Regional Competition Dates?

[acdcfan259]

Originally Posted by SlaminSwimster

What day is kickoff??

I believe January 3rd. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[RossK]

Originally Posted by SSMike

Im pretty sure that its sometime in early September actually.

Really? I thought it was at kick off.

Well, you learn something new everyday =p

[RossK]

Originally Posted by waialua359

I think that events that are certain to occur with the exact dates should announce early (FIRST announcing early).
With the cost of airline fares skyrocketing, we would prefer to book our trips well in advance, if it allows us to get a much cheaper rate.

I'm in Dallas now, and my fare alone from Hawaii from $1164! (booking 4 months in advance). I realize its the summer, but spring time is also peak season for traveling.

wow. airfares are getting ridiculously high.

where do you guys go for your kickoff? I was wondering because you team is from Hawaii. Do you guys go to one on the West Coast?

[KF987]

Las Vegas is going to be the 5th week again.

When is Florida

Keaton

[EricH]

Originally Posted by RossK

where do you guys go for your kickoff? I was wondering because you team is from Hawaii. Do you guys go to one on the West Coast?

There are regional kickoff locations all over the U.S., Canada, and elsewhere. Better than just having one in NH like they used to! So they'd have a Hawaii kickoff.

[waialua359]

In the past, with just us and team 368, 368 arranged a telecast on a local educational TV station for us to watch live early in the morning. With a lot of new Hawaii teams now, we had our first official kickoff event this past season, at team 368's large auditorium.

[Pavan Dave]

Actually if there is a place you really want to go contact the regional directors. They are the ones who usually know the date and times that teams enter and FIRST enters and actually work with setting that stuff up. Maybe email some of those people, they are THE ones with the information, and its not "hush-hush" its just "unofficial" until FIRST publishes them all.

Like for Houston, our wonderful director already gave us all of the necessary information so if you're going to Houston, you can book your hotels now if you wanted to.

Pavan Dave

[Roger]

Originally Posted by acdcfan259

Quote:

I believe January 3rd. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Surprisingly, FIRST has announced it -- check out RoboMom's link at FIRST.

Kickoff 03-Jan-2009.
Robot ship deadline 17-Feb-2009.

No official word on the website for regional or Championship events. I wonder if they'll make Easter (April 12th) the bye week? What is it, five weekends of regionals, a bye week, then the Championship? (Okay, in the past -- maybe they'll stretch it to six weeks this year?)

I only know this because I just got my shiny new 2009 calendar book! I got it now just to fill out my robo-schedule for next year.

Edit: Now I'm confused. On the link above under Event Payments/Championship payments, if you qualify at '09 regionals week 1-5, pay by 03-April, week 6 pay by 07-April. Read into that as you will.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Roger

No official word on the website for regional or Championship events. I wonder if they'll make Easter (April 12th) the bye week? What is it, five weekends of regionals, a bye week, then the Championship? (Okay, in the past -- maybe they'll stretch it to six weeks this year?)

They had six and a bye last year. Week 6 only had one regional, though. With three more regionals, plus the Michigan registration for the state championship around Week 5, they better have another week!

[GaryVoshol]

Last year Week 4 was Easter; there was no bye week. (Of course, most regionals don't have Sunday events.) There was a week between the last regional and the Championship.

Championship is April 16-18, 2009.

Ship is Feb 17.

That means:
Week 1 - Feb 26-28
Week 2 - Mar 5-7
Week 3 - Mar 12-14
Week 4 - Mar 19-21
Week 5 - Mar 26-28
Week 6 - Apr 2-4.

Week 6 regionals (including the Michigan State Championship) wouldn't know who qualified on Apr 3, the Week 1-5 payment deadline. Thus the 4 extra days.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by GaryVoshol

Last year Week 4 was Easter; there was no bye week. (Of course, most regionals don't have Sunday events.) There was a week between the last regional and the Championship.

I believe that the "bye week" refers to the week between the last week of regionals and Atlanta.

[RoboMom]

Originally Posted by rc_cola1323

Week 1:

Oklahoma City Regional

Week 2 March 5-7, 2009

Oregon Regional at Memorial Coliseum in Portland

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5 March 26-28, 2009

Seattle Microsoft Regional at KEY ARENA in Seattle
Las Vegas Regional
SBPLI Regional

Week 6

So this is what we have so far. I'll keep updating this.

Until FIRST releases the official schedule, I still would not look at any of these dates or venues as set in stone.

[Roger]

I'm glad I have EricH following me around, fixin' my mistakes.

Yeah, by "bye week" I meant the breather week between regionals and the Championship. I know, everyone gets the "bye" so I guess it really isn't a bye week, but "calm before the storm week" isn't short enough.

How soon I forget what happened last year. I was just thinking the difference between a regional Easter weekend (where most teams are local and would get home by Sunday) vs a Championship Easter weekend, where most teams are travelling on the Sunday. But whatever happens will happen, so I'm not too worked up about it.

[Arefin Bari]

Originally Posted by KF987

When is Florida

Rumor has it that 2009 Florida Regional will be March 12 - March 14, 2009. These dates are not official until FIRST releases all the dates for all regionals.

[Raul]

Originally Posted by Roger

Surprisingly, FIRST has announced it -- check out RoboMom's link at FIRST.

Kickoff 03-Jan-2009.
Robot ship deadline 17-Feb-2009.

No official word on the website for regional or Championship events. I wonder if they'll make Easter (April 12th) the bye week? What is it, five weekends of regionals, a bye week, then the Championship? (Okay, in the past -- maybe they'll stretch it to six weeks this year?)

I only know this because I just got my shiny new 2009 calendar book! I got it now just to fill out my robo-schedule for next year.

Edit: Now I'm confused. On the link above under Event Payments/Championship payments, if you qualify at '09 regionals week 1-5, pay by 03-April, week 6 pay by 07-April. Read into that as you will.

This is interesting because in 2004 January 3rd also fell on a Saturday and FIRST decided to move kickoff to Jan 10. I think I remember it was because they thought some people may encounter excessive issues trying to travel so close to New Years day.

But I hope this is correct because it works out better for my work schedule to start Jan 3.