Regional clarification

[archiver]

Posted by william swanson at 1/10/2001 6:28 PM EST


Coach on team #353, p. o. b. bots, from mattlin middle school.



We will attend the LI regional. There are 36 teams which will compete. In the rules it states that only 4 alliances of five teams will be picked. Seed no 1 & Seed no 5 will be partnered etc. This means that only 20 teams will compete in the final. does this mean that 16 teams will have to watch the finals? this doesn't seem fair.

[archiver]

Posted by Michael Martus at 1/10/2001 6:59 PM EST


Coach on team #47, Chief Delphi, from Pontiac Central H.S. and Delphi Automotives Systems.


In Reply to: Regional clarification
Posted by william swanson on 1/10/2001 6:28 PM EST:



Now compare the numbers that will watch at the nationals. There will be a crowd of 300 teams that did not make the finals.

Only 40 teams are in the finals, last year there was 48 with less teams overall.

[archiver]

Posted by Jason Morrella at 1/10/2001 8:15 PM EST


Coach on team #254, Cheesy Poofs, from Bellarmine College Prep & others and NASA Ames/Cypress Semiconductor/Unity Care.


In Reply to: Re: Regional clarification
Posted by Michael Martus on 1/10/2001 6:59 PM EST:



It is true, while the percentage of teams going into the playoffs is lower this year, with 40 instead of 48 - nobody has mentioned that the percentage of teams included in the finals and getting medals has dramatically increased to 10 teams from 6 last year.
The odds of your (or any) team walking away from a competition with a gold or silver medal has actually INCREASED this year, not decreased. Which I think is a decent trade off for a lower percentage of teams making the playoffs, at least that's my take on it.

Back to the brainstorming/design meeting & small parts catalog. Hope everyone has a great week,

Jason

[archiver]

Posted by ChrisH at 03/09/2001 4:34 PM EST


Engineer on team #330, Beach 'Bots, from Hope Chapel Academy and NASA JPL, J & F Machine, Raytheon, et al.


In Reply to: Letters to FIRST and the Team Forum
Posted by Joe Johnson on 03/09/2001 12:10 PM EST:



I personally spent many hours designing a shifting transmission that would have you guys drooling last summer and fall. We were even going to build a prototype except Jan 6 was too close so we decided not to.

Unfortunately the design was based on the assumption that gears would be unlimited again. Since there was insufficient time to redesign or figure out how to cut or own gears we had to scrap it for this year.

But I'm sure that gears will find their way back onto the unlimited list sooner or later, so I don't feel the effort is wasted. Besides, now I have new incentive to develop new sources that can't be made illegal. Unless they get rid of SPI ;^)

They change the rules to keep us off balance and finding new solutions. They don't let us use off the shelf stuff for the same reason. It doesn't bother me, it's part of the game. Complaining about it is like complaining that the wind is against you in a sailboat race. Overcoming the difficulties is the point.

I have stated to FIRST privately and will now do it publicly. "IF THE RESTRICTIONS DON'T PINCH THEY'RE NOT DOING THEIR JOB" (the restrictions that is).

BTW this is my fourth year and I have a family too.

Just my not entirely humble opinion

Chris Husmann, PE
Team 330 the Beach'Bots