Cal Games 2008

[caraddicted101]

Announcing Registration for CalGames 2008!

Competition Date: October 24 - 25, 2008

Competition Venue: Archbishop Mitty High School, San Jose CA

Competition: Cal Games 2008 will be a replay of the FIRST Robotics 2008 game.

Registration: $450 + $100 Volunteer Support Deposit = $550 due by September 15

Registration Policy for CalGames 2008

Every team needs to volunteer for a slot to confirm ANY registration regardless of TIER. Registration is limited to 30 teams and will be done in TIERS.

Tier 1 (10-12 slots)
• Tier 1 Registration opens June 1.
• Registration will be confirmed (pending payment) for Tier 1 slots only.
• Tier 1 DEFINITION:
1. Team commits to a hard-to-fill team volunteer slot:
-Thursday afternoon (school day before event at Fremont Storage locker)
-Tentatively Thursday afternoon (could be earlier) at NASA to load field into NASA truck
-Friday (10-1 and/or 12-3) to build the field and pits
-Sunday morning to empty truck to storage locker
-Monday afternoon to bring field back to NASA Ames
-These slots will be awarded on a “First Come, First Served” with commitment to hard-to-fill slot.
2. CalGames host in past two years:
still need to pick a volunteer slot during the event
3. Current Game host (assumed to have already filled a slot by hosting)

Tier 2 (~4-6 slots)
• Tier 2 Registration opens July 1. Registration will be confirmed (pending payment) for Tier 1 (any still open) & Tier 2 slots only.
• Teams in this tier still need to take a volunteer slot during the event
• Tier 2 DEFINITION:
1. Large summer assignment (awards, field element construction, etc.)
2. First two Rookie Teams (FIRST Rookie year past spring)

Tier 3 (balance of slots): OPEN REGISTRATION
• Tier 3 Registration opens August 1.
• Tier 3 DEFINITION:
1. First come, first served to register with payment OR by lottery to enter this tier.
If received PRIOR to August 1, will be dated August 1, Midnight.
2. If CalGames 2008 registration is oversubscribed, a lottery of registrations received will occur to determine balance of spots beyond Tier 1 & Tier 2.

Payment
Payment must be postmarked by 9/15 or slot goes to waiting list. Money sent in by 9/15 or lose team slot.

Forms
To obtain the Microsoft Word registration form, go to the Google WRRF Community Group to download the form

To register, please complete the form, and send with checks payable to WRRF and send to WRRF, 2530 Berryessa Road, #134, San Jose CA 95132-2903

If you have registration questions: send an email to WRRF@Druai.com You should receive an answer within two business days; in particular, replies are fastest on weekends.

Staying Informed:

It is vital contact information for your team is up-to-date: send emails to WRRF@Druai.com to confirm email addresses on file for your team! Inform everyone on your team about this event, and think about what you and your team can do to help.

GO CalGames 2008!

DETAILS
Schedule
June
6/1 Tier 1 Registration opens
6/7 10:30AM – 12:00PM Open TEAM Planning meeting
at Blade Network Technologies, 2350 Mission College, Santa Clara CA
6/21 Working group meeting (leads) at Mitty
July
7/1 Tier 2 Registration opens
~7/12 (tentative) Open TEAM Planning meeting at Mitty
August
8/1 Tier 3 Registration opens
~8/2 (tentative) Open TEAM Planning meeting
September
9/27 Fall 2008 Workshops
9/15 All monies due and payable or registration slot is lost
October
10/4 Open TEAM Planning meeting
10/24 (evening)
– 10/25 (all day) CalGames 2008
• Registration, inspection, field and pit setup on Friday; competition on Saturday.

Cal Games is a COMMUNITY event. We NEED EVERYONE in the Bay Area FIRST community to join the Cal Games Planning Committee to help put the competition together over the course of the summer! The Cal Games Planning Committee is open for all to join, whether you are a student or an adult. So think about what kind of event you want, what side events, what awards, what speakers, what displays, and come speak your mind at the summer meetings!


Frequently Asked Questions:
Q: What if we mail our registration before August 1 for a Tier 3 spot?
A: If received PRIOR to August 1, it will still only be dated August 1, Midnight. If several are sent in early, they will all have same date and time.

Q: What if dates/postmarks are the same and not enough slots?
A: If Tier 3 registration fills the balance of those slots, then a lottery will ensue and others can go on a waiting list. CalGames 2008 will only have 30 slots.

Q: Why did WRRF raise the registration fee to $450?
A: Gas prices are high, as you know. Trucks used for the event use gas. That is one reason. Also, the field this year looks to be more expensive to build and set-up, thus the budget is higher.

