Championships for dummies

[Simon Strauss]

This year is going to be my first time attending nationals and hopefully not my last, and as someone on a team that has also never been i am left with many questions about how Nationals operates, how it is different from regionals and how to prepare. Many of these are questions that so far have not been answered by friends and family that have previously attended nationals, nor can be easily found on these forums. So as a solution to this problem that I'm sure many of you share, I've decided that CD needs its own addition of the famous book series, Championships for dummies (n00bs, newbies, 1st timers, whatever name for us you please)

My intention is that this Thread will be able to function as a quick way for those who have any type of question concerning nationals in Atlanta, even if they have already attended, can find or ask for the information that they are looking for. In order for this thread to complete its goal i am going to have to kindly ask all of you to try to avoid rambunctious posts, insanely long answers to simple questions(feel free to extrapolate on any point in a PM if the rest of us don't need to know it) and any type of double answering already answered questions unless you have a very important point to, add, contradict, or if done in a very close time range, and all those other things that i along with most of the FIRST community are often guilty of.

That being said id like to start this off by asking what the deal is with scouting at nationals, in general and in particular for those of us who aren't expecting to go far, but are instead attending for the experience.

thanks,
Simon

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by nycpunk

This year is going to be my first time attending nationals and hopefully not my last, and as someone on a team that has also never been i am left with many questions about how Nationals operates, how it is different from regionals and how to prepare. Many of these are questions that so far have not been answered by friends and family that have previously attended nationals, nor can be easily found on these forums. So as a solution to this problem that I'm sure many of you share, I've decided that CD needs its own addition of the famous book series, Championships for dummies (n00bs, newbies, 1st timers, whatever name for us you please)

My intention is that this Thread will be able to function as a quick way for those who have any type of question concerning nationals in Atlanta, even if they have already attended, can find or ask for the information that they are looking for. In order for this thread to complete its goal i am going to have to kindly ask all of you to try to avoid rambunctious posts, insanely long answers to simple questions(feel free to extrapolate on any point in a PM if the rest of us don't need to know it) and any type of double answering already answered questions unless you have a very important point to, add, contradict, or if done in a very close time range, and all those other things that i along with most of the FIRST community are often guilty of.

That being said id like to start this off by asking what the deal is with scouting at nationals, in general and in particular for those of us who aren't expecting to go far, but are instead attending for the experience.

thanks,
Simon

Scouting will probably eat up alot of your time (about 84 other teams in the division). Use it wisely.

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by nycpunk

what the deal is with scouting at nationals, in general and in particular for those of us who aren't expecting to go far, but are instead attending for the experience.

But you never know how far you'll go, so do the scouting as if you expected to win it all.
The goal should be to figure out the strengths and weaknesses of the other (84?) teams, with an eye towards what strategy might work well against or with that team.
Nationals is huge, so spread out the scouting amongst a lot of people, so everybody gets time to just watch, cruise the pits, etc.

Good luck,
Don

[JamesBrown]

If you have a mentor team or if you mentor a team who is in your division then think about splitting up scouting between the two teams.

Also if you have friends (or want to make friends) in another division offer them scouting reports on your division In case they make it to Einstein

[Nuttyman54]

This is what I've come to understand about how the championship works. Is this correct?

There are 5 divisions: Archimedes, Galileo, Newton and Curie for the award winners and preregistered teams, and Einstein for the regional winners. Each division plays like a regional. Each winning division alliance goes on to play to be the National Champion alliance. One thing I'm not clear on is how the Championship Finals play out? How do you do it with 5 alliances?

[Matt_Kaplan1902]

Originally Posted by Nuttyman54

This is what I've come to understand about how the championship works. Is this correct?

There are 5 divisions: Archimedes, Galileo, Newton and Curie for the award winners and preregistered teams, and Einstein for the regional winners. Each division plays like a regional. Each winning division alliance goes on to play to be the National Champion alliance. One thing I'm not clear on is how the Championship Finals play out? How do you do it with 5 alliances?

There are only 4 divisions with all the teams mixed, not a seperate one for regional winners. Einstein is used for the division winners to play the Final 4.

[Dan Petrovic]

There are only 4 divisions. Archimedes, Newton, Curie, and Galileo. Einstein isn't actually a division, it's just a field that FLL is played on as well as the finals with the the division champions.

The Einstein finals are just like regular elimination matches. I don't know which divisions go up against which, though.

One of our mentors counted the steps between the pit and the field. 652 steps, not counting escalators or elevators. It's quite a journey between the two. For the drivers, there's a much shorter route.

[Freddy Schurr]

Is there any good java places?

[Dillon Compton]

There is a starbucks in the convention center, fairly close to the pits; ~5 minute walk.


We also need to figure out scouting at nationals this year.

[blue_crew]

Is there any kind of sack lunch program available?
How and where do you eat your lunches?

[Matt_Kaplan1902]

Originally Posted by blue_crew

Is there any kind of sack lunch program available?
How and where do you eat your lunches?

The CNN Center is about a 5-10 min walk from the pits and has a mall-style food court. I found it to be the best option as far as lunch goes.

As far as scouting goes, make sure to sign up for a CD of all your divisions matches from SOAP. I believe they are going to have a pre-event sign up sometime soon.

[Dan Petrovic]

Originally Posted by MATT_kaplan108

The CNN Center is about a 5-10 min walk from the pits and has a mall-style food court. I found it to be the best option as far as lunch goes.

It's more than a mall-style food court. That food court is HUGE! Bigger than any mall's food court I've ever seen. It's enormous and it just goes UP! You go in there and look up, it sure is a sight to see.

The CNN center food court is a point of interest. It's like 5 minutes walk away from the arena, too. In fact there is a walkway from the food court to the arena.

[RoboMom]

BTW-NEMO is starting another white paper in the hints and tips series. "Preparing for the Championship" Thanks to KathieK for another great idea. The main focus is not stuff like scouting, but how to plan ahead for this, especially with funding. We will include any best practices from this thread.

[Carol]

Also check out MOEmentum, which gives weekly updates during the build season for rookie teams; it includes tips from mentors and students compiled throughout the years. The unit on the Championship hasn't been updated yet, but you can still access last years - "Championship Preparation - The Mother of All FIRST Events". It will be updated in a week or two


http://moe365.org/moementum.php

[Michael Corsetto]

Originally Posted by InfernoX14

There are only 4 divisions. Archimedes, Newton, Curie, and Galileo. Einstein isn't actually a division, it's just a field that FLL is played on as well as the finals with the the division champions.

The Einstein finals are just like regular elimination matches. I don't know which divisions go up against which, though.

One of our mentors counted the steps between the pit and the field. 652 steps, not counting escalators or elevators. It's quite a journey between the two. For the drivers, there's a much shorter route.

Are you reffering to last year's Championship or the year before? Compared to two years ago, last year was a breeze getting from the pits to the Georgia Dome. I have fond memories from 2004 of going up 3 sets of escalators then down another looooooooooooong escalator just to get from the pits to the field. It took like 10 minutes! (but sliding pennies down the side of the escalator was fun

Last year's pit location was much better. It was a walk in the park (literally, if you count that grass field as a park) to get from the pits to the stadium. It also made for an easy escape to play some ultimate frisbee.

Mike C.