I just wanted see how many teams out there are thinking of coming to the Waterloo Regional, March 24-26. Post here and let me know what you think.
The event will be held on the University of Waterloo campus which is located 1 hour southwest of Toronto, 3 hours east of Detroit and 1.5 hours north of Buffalo. This inaugural event will be a 32-40 team regional, creating a intimate feel.
I know many people have expressed concerns about customs issues when travelling to Canada. Let me assure you that the inconvenience is minimal to none. Many American teams in the past have come to the Toronto event, and had no difficulties. Our regional committee will help with your travel plans to ensure a smooth border crossing.
For any teams interested in more information on this event, reply to this thread or send me a PM.
Team 188 has chosen this event as our 1st choice. We are really looking forward to this event. After looking at the success of the Canadian Regional (now the Greater Toronto Regional) we know that the Waterloo Regional will quickly become the 2nd best regional in FIRST. From what I hear they believe that they can out do GTA. We’ll see!!! I believe that there may be a few teams out there who may take this challenge. Team 188 predicts that they will be the first Waterloo Regional Champions. Even though we don’t know the game we are confident of our success after last year.
Hope to see all of the GREAT teams there to make the challenge worth while.
Based on the people running this event I’m sure it will be a blast!! We’re still contemplating choosing this as our second event (GTR is a GM Sponsored event which is our first choice). If we come we will likely bring team 1503 GM - Westlane with us. With Simbotics, GM and a strong tech program they have potential to be a strong rookie team. This could turn out to be a very good small event once it starts to fill up. Especially if the nearby Michigan teams decide to make the trip.
I haven’t heard of any horror stories from American teams getting across the border (I know we have never had a problem go back and forth to the US)
You won’t hear any horror stories from Team 48. This will be our fourth year of attending a Canadian regional, and getting a crew of 45-50 people across the border and back has never been a problem. We even take a rather conspicuous trailer full of tools and parts up to the competition, and we can drive straight through without stopping at customs. The border guards just recommend that you have an itemized list of tools and equipment handy.
I know how hard Karthik and the rest of the Waterloo crew have been working to prepare for this new regional (I still have 10 “Waterloo Regional - Coming in 2005” buttons from last year’s Canadian Regional :)), and I have no doubt it will be a well executed, fun, and exciting event. If it weren’t for the Buckeye Regional being scheduled the same week, we’d most likely be there. That just means there’s one more Waterloo spot available for a team that hasn’t discovered the friendly hospitality Canadians extend to American visitors. They really do go out of their way to make you feel welcome.
If anyone has any questions about crossing the border, shipping your robot to Canada, or would simply like to understand why Karthik believes he has any singing talent at all, please PM me or send me an email, and I’ll do my best to answer them (although I might have trouble with that last one).
Trav said it best… i wish Team 48 were able to attend but the Buckeye is jus a bit closer. Waterloo has huge potential to be an amazing regional! The wonderful Canadians who have organized this event have worked incredibly hard and im most definitely sure that their work will pay off. GOOD LUCK TO ALL TEAMS ATTENDING WATERLOO!
We will hopefully be attending the Waterloo Regional this year! Hopefully it will be as amazing as the Canadian Regional was last year and hopefully we can get a lot of teams from all over North America and possible the world to attend Waterloo! I am anticipating an awesome year and an awesome Waterloo Regional!
469 is about 80% sure that we will be going to this regional, but I am still confused on what your challenge is. If the challenge is preventing you from winning the regional, we will either be out there to stop you or we will be there with you (there’s more than one option :D)
_Alex
Seems odd now… but the Waterloo attendance list went from 25 teams to 24 teams overnight (still the [edit] second [/edit] smallest regional out there). Just enough teams to make 8 alliances (assuming that 2-team alliances are back…). Just a question for those teams that are going: is the Easter weekend timeframe of this regional preventing any of your members from attending? In my case, I’ve got a bit of debate going between my parents with prioritizing family tradition and robots. My view is that I’ll be back and ready for church on sunday, but they would prefer me to stay home on Good Friday. Hopefully I will be able to make it to the regional. Just as a closing question to everyone reading this: Are there any more teams out there interested in coming to Waterloo?
Hi Alex. For the record, the team to pull out (25 to 24) did so because of Easter. And I have at least 10 teams that have told me they would be coming if it weren’t for Easter. The Easter weekend is definitely keeping our event small, but that means more play for everyone, and a great opportunity for veterans to qualify for the Championship!
Seriously, though: I have been toying with the idea of arranging a service of some kind on Good Friday. With so few teams, we could probably use a break in play at some point to allow repairs/recharging, and we have a RC church college 5 minutes walk from the venue. If I were able to arrange something like that, then:
what would be most appropriate (I’m not RC myself): just a quiet place on-site for prayer, or would it need to be a service?
how many teams might that sway to coming to our event (assuming this Friday weren’t the deadline…)
)