Makes sense to me. Thanks!
I normally compete at Philly too, it’s just this year my team had more money than usual and got to go to Jersey.
I’m not saying it’s fair or unfair; your original post made it seem as though competing in a Week 1 tournament was unfair to you. That’s what I was commenting on.
Nope, I try not to think of things in FIRST as fair or unfair. Consider that there are usually around 6 regionals running on the same weekend in week 1. You take the good parts about having a week 1 regional and neutralize them with the negative parts of having a week 1 regional and you have yourself a great event regardless of when it is. 
Plus, its not like we have to compete at NJ, we choose to go out and play during week 1 because its fun to see how the game will unfold.
Negative parts of a week 1 regional?!?! What could those possibly be?!?!
Midwest is my favorite regional destination, followed closely by Colorado (that was a whole lot of fun), and that has been week 1 for atleast the past couple years.
I feel that week 1 regionals are some of the most exciting to play in because absolutely everyone is learning strategies that work on the field and not on the whiteboard and vice versa. Especially when you have some of the biggest names in attendance.
Correct me if I am off but NJ was the last week of Regionals in 2003. This was at Rutgers April 3-5. The Championship was in Houston the next week April 10-12.
No buffer between Regionals and the Championship. I remember this as we won an Engineering Award on Friday night which qualified us for the Championship. We had plane tickets by Saturday noon and the school van and tools left Monday morning, in the snow, for Houston.
Week six this past year was the two Minnesota events plus the Michigan Championship event. There was still a buffer week between those and championship so will there be a buffer next year? Not too certian that it is relevant to my needs as I am looking to schedule FTC between FRC build and possible regional event dates for Texas teams as I draw volunteers from FRC.
Definately a consideration for Michigan teams and week six regional events if there is six weeks next year or will things get compressed into five. Just need more fields and crew to get them in but then we are talking about only 3 events dispursed into the existing five weeks of regional events.
I am pretty certain that Minnesota will be 3/31/10 - 4/3/10. However, I do not know what week number that will be.
Build is not being shortened.
Kickoff will be Jan. 9th
Ship will be Feb. 23rd.
Why? Because the first Saturday (the traditional date) is Jan. 2nd which would be too close to New Years day. Thus, everything is being shifted back a week.
What’s wrong with Week 1 Regionals? Is it because the competition isn’t as harsh? I think the competition is fun regardless, plus my team actually did quite well in NJ this year, since not everyone had had as much practice in Philly. I’m not trying to sound mad, I just don’t understand what’s wrong with Week 1 Regionals.
Is that a confirmed date, or are you just speculating?
It’s confirmed.
It is just my opinion. I am just too used to competing in week 1 at NJ and want a little change. I wouldn’t say there is something “wrong” with week 1, its just different once everyone has played the game for a while versus playing the game for the first time. It is just different. Competition is definitely “harsh,” at week 1 regionals. Just look at the Midwest. Those teams are just pure sick. And not to sound condescending, but any time a team does well at a certain regional or competition they tend to think more highly of it. Its of the reasons we love Palmetto and Chesapeake.
Well, yeah, when my team only lost two matches before the alliance picking at NJ this year, we all realized that we should definitely come back again.
BTW, I didn’t think you sounded condescending, not even quite sure why you would think that.
Nice, that put’s our home regional(assuming same week#) during our spring break.
I’ve heard officially that there will be 5 weeks of regionals/districts/other events in 2010, so with the first week March 4-6, the last week will be the weekend of April 3. So Minnesota will probably tie everything up.
Of course until venue contracts are all signed FIRST cannot make Regional date announcements, and reserve to themselves the right to make necessary adjustments.
That’s correct 222 was in a similar situation in 2003 as we qualified championships at NJ and had to quickly book flights and such. The only flight we could get out of Houston was an early evening flight…well our team won the national team spirit award that year and due to the flight time members from team 84 had to pick up our award for us.
I am really, really sure that it is not yet confirmed.
Speculation on the 2010 schedule is not going to be particularly fruitful at this point in time. Why doesn’t everyone just relax, take a deep breath, and enjoy the summer off-season without worrying too much about next year. It will be what it will be.
-dave
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was that a game hint? 
Everything Dave puts out is a game hint … or not 
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An extreme scarcity of Mountain Dew, caused by the previous 6-week build season. By week 2, the supply chain has mostly caught up…
And what fun would that be? That’s heresy, almost rising to the level of discontinuing game hints!
Um, seriously though: Speculation needs to be recognized as exactly that. It is a complete waste of time and effort, aside from the entertainment factor. In the real world, like where I work, we do not speculate*, instead we work with factual information, since wasted effort is, well, wasted. So long as you recognize that anything written here will have little influence upon the 2010 season timeline, go wild. Otherwise have the wisdom to accept what you cannot change.
Don
*Brainstorming sessions excluded! We do *that *a lot.
But Daaaaave. We can’t relax. There are robots to worry about! 
We have to know how much Mountain Dew to stock up on.