First (1st) Regional Competition

[nparikh]

Hi everyone, coming up in two days is the New Jersey Regional at Trenton. Being a freshman on 25, this will be my first regional ever!! So I am really excited and I can't wait! So then, what was your first regional competition, how did it go, and please share some stories!!!Thanx, and please discuss!

[Solace]

at my first regional we lost a lot. yup. that kinda sucked.

but seeing that you're on team 25, you probably won't run into that particular problem

[nparikh]

Originally Posted by Solace

at my first regional we lost a lot. yup. that kinda sucked.

but seeing that you're on team 25, you probably won't run into that particular problem

Haha, don't worry about it. It's all good!!!

[Ryan Dognaux]

My first Regional (Buckeye) experienced was pretty good, only limited to the fact that I was incredibly shy my freshman year and didn't really get out into the pits a whole lot until last season.

Don't make my mistake! Get out in the pits and talk to people, have the time of your life

[Vince lau]

i've never got to experience a FIRST regional as a student, but as a mentor in 2002,when the Canadian regionals started, i had the time of my life, seeing a lot of amazing robots, meeting lots of nice ppl. This will be my 3rd year as a mentor but the team i'm mentoring is a rookie team, and going into a regional with 75 teams, two fields i think they will have a great time, just like i did.

My first regional we did rather well. Back in 2000 at the Great Lakes Regional we had problems off and on with the robot and we didnt actually win a match until Saturday morning. We were the last team picked in the "draft" by the 7th seed Huskie Brigade (65) and the Juggernauts (1). We ended up making it all the way to the finals and going onto match 3 against the infamous Chief Delphi robot. We were winning the match and then Chief Delphi unveiled their steal from the trough move and stole our black ball. We ended up finishing a respectable 2nd though. Fun times.

[Eric Bareiss]

My first regional hooked me big time. I knew there was no way I could ever quit robotics. Here I am 5 years later.

My first regional was San Jose 2000, there were a lot of big name west coast teams just coming into their prime at that one. We (64) seeded second and allied with 192 (GRT). We ended up getting beat by 330 (beachbots) and the imfamous alliance of 60 and 254 ended up winning the regional. It was a west coast classic.

I screamed until I couldn't talk. Good times.

[psyco_klown]

my first regional was when our team was a rookie team in 2001 and we almost won that regional at vcu. it was the closest mach i've experienced we lost by 3 inches from the white line and 5 seconds to go. we had it but the goals moved cuz of a final push

[Matt_Kaplan1902]

I went to my first regional after I had already been to Nationals (EPCOT '02) so I want expecting it to be very big. I was pleasently surprised. I had more fun there than at epcot (probably cause our alliance won- UCF '03).

[David Bridge]

My first regional was UTC in 2001... I had no idea what to expect so I wasn't really surprised, but it was really fun just the same. It turned out that we were one of the best robots at the competition and wound up winning big time... We were interviewed for the news and everything... I had no idea that people outside of FIRST cared about robotics, but it was really cool to realize they did. That was probably the best regional I've attended because I met a lot of friends who have since graduated.

[Atman]

My first regional was last year. Not only was it my first time at the awesome lonestar regional but I was also the driver for my team. Too add on top of that I was a first year driver and with plenty of seniors on the team, well, Needless to say before the competition I was so nervous that I was afraid to get out on the field. But then after we won the first qualifier, then second, third, fourth and so on, it turned out to be one of the greatest experiences of my life. We came so close to winning the regional,we were the third seed, and I was so let down when our partners robot died and we ended up loosing in the semifinals by 1 stinkin point!!!
It was the greatest experience of my life and i hope its the same for you.

[Iain McLeod]

my first one was '02 at LI, and it was the most amazing thing...
Of course I got stuck with scouting and watching matches so I didn't get out much.
Freshman always get the worst jobs

[ngreen]

My first regional was also LSR last year. It was also our rookie year. With some good guidance (ponca city, ok and richmond, ks teams) and a touch of prescouting (part of our team went to STL regional) we created something amazing. Going into it I was only hoping on competing with some of the great teams there. But with a robust robot, a strongly supported team, good driving, and a little luck we seeded first in qualifying and went on to win it with 34 and 647. What was more amazing is we to the team spirit, quality, and rookie all-star awards. But beyond the competition I met so many neat (blue, green, and pink haired) people, got to see multiple ways to solving the same problem, watched a struggling team succeed, jabbed myself with buttons more than I would like to admit, got permentally attached to safety glasses, conversed with people with experience way beyond my high school doors, consistently carried 4 boxes onto the field, and had a very fun 30 hours on a bus. I'm sad that I can't go to LSR this year. College isn't fair. But I'll be able to go to a greater show in Atlanta. I can't wait.

[BionicAlumni]

Originally Posted by Eric Bareiss

My first regional hooked me big time. I knew there was no way I could ever quit robotics. Here I am 5 years later.

My first regional was San Jose 2000, there were a lot of big name west coast teams just coming into their prime at that one. We (64) seeded second and allied with 192 (GRT). We ended up getting beat by 330 (beachbots) and the imfamous alliance of 60 and 254 ended up winning the regional. It was a west coast classic.

I screamed until I couldn't talk. Good times.

I too remeber that year. Post like that really make me miss FIRST.

As for my first regional it was also in San Jose. 1999 the first year of the SV regional. We camped in the mountains and had an AMAZING time watching our teacher scurry up a tree and being attacked by crazy animals at night. That was the year we were in the huge hanger if anyone else remebers that. Good times. :-(

AHHHH I miss first. Thank you god for the AZ regional in a week!

[ChrisH]

Originally Posted by BionicAlumni

I too remeber that year. Post like that really make me miss FIRST.

As for my first regional it was also in San Jose. 1999 the first year of the SV regional. We camped in the mountains and had an AMAZING time watching our teacher scurry up a tree and being attacked by crazy animals at night. That was the year we were in the huge hanger if anyone else remebers that. Good times. :-(

AHHHH I miss first. Thank you god for the AZ regional in a week!

It was COOOOLD in that hanger. Historic it may be, but I'm glad we haven't gone back. Remember the team party, that no one stayed for because we all wanted to go back to the hotel (or wherever) and warm up? It wasn't so bad for the first few hours, but as the day dragged on it just felt colder.

I also remember that was the first year of alliances, and for the finals you could keep declining until you were picked by a partner you liked. So lots of teams had made deals by about the middle of Saturday morning. But the picking teams could not choose among themselves. We were bumping along about 6 or 7 seed and had our eye on a team that had struggled early on, but now they had their bugs worked out and were climbing rapidly. Then they went and teamed with the Cheesy Poofs in their last round, got the high score of the day, and moved ahead of us in the seeding! Any guess who that might have been? Team 60. I don't think we got to play WITH each other until 2001, even though we went to all the same competitions, including the off-season ones. It got to be a running joke between us.


Actually my first competition was Nationals at Epcot in 1998. Back then it was more the size of a large regional now. We had a choice, we could go to Houston for a regional (the nearest at that time) or Orlando for Nationals. The cost was virtually the same, what would you do?

It was pretty warm when we walked in to the pit tent, and I was kind of worried about the heat. But that cold breeze, could it be? air conditioning? in a tent? how terribly inefficient! (and necessary as we would find out when the generators ran out of fuel mid-afternoon).

We got pounded and it was largely my fault as I'd never learned about not running electric motors at more than 25% of stall torque. I thought stall torque was the number you designed to. I'll never do that again! Amazingly one of our drivers was actually able to control our arm. We never did figure out how he managed it. It was so traumatic we haven't built an arm since. But I did get pretty well hooked, after all I'm still here.