Q: When does the $100 Volunteer Support Deposit fee get refunded?
A: The support deposit will be refunded after CalGames 2008 if that team shows up for their assigned volunteer spot.

Q: What happens if not enough teams sign up?
A: In the unlikely event that insufficient teams pay by September 15, 2008, the event will be canceled unless enough teams completely register by September 2 and registration fees will be refunded.

Q: Will a liability waiver be required for each student, mentor, adult, parent, etc. from a team?
A: WRRF liability waiver will need to be completed by every team member attending, similar to that done for any FIRST competition. These will be in each team’s registration packet send several weeks before the competition.

Archbishop Mitty High School Directions:
http://local.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=...z=16 &iwloc=A

[SamC]

Originally Posted by caraddicted101

Competition: Cal Games 2008 will be a replay of the FIRST Robotics 2007 game.

"2007 game" as in Rack 'n' Roll?

[billbo911]

Originally Posted by SamSofa330

"2007 game" as in Rack 'n' Roll?

If that is the case, Tier 2 "Rookie" teams would have to build an entirely new robot. Or, they would have to rebuild their Overdrive robot into something completely new/different. I don't want to be a wet blanket, but that doesn't sound like a great idea. But then again, that is just my opinion.

[caraddicted101]

It will be a re-play of the 2008 game "Overdrive"

Sorry about the mistyping.

[billbo911]

Originally Posted by caraddicted101

It will be a re-play of the 2008 game "Overdrive"

Sorry about the mistyping.

Ahh, EXCELLENT!!! Now your talkin'!!!

[=Martin=Taylor=]

Haven't paid yet... But we're gonna go for sure!

Gotta defend the title ya know

[Ceal Craig]

Sorry folks, the typo was in my original post to WRRF community. It is the 2008 game. See the .PDF (corrected) I posted for WRRF.

Enjoy!

[=Martin=Taylor=]

Who's excited for tomorrow?!

When I left, lots of teams hadn't made it in yet.

[eugenebrooks]

There are a couple of teams that are expected to show up
early in the morning. We did quite a few practice matches
to test the field before closing up shop this evening.
Everything appears to be ready to go.

See you there!

Eugene

[bduddy]

Will there be any kind of streaming/archived video?

[=Martin=Taylor=]

Originally Posted by bduddy

Will there be any kind of streaming/archived video?

I don't believe so, but I'm gonna try my best to get vids on TBA.

[=Martin=Taylor=]

Another awesome WRRF event! Congratulations to all who competed, and thank you to BAE and all the volunteers!

Champions:
604, 100, 971

Finalists:
980, 2473, 115

846 won two design awards.

692 won the other judges award (I believe)

1351 won an award for hosting the event (they did a great job)

I didn't catch the name of the volunteer of the year.




Our team learned a great deal from this event.

Before the competition we decide to redesign our drive train to make it faster and more powerful. We decided to essentially hack our super shifters and turn them into "super non-shifters." We removed most of the excess gears and replaced the aluminum side plates with ABS plastic. This left us enough weight to add the two FP motors.

The result? Dramatically more power and speed, and 2 pounds lighter

All was well and good at Cal Games until the finals, when we had to play four matches back to back.

The new side panels were unable to dissipate the heat and our breakers tripped repeatedly, causing our robot to be jerky and slow. We even tried to use ice-packs to keep things cool... But we never really solved the problem.

Nonetheless it was a great learning experience, and something we will be accounting for in the future.

Perhaps AM should take note not to use plastic on the motor-side of their tyrannies anymore

[littlelala1993]

ummm.
about the awards that were won, you forgot one.

We won an award for their performance during hybrid <we knock a ball off of the overpass>

[JYang]

Volunteer was Ken for doing the Sundail and helping all teams

[Ken Leung]

Originally Posted by JYang

Volunteer was Ken for doing the Sundail and helping all teams

Just to clarify, Ken Mitchell has been an extraordinary volunteer ever since he became a part of WRRF. Whenever we need something done, Ken is always the first one to step up and take care of it, and this year he took care of the Sundail system, the A/V & computer setup at the scoring table, took the lead of team queuing, and was one of the first ones to show up to direct setup and tear down.

Great job Ken!


Then to clarify the Hybrid period awards,
the Finalist for the CalGames Hybrid Period Challenge went to Team 846,
and the Champion for the CalGames Hybrid Period Challenge went to Team 701.

The Highest Seeded Rookie Award also went to team 2551.


By the way, I would love to see any pictures of the event uploaded.