I’m not seeing a lot of action on this thread. I’m hoping we get a decent show. It is kinda hard to get some of this stuff together considering the season hasn’t started. Our average roster size in years past has been 30-40 students, and we had 4 students show up to help pack for this trip:confused:
We received our documents to sign and stuff for the trip this past week so I assume the competition is still on. 
Does anyone know of any other teams that will be there other than the 8 listed below?
1319
832
342
1771
1261
1311
2415
2974
I expect 1746 to be there, but that’s in NO WAY official, I just think that they’d show. 
It might be a good idea to email georgiafirst@comcast.net to get an updated teams list.
I believe there are more teams signed up, maybe like 12+ or so, but again that’s not official.
I think that BEST kickoff might be keeping some teams from participating.
Looks like we might have to do a 2 on 2 competition, just to keep thing interesting.
Sadly, 342 can’t make it. We had a hard time getting students and resources together in time and decided to cut our losses. We think it would be better for us to use our limited resources to try to make it to the scrimmage durnig the build season instead. 
Well 342, you might not be able to make it, but it would seem that you’re signed up to play.
I emailed the event coordinator and this is the list that she gave me:
342
832
1261
1311
1319
1379
1415
1771
2038
2119
2415
2420
2974
2983
Rookie Luella High School Locust Grove, GA
Rookie Anniston High School Anniston, AL
Rookie Oxford High School Anniston, AL
She says the rookies are there for the “experience”, I’m not exactly sure if they have robots or not.
So 13ish teams, not sure what’s up with 342, I guess they’re out. I’m not sure exactly what the rules are, as far below a specific number of teams, but I guess FRC regionals never really have that issue, so it’ll be interesting to see how the event coordinators deal with this.
We just decided today at like 4pm, so that is why we are still signed up.
It looks like we will be playing 2 v 2. Sad to see that 342 will not make it. So much for the “Burning FLASH” maybe we can get “The FLASH of Chimera” going? We look forward to the event, should still be fun.
Hey everyone!
2415 will most definitely be there!!! (Although we’re actually driving up on Saturday, though some of our kids have mentioned visiting their grandparents in Warner Robins ) We’re looking forward to welcoming our new members to the world of FIRST and it’ll be great to see everyone again!
Some other “green” stuff:
Call2Recycle, a company that recycles batteries, will be there as well! If anyone has any used batteries, whether cellphone or AA or ANY really, Call2Recycle will take them, and the money from however many batteries we manage to recycle will go to GeorgiaFIRST! So PLEASE bring your batteries! And if you have time, definitely go by Call2Recycle, who will probably be in a fascinating vehicle decked out eco-friendly.
And of course, the “Green Team” will be providing recycling bins so keep an eye out 
Until then!
The WiredCats
I tried to run matchmaker for this event and found that you can’t do it. There aren’t enough teams to allow a >2 match separation, which is required for the program to run. 18 teams are the minimum required to run the program. It looks like teams will often be playing in consecutive matches, but the matches will have to be set up by hand.
The only good way to do this will be to allow a break between each match for battery charging and repairs, which will limit the number of matches that can be played.
I have never seen an event with this few teams, but it should be very exciting…
I too am surprised by the low turnout. 1319 signed up early because we were sure it would quickly fill up with all GA teams. However I am sure it will still be a great and rewarding event, and it doesn’t hurt to help with adding to the proceeds that benefit are friends at the border. GeorgiaFIRST events and Teams. We will be arriving in town Friday night and attending the event on Saturday. Good luck to all teams attending.
Unfortunately the economy is inhibiting things and this is the 1st time Georgia has had an off season event.
But… this is a great opportunity to get folks in middle Georgia to come out and see what is going on.
I know the media there is doing some promotion of the event.
Hopefully we will have a LOT of guests and we can spend time with them to help them get excited about FIRST.
Maybe we need to have some ‘guest’ matches ?
We originally rented a bus for transportation, but we were not able to cover the cost for the bus so we are currently working on providing transport through car pool, but if that falls through, I doubt we’ll be attending. :’(
Because of the low number of teams coming, each team will get somewhere around 13 or 14 matches. It will be one on, one off, then one on again, with a brief break between matches to allow for charging and let the motors cool off. Every now and again a team will be in two in a row.Sounds like a marathon war of attrition!
Hope you guys can make it…13 teams doesn’t work as well as 14.
How did things go, I hate that we we’re not there:(
It went GREAT !!!
Even though there were only 12 teams that actually showed, you got to compete every other match, all day.
Plus there were rookie teams that were there. People from the rookie teams got to assume the operator position on teams on a rotating basis. Plus teams like ours rotated our own rookies through.
Everyone had a lot of fun. The food was great. And the venue is great. The pits, the seating, the competition arena is surrounded by planes such as an F-16, SR-71, U-2, and some other awesome aircraft.
This isn’t an official statement but I can almost guarantee you this will be site for GRITS for quite a while. Put it on the calendar for next year.
I’ll post some video here in a few hours.
Glad to hear it. We’ll have to save up/fundraise some money next year.
The event was pretty good.
Winning Alliance:
1771
1261
1415
Finalists:
1379
832
2415
The matches were great, we were able to get everyone the “field team” experience, not to mention the consecutive match schedule was fun.
The one thing that my team didn’t quite like was the match schedule. We played against the same teams and with the same teams 7 times. Yeah…the exact same match…7 times. That got to be a bit much, but we had fun.
Hopefully we can do it again next year.
In theory, there are probably enough combinations of teams that you would only play the same alliance 3 or 4 times.
Congrats to 1771, after your play at IRI with us (nothing short of amazing offense and defense) I’m not surprised to see you guys winning an offseason. Congratulations!