REGIONALS IS COMING UP!

Hello Team 4293!

As many of you know, the regional competition is getting close.  In fact, we've got a week until competition day!  This means we've got some important updates and team information.  

Official FRC Colorado Regional website: www.coloradofirst.org/coloradoregional.htm

The competition is April 3rd, 4th, and 5th. Thursday the 3rd is practice day (pits open at 8:30, please be there by 8:15am), which involves getting the robot inspected for competition and as much driver practice as possible. Practice rounds conclude at 4:30, and the pits close at 8pm. We won’t need everyone to stay that long, and students should be saving their strength for Friday and Saturday.

Friday is the first day of competition. The Pits open at 8am (please be there by 7:45) and opening ceremonies are at 8:30am. Qualification matches are until about 5:45pm, at which time there’s an awards ceremony, and the pits close at 7pm. The TEAM SOCIAL is Friday, from 6:30-10:00pm, I would highly recommend that you attend, its pretty fun (more on this later). Please email Trevor (trevor@youngengineers.us) or tell one of the mentors before the competition if you’d like to go, as there is an $8 fee (which YEA will cover) and they need a roster and headcount for the event. 

Saturday April 5th is the remainder of the Qual matches and the Finals. Like Friday, please be there at 7:45. The “Alliance Selections” for the Finals happen just before lunchtime, at 12:15, with Finals beginning at 1:30pm. The finals conclude at 4:30pm, and pits close at 6:30pm.

Please remember: All students on the driving team (drivers, human players, coaches/potential coaches) need to be there all 3 days, as well as any students who volunteered for duties like Pit Ambassador or Safety Captain. We’d like all students to attend all 3 days to cheer on the team (and all teams, really).

Also, parents, feel free to attend on any day; we welcome your enthusiasm and support! If you can’t attend and are planning on picking up your student at the end of the day, please be aware that pick-up times are quite flexible due to activities going on, but please make your latest possible pickup time at “pit closure” (or 10pm on Friday, if your kid is going to the social).  

The competition will be at the Denver University Ritchie Center.  I would personally suggest going by light rail, its generally cheaper and easier.  The E, F and H lines all take you directly to university station.  If you're coming down the C or D lines, you'll need to transfer at Broadway or Alameda.  A friendly reminder that all students get discount fares on the light rail.  Remember to select "Discount Fare" when buying tickets for students.  

A google map of the Ritchie Center area can be found here:
https://goo.gl/maps/tqCpL

---

Parking is available at lot 108 (across Univesity to the Northeast for $10, or a pass for $7 if you buy one on Thursday before 8:30am at the Ritchie Center Loading Dock (or at the Pit Admin desk after that). Exact change or a check to “Colorado FIRST” is necessary. Alternatively, you cas use the light rail parking lot which is either free or $4 a day, depending on if your car is registered in-district or not (http://www.rtd-denver.com/HowToPark.shtml# tells you if your license is registered).

The main competition portion of the event will be held in the Magness Arena, the central area of the building.  We don't yet know where the pit area will be this year, but chances are it will be in one of the other arenas or gyms.  

---

A bit more on the plan for each day: The team has traditionally left the stadium and walked to lunch nearby, which is a nice break from the arena and the weather has been good for this in past years. Please bring money to do this. However, there are lunch options at the event: generally typical arena fare (expensive hot dogs, nachos, etc.) at Ritchie Center.  

While we're not at lunch, we'll expect students to be cheering in the stands, working in the pit or doing scouting work (or any specific duties students may have).  This does not include playing games on your phone in the stands.  However, the mentors understand that the event can be pretty tiring, and so if you need to take a break for a bit and step outside thats fine, just let a mentor know.

Now, some more information on the team social. There will be team parents as chaperones for this event. Not a lot of people stay all the way until 10pm, so make sure you coordinate your pickup time with your ride.  Regardless of how late you stay, I strongly encourage you to go.  From a personal standpoint, I had a ton of fun, and there was free food.  Who's gonna turn down free food?  Additionally, if you're afraid of having to socialize, or if you just don't want to deal with people (understandable) you should still come. Its hard to be more asocial than I am and I STILL managed to have fun, so really, come.

A couple of final things.  First off, we have a flyer for you guys to advertise with.  Feel free to print this out and place it around town, or email it to your friend's and family.  (download below)

We will be meeting this week, and we'll have a meeting on Saturday from 9am-2pm.

I can't wait to see you all at the competition, come prepared to have fun!

Thanks,
Grayson

---

first_flyer.pdf
File Size:	356 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

---