The Battle at the Border 2007 Official Thread

It’s official! Battle at the Border, Team San Diego’s 24 Hour Lock-In and Scrimmage, has returned. Mark your calendars for November 2nd and 3rd.

The lock-in will begin the night of Friday November 2nd followed by the actual competition on November 3rd.

Specifics such as entry fees are still being worked out and should be announced soon.

The official website for Battle at the Border is here

Hay!
How’s San Diego doing?
We are looking forward to a great summer and would like to join your “Battle at the Border”
Would there be any problem with us running a test transmission / robot?
Of course all the plans would be free and available for the asking.
Please let us know, we want to Go to Diego!

Have Fun! :slight_smile: :cool: :wink:

Geo.

We’d love to have the legendary Team 60 join us for Battle at the Border!

As for the test transmission/robot you’re more than welcome to run them at the competition. You probably won’t be only team running prototype parts either :wink:

More information would be good. For us to make arrangements, we need to have an out-of-state trip approved by the school board (where, why, how, how much, who, etc). Thanks!

Where: Madison High School, San Diego
Why: Because not only is it an offseason, the all nighter before hand is filled with fun, food, and games
How: With gracious professionalism
How much: Not sure
Who: Team San Diego hosts

Most of what George said is true. Compared to previous years the price for the COMPETITION will be somewhere in the sub $300 range. The Lock-In could be included in that price, I’m not sure at the moment. Our first planning meeting is on the 21st of June and the topic of entry fee will likely come up then. Expect more information released shortly after the 21st.

Another reason to come is as George said, the lock-in. Things get changed up from year to year so we cannot for sure say what’s going to be at the lock-in. Some of the things we’ve had at the lock-in before were: LAN Party (Console and PC based), Tiki Lounge, Karaoke, Movie rentals, Food, Drinks, etc.

Some of the new things being talked about this year: LAN Party (revamped), X-Box 360 Circle (A large circle of projectors hooked up to X-Box 360s), Rack n’ Roll Side Events (Robot Drag Racing, Human Player Challenge, etc) and Flight Simulators just to name a few. Of course none of this will be finalized until the event gets closer.

Oh and of course after the lock-in there is this little competition too;) . So far it looks like we’ll be the last off-season on the West Coast (maybe even the country) and potentially your last crack at Rack n’ Roll.

As for how… Once again George put it the best, with the GP from a handful of teams down here we’re able to put on this event. Every team running the event pitches in a little (some more than others). We’re also relying on some sponsors to help out with somethings (Like a new field? :rolleyes: )

Also, FYI. Madison High School’s Gym Floor was redone last summer (part of the reason this event was nixed last year) and the school would like to keep the floor looking new for as long as possible. We’re trying to be very cautious of this. As a result, there will be foam padding laid out under the field. The foam is almost identical to the foam used for the FVC playing field.

Who else is planning on coming?

LOL…Thanks!

Madison high school was not where it was held at the last time correct?
I would like to try to get our team to go.

Madison High School is where we hold almost all of our events. From our FVC championship tournament to our pre-ship scrimmage to Battle at the Border (2004, 2005 and now 2007)

Oh okay, thank you for clarifying. I forgot where it was held last time.
When will the registration be up on the website?

Our next meeting is this Thursday. Hopefully we’ll be able to launch registration shortly thereafter.

We had an scheduling conflict with the Nov. 2nd and 3rd date. So we’re moving the event back 1 week. The event will now take place on October 26th and 27th.

This actually works out well for many of the SoCal teams who wanted to attend SCRRF’s Fall Workshops and Battle at the Border and couldn’t due to the previous date.

More details to be announced next week!

Hrrm, only one week after Cal Games. Interesting. Anyway, I hope it takes place (we missed it last year) and I’m sure it will be a blast!

EDIT: The above is incorrect, see below.

Actually it’s two weeks. I believe the weekend between CalGames and Battle at the Border is PSATs, which is a big reason why we weren’t having it then. I’m sure SCRRF and WRRF have similar reasons.

Ah yes, my mistake. Carry on. :slight_smile:

One year (I forget which) SCRRF had the Fall Classic on PSAT Weekend. We’ll never do that again! I do remember that the BeachBots couldn’t go because 9 out of 10 students were taking the test!

Speaking of the Fall Classic, we are looking at September 29th or 30th. We are still trying to lock down a venue. I think we have one but we are still waiting for approval and it would be nice to have a backup. So if anybody has a lead go ahead and PM me.

Or had something else to do. It would have been nice to be there, but the 2005 championship driver was one of the test-takers.

Is there any new information yet?

We had to postpone our meeting until tomorrow evening. More information to come then.

Okay, so details from our meeting:

1) Registration

We will be launching pre-registration in about a week. By pre-registering you ARE NOT guaranteed a spot, you will only be guaranteed a spot once your team has filled out the appropriate forms AND once we (Team San Diego) has received your registration payment in full.

Spots will be given at a first come first serve basis and we are capping at 30 teams. We are expecting about 12-17 Team San Diego teams to attend which leaves roughly 15 or so spots for out of town/state teams to attend, so I would suggest that all teams get pre-registered and get their money in ASAP if you are serious about attending Battle at the Border 2007. I will make another post when pre-registration is launched.

2) Registration Price

The price to register for Battle at the Border 2007 will be $200 per robot before September 1st, $250 per robot between September 1st and October 12th. After October 12th the price jumps to $275 per robot. The price will be determined by when you send your payment in. For example, if you pre-register before September 1st, but don’t send us your check AND paper work until after September 1st you will have to pay the $250 price.

The cost to attend the lock-in will be $50 per team, plus the cost of food, drink, etc.

3) Field/Game/Rules Modifications

As mentioned in a prior post, the field will be sitting on top of a foam padding similar to the padding used on the FVC field. This is due to that fact that Madison High School (The host of the event) had their gym floor replaced over last summer and the school does not want their floor getting ruined.

We used this same set up at our pre-ship scrimmage and none of the robots that ran on it seemed to have any major traction issues.

Playoff structure will be determined based on the number of teams competing. If at least 24 teams show up we’ll likely run a full finals tournament (unless time is prohibitive). If 24 teams are not competing we’ll likely run either 8 alliances of 2, 4 alliances of 3 or 4 alliances of 2.

4) Pit Area

Every team will be given a pit area (size TBD by the number of teams attending) close to the gym. Teams will be given access to the pits when they first arrive at the lock-in on Friday night, however we ask that they drop off their robot and set up their pit (make sure batteries are on chargers, drop off tools, etc.) We’re not sure if or when teams will have access to the field on Friday night, but Pits and the field will open at around 7AM.

If you have any more question, please feel free to ask. Our next meeting will be on the 12th of July, more details will be announced then.