New FIRST Word: MEGA-REGIONALS
Definition:
MEGA-REGIONALS (ME-GA RE-GION-AL-S; or just say BIG)- Regional competitions that are BIGGER then existing regionals with multiple playing fields. Most likely choosen in regions with high concentration of FIRST Teams. Locations TBD. They are planned for 2006.
(this soooooooo exciting I almost **** my pants)
Sooā¦ kinda like the Canadian Regional this year, eh? 
hmmā¦ could this be the next step for qualification for championship events? makes me wonderā¦
-Ken Leung who seems to have lots of questions in his head lately
*Originally posted by monsieurcoffee *
**Sooā¦ kinda like the Canadian Regional this year, eh?**
HAHAHA, we got two playing fields and a huge Hokey arena as pit area.
*Originally posted by Rich Wong *
Definition:
MEGA-REGIONALS (ME-GA RE-GION-AL-S; or just say BIG)- Regional competitions that are BIGGER then existing regionals with multiple playing fields. Most likely choosen in regions with high concentration of FIRST Teams. Locations TBD. They are planned for 2006.
One question: where did you hear this word? I might have missed it, but I donāt remember FIRST saying anything about āmega-regionalsā publicly.
*Originally posted by IMDWalrus *
**One question: where did you hear this word? I might have missed it, but I donāt remember FIRST saying anything about āmega-regionalsā publicly. **
Thats why this is in the Rumor Mill. If it was posted on the FIRST site it wouldnāt be a rumor now would it. Until a couple weeks ago the new robot controller was just a rumor started mid season last year (something Lavery said at one of the comps started it I think).
The first buzz I heard about MEGA Regionals was at the Chesapeake Bay Regional when many people noticed the Naval Academy could easily hold two fields and over a hundred teams. Unfortunately teams would no longer be able to play hackey sack in between pits:) Also notice the J&J Regional changed to a bigger venue. It appears these MEGA Regionals are already falling into place. Since the Championship Event can no longer accommodate all the teams that want to go, open-invitation MEGA Regionals make sense.
Stupid me for going through the portal and not noticing the forum it was posted inā¦:o
I guess weāll just have to wait and see what happens in 2006ā¦
This could be interesting, but what could the implicatons be? Also would this mean less overall regionals? Could this mean multiple regionals being combined for one of these mega-regionals? Though the idea is very interesting.
*Originally posted by The Lucas *
**Thats why this is in the Rumor Mill. If it was posted on the FIRST site it wouldnāt be a rumor now would it. Until a couple weeks ago the new robot controller was just a rumor started mid season last year (something Lavery said at one of the comps started it I think).The first buzz I heard about MEGA Regionals was at the Chesapeake Bay Regional when many people noticed the Naval Academy could easily hold two fields and over a hundred teams. Unfortunately teams would no longer be able to play hackey sack in between pits:) Also notice the J&J Regional changed to a bigger venue. It appears these MEGA Regionals are already falling into place. Since the Championship Event can no longer accommodate all the teams that want to go, open-invitation MEGA Regionals make sense. **
YAā¦ what he said!
Am I the only one who thinks that this whole Mega-Regional idea for qualifications sounds stupid? MANY good teams cannot go to more than one regional, let alone nats. So, how would you guys like to have only the big-rich macho teams at Nationals?
Plus, why am I calling it Nationals? Because itās NATIONALS, where every team can go, not Championship, that sounds more like only the good teams can go.
end rant
*Originally posted by The Lucas *
**Thats why this is in the Rumor Mill. If it was posted on the FIRST site it wouldnāt be a rumor now would it. Until a couple weeks ago the new robot controller was just a rumor started mid season last year (something Lavery said at one of the comps started it I think).The first buzz I heard about MEGA Regionals was at the Chesapeake Bay Regional when many people noticed the Naval Academy could easily hold two fields and over a hundred teams. Unfortunately teams would no longer be able to play hackey sack in between pits:) Also notice the J&J Regional changed to a bigger venue. It appears these MEGA Regionals are already falling into place. Since the Championship Event can no longer accommodate all the teams that want to go, open-invitation MEGA Regionals make sense. **
Rumor Mill asideā¦This might be a nice idea but so far I have not heard any proclamation from FIRST that a tiered system or Megaregionals were being planned.
Our rationale behind expanding NJ was to accomodate many more NJ teams (50 x05) and allow a more widespread recruitment of NJ teams via the RINOS program. There will be quite a few new ones in the regional this year and next.
I have heard that by improving the regionals it might take some of the emphasis on all teams attending the Nats. Eventually, if FIRST continues to think in the small numbers they do now, there will be very limited space at Nats to attend due to dozens of Regional contributors being limited to a few teams each. I can see that day when Nats are based on that seasonās qualification.
If somebody else heard different I would like to know. The idea of going through tiers over many weeks to qualify for nats is undesirable and scary. The expense would be huge and the need to remove students from class even longer would be prohibitive.
WC
Originally posted by geo
HAHAHA, we got two playing fields and a huge Hokey arena as pit area.
(from Dictionary.com)
hokĀ·ey adj. Slang hokĀ·iĀ·er, hokĀ·iĀ·est
[list=1]
[li]Mawkishly sentimental; corny. [*]Noticeably contrived; artificial.[/list=1]
[/li]I think you meant hockey.
