2014 VEX/FRC Championships

[Christian2443]

I think this should be brought to the attention of both Vex and Frc participants.

http://www.anaheimconventioncenter.c...spx?Etitle=vex
2014 World Championship Vex Robotics
Start Date 04/25/2014
End Date 04/26/2014

http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprogr...t-championship
Save the Date: the 2014 FIRST Championship will take place in St. Louis, MO - April 23-26.

This has happened in the past, during the 2011 Vex/FRC World Championships. I didn't think it would happen again. I know a lot of work goes into planning/organizing these events, but it is difficult and disappointing that teams that participate in both programs will have to decide which event to attend.

I know this would be asking for a lot, but could FRC reschedule the FRC Championships this coming season? Vex did this during the 2011 Championships, so it would be nice if FRC would return the favor. http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=86809

Possibly, in the future could VEX and FRC work together, at planning event dates, so they wouldn't interfere with each other?

I hope I am not the only one thinking about the tough decision with choosing which event to attend.
Just wanted to bring this up for the Vex and Frc community.

[ttldomination]

Both of your links are broken...what.

But they've worked out in the past, I can only assume they'll do it again.

I don't know who it's actually harder on. IIRC, FIRST has a multi-year contract with the event host. Breaking out of that may be more "expensive" than for VEX to relocation, but that's just my guess.

But hopefully both organizations learn from their mistakes this team and plan stuff out.

Crazy idea, what if we VEX shifted their Worlds competition to sometime in December and host it in Florida or something? Since the VEX season is year-round, I can't see how this would really hurt anything...

- Sunny G.

[Andrew Schuetze]

As one who schedules robot tournaments, it's is very much about venue availability. FIRST has multi-year contracts for the world championship. FIRST also has four programs that each have different needs and planning logistics is varied and complex. I doubt FIRST has the ability to make a change in venue and/or date as much as they may want to eliminate this conflict.

[Grim Tuesday]

FIRST had a 3 year contract with the Edward Jones dome that expired this year if I remember correctly. I presume they may have signed another 3 year agreement, making it very difficult for them to change to date but who knows.

[Steven Donow]

Originally Posted by Grim Tuesday

FIRST had a 3 year contract with the Edward Jones dome that expired this year if I remember correctly. I presume they may have signed another 3 year agreement, making it very difficult for them to change to date but who knows.

FIRST extended the lease one year, which is why only next year has Championship dates listed.

Hopefully VEX can reschedule... FIRST has the bigger event(this is not a knock towards VEX in the slightest). The problem is if VEX can't move back a week, what do they do? Two weeks would interfere with Week 7, and a week later puts the championship DANGEROUSLY close to AP exams

[dcarr]

Originally Posted by Grim Tuesday

FIRST had a 3 year contract with the Edward Jones dome that expired this year if I remember correctly. I presume they may have signed another 3 year agreement, making it very difficult for them to change to date but who knows.

This article implies that it is just through 2014.

It seems likely that Vex has a similar contract with the Anaheim Convention Center, so it might be difficult for either of them to move.

[Aren_Hill]

Originally Posted by DevenStonow

FIRST extended the lease one year, which is why only next year has Championship dates listed.

Hopefully VEX can reschedule... FIRST has the bigger event(this is not a knock towards VEX in the slightest). The problem is if VEX can't move back a week, what do they do? Two weeks would interfere with Week 7, and a week later puts the championship DANGEROUSLY close to AP exams

umm, having attended VEX worlds this year I'd have to disagree, 702 teams many of them international, I'd say they're on pretty much the same level.

Plus the convention center in Anaheim kinda makes the St louis facility look small.

[Zebra_Fact_Man]

If this wasn't a problem before, how is it a problem now??? Who goofed?

I thought you weren't supposed to fix it if it wasn't broken....

[PayneTrain]

Were the 2014 VEX dates announced before the last competition? FIRST has had their dates up since the end of the 2012 season.

[AllenGregoryIV]

Originally Posted by Zebra_Fact_Man

If this wasn't a problem before, how is it a problem now??? Who goofed?

I thought you weren't supposed to fix it if it wasn't broken....

The weekend before, when VEX Worlds normally takes place, is Easter weekend next year. Holding them the same weekend may inconvenience some teams but holding them during the holiday would be much worse. If not only to be respectful of the religions of some of the attendees and staff but travel during that time is difficult and congested.

[Libby K]

Originally Posted by PayneTrain

Were the 2014 VEX dates announced before the last competition? FIRST has had their dates up since the end of the 2012 season.

Announcements aside, both organizations and venues have probably had those dates reserved for several years. Let's not turn this into 'who had it first'.

It would truly be sad to have these events cross over each other, as there's a lot of overlap in teams, mentors, and volunteers - our communities are the same, and it would be so unfortunate to make people feel like they have to "pick a side".

[Jason Morrella]

Libby is pretty much spot on and couldn't have said it much better.

