Championship 2011 - St Louis - Your Thoughts Please?

[dangerousdave]

Please tell us what you thought about the Championship event this year, the First year in St Louis.

I was regrettably unable to attend the event for the first time in 8 years due to it not being in my area anymore however, I did enjoy the competition on the NASA feeds. On Einstein, I liked the instant replays after the matches. In autonomous mode, I liked the overhead double camera view however, we only saw that view for about 5-7 seconds and missed some scoring. The video montage of past champions at the end of the day on Saturday had audio but no video.

I would assume that not having the Newton field in the dome for 2 days was a disappointment for many.

Dave

[CassCity2081]

I dont know how other people felt about it, but I enjoyed the fields in the pits. I was in Curie division and so I was in the pits for two days. It was a much shorter commute to get to and from the field and I was able to get to my scouts quicker for information on the teams we would be playing. I think that it was better than many people thought it would be.

[ratdude747]

Originally Posted by CassCity2081

I dont know how other people felt about it, but I enjoyed the fields in the pits. I was in Curie division and so I was in the pits for two days. It was a much shorter commute to get to and from the field and I was able to get to my scouts quicker for information on the teams we would be playing. I think that it was better than many people thought it would be.

My only peeve with the pit field was the bleachers were too small. it was cramped... At boilermaker regional, the bleachers were packed... and they had bigger bleachers and less teams... this was by far worse.

[Jeffy]

Originally Posted by ratdude747

My only peeve with the pit field was the bleachers were too small. it was cramped... At boilermaker regional, the bleachers were packed... and they had bigger bleachers and less teams... this was by far worse.

From the webcast, it appeared there were many open seats and I was hopeful. Too bad this was the case.

[Chexposito]

the fields in the pits were better than i anticipated for the drive teams. i really liked my pit because we could watch matches for our division when bored on thursday and saturday, but i also got to see Galileo compete on friday, something the dome never really permitted for those in the pits or on drive team with 100% dome fields. the one bad part was that the noise in the pits increased rapidly, and the safety inspectors got complained to teams when people came by our pit for various reasons when the majority of the path was taken up by standing field spectators... the concert had one problem that i thought i never would have seen as happening... crowd surfing started and PEOPLE WERE INJURED. from what I saw, a member of 1305 was crushed by one of these surfers. this was sickening to me because an innocent person was injured due to a concert that they went to that was designed to be a reward to their efforts. i don't know what else to say about this, maybe a no crowd surfing rule? people need to be considerate of those around them? i don't know how to fix it, but i have never heard any good stories about what happens when someone finishes their crowd "surf"...

[Chexposito]

i think the problem with wednesday was the rain... i think everyone would have been a lot more forgiving to each other without it, the traffic would have been able to clear before the doors opened because teams wouldn't be afraid of getting their stuff wet... maybe a rain load in strategy for the pits? it would be nice if there was some area like the georgia dome, where the buses could load and unload. the load in/out there was really easy, the doors were big and the pits were not accessible by this area, so loading into a building was possible...

[Tristan Lall]

Originally Posted by Chexposito

the concert had one problem that i thought i never would have seen as happening... crowd surfing started and PEOPLE WERE INJURED. from what I saw, a member of 1305 was crushed by one of these surfers. this was sickening to me because an innocent person was injured due to a concert that they went to that was designed to be a reward to their efforts. i don't know what else to say about this, maybe a no crowd surfing rule? people need to be considerate of those around them? i don't know how to fix it, but i have never heard any good stories about what happens when someone finishes their crowd "surf"...

I was surprised when I heard that FIRST was willing to sanction a standing crowd during the concert. There was an incident a few years ago that caused FIRST to restrict that sort of activity. (I'm not sure where I stand on allowing/disallowing/not caring about that sort of behaviour at an FRC event.)

[Chexposito]

Originally Posted by Tristan Lall

I was surprised when I heard that FIRST was willing to sanction a standing crowd during the concert. There was an incident a few years ago that caused FIRST to restrict that sort of activity. (I'm not sure where I stand on allowing/disallowing/not caring about that sort of behaviour at an FRC event.)

i was surprised too, they told our team that the wristbands were for "special seating" we didn't figure that was "floor" until we distributed the tickets where some said "floor" and others had sections.

i do however find it funny that so many of the students were watching the teleprompter that they had a staff member hold a sign in front of it. also there seemed to be a lack of energy in the finals crowd (late night...). i remember the massive waves on all the decks last year, the crowd beach balls, all of which were fun. especially when we got into doing more than one wave per level and people used their physics knowlege to go really high up when they met and both sides of this continued the respective waves. oh well i guess this is where i miss the georgia dome.

the airplane throwing competition was fun to watch though. especially the crowd reaction to them making it far (to the torn down devision field area) or to the awards stage

[Nemo]

Good:

The availability of good seating for Einstein was much better in St. Louis than it was in Atlanta. Having more space around Einstein and having the upper levels open was key.

The convenience of immediate free boxed supper after Einstein was really amazing - I am hoping we see this again in the future. Best idea ever.

Finishing Einstein on time was much appreciated.

The concert was really cool. I was initially negative toward that idea, but it turned out to be great for the students. Even if it made us more exhausted on Saturday morning.

