Hello everyone!
We are Team Terminators, a rookie team from Karditsa, Greece. Since the event preference system is open now, I would like to ask a simple question to more experienced members/teams:
What Regional event(s) would you recommend for our team?
We haven’t participated in FRC before and we don’t have experience from the US, so any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you again!
Evangelos Kassos
The Istanbul regional seems like an obvious choice to me!
I tend to work the northern middle of the US, so that’s where my biases are.
I’d suggest the Midwest regional in Chicago.
Minneapolis in Week 5 is also a good choice for similar reasons.
We are all really quite friendly, so I’d start by looking at travel costs.
Much as I’d love to see you at Grand Forks (week 1) or Duluth (week 2), I suspect your idea of “warm clothes” may not be adequate. It’s not outside the realm of possibility of -30 Celsius in Grand Forks. (It probably won’t get below -10 C.)
You might also consider that the time zone difference is 6 hours on the East coast, 7 in the Midwest and 9 on the west coast. Events on the east coast will be ending about midnight, while events on the west coast will be ending about 3:00 AM. It can be a factor if people back home want to watch the action live.
If you are looking to compete early, which I know for an international team can be even more difficult. The Palmetto Regional in Myrtle Beach South Carolina is a really nice option. Lot’s of housing to choose from, the area is full of restaurants, and the venue is one of the nicer one’s I’ve been to an FRC event at.
I suspect there are a couple of downsides to Istanbul. It’s a first time event with no seasoned volunteer pool local to the area and the nearest Home Depot is about 7000 miles away.
Language may be more of an issue there. I expect English will be everyone’s second language so things should be fine. But…
There are a lot of rookie teams in Turkey this year. The veterans are quite possibly going to be overwhelmed helping the “local” rookies.
It could be a great choice though and I expect they’ll pull off a great event overcoming any obstacles.
Sounds about like Grand Forks (Great Northern Regional). I heard a couple of FTA’s a couple of weeks ago talking about renting one of these for the Home Depot runs:
I’m coming from Fargo (closest Home Depot to Grand Forks) at like 9PM on Wednesday night. Worst case scenario I can haul a bunch of stuff up to Grand Forks.
I’d also recommend Midwest Regional.
Hi Evangelos!
I’m part of a student-led initative by of FRC students who are running a group called “GIFT” (Global Immersion of FIRST Teams). Our primary goal was to help teams from the FIRST Global Challenge immerse into FTC or FRC. Feel free to like our Facebook page, and we’ll see what we can do for you - we point teams towards grants, try to partner with FIRST sponsors and match you up with a veteran team to help you register and build your robot.
If you’re interested, let me know!
But yeah, if you’re looking for something “local”, Istanbul could be interesting - though ofc it will be rookie-heavy. If you have the budget, travelling to a North American competition could be an awesome experience.
I know you asked for regionals but in 1.5 hour flight you can compete in districts in Israel. I am not sure if they accept international teams but the pros of districts in Israel is that you can compete in 2 back to back districts in only 4 days at the same price of 1 regional.
Yarden, unfortunately there’s no way at all for regional teams to compete in districts.
which imo is dumb that it isint allowed.
Back on topic, Historically many international teams seem to gravitate to the Hudson Valley and Midwest regionals. These have lots of welcoming teams willing to lend tools and batteries as needed to international teams in need and would be great regionals for you guys to look into.
Because John made the pitch for Palmetto, I’ll throw the pitch for Orlando (Week 2 this year). Being the entertainment capital that it is, flights come into MCO from four continents and hotels are abundant. Kennedy Space Center is about an hour from UCF; I haven’t been in a good decade or so, but by all accounts seeing Space Shuttle Atlantis on display is worth the trip.
Orlando is used to international teams from all over (last year: Brazil, Netherlands, Turkey, and in 2016 add China and a US Department of Defense school in Germany), so you won’t be lacking for teams from all over. The competition level isn’t quite as high as it used to be before district play cordoned off many teams with the resources to travel a long way, but it’s still stout.
Hard to go wrong with either. 
“Point stealing”, which is seen a little bit with inter-district play–out-of-area team comes in, wins awards/points but can’t use ‘em. It’d be really bad in NE/MAR if it wasn’t prohibited… PNW doesn’t have to worry about it because there isn’t another district within two days’ drive.
Back on topic, the Southern California regionals (San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange County, Ventura, and Aerospace Valley, all in Weeks 2-6) are all welcoming to international teams–some of the Chilean teams have been calling Los Angeles home for a while, Chinese teams dropped in at Ventura a couple years back, and OC hosted Turkish and Swiss teams last year. Can’t hurt to drop in.
Palmetto and Orlando are great options as mentioned above. Week 1 in Palmetto could be tough to get your robot finished and shipped. Orlando in week 2 would be better for that reason and has plenty of tourist activities in the area.
Another good option would be Rocket City in week 3. The team social Friday night is held in the US Space & Rocket Center. That was a blast.
David
I was meaning the idea of a regional team outside the edge of a district being able to join the district by choice, which is what i thought was being suggested.
Good luck finding a regional! Awesome to hear Greece has a team now!
It has happened, but I believe the standard is all/nothing: All the teams in the area in question (or a majority at least) go district, or none do. PNW has made the offer on occasion, I believe–AK joined them, ID split north/south and didn’t join.
(What I read–before clarification–was “It’s dumb that regional teams aren’t allowed to play in districts” not “It’s dumb that regional teams aren’t allowed to join nearby districts”.)
Come to Australia! We always have a great mix of international teams… Australia, China, Singapore, and Taiwan always attend. In the past, we’ve also had Brazil, India, and Vietnam.
But if you want a closer to home event, Istanbul would be your closest.
The New York Tech Valley Regional has hosted a count of non-North-American teams in the past: 6024 from India, 4975 and 6459 from Turkey, 4481 from the Netherlands, and 5879 from China! It’s a great event that’s run well and has a deep mid-field of teams. Everyone is super willing to help out newer teams and it’s an awesome environment.