Yes, its not the best of planning (as was having both NYC regionals in the same weekend last year), but with 37 regionals in 5 weeks, it is expected that some regionals could coincide with each other. Also, they have to book these events for whatever times they can in those 5 weeks, so its not always under their control.
That being said, has anyone noticed the extremely conservative team space estimation for the regionals? I understand they reserve roughly 10% extra space per regional for rookies, teams not yet attending a regional, and NASA grant winners, but two of their estimations are below the usual quota for full elimination (24): Detroit (23) & Waterloo(22), and some others are in the upper 20’s.
My opinion is that they are being really conservative with their numbers. :rolleyes:
Might it possibly be a mind-game :eek: to cause more teams to register for those regionals first?
There’s a decent spread availible, I can’t wait until the actual registration begins!
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931 went to Waterloo this year, and it was a blast! A well-run event with many strong teams and wonderful people.
The passport issue factored into our decision to go in 2006. We found out that the new regulations (requiring passports for everyone returning to the US from Canada) would be going into effect over the next couple of years, so this might have been our last chance to go under the old rules. Most of our team doesn’t routinely travel outside the US (imagine that!) so as Beth points out, passport costs would have been an important consideration.
Yeah, we had to build a new crate to comply with the material restrictions. It was time to upgrade the old crate anyway.
I agree that those are not ideal condiditions, but you have to realise, that with a 300+ team event, I doubt there is a location in the world you can find that won’t have those issues. There are just as many attraction in Atlanta than anywhere else (there are only so many times Disney World is fun for example too). There is both a Dave & Busters and Jillians in the greater Atlanta area if you’re willing to drive a bit further (The Peachtree Regional has their team social at Jillian’s). There is also an ESPNZone in Atlanta. The Varsity Grill is a great place to have dinner one night, good food, fun atmosphere (although might not be vegetarian friendly). CNN HQ has a tours and is a fairly fun stop (and has a large food court and is connected to the Omni Hotel). Just look around a bit more and you’ll find it a great city! (I’ve been there 3 times in the last 3 years, and I still find something new each time I go).
No. The competition started as USFIRST, and the focus is still on improving America’s standing in the world technilogical economy. Even though it is an international competition now, the focus is on the United States, and will most likely remain there for a very long time. Additionally, there are many factors dealing with the crossing and shipping across the border, and many U.S. school districts not allowing it.
I think some of the values actually are incorrect, not just the rookie/late registration spots being held. Although, if FIRST knows a large amount of rookies teams are being founded in that area, they might hold additional spots for rookies.
It would help if FIRST would talk to some of these Atlanta entertainment venues about extending their hours during the Championship. There was no practical time that a FIRST Team could get to the Aquarium before 5 PM on Thursday or Friday. Many other attractions that we looked into also closed at 5 PM.
The only thing I would have to disagree with is that, I would LOVE to go back to Disney permanently. Atlanta has been fine, but Disney made the whole Championship feel “Magical”. It was also easier for FIRST to get celebrities to “drop by” for a visit.
But in the end, I will go anywhere that there are FIRST people and Robots.
Disney World is not all of Orlando, it would be possible to have the competition at the convention center (one of the biggest in the country) and still have the “magical feeling”. We would have enough room to be inside and in air conditioning. All the attractions are close by and if you are tired of Disney try Universal or Sea World. There is every imaginable restaraunt within a 10 mile radius and more hotel rooms than we would need.
I agree. Even if only 15 teams went, that would be ~300. I would hazard a guess that some of these places downtown would schedule staff to stay open later for a few hundred people.
I think the current set of dates has some weight to it now–FIRST is linking to it from the FRC home page, and it’s apparently now what you get when you click Regional Events. I can only assume they wouldn’t link to something that wasn’t at least mildly official.
I still won’t be buying my train tickets just yet, though.
If someone is bored, and wants to help out … CD-Events needs all of this years regionals added to it.
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What to do:**
Reply here saying you’re doing this, so only one person is doing this.
Copy/Paste the full event name from usfirst.org (ie: “BAE SYSTEMS Granite State Regional” not just “BAE Regional”.
Add the event to this sites calendar as a ‘ranged event’ if it is more than one day (which I think most of them are). Estimate a starting time, if you don’t know it for sure.
In the ‘Event Information’ box, please include the link on usfirst.org (ie: ‘http://www.stlouisfirst.org’, etc., Venue Name, and City/State. Eventually CD-Events will give the opportunity to authorized people to edit this information, and expand on it, but for now … this should do.
These events still need to be approved by a calendar moderator, so don’t freak out if they don’t show up right away.
I’ll do the NYC FIRST Regional. - Just waiting on the Regional Coordinator to confirm event location, date, and # of teams because it looks like the information FIRST has is iffy.
I Feel productive I got the NJ & SBPLI Regionals as well.
