it managed to rip out the wiring on the other side. One more errant slam into the wall and we would have been guilty of canceling the entire regional, since they ran out of the spare wires to keep fixing the field with. That also explains to the scouts why we stopped using our knocker-downer in hybrid mode....it was working just a bit too well for our own good.

[Rich Wong]

Hey Folks!
Thanks for the great feedbacks so far, I'm looking for more feedback on:

1. DDR, Guitar Hero, and Halo Games. More or less for next year?
We may consider inviting a gaming company to bring in new games for testing.

2. Team Poster Contest?
Maybe prizes for next year?

3. The "Team Snack Bags" given out on Friday?
Maybe extend this into Saturday and Sunday?

Thanks-a-million.

[millerm277]

Originally Posted by Rich Wong

3. The "Team Snack Bags" given out on Friday?
Maybe extend this into Saturday and Sunday?

They were quite nice, and much appreciated.

[arhajder]

Originally Posted by Rich Wong

Hey Folks!
Thanks for the great feedbacks so far, I'm looking for more feedback on:

1. DDR, Guitar Hero, and Halo Games. More or less for next year?
We may consider inviting a gaming company to bring in new games for testing.

2. Team Poster Contest?
Maybe prizes for next year?

3. The "Team Snack Bags" given out on Friday?
Maybe extend this into Saturday and Sunday?

Thanks-a-million.

The games are a great idea as long as your mentors dont catch you.lol
ALot of teams didnt adhere to the rules for the poster. A bunch of them just said SAfety First. SO it should be made more clear next time.The Snack Bags was an amazing idea. Some teams needed extra bags because of the large teams. Other than that it was an amazing Regional.

[arhajder]

One more thing!

Does anyone know when the videos will be up on thebluealliance.net?

[jblay]

idk about blue alliance but they are archived on www.soap108.com

[David Noll]

As my team's resident fat man I would like to say the snack bags were amazing! I was sitting their, trying to get one of my sophmores to go to starbucks and a kid walks up and hands us a bag of juice and cookies. Very good choice in what to give teenagers that are working for long periods and confronted with arena pricing.

[jayjaywalker3]

Well as my team's resident eater I would like to say when were these snack bags given out and why didn't I receive one?

[Scott Carpman]

Originally Posted by jayjaywalker3

Well as my team's resident eater I would like to say when were these snack bags given out and why didn't I receive one?

Seconded. Snack bags?!?!?!

[jayjaywalker3]

Hmm. I just realized that this would be a good place to talk about Dean's special HW for our regional. For those who don't know Dean said that our HW was to double the amount of NYC teams from 41 to 82. I believe that following this HW precisely is a extremely large task and that we should start small. I also think that it would be really cool if we could work together and collaborate instead of having teams strive for the same common goal completely independently of each other. So far there has been very light discussion of this HW amongst my team because we are all focused very heavily on preparing for Nationals but I proposed a question which has yet to be answered. Is it more important to start new teams as per Dean's HW or is it more important to develop existing teams? The second option, although different from his HW may be a more sustainable and a more worthwhile goal. I guess both could be done but which should be done first?

I don't know anything about starting teams. All I have is a desire to help FIRST and follow Dean Kamen mindlessly (JK).

[arhajder]

THe videos are finally up on thebluealliance.net!