I have seen some strange and funny things that would only happen at a FIRST robotics event.
Only at a FIRST robotics event would there be a member from five different teams walking down the hall trying to get the most number of teams involved in a group hug.
Only at a FIRST robotics event does nobody move when the fire alarm goes off.
All it takes is one event where the Fire Alarm goes off and you treat it differently.
The alarm went of at an FTC Qualifier. It was shocking, more so cause it was 30s outside. To my knowledge, no one took their robot with them. With radios and phone calls, we corralled everyone into a warm building. Turned out a power surge tripped a sensor and set off the alarm. After they cleared the building, we tested the equipment and picked up where we left off. Even with the lost half hour, we managed to get out the building little before our average departure time.
Since then we’ve planned an organized response with people on radios covering specific areas. Some teams have even drawn up fire escape maps and left on the pit tables of other teams. They even did this for the Virginia Regional.
the fire alarm went off on practice day at GTR-E. an announcement came on saying we didn’t need to leave the building, 15 min later another announcement came on saying we needed to leave. we had to wait outside for 20 min before they said we could go back in. at that point they stopped playing scheduled matches and said it was a free-for-all.
One I noticed today: only at a FIRST event does anyone still play Sandstorm. It’s 15 years old people! Also, only at a FIRST event can you find hundreds of high schoolers dancing to Cotton Eye Joe.