Thoughts on Nationals

[archiver]

Posted by Matt Leese at 04/08/2001 8:33 PM EST


Other on team #73, Tigerbolt, from Edison Technical HS and Alstom & Fiber Technologies & RIT.



I figured I'd post some random thoughts I had on Nationals...

After the speech by the VP of Epcot, I doubt we're leaving Epcot next year. The impression I got from him was that Disney plans to host us there next year.

The National Beverage Company makes Shasta (off-brand) and Faygo soda (diet soda in a variety of flavors -- some unique). My bet is that Shasta Cola will bear the FIRST logo. I'm still waiting for Johnson & Johnson and GM to pick up on it.

Disney needs a better method of dealing with rainwater in the pit. The rising water was a bit of poor planning and I expect better of Disney. Then again I don't expect a parking lot to have great drainage.

What's up with those random colored flags at the top of the stands? They've had them as long as I've been going but they don't stand for anything. Maybe we can get Disney to change them to something FIRST related at least.

I liked the 10 year video done by Disney but showing it right after the FIRST 10 year video was a bit mistimed. Very good editing by Disney however for showing the awards ceremony (they did that last year, no?).

Seating was yet again limited on the indoor fields. It'd be nice if Disney could use a bigger tent and put in more seating room.

It was yet again impossible to see the field for the finals because of the media stand. I had to watch the screen instead of the action because of that. Can't we just put the media BEHIND the field?

Kudos to FIRST for listening and treating divisions as regionals. But it would've been nice to find that out before nationals.

The time between the end of matches and picking was entirely too short. I did appreciate the idea of all the pickers just refusing to pick because of not enough preperation time that was told to me. But seriously, FIRST needs to do something about that.

I applaud Dean for having the guts to get up and apologize for the music video. I'm not even sure why Disney chose to play music videos as fillers anyway.

What happened to the pictures of the robots for the yearbook? During awards, they didn't show them at all. It would be nice to know what the winner of the Imagery award looked like after all...

Finally, congratulations to teams 71, 294, 125, 365, and 279. And most importantly, congratulations to team 22.

Matt who thinks closing ceremonies was running early because Dean didn't give a long speech this year....