OK, here are those FAQ’s I promised you!
Q: Who is involved in #FIRSTChampLIVE?
**A: **The idea for #FIRSTChampLIVE was conceived by the GameSense crew and Collin Fultz, a long time FIRST mentor and formerly an engineer at FIRST HQ before he moved back to Indianapolis. As we have been developing this project over the past six months (yes, six months!), we’ve been honored to have assembled a great team that will be executing the show in St. Louis:
**Francis O’Rourke, Navid Shafa, and Ruth Toomey, **as well as Evan Morrison, Stephanie Morrison, and Ty Tremblay from GameSense. For the six of us, this has been a dream come true, and we are unbelievably excited to see this thing get off the ground!
Jen Goetting: Jen is a longtime FIRST mentor and coach. Jen assisted GameSense at Chezy Champs last year, helping out behind the scenes. We’re excited to have Jen cut her teeth on this project along with the rest of us!
Nick Lawrence: Nick is a mentor from FRC 5406, and a designer from AndyMark. Nick has been on GameSense as a guest more than any other person in our three year history, and was one of the key people behind last year’s IRI Live show.
**Colleen Shaver: **Colleen is a mentor, tactics expert, and former drive coach from FRC 190, and is the Event Manager for all the FIRST events that happen at WPI. Colleen is also an amature videographer and photographer, and is instrumental in running some of the best events in the New England.
Gabe Salas: Gabe is a mentor on FRC 233, and one of the members of The RoboShow Orlando If you’ve never had the chance to check it out, RoboShow is by far one of the greatest productions in FRC.
We also would not be able to do it without the help of Toby, Jamee, and especially **Erin **at FIRST, as well as **Steve **at Solomon productions, **Zach **from Twitch.tv, and everyone else at FIRST headquarters who helped along the way. Thank you all so much!
Q: What exactly is this going to look like?
A: If you’ve ever heard of NFL RedZone, a lot of the stream is based on that model. At an event with 30,000+ people, there is always some sort of exciting robot action going on! We’ve developed a special piece of software that will show us which matches are coming up and which one will be the most interesting for the audience based on season and event data.
We are also going to be showing recaps and footage from FTC, FLL and FLL Jr., as well as interviews with some awesome people live on set. Our goal is to give you the best viewing experience possible for every hour of the Championship.
Q: I’m going to the Championship and wanna see this in action! Where are you doing it?
A: We’re going to be pretty busy, so we will not be able to allow folks to come and visit us in the booth during our broadcast. But, we are going to be doing a TON of stuff on social media, so be sure to reach out to us with #FIRSTChampLIVE and via our GameSense Facebook and Twitter accounts, and the official FIRST and FRC social media accounts. Follow us now to stay up to date!
Q: Wait, booth?
A: Oh yeah, I forgot to mention we will be doing this from one of the former NFL broadcast booths way up at the top of the stadium. We may have the best seats in the house!
Q: What platform are you streaming this on?
A: We’re happy to announce that we’ve been working with the folks at Twitch.tv to ensure a great broadcast that we will not only be delivering to the FIRST community, but also to people “outside the tent”! As with any Twitch broadcast, we will be streaming in HD with options to reduce the quality for slower or mobile connections, and you will only see ads when you launch the stream for the first time.
Q: What’s the link?
A: You can check out FIRST’s portal to all the webcasts from FRC, FTC, FLL and the conferences at championship.usfirst.org/watch-live
in just a couple of days.
Q: But what if I wanted to watch just my team’s field all day? Or if I want to watch several fields at once on Blue Alliance GameDay?
A: All the fields will be broadcast individually just like always, but this year through Twitch.tv. We’re working with the folks over at The Blue Alliance to include #FIRSTChampLIVE as one of the streams you can add to your GameDay setup as well.
Q: Is anyone going to finally archive the matches!?
A: Yes! We anticipate that you will finally be able to see matches from the Championship on YouTube after the event. More details to come.
Q: Will you be archiving the #FIRSTChampLIVE stream?
A: We don’t have any plans on archiving the #FIRSTChampLIVE broadcast separate from the eight fields. That being said, you might see some videos on the GameSense YouTube channel after the event, but no guarantees.
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Q: So what about next year with twice as many Championships?
A:** Jeez, let us get through this year first!
