2012 Queen City FRC Regional

[cpeister]

Originally Posted by Gnishi2011

I'm sorry to have missed this [blame Augusta]. Is there a video up/going up soon?

Match videos are on Ustream.

[Travis Hoffman]

Originally Posted by cpeister

Match videos are on Ustream.

Also YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/user/delphielite/videos

[Drivencrazy]

Originally Posted by Grim Tuesday

I have a question about FTC teams: If they're meant to be an 'in between' for FLL and FRC, why aren't they aimed at a middle school audience?

EDIT: It's related to this thread because Dean just gave out new homework for every FRC team to help start FTC teams in a speech at Queen City.

I noticed that too. It seems as if FTC is a smaller scale and more affordable way for schools to have FIRST teams. Dean pitched it as the step up from FLL and then FTC students can progress on to FRC. But if FTC is made for high school students as well it doesn't make a lot of sense.

Aside from the progressions speech...

Queen City was a great regional. For a first year event it ran exceptionally smoothly and was overall a fantastic experience. All of the event staff, from the judges to the refs to the queuing staff, were fantastic and great to work with. I'm glad that our team chose to attend this event and I hope to visit it again in years to come.

The one thing about the venue I didn't like was the splitting of the pits into two sections. While I understand that it was the only way to fit almost 60 teams into a space that size it felt like teams were segregated for most of the weekend.

I would like to personally thank 3138 for selecting us and 3492 for being a great alliance partner.

I would also like to thank the Regional Planning Committee and volunteers for doing such a great job. I can't wait to see what they can do going forward with this awesome event.

Congratulations to Jimmy Nichols for the Volunteer of the year award. You definitely deserve it. Congratulations to 1014 on a well deserved RCA and to 1741 for your EI award. Also a big round of applause goes to the Regional Winners 45, 781, and 3940 with special congrats to 3940 for double qualifying with their RAS. You guys earned it with some great triple balancing and hybrid scoring all afternoon.

The competition at QCR was phenomenal and I look forward to watching all of the teams that qualified for the Championships in St. Louis.

[Duke461]

Originally Posted by Grim Tuesday

I have a question about FTC teams: If they're meant to be an 'in between' for FLL and FRC, why aren't they aimed at a middle school audience?

EDIT: It's related to this thread because Dean just gave out new homework for every FRC team to help start FTC teams in a speech at Queen City.

Originally Posted by Drivencrazy

I noticed that too. It seems as if FTC is a smaller scale and more affordable way for schools to have FIRST teams. Dean pitched it as the step up from FLL and then FTC students can progress on to FRC. But if FTC is made for high school students as well it doesn't make a lot of sense.
.

FTC is an extremely important competition. You are both correct in what you have said. FTC is designed to be both 1) a middle man between the competitions, and 2) to serve as a low-budget FRC team.

1) FLL is from elementary through 8th grade, so all of those years are covered. One of FTC's purpose is to make the step from FLL to FRC much easier. This can easily be accomplished by making your FTC team primarily a freshman-sophomore-/new-kid team, where the students are still learning a lot about FRC. This allows them to already be in a leadership, design-focused role and mindset without having to know as much about robotics "dynamics". In other words, they can be the seniors of FRC at an FTC level. This way, they're learning the basics of FRC, this being the more rigid, complex and creative design, while they are in FTC. By the time they take a large role in FRC, they have already learned the leadership and teamwork skills necessary to achieve in FRC through FTC.

2) Many schools cannot afford/have the manpower for an FRC team, so an easy step back (not meant in a negative or critical way) from that is to participate in FTC. FTC obviously saves you a very large amount of money, so schools with budget problems can much more easily afford to run an FTC program. This here is the primary reason that FTC is a 9-12 program, so that high schools that can't afford FRC can still run a higher-learning based program, or FTC. Granted, it's no FRC, but it's much further ahead of FLL, and is basically the best "compromise" between skill level and money. The skill level for the top teams of FTC exceeds the middle school level, and FTC provides a better low-budget replacement for FRC.

If you have any more questions or that was too confusing, please ask.

Hope this helps,
-Duke

[autox_vette]

Originally Posted by Drivencrazy

The one thing about the venue I didn't like was the splitting of the pits into two sections. While I understand that it was the only way to fit almost 60 teams into a space that size it felt like teams were segregated for most of the weekend.

I agree on this point. I felt kind of isolated and in the dark on what was going on in the other section. I'm probably just spoiled with MidWest with the jumbo-tron screen at the end of the pits so you can see what's going on the other side of the black curtain, but the only feedback we got was random numbers being announced over the PA as teams were being called to stage. After a while it just became a sea of numbers and it was hard to keep track of where you were...

Kenton

[Jimmy Nichols]

We plan on trying to get video feeds in the Auxillary Pit for next year.

[Kyle Love]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Nichols

We plan on trying to get video feeds in the Auxillary Pit for next year.

Going along these lines, I would also ask that there be a way to turn the pit volume down. At times it was horribly annoying to here some of the pit announcements at extreme levels. But like I said before, QCR had a lot of great things that you normally do not see at rookie regionals. Good job Jimmy and crew.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by Kyle Love

Going along these lines, I would also ask that there be a way to turn the pit volume down. At times it was horribly annoying to here some of the pit announcements at extreme levels. But like I said before, QCR had a lot of great things that you normally do not see at rookie regionals. Good job Jimmy and crew.

