Posted by Gary Fernandes, Engineer on team #88, TJ2, from Bridgewater Raynham Reg. and Johnson & Johnson.
Posted on 4/29/99 4:16 PM MST
What a tough year it has been FIRST really gave us a challenge. I posted a letter last year about having A / B teams at the nationals.How does this sound to everyone for next year.
The top 50% of the teams at the regional pay in the A league at the nationals. For the finals the top 16 teams pick one of their alliance partners from the top 16 B league teams. This gives the teams playing in the B league something to go for.
I hope that everyone responds to my idea. Add your point of view trust me the FIRST gods are reading along with us.
I want to take my hat off to FIRST they did a really great job this year. The interaction between teams because of the alliance system I really enjoyed. Keep up the good work and try to take it easy on use next year so we can do FIRST and still have a life.
Posted by Mike Kulibaba, Student on team #88, TJ², from Bridgewater-Raynham Regional and Johnson and Johnson.
Posted on 4/29/99 5:45 PM MST
In Reply to: Next Year posted by Gary Fernandes on 4/29/99 4:16 PM MST:
Gary,
I love the idea!!! But I like any idea you come up with. It would make our scouting job a little easier. But on another note, I just want to say thank you to you and all the engineers over at JJPI, you guys put in countless amounts of hours and hard work and it always pays off in the end. For the 4 years that I have done this program, you and the other engineers have tried your hardest to make sure everyone on the team has a good time and that we all learn something. I owe alot to all of you for what you have taught me and what you have done for this program. The reason I come back year in and year out is because I see how much fun you guys have and it makes the time I put towards the program seem absolutely worth it. If I do come back for another year it will be mainly because of people like you, Moe and Mrs. Calef who always seem to bring the best of out of me. I’ll see you all soon and and once again thank you for your dedication, this program wouldn’t be the same without any of you!!
Sincerly
Mike Kulibaba Team 88 TJ²
Posted by Chris, Coach on team #308, Walled Lake Monster, from Walled Lake Schools and TRW Automotive Electronics.
Posted on 4/30/99 5:52 AM MST
In Reply to: Next Year posted by Gary Fernandes on 4/29/99 4:16 PM MST:
Personally, I don’t like this idea. Our team finished about 50th out of 58 at the Great Lakes Regional, yet placed 24th at the nationals. This is not that unusual for our team since we’re a little understaffed and have trouble finishing the robot in time for the regionals. We spend most of the regional finishing the robot and refined it over the 3 days between the regional and when we have to ship. I don’t want to be relugated to the B class if my team is good enough to compete with the top teams.
-Chris
: What a tough year it has been FIRST really gave us a challenge. I posted a letter last year about having A / B teams at the nationals.How does this sound to everyone for next year.
: The top 50% of the teams at the regional pay in the A league at the nationals. For the finals the top 16 teams pick one of their alliance partners from the top 16 B league teams. This gives the teams playing in the B league something to go for.
: I hope that everyone responds to my idea. Add your point of view trust me the FIRST gods are reading along with us.
: I want to take my hat off to FIRST they did a really great job this year. The interaction between teams because of the alliance system I really enjoyed. Keep up the good work and try to take it easy on use next year so we can do FIRST and still have a life.
Posted by Mike Kulibaba, Student on team #88, TJ², from Bridgewater-Raynham Regional and Johnson and Johnson.
Posted on 4/30/99 11:58 AM MST
In Reply to: Re: Next Year posted by Chris on 4/30/99 5:52 AM MST:
Chris,
you do bring up a good point but if you think about it, your team would of been in the finals this year if we did it this way. I think FIRST is going have to sometime set up some kind of system where only the best of the best can go to the nationals. Maybe something like the top 10 from each regional or something. But I think teams should definately have to earn their way into the nationals. But I’m not saying that they should do it next year but they should do it sometime. And I know this means more money and stuff for each team which isn’t easy to raise already but I think it would be better for the program. Something like the NCAA basketball tournament. but hey, this is just my opinion
Posted by BDH, Other on team #308, Walled Lake Monster, from Walled lake Western and TRW.
Posted on 4/30/99 2:14 PM MST
In Reply to: Re: Next Year posted by Mike Kulibaba on 4/30/99 11:58 AM MST:
I just want to put my 2 cents in after going to the nationals. I think your both right. There shouldn’t be a 2 class system, but something to break the teams up would help. If they did a conference playoff system i think that would be better. Break up into 4 groups and have teams randomly put in or base it on geographical areas. Take the top 16 teams from each of the 4 groups and I think you would have a much beter playoff system.
Brian
Posted by Chris, Coach on team #308, Walled Lake Monster, from Walled Lake Schools and TRW Automotive Electronics.
Posted on 4/30/99 9:07 PM MST
In Reply to: Re: Next Year posted by BDH on 4/30/99 2:14 PM MST:
I like that idea. It would be just like the Final 4.
