The CAGE Match, 2009 edition, will be Saturday, October 17th at Southport High School in Indianapolis. This year will feature such additional activities as a Carved Pumpkin contest, Halloween Costume contest, a silent auction for the benefit of the Ronald McDonald House, and the return of Mentor Matches.
Registration will open September 1st, and will close October 1st.
Any team who gets payment in by 9/12 receives a $25 discount from the $300 registration fee. If a team brings 12 orbit balls for use, another $25 may be deducted.
Anybody and everybody is welcome to attend. More information is available at the website - www.thecagematch.com.
Any teams that plan to come, please give me contact info for your principals, superintendents, or any other administration, or anybody else you deem appropriate. We want to invite them to be judges at CAGE Match, to see your team, your competition, and get them as fired up as we all are. mstaylor@msdpt.k12.in.us
I’d be happy to email, call, or snail-mail letters, whatever method you think is most fitting.
There will also be a way to do this while registering online, but I think the sooner we can make contact, the more sure we can be of having a good panel of judges.
Good luck and we’ll see you October 17th.
Registration is now OPEN for CAGE Match 2009. $25 discount if payment is received by 9/12/09. www.thecagematch.com
Volunteer signups are also done via the website.
See you October 17th!
anyone can check up on teams registered for the 2009 CAGE Match by simply browsing over to www.thecagematch.com and finding the “who’s coming?” tab in the navigation menu.
Updated team list as of 11:44 EST 9/10/09:
45 TechnoKats
234 Cyber Blue
292 PantherTech
393 Full Metal Jackets
461 Westside Boiler Invasion
1018 Robodevils
1024 Kil-A-Bytes
1529 CyberCards
1646 Precision Guessworks
1720 PhyXTGears
1741 Red Alert
1747 Harrison Boiler Robotics
2909 Zebra Bots
Pending: 829 Digital Goats, 3311 (Dayton, OH rookie team), Munster rookie team, Brownsburg rookie team (Purple Precision)
$25 discount for early entry expires on Saturday. Registration is through website - www.thecagematch.com.
For those of you severely out-of town, Candlewood Suites in Greenwood has extended special CAGE Match rates for any attending teams/individuals. The hotel website is www.candlewoodgreenwood.com; for reservations call 317-882-4300 and request the “CAGE Match Robotics Group Special Rate.”
The 2009 edition of CAGE Match is in less than two weeks. We are adding a few new features to the festivities.
CONCESSIONS: Due to popular demand, we have moved the concession stands from opposite the spectator area to behind it. We are also proud to offer Papa John’s pizza, Chik-Fil-A sandwiches, and Moe’s Southwest Grill. Pricing and pre-ordering information will be on the CAGE Match website.
TEAM LIST: There will be 19 teams attending, including three 2010 rookies. This is a 19% increase from last year - thanks for your support!
GAME RULES: The game will be Lunacy with the IRI rule changes. That means no serpentine draft, no G14. We will ensure that each team will participate in the elimination rounds.
SILENT AUCTION: If you would like to donate an item to the silent auction (for the benefit of the Ronald McDonald House), please email our coordinator Maureen Schilling (dmschill1@ameritech.net). Any and all items are appreciated, even if it’s an old team shirt.
CARVED PUMPKIN CONTEST: Bring in an already-carved pumpkin to display and enter into our contest. If you wish to enter, please email Mrs. Schilling.
HALLOWEEN COSTUME CONTEST: Judging will be during the lunch break at noon. Come ready to win!
BLOOD DRIVE: There will be a Bloodmobile on site - be ready to roll up your sleeve. An award will be given to the team with the most blood donated.
RONALD MCDONALD HOUSE: Be reminded that registration also includes items for the Ronald McDonald House. A top-ten wish list is found on the CAGE Match website.
I thought that–given the circumstances with trying to figure out field problems–the competition went very well. Even though things got off to a rough (understatement!) start, everyone came together and had a great time nonetheless. I wasn’t at last year’s event, so I can’t really compare the two.
Improvements are also hard to determine, as this year’s Cage Match was a special one due to the circumstances.
I must say a big thank you to AndyMark, however. I think they deserve much respect and admiration for the way they handled the weekend. You guys truly are good people, and serve as role models for the rest of us. You didn’t need to do any reimbursements for the event, but did so anyways. I applaud your professionalism!
All in all, I think it was a great time. Where else will we ever see alliance captains/pickings quite like that?! It’s a story we’ll all take away, that’s for sure. It was great seeing you all!
Other then stating the obvious stuff about the field controls (test the field more the night before). I also think that the field crew, refs, scoring table and other people associated with the event should stay a bit more impartial while the event is taking place. I noticed a few things that I have never seen at an event that disturbed me. Before the final score was announced, half the scoring table was showing emotion about the score, and other field crew were revealing the score to the teams on the field. I’ve always liked the built up suspense of “nobody knowing” until the MC announces the results. I just find it very unprofressional how people around field side acted. This could be handled by just having everyone working the event know that they have to act professional, and as impartial as possible while they are down there.
that is a great point Kyle. I can honestly say I am quite guilty of the “showing emotion” you speak of. That is definitely something we should bear in mind.
The official FIRST field was a good thing.
Moving the food closer was a good thing.
Next year, how about foregoing the historically futile attempt to use the full-blown field controls and just skip right to Plan C? Decide from the beginning to use FMS Lite and a single router with a common SSID for all robots to connect to.