Allowing pit work and inspections on Wednesday evening was GREAT.

Starting qualifiers on Thursday afternoon was GREAT.

Bad:

Having every single door on the 9th street side of the pits closed was really annoying. At least setup a single door as an exit for people who parked over there.

I got confused trying to get from the pits to the dome. Some well placed signs would help directions stupid people like me.

The pit fields made the pits very noisy.

No field monitor screen in pit area.

Crowded / uncomfortable bleachers in pit fields.

[fsgond]

I have to say that one of my biggest problems that I had was the seating at the concert. Our team was up as high as you could possibly be, not by choice mind you. We could not understand what the speakers were saying. Also we could not actually see the black eyed peas. It could have been 4 of our team members down there, and I could have not told the difference. I felt as though we got the bad end of the deal when there were teams that were right up at the stage. If the would have rotated the entire venue 90 degrees there would have been more seating at a reasonable level.

I am sure that a lot of these problems will be addressed after a few years.

[Grim Tuesday]

Watching the Einstein webcast, they didn't play music, or the music wasn't broadcasted to the web viewers. It make the whole event seem toned down.

I was forced to play thunderstruck in the backround myself

[elemental]

Pros:
- Fields in the pits
- Roboprom
- Black Eyed Peas Concert (Letting Chairman's teams have floor tickets was a nice touch.)
- Meeting Hall of Fame teams
- Attending the Chief Delphi WebHug
- Aerial Robotics!

Cons:
- Little space outdoors or indoors to decompress. It seemed that anywhere I went was loud and crowded.
- The Black Eyed Peas concert. Taking up half of the arena made the commute to Galileo/Newton much longer as everyone had to use the same route.
- The wrap party. It was extremely chaotic and my team decided to leave earlier than planned to because of the crowds.
- Seating for the fields in the pits.
- Having Chairman's interviews on Thursday.

[lpickett]

I have only been to Atlanta once, so I do not have a lot to judge this by. That being said, there are definately pros and cons. Pros: short distance from pits to dome for robot traffic. Parking was close and not too bad on cost. The bleachers were not big enough. Missouri/Illinois teams had large groups since it was such a short trip for us. I was disappointed in the cleanliness of the center and dome. When we arrived Saturday morning, there was still trash-filled containers outside the dome. This did not present a good look for Missouri or St. Louis. There were not enought trash containers in the pit areas for the number of people. The robot crossing route was right by the bathrooms. Needed to be better monitored and maybe routed away from bathrooms and water fountains. Food venues closed earlier than pits. Not handicap friendly for movement from pits to dome, especially if you are on the other side of the dome. It took me two days to figure out how to get my husband from one place to another easily with his oxygen tank.

[DeAnnaC]

Just a few more thoughts (and I'm from St. Louis):

Pros:
It was nice sleeping at home each night!

I thought for the most part, the layout in the Convention Center with pits and vendors was good, there were some traffic jams (esp when returning from the dome at the first corner).

The St. Louis Planning group did a good job of getting the word out - we saw it on multiple billboards, soda cans, at the little screens at gas stations, on sheets attached to pizza boxes, etc. We ran into a family in the dome who had seen it on tv and drove over from Illinois. We helped them into the convention center and gave them info to navigate around (do we need a 'Are you new to FIRST? ' table?

I had a blast at all the events, and it may be next weekend before I've recovered. The Black Eyed Peas - I'm glad we went, I thought the video clips (esp Jack Black's) was hilarious. It was good to laugh. We decided we were way too old to be down on the floor, lol.

The talent show - we are just glad more people were able to witness Fishboy. And it's always nice to see the variety of talent that these kids have.

The collegiate teams - that was very interesting - they need more seating and a posted schedule


Cons:
The price of parking, even at the same lot. On 2 days we had to leave and return, and the price at the same lot had changed while we were gone.

The STINKY tennis shoes from our team mates after standing in the 6 inches of water to unload - they were dry by the next day but in a small vehicle each day back down there the smell was awful, maybe the shoes need replaced? Ugh.

Lack of things for younger visitors to do on Saturday - the Lego booth should have stuck around for local people who came down.

At the Georgia Dome, there was more than 1 set of doors to enter the building - routing everyone thru the same set of doors every day and for the concert was a mess. I know that this event lacked some volunteers, perhaps this is the reason other doors were not open?

I can't wait for next year though.

DeAnna
FEED THE FISH!

[Refresh]

The Good:
St. Louis:Wonderful Venue. The Commute across the field wasn't that bad and didn't take much time to get from one place to another.
The Concert:Really enjoyed the Black Eyed Peas.
CARD matches:With me being a College student, I've really missed participating in this year's game. This just might be a cool challenge to participate
The Lego station: The whole station was great. From the structures of the Arch and Boba Fett to the Lego Chess board really made the place enjoyable.

the Bad:
The Concert: Our team got to be all the way up in the nosebleed seats and we weren't able to see any of the video's or the special effects that were displayed on the back screen. If they had put it on the front screen that was down between acts, people at the top would probably have had a chance to see the videos.
Pit seating:The fields in the pit were fine really, the only thing that needs to change is more seating. The stands were packed with people and even the steps had people with it. Apart from that, I didn't really have a problem with the stands being in the pits.