This is no rumor. The 2005 season dates and capacities are up!
We can begin planning our competition calendars.
Here is a lot of information:
http://www.usfirst.org/robotics/2005/reg_open.htm
Very Very Cool. Good Luck in 2005
Note that the link from that page to the Championship Eligibility points to the 2004 information. Change the 2004 to 2005 in the URL if you want to see the updated page.
So I assume that they’re either adding another field or having regular matches on Einstein this year since the championship capacity has been increased from 290 to 340 teams.
And the kickoff’s on my birthday! What a nice gift.
Edit: I know this has been brought up before, but check this out. The 2005 version of eligibility criteria says “Regional Champions (number per regional event TBD based on the 2005 game)” The 2004 one said “Regional Champions (3 per Regional)”
I noticed that the capacity of the championship is listed as 239, not 340. If you assume no overlap between Chairmen’s winners, original teams, 2004 Championship winners, 2004 Championship Engineering Inspiration Award winner, 2005 Regional Chairman’s Award winners, 2005 Regional Engineering Inspiration Award winners, and 2005 Regional Rookie All-Star Award winners, that means that -13 teams will have to be regional winners in 2005 in order to make 340 teams. Hmm, I guess there is overlap.
Anyway, to summarize:
Week 1 (Mar 3-5): Manchester, Rochester, VCU, Peachtree, Sacramento
Week 2 (Mar 10-12): Arizona, Florida, Great Lakes, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, UTC
Week 3 (Mar 17-19): Purdue, New Jersey, Long Island, Chesapeake, Detroit, Pacific Northwest
Week 4 (Mar 24-26): Buckeye, Colorado, Midwest, NYC, Philly, Silicon Valley, Waterloo
Week 5 (Mar 31-Apr 2): Greater Toronto, Las Vegas, Lone Star, Palmetto, West Michigan, Southern California
Week 8 (Apr 21-23): Championship Event
I’m assuming that’s a simple typographical error on the event page – each digit is one key to the left of where it’s supposed to be. The FRC opening letter makes it clear that they’re increasing from 290 teams to 340.
(It also mentions doubling pit space and shortening the walk from the pits to the stands for spectators, but discussion of such stuff probably belongs in a separate thread.)
Im pretty sure that they changed it to reflect three teams per regional after the game was announced. Odds are the game will stay 2v2 and they just put that in there to make us speculate.
So will the awesome Michigan teams come down to West Lafayette or compete in Detroit? Unfortunately, they are on the same day.
So the Midwest Regional has indeed moved to UIC…I’m assuming it will be in the Pavillion. If that is true, why only 36 teams?? The Pavillion (correct me if I’m wrong) is a basketball arena, much like the Cleveland venue and several others. Those venues are able to hold 50+ teams easily.
This has some pros and cons:
PROS: Obviously less teams means more matches per team and a greater chance of getting into the elimination tournament. There is less scouting to be done, more space in the pits (probably), and less general chaos.
CONS: There are a lot of teams in the Chicago area. Virtually every team from Wisconsin and Illinois go there, with a good chunk of the Indiana teams and some Michigan teams, and then some others from here and there. 36 spots will fill up very quickly leaving rookies with no choice but to go further (unless there are spaces reserved for rookies, which I remember being done in the past, but I don’t know how many on average) away from home. Granted some teams will opt for Lafayette instead of Chicago, but since they are not on the same weekend, there will probably be quite a few teams that attend both events.
Maybe I just worry too much…but I think registration is going to be very interesting this year. The largest regionals are 54, 54, and 50 (not incluiding Canada since its a super-regional). Most are in the 40s with some in the 30s and even a few in the 20s. Anyting under 32 is in big trouble if the game this year goes to 3v3 (if a 4th machine is a spare)…but we’ll see about that.
The Championship is too big at 340, IMHO. Assuming the same set up from the past years, that means 85 teams per division. I know that FIRST is trying to get as many teams to the Championship as possible, but for several years now, while I’ve enjoyed the spectacle of the Championship, I’ve felt that the more intimate feeling of the regionals was a better experience.
I did have fun in Atlanta last year, but I didn’t have to worry about my team so I had all the time in the world to do whatever.
Time will tell and generally things look like they are off to a great start.
Kev
I can’t say it enough - Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU FIRST for leaving a gap between the regionals and the championship event. A very, VERY smart move.
This way, teams that qualify unexpectedly can raise a bit of money… but more importantly, I don’t miss two months of work in a row!
In past years, there have always been spaces reserved for rookie teams that do not show in the event capacity. Expect that the final capacity for each event to be at least 10 higher then it shows.
My guess is that if there’s gonna be 340 spots, they’re gonna have a 5th division.
Im also gonna guess that since they added 5 new regionals, they’re gonna be adding an extra field into the mix, allowing them to have an extra division.
$0.02
It is good to see that FIRST is trying to make the Championships bigger and allowing more teams to come. There have been some rumors flying around about adding another division at the Championships, but I have heard no concrete information on this. Heck, for all we know, they may want to shake things up and do something different from divisions. If there is another division, a few questions would come up:
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If FIRST would add divisions, how many divisions would there be? Would it be 5? Would it be 6?
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If there would be additional divisions, then how would the winning alliances of each division be matched in the finals? With 4 divisions, that is easy. With 5, that is hard.
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We already have 16 robots running around on the floor of the Georgia dome at the same time, all under wireless remote control. Can the IFI field controllers handle more robots running simultaneously without having crossover or interference?
There are many things to ponder here.
Andy B.
There will be a minimum of 7 fields this year. Week 4 has 7 regionals, and week 5 has 6 regionals, 1 of which is the Canadian super regional. (Last year, there were at most 6 fields in use, 5 of them at the championship).
I had the same thought. But I wonder how the “playoffs” would work with five divisional winners.
Excellent points Andy. As soon as I posted I realized that 5 divisions would make no sense. You’d have to run some wacky scheme during the divisional playoffs. 6 would make much more sense from that standpoint, but like you said, there’s numerous other issues.
Guess we’ll have to wait and see till March or so (as usual :rolleyes: )
Cory
Correct me if I’m wrong, but there was a year that had 4 divisions running on 5 fields. The 5th field held matches from each of the 4 divisions alternately. Friday morning it did some matches from Newton, then it held some from Curie after lunch, etc.
Even if my memory is failing me, this could be a good way to increase the total number of matches that can be run. Also, it would allow everyone to play on Einstein at least once.
they haven;t done this since the last year at disney (2002) i also think that this will add some major confusion
With a one-on-one-on-one-on-one-on-one game it would be really easy.
-dave
Trouble maker!!! 