Registration 2014

[PayneTrain]

Originally Posted by Mr V

I'm sorry but you just don't know the effort required to transition to the district system. If you did you would know why there is resistance. One main factor is finding the volunteers required for all those events. Sure we have some great volunteers but we have to be very careful to prevent burn out if we try to have the existing base cover 6 or 7 weekends of events rather than 1 or 2. Certainly there are those among the base that are going to be happy to have the chance to volunteer at many more events but for others we run the risk of pushing them away if we ask too much of them.

Then there is the need to find the locations for all those district events. People from WA FIRST robotics visited around 100 sites to pick the locations for the 7 district events to be held in our state. You must consider many factors in determining if a venue is suitable and you have fit within the availability of the multiple facilities.

Finally there is just the logistics of the fields ect. WA FIRST Robotics has rented a large warehouse to be able to deal with the fields that we have had to purchase. A team of 6 of use spent most of Tue evening just painting the wood to construct the road cases to transport our fields. Even more people spent about 10 hours on building those cases yesterday and we don't even have a single case completely finished. We expect our team of 10 to put in another 10-12 hour day today and probably spend most of Sun before we get the basic cases built.

The amount of labor and capital to get a district system is enormous. I hope that when your area goes to the district system you put your hammer where your mouth is, step up to the plate and be one of the many people who will be needed to make it happen. For example there is a group from Oregon who have traveled about 6 hours to come and make the road case build project happen. They left Oregon at O'dark:30 to be at the field house by about noon yesterday and they will probably not be home until midnight Sun.

I am very well aware of the development of the competition in my area as I have friends, former mentors, and sponsors who all serve in some capacity with VirginiaFIRST and I believe this has been in development for for years. I know there have been impact studies that will require around 5 times as many volunteer slots to be filled, I have offered to help with anything they need, and I am trying to work out a schedule as best as someone can a year in advance while still in college, trying to transfer schools, and holding down a job, to manage a volunteering schedule and train for specific key volunteering roles that make the events "go".

In my area, most teams and powers-that-be are ready to make the jump, but the biggest hindrance in starting the system, at least in the meetings I've been to, are mentors who have difficulty understanding that despite all of the challenges that comes with the system, it is a long-term benefit to each team and as a result, the whole region. There are some odd growing pains that some will run into (there is one team in Maryland and another in Virginia that are closer to other regionals than any NCR district site). I am acutely aware of the difficulties in establishing the system and everyone but Michigan is having issues with it right now of various size and scope, but I personally am both able and willing to do the work to improve my commonwealth.

[mrmummert]

I'm with 1610, one of the teams that will be affected by the change to the district system in 2015.
From what i've heard over the past two years, First originally wanted to start the district system for
the Virginia, DC and Maryland area for 2014, but between resistance to it and the logistics involved delayed
it until 2015, but its coming. I'll miss the regionals (we could still go to NC or
Palmetto i guess if its possible. Team 11 which is in a district also went to Palmetto this year)

One thing going for the district that is coming is that we have a large group of people we can draw from
to handle it. Some of the VCU crew has worked at DC before and some of the Maryland crew has worked at DC and vice versa.
Next season (2014) we plan on attending the Chesapeake regional and will
get to know some of the teams and volunteers there which can be helpful in the future. Some of the Virginia teams have already gone to the DC and Chesapeake regionals before (and vice versa) so we are already heading in the direction of a district system.

I can see maybe two or three district events in virginia, (maybe Norfolk, Richmond and Northern Va.) maybe one in Maryland and one in DC (which MD teams most likely would attend. I'm guessing the district Championship would be at either Richmond or DC. The RD for both Virginia and DC is Patty Cook so she already covers a large area and shes listed already as one of the RD's for Maryland ( William Duncan being the other) Patty has a large staff here in Va. and between them and the Maryland folks i think the'll be able to pull off the change to the district system.

Some of the volunteers here in Virginia also do FTC. The change to the district system
will put a strain on the volunteers the first couple of years i think, but after things settle down it should end up being like anywhere else
that has gone to the district system. Of course some volunteers will have to decide on doing just FRC or just FTC, but there will be
some who will do both. You'll notice the venue changes for both the DC and Chesapeake regionals this year. I'm not sure, but i have a feeling this might be a early attempt to see what venues could be used for the district system.

[Jscout11]

Originally Posted by mrmummert

I'll miss the regionals (we could still go to NC or
Palmetto i guess if its possible. Team 11 which is in a district also went to Palmetto this year.

While us and some other district teams like 245 were able to attend Palmetto in the past, keep in mind that the new district rules restrict teams from registering for regionals until unrestricted registration, which this year is still about two weeks away, so it may be a challenge to attend a regional that fills up quickly like Palmetto. Thats not to say it's impossible to sign up for a regional (we still plan to attend a regional this year) but the prospect of interdistrict play will also bring a lot of new options for district teams.

[Jash_J]

The Waterloo regional just got really exciting with the addition of Team 254 the Cheesy Poofs! Looks like they wanted a chance to play in Canada before the possible addition of districts next year!

[DampRobot]

Originally Posted by Jash_J

The Waterloo regional just got really exciting with the addition of Team 254 the Cheesy Poofs! Looks like they wanted a chance to play in Canada before the possible addition of districts next year!

