Bills Blog - Champs info

[JohnBoucher]

http://frcdirector.blogspot.com/2011...st-on-cmp.html

All the fields are not in the same location

Full Text....
The latest on CMP


Good Afternoon Teams,

The Championship Planning Committee met last night. Its mindboggling how many details there are to running an event like the Championship every year. Now that we’re moving to a new location, after seven years in Atlanta, GA, the committee needs to examine every aspect of the event, ask ‘why do we do this this way?’ and determine ‘what is the best way to do this in St. Louis?’ Not everything is 100% firm yet, but here is the latest information I have on the 2011 FIRST Championship.

Wednesday
5-9:30PM – 5 representatives from each FRC team will be allowed into the pits to:

• Uncrate their robot – robot inspectors will be on hand to check your lock-up form if your last regional was a bag & tag event
• Work on their robot – the NASA machine shops will be open
• Get their robot inspected
• Get their encryption key

Thursday
Teams may calibrate their robot sensors on the competition fields 8:00am-8:45am
Practice matches run 9:00am – noon
Qualification matches run 1:00-7:00pm YES, MATCHES RUN UNTIL 7PM
Pits will stay open until 8PM

Friday
Opening Ceremonies start at 8:30am. There will be NO ROBOT PARADE.
Qualification matches 9:30am-5:00pm YES, MATCHES ARE SCHEDULED TO END AT 5PM
The FIRST Dean’s List presentation will be held at noon in the Ballroom
Pits and the NASA machine shops will stay open until 7pm

Saturday
Closing Ceremonies, including the final FRC matches and award presentations are scheduled 4:00pm-6:00

I will be hosting half hour FRC Live sessions at 10:30 & 3:30 on Thursday and at 10:30 on Friday. I’m not ready to announce the topics, but I do want to thank everyone who sent in suggestions.

The floor plan will be VERY DIFFERENT in St. Louis. New this year, two qualification fields will be located in the Dome and two qualification fields will be located in the pits. To ensure all teams get to compete both in the high profile Dome and on the easy access, intimate fields in the pits, divisions will swap fields at noon on Friday. Specifically: if your team starts qualification rounds on Dome field #1 on Thursday, your team will move to Pit field #1 on Friday while the teams who started qualification rounds on Pit field #1 on Thursday, move to Dome field #1 on Friday

Watch this space, and your team’s main and alternate contact’s email inbox for additional updates. I understand from the committee that there will be more details available on April 20th.

22 Days until Championship
See you then!

[AdamHeard]

Not all fields are in the dome, some are in the pits.... Wow, the scouts will not be happy about this.

[Koko Ed]

Switching fields?
Man I thought we left that crap back at Disneyworld. I don't know anyone who missed that nonsense.
If the Jones Dome wasn't big enough to hold four fields then why in the world did FIRST grant them the contract for three years?
This is looking worse and worse every time I turn around to look again.

[Alex Cormier]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

Switching fields?
Man I thought we left that crap back at Disneyworld. I don't know anyone who missed that nonsense.
If the Jones Dome wasn't big enough to hold four fields then why in the world did FIRST grant them the contract for three years?
This is looking worse and worse every time I turn around to look again.

What would cause them to do this? Isn't the football field the same size as ATL? It was perfect in ATL, so why change it for STL?

Seems like a step backwards.

So, now there will be 4 fields in the pits and 3 fields in the dome?

[Cyberphil]

Kind of interesting, but it will be a pain to scout. At least you only have to scout your devision. But still, moving all of the equipment and all will not be too fun.

On the competition side of things, one day you will have an easy walk, and the next day a bit farther.

I was not around for Championships when it was in Disney, but this really does sound like a pain.

Other than that, everything sounds good. I am really glad we get to work for a while on Wednesday. I am sure many teams including us will need this time.

[Dancin103]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

Switching fields?
Man I thought we left that crap back at Disneyworld. I don't know anyone who missed that nonsense.
If the Jones Dome wasn't big enough to hold four fields then why in the world did FIRST grant them the contract for three years?

Ed, you said it. Talk about MAJOR MAJOR MAJOR confusion. This is going to be a mess for everyone. It's just going to turn into a free for all.

Cass

[Justin Montois]

Oh wow. To say STL will be different is an understatement.

Qual matches until 7PM on Thursday is good, Hopefully that means more matches. (More then 10?)

No mention of how Saturday afternoon is going to go per each division. It just mentions final rounds starting at 4:30, we'll have to stay tuned to see if anything there changes. Possibly no Qualifiication matches on Saturday?

I'm not sure how i'm going to like the "pit" fields versus "Dome" fields. It will be different. The goal here is to have a more "intimate" field set-up in the pits. I wonder why this change was made though, we ran 4 fields in Atlanta for 7 years and sure it wasn't as intimate but it was awesome seeing all 4 fields going at once. Granted queuing may have been a little hectic at times but when isn't it? And if we are swapping fields at Noon on Friday does that mean if you start in the pits on Thursday, you get to go to the Dome on Friday at noon and then what happens on Saturday?


Stay tuned for more infro from Bill. This thread is going to be interesting to watch. Mike and I just got a ton of things to talk about on our Show tomorrow night. (http://frctop25.com/MikeandJustinITM.html)

[dodar]

If the pits werent crowded enough as they were!?!

[LightWaves1636]

So the divisions are switching fields but are the volunteer staff sticking to their divisions or sticking to their fields cause what I'm concerned with are consistent ref calls in each division.

eek, what a logistics nightmare.....

omg, what's the team social going to be like?

[Mr. Van]

Originally Posted by LightWaves1636

... what's the team social going to be like?

From what I can tell, there has been NO INFORMATION about the "social" or "finale" from [i]FRIST[i] or Steele Meetings other than "we will have one" and all details are "TBA".

Anyone have any other information?

Will there be one? Will food be available? Anyone know?

-Mr. Van
Coach, Robodox

[Pat Fairbank]

If it's anything like the Epcot setup was, "intimate" will mean "impossible to find seating".

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by Pat Fairbank

If it's anything like the Epcot setup was, "intimate" will mean "impossible to find seating".

At Disney people were interested to find spots in those tent area because they were shaded instead of watching matches on whatever field they were assigned to back in 2002.
This isn't quite as extreme but it'll be interesting to watch teams jostle for position for when they switch fields.

[Jon Jack]

This sounds like a disaster waiting to happen....

Besides the fact that there's going to be a huge exodus from the pits to the dome and visa versa Friday at noon, what about teams using line followers or cameras? Instead of calibrating for 1 field, they now have to calibrate for two fields in the alloted 45 minutes. Instead of ~86 teams looking for a spot on one field, there are 160+ teams looking for a spot on both fields. Furthermore, how is FIRST planning on transferring tournament data from "Dome Field #1" to "Pit Field #1"? What if a team has issues connecting to one field but not the other? Will teams be allowed to practice on both fields prior to the start of qualifications?

I too am curious how Saturday afternoon will work. Do teams in two divisions get to use their own pit area, while the teams in the other two have to move their pit to the Dome? What happens when the pit divisions move on to Einstein? Do those 6 teams have to hurry up, pack up their pit and make a mad dash to the dome?

--Jon

[Jessica Boucher]

::headdesk::

[LightWaves1636]

Originally Posted by Jessica Boucher

::headdesk::

Agreed.