Challenge to West Coast Teams for 05 Regionals

I know this challenge is coming really late/early depending on your perspective, but its never too early to plan to the future....but I've noticed how the west coast teams always challenge the east teams to come west and many of these teams that are financially able/permitted by schools/sponsors have met your challenege, so its time to put the ball in our court. I officially issue a challenge to west coast teams to bear the cold and come east to our regionals. You have a pretty nice selection of regionals from Midwest, Great Lakes, UTC, BAE, New Jersey, and even a few in Pennsylvania and Virginia/Maryland. So if you aren't scared come and play with us.

[Stephen Kowski]

bah, you forgot the warm, comfortable southeast Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina all have regionals too....

[BillyGoats]

Originally Posted by Stephen Kowski

bah, you forgot the warm, comfortable southeast Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina all have regionals too....

why would you go to the south when u can go to the northeast??? =)

Originally Posted by Stephen Kowski

bah, you forgot the warm, comfortable southeast Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina all have regionals too....

But they already have the warm regionals of the west...I say come and freeze with the midwest/northeastern teams!

[Craig]

Or better yet, why don't you all suck it up and come to the real NORTH @ Canada baby!

[Greg Ross]

Yeah, I was just thinking that it would be great if we could make it to one of y'all's regionals. We are NOT one of those well funded teams, though. I don't know how we could swing an east coast regional and championship in the same year. (Don't you just love my optimism in assuming that we will qualify for the championships again next year?)

[Alex Cormier]

Rookie Regional next year welcomes all!!
Rochester, New York will host a regional next year


Rochester Regional 2005

[Matt Leese]

I think I already gave 330 a personal invitation to come to Rochester next year...

Matt

[Ryan Foley]

I'd love to see a southern california or florida team come to BAE regionals and see how they handle the near artic temperatures (no offense)

I'm sure that my team would take up the offer of going to the west, well, if a west coast team would kindly lend us $7000

[MisterX]

I would hardly consider New Hampshire Arctic in March... I gotta give my props to my cous out Wolverine Idaho where any exposed skins turns frostbite after 3 minutes. Now that is Arctic. Why I think I was wearing a long sleeve T-SHIRT!!!! when I was at BAE Id like to see you do that out in the Rockies that time of the year

[Ali Ahmed]

We already accepted the challenge and are going to the Canadian Regional this week. We hope to go to GR or somewhere and play with some of the big dogs.

[J Flex 188]

there are a couple of big guns here already at CR =D.
cant wait! 22 comes tomorrow!

what i would like to see is some other teams make trips up to CR besides 48 and 639 and a couple of others. We can offer a great atmosphere, friendly people and lots to do to teams that are only within an 8 hour drive usually! of course this is much easier for teams in the NE, like 47, 71, 45 etc. but seriously, CR is the biggest regional this year and its sure to be one of the best

Originally Posted by ali_rockon22

We already accepted the challenge and are going to the Canadian Regional this week. We hope to go to GR or somewhere and play with some of the big dogs.

[Travis Hoffman]

Originally Posted by J Flex 188

We can offer a great atmosphere, friendly people and lots to do to teams that are only within an 8 hour drive usually!

Friendly people is an understatement. It is impossible for your team to feel uncomfortable or unwelcome in Canada. That's part of the reason 48 goes up north every year. That and of course the outstanding competition! It really is one of the most organized and well-staffed events FIRST runs.

[Karthik]

Originally Posted by T. Hoffman

Friendly people is an understatement. It is impossible for your team to feel uncomfortable or unwelcome in Canada. That's part of the reason 48 goes up north every year. That and of course the outstanding competition! It really is one of the most organized and well-staffed events FIRST runs.

We'd love to see more American teams come up to the Canadian Regional, it makes the whole event more exciting.

While we're on the topic, I'd like to invite teams to come up and attend the 2005 Waterloo regional. The event will be held on the campus of the University of Waterloo, which is only 45 minutes southwest of Toronto's airport. The venue will be nice and intimate, and the town is a great place to visit. I know it's early, but teams should definitely keep this in mind. Plus I'll be there, what more could anyone want?

[Avarik]

Well we went to the canadian regional...and all I gotta say is we had a blast! Team 188 hosted us, making it more cost effective, and a lot more fun too. Yeah, we had to pay a good deal for shipping and airplane tickets, but it was well worth it.

We started off heading over to team 188's member's houses. They were hosting us, so 2 southern californian kids per canadian family that was willing to host (11 students and the teacher came alltogether). They took us sight seeing on wednesday. We went to Niagra falls, where a few of us saw snow for the first or second time in our lives (no joke!). After that, we went to the top of the CN tower, where one of our members conquered his fear of heights. We had dinner in the revolving tower, and then headed to the raptor vs. golden state game.

The next 3 days were the competitions. Our teams were very friendly with eachother, and we constantly went back and forth to see how the other was doing. We would help where we could, loan tools, and just hang out in the bit of spare time we had. Saturday, 188 ended up being 8th seed, and alliance 6. They turned down an invite from a higher seed, and ended up picking us as their first alliance partner! We went on to the quarter-finals with our alliance, and sadly lost to the winning regional alliance in the tiebreaker. Unfortunatly, our robot's arm broke, as did 188's hanging mechanism. However, 188 won a few awards! They won the sportsmanship award, well deserved! They also won the website award for the second time this year, and I hope they can take it home at nationals. Their mentor, Mr. Anderson, won the Woodie Flowers award as well, and from what I saw, nobody would be more deserving.

We headed out to dinner with 188 that night and had a pretty good time there. Sunday they took us shopping at the Eaton Center, and we hung around with a few of their team members. Monday they took us to school with them, and beside the below freezing weather, it was fun. Our school systems are actually different in a lot of ways, so it was interesting to see how.

All in all, we had a blast! We could not have come up there without 188's support and help. They opened up their homes to us, and made sure we had a good time. We ended up in talks of a rotational system, where they would come the next year, then we would go to Canada the year after, etc. I cannot thank 188 enough for all of their help. As you can see, we stuck together and actually became good friends with their members.

I hope other teams take this lead and begin the hosting process, because it takes the cost of hotels out of the factor, enables some sightseeing, and makes the experience better alltogether.