As was previously mentioned, the 2014 VEX World Championship is set for April 23-26, 2014 in Anaheim again. The dates for 2012, 2013 and 2014 were all contracted three years ago. Another reply I can confirm is that, while it may surprise those outside of the VEX Robotics Competition, the VEX World Championship did have over 700 teams in 500,000 square feet of space this year, so it's no small task securing a location and date.

Since many are interested in the process and details, I'm happy to share some general information for anyone curious about the primary hurdles/obstacles we face when finding a home and date for the World Championship:

- The number of cities that have the facilities to host a VEX or FIRST Championship are certainly limited (some have the huge amount of square footage space needed for the "pit area", many have have an arena with the needed field/seating capacity - but very few have both, at least "connected" or within suitable walking distance)
- Because of the need for local, regional, state and national tournaments to play out during the season and the need for schools to want 30 days notice (or more) to get approval for travel (plus budget planning and booking airfare and hotel), our event partners and teams (and I'm sure those in FIRST also) have been very vocal with us that they do not want the World Championship to be earlier in the season
- Many schools/teams have also been vocal with us that many would not be able to attend if the World Championship was held any later than April because holding it in May or June would conflict with various tests (state testing, SAT/AP testing, etc...), finals, proms and/or graduations and so on.
- Then on top of those three constraints, we have a holiday weekend (Easter) important to many which actually floats and lands on different weekends each year (most frequently in April). Even for those that don't have an issue with playing that weekend, because it is a big holiday travel weekend, the airfare and hotel costs for all teams attending the event would be much higher
- Then, on top of those 4 constraints, we have one more big one - most or all of the facilities that can host an event the size and magnitude of the VEX World Championship are booked every week in April up to 3, 4 or even 5+ years in advance.

In this specific case, when we booked our dates for 2012, 2013, and 2014, FIRST only had dates held for their Championship in 2012 and 2013, which we made sure to schedule around as we are aware many teams and volunteers are great supporters of both programs. We inquired to see if FIRST dates had been held for 2014 and 2015, but they were not, and April 23-26 was the only week available (not already booked by another group) in Anaheim in 2014 (and this was three years ago). We did not learn the 2014 FIRST dates in St. Louis until they were announced in October, well after our dates were set. FIRST was aware of the dates of the 2014 VEX World Championship, but we're sure they found the same constraints (listed above) and most likely could not avoid the same week even if they wanted to, as it may have been the only week available in St. Louis in 2014. We have offered to switch dates with one of the other events on a different week in Anaheim in 2014 (as we did when we switched our location/dates back in 2011), but they were unable to for various reasons.

So basically, you've got two programs that both hold their events in the same two to three week window, both trying to avoid Easter Weekend and both with a limited number of cities/dates even available. It's actually kind of amazing we've been able to avoid conflicting dates for 6 consecutive years. In spite of our best efforts, and we assume FIRST's, avoiding the same week doesn't appear to have been possible in 2014. We will always be willing, open and eager to discuss World Championship dates with FIRST in advance to avoid these types of conflicts, for the benefit of all participants in the various great programs we both run.

We have been working hard over the past few months to finalize our 2015 and possibly 2016 dates that are currently held. We will announced those dates as soon as the the ink has been put to the contracts to help avoid future conflicts.

The 2013 VEX World Championship was the biggest, best and most successful yet. We know the 2014 VEX World Championship will be even bigger/better and are looking forward to another amazing season! We wish the same for the other great STEM programs out there with the same/similar missions (BEST, Botball, FIRST, NURC and others).

PS - Team Registration is now up, open and running on Robotevents.com for the 2013-2014 season for ALL THREE programs: VEX IQ Challenge, VEX Robotics Competition and VEX U

[AllenGregoryIV]

Thank you Jason for confirming what I suspected and thank you for being so open.

[waialua359]

We were aware of this while still in St. Louis, and as unfortunate as it is, it is understandable given the circumstances.

Thanks for the clarification Jason.

This definitely calls for some discussions among our own programs as to how we proceed this upcoming season.
We will definitely try and do both.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by Christian2443

I think this should be brought to the attention of both Vex and Frc participants.

http://www.anaheimconventioncenter.c...spx?Etitle=vex
2014 World Championship Vex Robotics
Start Date 04/25/2014
End Date 04/26/2014

http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprogr...t-championship
Save the Date: the 2014 FIRST Championship will take place in St. Louis, MO - April 23-26.

This has happened in the past, during the 2011 Vex/FRC World Championships. I didn't think it would happen again. I know a lot of work goes into planning/organizing these events, but it is difficult and disappointing that teams that participate in both programs will have to decide which event to attend.

I know this would be asking for a lot, but could FRC reschedule the FRC Championships this coming season? Vex did this during the 2011 Championships, so it would be nice if FRC would return the favor. http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=86809

Possibly, in the future could VEX and FRC work together, at planning event dates, so they wouldn't interfere with each other?

I hope I am not the only one thinking about the tough decision with choosing which event to attend.
Just wanted to bring this up for the Vex and Frc community.

There's alot of people who do both competition so now they have to make a hard choice which event to attend.
If nothing else this will certainly solve the seating issue.