People at the front of the Outcast Pit said the PA Speakers were too loud and the people at the back end said it was too low. This is a familiar complaint at many regionals actually. Not sure if there is anyway you won't have someone who is unhappy.

[gracie.]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

People at the front of the Outcast Pit said the PA Speakers were too loud and the people at the back end said it was too low. This is a familiar complaint at many regionals actually. Not sure if there is anyway you won't have someone who is unhappy.

We prefer "Secret Pit", but yes, situated in the back corner of the pit it was hard to hear things, but it seemed as if the problem was fixed after Thursday.

[Jimmy Nichols]

Thank you all for the great compliments. Among the Committee members I believe we are topping out at over 100 years of experience in FRC. We tried to pull together the best of the events we have attended and put it together at QCR. We realize we have a few tweaks to make and we are meeting in a few weeks to go over them. I have only received backa handful of feedback forms, please respond and let us know how we can make the event even better for next year.

[akoscielski3]

This jacket was found outside near the musketeer statue. We found this after taking pictures of the team. It is not ours, but we turned it into the Pit Admin, and were told that it would be either going to FIRST Headcourters, or the championships.

If this is your jacket you may want to call FIRST or ask at championships if you are going.

[Ryan Reliford]

What a great event...I had a blast. I was happy to be able to help out some teams as CSA and see so many great robots. Can't wait til next year.

Congrats to all the award winners. Special thanks and congrats go out to one of the best teachers I had as a high school student, Mr. King, and his team from Dublin, 1014. It was great meeting up with you here at Cintas and seeing your team not only compete well but also win the Chairman's award. Well done. I look forward to seeing the iBook as well.

And of course, congrats to all the finalists and the winners of the QCR. Hope to see you all again in St. Louis and again next year at the QCR.

[M. Mellott]

So now that I’ve had a chance to catch up on work (and sleep), I finally have a chance to mention a few people:

Jimmy, Dave, and the planning committee - Congratulations on a fantastic inaugural QC Regional. You and the Event Volunteers had everything running as smooth as a veteran event.

Machine shop crew – I know many other teams took advantage of your services, but thanks especially for being so readily available in our time of need on Thursday.

Andy Baker and the Inspectors (new band name?) – Thank you for all of your efforts, including your assistance in a torn-bag-during-transport issue.

1014 – Congratulations on winning the Chairman’s Award

45, 781, and 3940 – A great display of teamwork and tenacity out there to win one of the most competitive and balanced eliminations I’ve seen. It was an honor to compete against you.

379 – Our NEOFRA friends. Nothing annoyed me more than to have to face you so early in the elimination rounds. Your drive team had that robot dialed in, taking the first QF match and forcing us to come back in a second and third hard-fought win. I always enjoy working with your kids—great to play both with and against you.

1038 – We have partnered with you at least one regional a year in every year of our existence, so I’m glad we could finally come away with some hardware together. You were a great alliance partner.

48 – Well, what can I say that I haven’t already? I’ve been a part of this team for 10 long years now, and I’m so happy to be a part of this truly memorable season. Sorry we couldn’t go 3-for-3, but there’s always the World Championships. Much pride and warm fuzzies go out to the students who have worked hard this season—your efforts are being rewarded.

3193 – The other half of my FIRST family. This was the first-ever FIRST award in our short 3-year existence as a team, and I have so much pride and love for each and every one of you. You really came together as a team last weekend, and you finally turned all of your trials and struggles into success. To our drive team…simply an amazing effort!

I want to especially thank an unsung hero: Keith Rising, Team 48’s drive team coach. Though he’s been a great friend for many years, I’ve never had a chance to work with him from the other side as an alliance partner. The calmness and positive vibe that he brings to everyone during the strategy sessions is amazing. Win or lose, he’s so upbeat and supportive of everyone, especially of the students. His effort to go seek out 3193’s drive team after they missed the last-second basket that would have won the second Final’s match and make sure they weren’t feeling down about the loss brought tears. He’s a great teacher and someone that every team should have a chance to work with.

Thank you all for a great event and here’s looking forward to seeing everyone in St. Louis!

[JohnFogarty]

Originally Posted by Grim Tuesday

I have a question about FTC teams: If they're meant to be an 'in between' for FLL and FRC, why aren't they aimed at a middle school audience?

EDIT: It's related to this thread because Dean just gave out new homework for every FRC team to help start FTC teams in a speech at Queen City.

In no way in my experience is it targeted towards middle school, take
A look at some YouTube videos of the past years robot games and robots for FTC. In small ways our games are getting infinitely more complicated especially last year, Get Over It, is where the FRC GDC got the balance bridges from. I'm surprised they didn't give 30 seconds and allowed FRC teams to try to
Balance on the bridges during auto for bonus points.

Either way in their complexity of the robot, FRC wins. FTC has the higher challenge to me, a lot fewer parts, but an unlimited amount of work time compensating.

[Jimmy Nichols]

Despite the Controversial Call, I hope everyone in attendance had a great time. We worked extremely hard to provide a great event for the teams.

For those teams attending, expect to see an email within the next few days asking for feedback, for those who won't see those emails, please PM me any feedback you may have. We will be meeting soon to discuss the event and planning for next year.

A big Congratulations to all the teams! I hope to see you all next year.