I’d be interested in hearing the best and worst experiences y’all have had at the world championship competitions. I would guess that the experience is different for each person and each team, so use this thread to share your stories about any of the championships throughout all the years of FIRST
What about Atlanta or Orlando?
Well, Detroit is pretty new but the complaints I heard centered on the 4-6 hour wait in the load in line, and the long waits at bathrooms in Cobo Hall.
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The FLL area had 0 wait for the bathrooms… Though the load in line was MASSIVELY long and you got yelled at if you let your kids off the bus or tried to unload and push your stuff to the venue.
Going to Houston in 2017, placing 16th in our division, and not being selected for playoffs… due to mecanum drive (most likely).
Then, not getting in to Minute Maid Park because there was a line around the building… wait, that might be a best. Watched Einsteins from a Starbucks with air conditioning.
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Well, few things will ever be able to beat 330 in 2016 on Einstein finals, 1/4 second can wars were good, if boring for the rest of the match. Funny, how 1 champs will always be more epic than 2…
EDIT: getting the same reveals a week later at second champs is pretty lame too
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I thought Detroit as a city did a really good job of welcoming FIRST in general. It really felt like the city wanted us there.
The thing that has really pleasantly surprised me is the presence that Woodie and Dean have at the event. Coming into the program I kind of expected them to put in a token speech but not much else. At champs they really seem to be around and willing to interact with the students there. I remember in 2016 going to America’s center for the first time, we leave our hotel room and catch the elevator. Woodie Flowers was randomly in the elevator. He was really nice and talked with everyone.
Coming from a geography that typically uses venues with individual padded seats with armrests, the bleachers in Cobo were kind of disappointing. Not that I really have a better suggestion and I acknowledge I am kind of spoiled.
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Best: being there for the first time in 2011 with my team!
Worst: Trying to manage inspections for the “dome floor pits” during the playoffs the first time we moved everyone out there. It was barely controlled chaos behind the curtains the entire time! We learned a lot though, and got things working better after that.
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Best and worst: frantically bending, drilling, and re-riveting our (bad) frisbee intake in between every single match in division finals.
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Best experience was the 2015 Tesla playoffs, since I got to be down on the field as part of my team’s pit crew. The hype surrounding it was insane. A close second the same year was when two students had to be down on the field for some reason (can’t remember why exactly.) One of the cameras panned over to me and I just ended up doing finger guns on the big screen for a solid 30 seconds.
The worst, or rather most heartbreaking, experience was missing out on making it to Einstein by a tiny margin in game 3 of finals that year.
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For the few of us who still remember, Houston 2003. The pits were in the Astrodome and the fields were in Reliant Stadium. There was only one freight elevator in the Astrodome so we had to push the carts up four levels of ramps before getting to street level and crossing over to the Stadium.
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FIRST is addressing it this year at Champs.
Minute Maid Park. I really don’t have to say more.
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For me personally (trying to emphasize not because my team) in the 2017 st. louis world championships I got super sick the day of eliminations on our field. It was awful for me and I ended up getting the rest of my team sick.
Einstein 2012
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Best experience #1 - watching our friends at 1477 and other favourite teams, 610 and 1241 win Einstein in 2013.
Worst - after finally getting into Minute Maid Park and sitting in the heat waiting for the Einstein Finals to start in 2017.
Best Experience #2 - driving home, picking up some take out for dinner and watching the Einstein Finals in the air conditioned comfort of my own home
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Dont even get me started lol. It legit could’ve been one of the best einsteins of all time with numerous powerhouse teams making it, but it ended up being a nightmare that FIRST would want to forget. At least Florida finally got a team to win it all, so im not complaining.
It was heartbreaking to watch that in person…
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I think another big disappointment with robots dying every match was that there were no triple balances on Einstein. That was probably the most exciting part of that game and alliances never had the chance to do it.
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Best: Friday 2016
Worst: Saturday 2016
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