I sure didn't see that one coming! I don't think they've played East of CA before CMP in the past five seasons or so... I wonder how the inevitable 254 1114 face off will go down!

[Dewmark]

Originally Posted by Racer26

Interesting. Montreal is full with only 6 rookies. and 3360 may have created a situation for themselves where they can't even go to their home regional.

Also interesting? What's happening with the team names of the various Ontario teams restructured as community teams last year. Some, like 1114, have dropped their 2013 name and reverted back to their 2012 and prior styling, while others, like 1241, have kept the 2013 style, and still others, like 1334, have added their school name back in, but kept their 2013 name as well.

Actually there is 37 teams that are signed up for the Montreal Regional and I believe there are 42 spots...

[PayneTrain]

Some updated totals heading into the week, so teams chomping at the bit for unrestricted registration day to gaze upon.

As you may notice, Alamo and South Florida closed today, so while you will likely sorta get off the waitlist in these events, no guarantees except what lies beneath.

Week 2
Northern Lights (Duluth, MN) - 7
Hub City (Lubbock, TX)- 34

Week 3
Mexico City - 19

Week 4
Buckeye (Cleveland, OH)- 10

Week 5
Queen City (Cincinnati, OH) - 11
Pittsburgh - 1

Week 6
Western Canada (Calgary, AB) -7
Windsor Essex Great Lakes - 17
Lone Star (Houston, TX) - 21

I wonder what the increase in teams doubling up on traditional regionals looks like this year.

[wilsonmw04]

Originally Posted by PayneTrain

I wonder what the increase in teams doubling up on traditional regionals looks like this year.

I don't think it's an increase in double regionals that is causing this. I think, for the mid Atlantic anyway, it's a reduction in local regional slots. It looks like DC and Chesapeake have reduced their field this year. The crunch hurts.

[Anupam Goli]

Originally Posted by wilsonmw04

I don't think it's an increase in double regionals that is causing this. I think, for the mid Atlantic anyway, it's a reduction in local regional slots. It looks like DC and Chesapeake have reduced their field this year. The crunch hurts.

It seems that many regional planning committees are moving away from the 60 team massive cluster towards a smaller, more manageable number of teams. Atleast this means more matches. 8 matches is not enough to determine proper seeding. The downside is less teams will be able to go to that 2nd or 3rd regional they want to go to.

[Navid Shafa]

Originally Posted by DampRobot

I don't think they've played East of CA before CMP in the past five seasons or so...

LV: '09, oh'10.

[MARS_James]

I am now officially worried about Florida FRC this year

As of right now both of our regionals are "full" and we are at 56 teams in the state, last year we had 72 teams.

Now Orlando has had a capacity of 64 teams since 2011 so 9 more spots could be available there, but that still doesn't make up for the fact that we have 16 teams less then last year. What is really shocking is that most of our missing teams are not the usual case of lack of rookie retention, (5 out of our 8 rookies are returning this year) it is our veteran teams that have not registered yet: 59, 665, 1612, 2757, 3376, 3502, 3557, 3611, 3659, 3732, and 3790 all were considered veterans last year and have not registered yet for a competition anywhere.

I would really love to know what happened to the teams above and if anyone can give a hint as to why they might think we have such a hit on our veteran teams. Before it is brought up I am aware that the 3000+ teams hit the 4 year wall this year and you see a lot of teams fold around that time but this seems a little out of the ordinary even for that

[PayneTrain]

Originally Posted by wilsonmw04

I don't think it's an increase in double regionals that is causing this. I think, for the mid Atlantic anyway, it's a reduction in local regional slots. It looks like DC and Chesapeake have reduced their field this year. The crunch hurts.

Originally Posted by PayneTrain

To remedy the bunching up from last year, two of the events are in a smaller venue...

That's definitely part of it. Ideally this is just the one crunch year the region operates under before the jump to the new model (Ideally). On top of that, the changing of dates for some teams probably made them rethink how and where to apply first and second, chucking a bunch of Virginia teams onto their own regional's wait list.

At least the Virginia Regional will be the 65+mecca we know and love this year

*sigh*

[Wetzel]

Originally Posted by wilsonmw04

I don't think it's an increase in double regionals that is causing this. I think, for the mid Atlantic anyway, it's a reduction in local regional slots. It looks like DC and Chesapeake have reduced their field this year. The crunch hurts.

DC and Chesapeake are both in new venues at George Mason University and UMD College Park. This will remove 30+ spots between the two events. Between that and with DC sandwiched in the week between the Maryland and Virginia regional, that doesn't leave a lot of options for DC teams to get a second event.

Wetzel

[Ernst]

Originally Posted by Wetzel

DC and Chesapeake are both in new venues at George Mason University and UMD College Park. This will remove 30+ spots between the two events. Between that and with DC sandwiched in the week between the Maryland and Virginia regional, that doesn't leave a lot of options for DC teams to get a second event.

Wetzel

Why did they make the change? Were the normal venues unavailable?

[Wetzel]

Originally Posted by ZehP

Why did they make the change? Were the normal venues unavailable?

Cost.
They were both in convention centers, which tend to be expensive. The DC venue change will reduce the cost of the event by more than $100k.