What did you all think of Nat's?

[Kyle Hill]

How to nearly die of heat exhaustion.

Add 2 hours of division playoffs on Einstein, plus an hour of national playoffs on Einstein, plus three hours of listening to speeches made on Einstein. Stir, cook at 90 degrees with high humidity. For an extra zest, make your team wear black cotton work shirts. Serves 50-60 people.

Though I really can't complain, I'm sure it could have been much much much worse.

[katie86]

Well, I was a driver AGAIN this year. I've never gotten to experience competition from a "non-operator" standpoint. I do have to say that I dreaded walking out to Einstein because, even though I live a mere 3 hours away to the north of Disney, it was HOT. And I don't like hot. When finals came around and I was stuck standing in line to get on stage, I was about ready to fall over. No sleep for 4 days + 90 degrees = passed out. (Even though we lost in the first round of quarterfinals, I was more than happy with how we did in the competition)

Closing ceremony was RIDICULOUS. I love the competition, I love watching the awards being given out, but... I like short and simple. I was sweaty, tired, and sunburned. I really wanted to go to my hotel before the party because, like always, I forgot to bring a change of clothes and I just felt nasty. But seeing as closing ceremony ran about 50 minutes late, I didn't really have that option.

A few bad things, though: I fell down so many times this year that I have bruises up and down my back. When the crates were still in the pits, I was sitting on top of ours and... I jumped off and.. splatted on the ground.

When we got chosen for finals, I jumped out of my seat and did my screaming... but when I went to sit back down, I forgot the seats flip up. I landed in the remains of my salad on the floor. Nice.

On the bus ride back, I was sleeping on the floor and there was an exposed chunk of metal on the bottom of a seat. I lost a nice bit of my big toe to that piece of metal and succeeded in bleeding everywhere.

So it was good. Better than last year because the competition seemed more exciting and my team seemed a lot more spirited. Closing ceremony gets a bit of a thumbs-down from me, especially because of the whole Mandy Moore thing. That had me running out of the stands as fast as I could. Yuck.

Hald of my team didn't get food at the party, either. They were all first year kids, and I told them they had better run or they wouldn't be eating. They didn't listen to me. Heh.

I didn't collect any buttons this year, though I was too busy doing other things and then the rest of the time I was just tired.
Some guy from Wisconsin told me I had a Southern accent. Scary.

[Alex Forest]

The bad thing was, couple of mis-call on the ruling during qualification

Yes, we had this happen to us during a great round with Space Ghost..sorry guys. Made us realize we really hate the no changing the score rule...looking back on video showed that our human player did NOT go over the plexiglass....sorry guys!

[E Jones 234]

yes, it was hot, yes the food was expensice, and yes the awards ceremony was long, but i still think nationals were awesome! i am a freshman and this was my first year. i got to drive in one of our matches and i was really pleased with our 10th place standing in the qualification matches. i think our team should have been picked for an aliance, but we didnt. thats ok tho, cuz i still had a LOT of fun!

[soap108]

Originally posted by Alex Forest


Yes, we had this happen to us during a great round with Space Ghost..sorry guys. Made us realize we really hate the no changing the score rule...looking back on video showed that our human player did NOT go over the plexiglass....sorry guys!

313/312/108 from Einstein got burned in the Semifinals by a DQ. That pretty much cost us the series.

Also 409/108 got burnt in the quals by a DQ that was not called, then called, then un-called against our opponent. It didn't make a real diff in our ranking, but the principles (and rules) that were broken in the process were disconcerting.

Oh well.
KA-108

p.s. As for the heat, it wasn't as bad as in years past. Also, since '95 I can't recall it ever raining DURING qualifying matches on a Friday or a Saturday, or during the awards ceremony. But there's been times when it was close. Then who can not forget 2001's Thursday practices were there was water all inside the Pit area!!

[Kyle Fenton]

I rate the nationals the same as last year.

One thing I was surpirsed about though is the fact that there was a big FIRST logo in neon lights on top of Einstein, and it was never lit. Kind of a waste of money.

I think that the nationals were also a little better organized than last year.

[Koko Ed]

This was my first year on FIRST and if I were going to show someone who has never been to, or heard of the FIRST event I would definately take them to a Regional. I think they capture the spirit of FIRST much better than the Nationals. It's too big, too spread out, too hot, too long, too expensive, TOO MUCH!
I did like going to Disney though.

[E Jones 234]

i TOTALLY agree with you on that!! Nationals are also a lot more confusing! trying to explain the scoring is much easier at a regional than at nationals. the regionals were almost as much fun, and they would probably be a lot easier for an "outsider" to understand.