2012 Mid-Atlantic Robotics FRC Region Championship

[nlknauss]

It's time to get psyched for the MAR Championship April 12-14th at the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia! The event details are here.

The final M.A.R. rankings and qualifying teams can be found here. We'll start to see a list of the 54 teams populate in the next few days as teams prepare their payments and register.

I'm looking forward to a high energy event with some great competition. I know our team is also ready for some excitement in Philadelphia!

[293spike]

Has anyone had any luck getting through to an actual person at FIRST finances yet? We called twice and had to leave messages both times. We did state in the messages our preferred payment method, but we do not want to be cut out simply due to bad timing or a lack of communication on our part. We are also currently on spring break so the process is a bit hectic.

[Deetman]

One of our mentors was able to get a hold of someone in FIRST Finance about around 11:15am this morning after we surprisingly received an email saying we were qualified even though we weren't in the top 54. It sounds like things are quite hectic in general with respect to MAR Championship and we wanted to be sure that if the email we received was real that we'd be able to attend.

Just to be sure the FIRST finance number is: 1-800-871-8326 ext. 563

[293spike]

Yes the same thing just happened with us. We were also very surprised to get an email.

[Deetman]

My theory is that the email accidentally went out to all MAR teams indicating that the team had qualified, but really should have been worded such that it was a deadline reminder email.

[293spike]

Yea, I'm thinking the same thing, especially since nothing is in our TIMS account about the event at all.

[LH Machinist]

The link for who is attending is broken. The last count I saw yesterday was 35 teams had accepted. Any update?

[Jared Russell]

Use this link: http://frclinks.com/e/pa

[Mark McLeod]

41 teams now.

[scottandme]

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...1YVpMQURnY 0E

Green Teams are registered. Last I heard there were at least 4 teams who declined - team 1626 is the first team to register from the "waitlist".

Also moved the columns to show teams who are already registered/qualified for the FIRST Championship. 357 won DC last weekend but doesn't seem to be on the list (yet?). Feel free to edit if I made a mistake with those.

Teams not registered (in point order):

103
1302
834
224
2729
316
555
1811
2191
1228
1143
87
75

[Akash Rastogi]

Our team is excited for MAR Championships and ready to go! The kids are CADing up a new bridge arm as well that will hopefully end up on the competition robot in time.

See you all there!

[scottandme]

We're up to 44 now, but moving slowly. They're clearly moving down the list, as 303 registered yesterday from the #58 seed.

Anybody have knowledge about which teams declined so we can cross them off the list?

I added another sheet to the google doc to calculate standings during/after the MAR champs. Does anyone know if the 5 point based spots for world champs can be declined/backfill? In the MAR bylaws it says that the 7 award based slots can only be given to the winner of that award (3x champ, 2x CA, 1x EI, 1x RAS), but nothing about the 5 next highest teams by points. It does mention that if a district winner also wins an award they would add a 6th point based qualifier. Seeing as 5 of the top 9 teams by points are already attending nationals, it would be a shame if those spots couldn't slide down.

The biggest minus of this new setup is that travel costs are going to be insane for teams qualifying next week, if you can even find a flight for 20+ people. I'm hoping that FIRST/Steele Meetings hold some rooms for week 6/7 qualifying teams, but that's probably going to be rough as well.

[George A.]

I was thinking of doing something that could be fun and wanted to gauge people's interest.

What would people think of using #MARChamps to interact with people at the event and the volunteers that are on twitter? I think it would be a neat idea, that way the people also watching at home on the webcast can interact with us at the event.

What does everyone think?

[Mike8519]

Originally Posted by George A.

I was thinking of doing something that could be fun and wanted to gauge people's interest.

What would people think of using #MARChamps to interact with people at the event and the volunteers that are on twitter? I think it would be a neat idea, that way the people also watching at home on the webcast can interact with us at the event.

What does everyone think?

Sounds good to me.

[DELurker]

What would people think of using #MARChamps to interact with people at the event and the volunteers that are on twitter? I think it would be a neat idea, that way the people also watching at home on the webcast can interact with us at the event.

Would you want #MARChamps or #FRCMARCh? Since I'm mostly a techno-Luddite, I won't be twittererererering, but I think it's a neat idea, too. Anything to get the messaage of FIRST spread further.