Originally posted by JosephM
[b]Am I the only one who thinks that this whole Mega-Regional idea for qualifications sounds stupid? MANY good teams cannot go to more than one regional, let alone nats. So, how would you guys like to have only the big-rich macho teams at Nationals?Plus, why am I calling it Nationals? Because itās NATIONALS, where every team can go, not Championship, that sounds more like only the good teams can go.
end rant [/b]
āAmericans go to Nationals, everyone else goes to The Championships.ā Steve W. Team 188 (Im pretty sure it was him at WMR 2003, if not it was a member of 188)
Originally posted by gwross
[b](from Dictionary.com)
hokĀ·ey adj. Slang hokĀ·iĀ·er, hokĀ·iĀ·est[list=1]
[li]Mawkishly sentimental; corny. [*]Noticeably contrived; artificial.[/list=1]
[/li]> I think you meant hockey.
Not necessarily, for some reason Iāve seen Canadian publications spell it āHokeyā Aparently āHokeyā is the true spelling, and it eventually evolved into āHockeyā
*Originally posted by D.J. Fluck *
**āAmericans go to Nationals, everyone else goes to The Championships.ā Steve W. Team 188 (Im pretty sure it was him at WMR 2003, if not it was a member of 188)Its not Nationals anymore, technically it hasnāt been āNationalsā since 1998 when the first Canadian team joined in. Itās now an International Competition. Thats how it is. Deal with it.
**
I just have an objection that people think that it should be the best since itās the Championship, but it was originally the Nats. See what Iām saying? Ok.
I believe they changed it to Championship because of international teams. The purpose behind the event is the same as day one. A chance to celebrate winners. I still believe that every competitor in FIRST is a winner.
Originally posted by gwross
[b](from Dictionary.com)
hokĀ·ey adj. Slang hokĀ·iĀ·er, hokĀ·iĀ·est[list=1]
[li]Mawkishly sentimental; corny. [*]Noticeably contrived; artificial.[/list=1]
[/li]> I think you meant hockey.
Sorry, itās my typing mistake
*Originally posted by D.J. Fluck *
**Not necessarily, for some reason Iāve seen Canadian publications spell it āHokeyā Aparently āHokeyā is the true spelling, and it eventually evolved into āHockeyā **
Can you cite a reference? Doing a Google search, I could find no credible instances (in English) of hockey being spelled hokey, though I found several pages in French and Turkish with that spelling. Maybe the Canadian pubs you saw were in French?!
Now, Dictionary.com cites Websterās Revised Unabridged Dictionary saying that āHockeyā also refers to āThe stick used by the [hockey] players.ā And that it is also written āhookey and hawkey.ā So Iām not ruling out your assertion. I just havenāt found any evidence to support it yet.
There was some discussion of making the Annapolis regional a super regional, I seem to recall several important people with decision making ability being supportive of the idea.
I think it is a splendid idea. It makes the smaller FIRST from the old days remain, sorta, while allowing more teams to participate.
Joseph, and all the others that want everyone to goto Na, The Championship, you need to face reality. As of right now, there are 687 teams registered for at least one event. This many teams would require 8 fields, with 84 teams in a division, and there are likely to be 200+ more teams that register in the coming months Some places are big, but I donāt know any that are that big. Also, FIRST dosnāt buy that many fields, nor have the man power to run an event that size.
If this dosnāt become a physical impossibility this year, it will within the next few.
Super regionals allow something approaching the feel of nats from the late 90ās, while allowing FIRST to continue growth. I hope the Canadian Regional this year is just a test, and that it goes well and FIRST will expand that concept.
Wetzel
*Originally posted by gwross *
**Can you cite a reference? Doing a Google search, I could find no credible instances (in English) of hockey being spelled hokey, though I found several pages in French and Turkish with that spelling. Maybe the Canadian pubs you saw were in French?!Now, Dictionary.com cites Websterās Revised Unabridged Dictionary saying that āHockeyā also refers to āThe stick used by the [hockey] players.ā And that it is also written āhookey and hawkey.ā So Iām not ruling out your assertion. I just havenāt found any evidence to support it yet. **
I wouldnāt expect you to find a Canadian āslang-likeā (its more of slang now, but many years ago it supposedly wasnt) term in an american dictionary
In a way you are kind of right, they were Canadian publications in english, but quite a few were school reports from french-canadian providences schools. Its more of an accepted thing and its starting to die out, but its still used.
Back to the thread
*Originally posted by JosephM *
**So, how would you guys like to have only the big-rich macho teams at Nationals?
**
For the past few years it seems to have headed that direction anyhow, because of some of the high costs just to get into the team party and having to go through things like āThe Meeting Placeā which teams (like ours) could not affordā¦ and therefore we had to make our own āTeam partyā that cost much less, but unfortunatly we were seperated from the rest of the teams. I understand the costs to FIRST and all, but stillā¦ unless you have a really nice budget, you arenāt going to be able to do much at nationals other than compete and get by in a low-cost hotel you find somewhere (we stayed almost 20 miles from the competition in Houston, and on Day 1 our bus broke downā¦ taking a rental car back and forth with 3 people and some tools was a tedious task) but we had to do that cause of low budget, it just seems too hard to pay for many things. Plus to add a āMEGA-REGIONALā (if the rumor comes true) would probably take many teams (most likely us) out of a possibility of going to Championship even if we were the best robot that year simply because of costs. Iām not criticizing FIRST, itās just that many teams are running on budgets even lower than ours and they wouldnāt be able to go at all. Everyone saw this last year when many good teams couldnāt go to Houston simply because they couldnāt afford it, even if they were great teams.