: I just want to put my 2 cents in after going to the nationals. I think your both right. There shouldn’t be a 2 class system, but something to break the teams up would help. If they did a conference playoff system i think that would be better. Break up into 4 groups and have teams randomly put in or base it on geographical areas. Take the top 16 teams from each of the 4 groups and I think you would have a much beter playoff system.
: Brian
Posted by Adam, Student on team #177, Bobcat Robotics, from South Windsor High School and International Fuel Cells/ UTC.
Posted on 4/30/99 2:58 PM MST
In Reply to: Next Year posted by Gary Fernandes on 4/29/99 4:16 PM MST:
Just to let people who werent aware of it know, UTC had an award breakfast sunday, at which Dean was kind enough to show up at. He spoke for a few minutes and then encouraged people to come up and ask questions. One of them touched upon making the nationals a real national contest, so Dean conducted a quick poll of the audience. The issue was was split 50/50 on whether or not to make it necesary to qualify for the nationals. A small minority voted for regional qualifiers, and then a national contest.
Thats all i remember, i was pretty zonked from the contest, but anyone else from a UTC team should know more. Hoped it helped
Posted by P.J. Baker, Engineer on team #177, Bobcat Robotics, from South Windsor High School and International Fuel Cells.
Posted on 5/1/99 6:40 AM MST
In Reply to: Re: Next Year posted by Adam on 4/30/99 2:58 PM MST:
I seem to recall that most people voted not to eliminate teams at the regionals. I was among that crowd. Under the right conditions though, I would be in favor of it. Next year, there will be about 10 regionals (NASA is adding at least two more), so taking the top 10-20 from each regional would still lead to a decent size National tournament. The drawbacks in my mind are concerned with logistics and fairness. FIRST would have to ensure travel arrangements for the teams because the last qualifiers would only know a couple of weeks in advance that they could go to nationals. Probably this is only a small problem. I have a bigger concern about teams that can only afford one regional and then have trouble running well there. FIRST would have to make sure that teams had the opportunity to make sure that their 'bot was running before the regional, but I’m not sure how to do this. I’m sure that this topic has been beaten to death in the past, but these are just my initial thoughts.
Dean also mentioned the new, indoor stadium the Disney is building. It sounded like it would be in Orlando, but off of the Disney property. I think that this could be a great venue, as long as Disney World hotels were still hosting the event and there was plenty of transportation to and from the venue. I wasn’t sure before I went, but I think that EPCOT is a big part of the magic of the competition. When FIRST is big enough, it may not be necessary, but right now I think it probably does a lot for recruiting both sponsors and team members.
Sorry this was so long.
Later,
P.J.
Posted by Andrew Trax, Coach on team #180, S.P.A.M., from Southfork,Martin Co. High and UTC.
Posted on 5/1/99 8:25 AM MST
In Reply to: Re: Next Year posted by P.J. Baker on 5/1/99 6:40 AM MST:
I’d assume that the new arena would be built near Wide World of Sports.
Since Disney owns ABC televison, keeping the National at Disney might
be a really good thing. Can you image the competition aired during prime
time? Or live shots on a Friday night - TGIF - on ABC. I can see it now.
Mary Kate & Ashley Olsen at the controls of a robot. Or resurrect Steve
Erkel and put him in the pit. Just boggles the mind!
Mrs. Trax
Posted by Tom Vanderslice, Student on team #275, ORHS/AST/Hitachi, from Academy of Science and Technology and Hitachi.
Posted on 5/2/99 7:27 PM MST
In Reply to: Re: Next Year posted by Andrew Trax on 5/1/99 8:25 AM MST:
: I’d assume that the new arena would be built near Wide World of Sports.
: Since Disney owns ABC televison, keeping the National at Disney might
: be a really good thing. Can you image the competition aired during prime
: time? Or live shots on a Friday night - TGIF - on ABC. I can see it now.
: Mary Kate & Ashley Olsen at the controls of a robot. Or resurrect Steve
: Erkel and put him in the pit. Just boggles the mind!
: Mrs. Trax
What would be cool is some live coverage Saturday afternoon…i mean…
if people will watch golf on sat. afternoon…they’ll watch ANYTHING… 
Tom
Team 275
Posted by Frank Toussaint, Engineer on team #111, Wildstang, from Wheeling and Rolling Meadows and Motorola .
Posted on 4/30/99 3:25 PM MST
In Reply to: Next Year posted by Gary Fernandes on 4/29/99 4:16 PM MST:
In a few years, when every high school in the world has at least
one team, FIRST will have to limit the number of teams attending the
world finals (in Paris or Tokyo). Until then let’s have as many
teams as possible attend.
I predict that one hundred years from now FIRST will conduct the
competition with the robots floating weightless, in low earth orbit.