If you’re attending an off season event you’ve been to 20 times before, and you know the pits are 8’x8’ at best, please leave the gigantic 10’ x 10’ super-pit at home.
That is all.
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A well designed super pit should be reconfigurable to fit 8x8.
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Zero effort was made to fit this monstrosity into the allotted space.
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Photos?
That would be no different than calling them out by name, which I’m not going to do.
I used to have a great deal of respect for this team, but that was under prior management.
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Can you please provide a list of the events that have 8x8 pits so I can be sure we avoid going to them? Thanks.
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We attended an offseason where the pits were pretty small and in rows 2 deep so every row was basically about 18’ x 20’ with one long side open for entry and exit with 4 teams. In our row, 3 of the 4 teams had a super pit or a bunch of toolboxes that basically amounted to a super pit, but because all 4 teams were already friends we basically made 1 giant pit with a single ~8 entry. Best pit setup I’ve ever had, 10/10 would recommend!
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That would be an awesome setup!
Back to the original topic: if their only pit setup is road cases, what do you expect they should do instead? (“not show up” seems like a more reasonable alternative to me than “invent and create an entirely new pit setup for this one event”)
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First had not made it a secret that you don’t always get 10 * 10 pits. So don’t DESIGN 10 * 10 pits.
Does first have the nominal pit size in their event manual? They really should just say to expect 8x8 all the time.
Personally, we design ours 6’. We also don’t put up huge walls in our pit - if we get a chance we’ll remove the divider between us and the pit next to us (as long as they agree). Having a shared area has been fun every time we’ve done it.
In any other comparable sport they’d be told to fix it or leave. There is a divide between gracious professionalism and abusing the rules, even unknowingly.
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Most teams should be designing their pits to fit either 10x10 or as small as 8x8 since the rule book points out that is the case. We had 8x8ish size pits at one of our offseasons and the Super-Pits fit just fine.
The most common solution was not putting in the corner piece and sliding the pit so it blocked access to either the storage bins/minifridge. Which for the greater good most of those teams sacrificed that for the event.
So this really doesn’t sound like a Super-Pit problem this sounds like a problem with a specific team that could have been solved by either just talking to them or getting event staff involved instead of a passive aggressive Delphi post. If they didn’t want to shrink their pit when they were asked it would still be a team problem and not a Super-Pit one. If they didn’t comply when the event staff asked then that is a problem to take up with the event next year about why some teams are given more space than others.
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If we are in the ranting mood. If a pit doesn’t have “established” walls you should still pretend they are there. We were testing our amp mechanism and someone just walked through our to get to theirs and almost got their shoulder taken off. The reason was they also had a super pit and their pit was a little cramped so they just entered from our side of the pit. We did mention it but it was like a revolving door; a new person every time.
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Just wanted to clear up that the 4414 case design, thats normally referred to as a “super-pit”, fits in as small as an 8x8 if you overlap the cases slightly, and fits comfortably in a 9x9
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One piece of advice for anyone looking at this while designing or organizing a super pit, try to put everything critical in one side of the pit. This means you can leave behind half the pit when moving to a smaller eliminations pit or offseason. I keep all the tools, small parts, batteries, water, and first aid on one side and the other half gets stuff like tube and sheet stock, banners, spirit stuff, paper plates and cups for lunch, the 3d printer, and any large spare that don’t fit on the main pit. (Bonus tip not related to this thread, storage space for things that immediately go to the stands or lunch area at events is really great for holding pit crew backpacks.
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Hi, the team you’re talking about is 195. I am the “new” lead mentor of this team that you clearly no longer have respect for. It’s unfortunate that you feel this way, as we have had a great deal of respect for your team and always considered ourselves friends. No one from the event had issues with our pit or asked us to make any changes. I’ll discuss this with your lead mentors privately, as I don’t really think that this context is appropriate.
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100%
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Seems like we may have hit the point where this thread should be closed down to reduce the chances of personal attacks and if anyone wants to carry on a healthy discussion on nominal pit sizes that can happen in a new thread.
Just my 2¢
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Why was this flagged? He’s right.
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Ill own this one. Inadvertently hidden from a self flag. I flag my own posts as “Something else” all the time for various things that may require the mods.
I don’t know how CD and flag priority works behind the scenes apparently
Shoulda flagged that as something else vs “guidelines”.
Edit: lol thanks for fixing mods.
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If you are a ‘Regular’ your flags have a much higher priority. I have also foot gunned myself this way before.
Please note that like everything else on Chief Delphi, this opinion is my own and does not reflect any position of Team 230.