pic: Ahh the good ole days when Einstein was outside in the HOT Florida sun. Who remembers?

[Wayne Doenges]

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[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by Wayne Doenges

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EVERY team got to play on Einstien....and got heatstroke.

[logank013]

Just out of curiosity, when did they stop doing Einstein outdoors? Before I was born possibly (June 1999)?

[Jared Russell]

Originally Posted by logank013

Just out of curiosity, when did they stop doing Einstein outdoors? Before I was born possibly (June 1999)?

2002 was the last time

[EricH]

Originally Posted by logank013

Just out of curiosity, when did they stop doing Einstein outdoors? Before I was born possibly (June 1999)?

Nope, that's 2002's game in the picture. I was at the 2000 National competition in the same location.

That's the last time Einstein was outdoors, BTW. (The other fields were in tents off to the left-back of frame, they can't be seen. Pits were in tents back there as well.)

Einstein (once they started calling it that) moved indoors when Nationals stopped being Nationals--the infamous 2003 Championship in Houston.* (Infamous because of the nice steep Astrodome ramps that every. single. robot. had to go up for every. single. match., and the security checks on everybody entering the Reliant, robot and all. It was a LONG walk.)


*Real old-timers will quibble on it moving indoors, because the first few Nationals events were actually indoors--in Manchester, NH, in a gym. That was before the move to Disney World in the mid-1990s--but they didn't start having multiple fields before the move, I don't think.

[Karthik]

Originally Posted by EricH

Einstein (once they started calling it that) moved indoors when Nationals stopped being Nationals--the infamous 2003 Championship in Houston.*

Nationals stopped being Nationals in 1998, when the first Canadian team, 188, showed up. Unfortunately it took FIRST a few years to recognize the international nature of their own event and change the official name.

[techhelpbb]

Originally Posted by Karthik

Nationals stopped being Nationals in 1998, when the first Canadian team, 188, showed up. Unfortunately it took FIRST a few years to recognize the international nature of their own event.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_Pavilion_at_Epcot

The irony of a contest at Epcot with an International Pavilion and a Canadian Pavilion...not realizing they have actual people from there in their game

[mastachyra]

Ah yes! When Einstein was out in the HOT Florida sun!

I doubt anyone actually remembers this.

[Thad House]

Originally Posted by mastachyra

Ah yes! When Einstein was out in the HOT Florida sun!

I doubt anyone actually remembers this.

Now that's an image I wish I could unsee....

[techhelpbb]

Originally Posted by Thad House

Now that's an image I wish I could unsee....

Relative to....

[Jon K.]

Is it bad that the first thing I did when I saw this picture was to check the game, and the second thing I did was to see if I could find myself in it? That was my freshman year in high school, and I was fortunate enough to be a member of FRC 173, we were number 1 seed, and won our division, and then the event. 2002 is the first year I can find that "Nationals" became The Championship officially.

[Amanda Morrison]

Originally Posted by Jon K.

Is it bad that the first thing I did when I saw this picture was to check the game, and the second thing I did was to see if I could find myself in it?

Same. It was a lot of fun to play "I Spy". Also surprising how well the branding of many teams has lasted all these years.

[Nate Laverdure]

Originally Posted by Karthik

Nationals stopped being Nationals in 1998, when the first Canadian team, 188, showed up. Unfortunately it took FIRST a few years to recognize the international nature of their own event and change the official name.

Also note that FIRST became international in 1994 when a team from Kingston, Jamaica competed.

1994 team list (pdf link)

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by logank013

Just out of curiosity, when did they stop doing Einstein outdoors? Before I was born possibly (June 1999)?

After 2002 FIRST hastily patched together a one and done championship in Houston. Reliant Stadium was beautiful. The Astrodome (where the pits were next door and the constant reference to walking a mile uphill BOTH WAYS is brought up) should be burned to the ground along Astroworld.