G.R.I.T.S. (Georgia Robotics Invitational Tournament and Showcase).

Competition Off-Season Events
#30

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.

#31

We just decided today at like 4pm, so that is why we are still signed up.

#32

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.

#33

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 :smiley: ) 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 :wink:

Until then!
The WiredCats

#34

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…

#35

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.

#36

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 ?

#37

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. :’(

#38

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.

#39

How did things go, I hate that we we’re not there:(

#40

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.

#41

Glad to hear it. We’ll have to save up/fundraise some money next year.:smiley:

#42

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.

#43

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!

#44

We had a blast, and look forward to attending next year. Since our team was mostly seniors, we only had three students go to the competition. They did a fabulous job learning the ropes as drivers (it was the first time to drive for all three).

I want to compliment the organizers and volunteers for an incredible job. The event went off without a hitch, despite the difficulties involved. The venue was great, although I wish it was a little closer to home.

All the teams were great, and we met some great new teams, we look forward to seeing them again at Peachtree.

Finally, I have to give props to Ace hardware in Warner Robins. We competed in two regionals, championships and IRI without a failure, but during the first practice match on Saturday, our intake roller got snapped in half. Since we had to travel light, we didn’t bring our toolbox or spare parts. We rushed to the nearest hardware store (Ace) and explained our problem. The whole staff immediately began to look for something that we could use to repair our roller. We found a piece of sink drain pipe and super glue that did the trick, and were able to get the bot fixed after only one crippled match. Thanks Ace and thanks to 1319 for the loan of some tools to get it all back together.

P…S Are the match results going to be posted somewhere? Will they be on TBA? Just curious.

#45

My girlfriend and I woke up at 3:30 AM with the sole purpose of driving to Robins to GRITS.

Totally worth it.

What I loved:

-The Museum of Aviation is hands-down the best venue I’ve ever seen an off-season staged at. Where else can you play thirty feet from an SR-71 Blackbird?
-The field issues were handled as well as field issues ever are.
-Forsyth Alliance for getting their robot in the hands of a pre-rookie when 1746 weren’t even there!
-The half-dozen folks from other teams swarming 1319 to get their compressor running
-Separate pit and field announcing added a good polish to the on-field action.
-Having Chick-Fil-A onsite and not even gouging us on lunch! ($2 for a Coke was a little painful for me–see above about the whole 3:30 thing–but $5 or $6 for lunch is entirely fair.)
-The finals matches were spectacular. You wouldn’t think this was a 13-team event!

A few areas for improvement for next year’s event:

-Getting to the seating from the front door of the building (which involved passing through the immediate field area) felt a little awkward–I wasn’t really sure how to get there without messing up queueing. (Obviously, I stayed clear of the carpet–but does Little Timmy Freshman know that?)
-The absence of a game clock on the field was a little off-putting to me, though I don’t know the ins and outs of FMS Lite enough to offer much of a solution.
-A few more signs guiding folks from the front parking lot to the hangar would be useful. (It didn’t seem like we were the first folks to get to the lady at the front desk of the main building looking for directions.
-Travel restrictions kept my teams from coming this year, but I’m not sure we could’ve pulled off a mid-September date regardless. Nudging back to the first part of October (though perhaps not so late as to conflict with TNT if an overlap seems likely) would make logistics MUCH simpler for us teams that only start revving up in August.

Assuming that there is a GRITS 2.0, I’m so there.

#46

I am one of the new drivers for team 1771. I had a great time and thanks to team 1261 and 1415 for being on our alliance for the finals and good job to all the teams who showed up, the rookie teams, and the volunteers. I hope something like this is put on again next year.

#47

-The Museum of Aviation is hands-down the best venue I’ve ever seen an off-season staged at. Where else can you play thirty feet from an SR-71 Blackbird?-

That was indeed cool. Not to mention the F-16 right next to the SR-71 and the Sea-Stallion hanging from the roof, and that cute little Cessna jet trainer. Very inspiring.

#48

I was a member of the Rookie Luella team, and I must say, the competition was amazing. We brought 1746’s robot, Otto. We received him about a week before the competition, and somewhere in transit, a lot of the wires came unhooked on the controls, so we were basically running him without any way to score. The atmosphere was wonderful-- about a half a dozen teams were in our pit at all times, either giving us advice, explaining the rules, or trying to help out with Otto.

We didn’t actually realize that we would be coming out and competing, if I have the information straight, we were asked the night before to bring Otto with us, so once we were all assembled at the school, we actually ended up “technically” breaking into our own school to get him. One of our AP’s told us to go on in-- and neglected to point out that the police would still be summoned. Very nice. I think it was slightly suspicious when a policecar pulls up, and we’re loading a multiple thousand dollar robot into the back of a van. All things were sorted, though, and we arrived okay. Through the course of the competition, I think everyone from our team that came got a great taste of what FIRST is all about.

A big “thank you” goes out to 1746 for loaning us OTTO, too!

Edit: I’m rather new around here-- are there videos available of the event?

#49

Hi all,

I took a few panoramas while I was not doing stuff with the team or filming our matches. Here’s my favorite. The full version is almost 20 MB and around 5000x2400 pixels.

I’d like to put the others somewhere, but haven’t gotten around to doing that yet.

I’m sure there are a few scattered videos of matches among teams, but as far as I know there is no way to collect them and display them in a organized format (no The Blue Alliance for off season regionals). It would be nice if there was.

-Tanner

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