2010 nationals

Well considering that most teams will have to ship their middle weight robots, the teams will need to be wrapping up the final details if they are going to be able to ship the robot in two weeks.

I guess if you can afford to pay the high shipping fee you could have it sent express, but most teams give it a two week window. That shipping date is less than two weeks away. If they have not signed up yet, don't hold your breath.

I just don't understand why you think there is going to be many more robots than are signed up right now. School don't operate on snap decisions. I feel bad for the whole BotsIQ program because this will ultimately determine where teams will go next year. If a school shells out either $300 or $500 they expect to have a true competition, not just a few neighborhood robots that about a month ago competed and it only cost $25 to register. Are the trophies solid gold in April?

Hopefully the event keeps some schools coming back at least one more year so maybe there is hope for 2011...

I don't think that there is much if any hope of even holding a 120 event..with 3 bots registered???

I was hoping that maybe some more 15's might show up... but not holding my breath

Miami dade county youth fair is having an event on the 28th of this month....and it's free.....probably will be a peview to what could happen at nat's .....at least among our locals.

You see, for you guys you have multiple places to play with your robots. If Miami Dade County Youth Fair is happening at the end of the month... then why drop $300 to go to an event two weeks later? I just don't get it...

We wait all year to compete JUST ONCE because we DON"T have an arena to compete in. The closest event was the Rumble at the Rock for us. And that is about an 8 hour drive depending on traffic around NYC. As it sounds, you have had two "regional" tournaments already this year NOT including the youth fair. To drop Nationals in Miami is just not smart. Youo might have a number of teams, but I bet if they moved the National to PA we would have so many robots we would HAVE to have two divisions. Seriously, if the Miami area can onl drum up 10 robots, what's going on down there? Too many opportunities? There are two NTMA events in PA and both are totally filled with teams being turned away. The SouthWestern PA group... "Plum country" has 64 robots lined up for April 16th and 17th. The date was set LONG before the BotsIQ group annoumced the National event. In Meadville, up near Erie, they have 32+ other teams lined up for their NTMA event. Thats 96 robots in PA alone! NOT including Bloomsburg's which would drop us at a cool 100 robots. Not including the schools that got turned away or the schools that had additional robots they wanted to get in but the brackets were full.

In addition, Ohio, the state next door - for those geographically challenged - is having a tournament next week and there are another 20+ robots there. They had almost 50 in the fall for their "Big" event.

So tell me again, why are we having this event in Miami? There are 5 robots from Ransom, 4 from Team Jag and then two other schools. One from PA because they are like us and have NO OTHER PLACE to compete.

Not to beat the horse anymore, but Minnesota, Mass, Ohio and PA are where the National tournament should have been located.

team jag has sponsor commitments...so they must attend

last year we only had youth fair.....this year is much better as far as events to go to

why didn't you take yours to motorama? slim down to 12 ...it's fairlry close to you

Dont forget the BCA kids!!!!!!

Motorama is only an hour and a half away, but if you are designing around a 15lbs robot you can't cut out three pounds and still have a robot with any chance of doing well. If you build a 12lbs robot and then you want to compete in a true high school competition like BotsIQ, you have given up too much design weight and again, you are not going to be competitive.

We did Motorama for three years when they were running the 120lbs robot too. That was worth the trip. But when we tried to cut our robots down by three pounds, they were just not effective and we ended up wasting a lot of aluminum and design efforts. In addition, Motorama is not exactly totally school friendly. Although Motorama is a great event, there are things that happen there are not always considered school safe.

Thus we decided that was not the best educational experience for our high school students.

What sponsor obligations would you need to worry about considering the event is in your home town? Most teams biggest expenditure is travel and lodging. You don't have either of those. And what sponsor is really going to care if you are at a "so called" national event if there are less than 6 schools present? If anything, call the Dade County event a national event... they most likely will have more robots there than the actual BotsIQ event.

"National"

I have to agree with you but I would say the reason is NOLA is from that area as you may have guessed.

I cant blame them if they were scrambling for something after a cancellation.

BUT, You are right with the number of teams and where they are from.

The North East has by far a better number of bots competing.

We have 5 bots here but can only enter 3 in our tournament.

The stuff you were saying just makes me pound my head and wimper WHY.

This is the reason we are trying to get another event up here. To facilitate the number of teams to compete more than just once.

Ideally 2 in the fall and 2 in the spring would be best.

The dropping of 3 lbs is hard but what we found out is that making 2 frames is the answer.

Make the one that is pocketed out for 12 lbs and then duplicate it without pocketing for 15lbs.

It is only a weeks worth of extra work and you have them both done with the weight being pretty close to the ideal 15lbs.

Moto has cleaned up things pretty well over the last three years so I would ask that you give it another chance next year.

PLUS, I have convinced them to ADD a 15lb high school only class for next year so dropping the weight wont be a problem.

We are going to Ohio's DTMA event next week and they welcomed us without a problem.

I am guessing that they have low numbers.

It is a 5 hour drive for us to get out there so a long day is in store for us (there battle and back due to money restrictions).

Maybe they will wake up and small the coffee one of these days.

The thing that kills me is the fact that there is an arena here locally that can be used many times a year but they dont want to have extra events or let anyone else use it for a comparable price.

marsh368 wrote:

What sponsor obligations would you need to worry about considering the event is in your home town? Most teams biggest expenditure is travel and lodging. You don't have either of those. And what sponsor is really going to care if you are at a "so called" national event if there are less than 6 schools present? If anything, call the Dade County event a national event... they most likely will have more robots there than the actual BotsIQ event.

MLEC committed to going to the 'BotsIq' nationals...wherever it was held (as part of a sponsorship agreement) so we must attend

the only good news is that we found out that SF was a no go BEFORE purchasing plane tickets.

Nola and others are trying to keep it alive which I believe is agood thing...I hope that BOTSIQ can make a comeback next year...Last years event didn't bring many teams either and most were from Florida.

I think that 2008 was the last real 'National event' for BOTSIQ

I believe that there were more than a few 12's at Moto that could be modified and would do well as 15's

jmo

Well this is something we can look forward to if Moto does ad a 15lbs. class to its already full schedule. I know they tried to add a 15lbs class to the Franklin Institute event last summer and no one showed up. My guess would be that is was a little short notice and most schools were off for the summer anyway.

Adding weight to a 12lbs robot is no big deal at all. But the entire idea of having a 15lbs class is to PREVENT professional builders to up their robots to 15lbs. and have their kids drive them. That takes the design and construction of the robots out of the kids hands. And that is what BotsIQ is all about. Having a driver is great, but I don't think we are promoting this robotic event to train robot drivers. We are in the program to train future design engineers, machinists, CAD designers, graphic artist, and basic workforce training...

I would have made every effort to get to the BotsIQ Nationals, but I knew with the short notice we could never make it. It was over, before it started for us.

I will back Nola with all my energies and have in the past, but this event is just going to kill the BotsIQ movement and drive teams to the NRL. Next year if I propose going to the BotsIQ event and they request a team list and numbers, our school board will laugh and say no way. National events have to have some substance... not just four local teams. You have to look at he BIG picture, not just the narrow view of a few local teams that are going to benefit from a documentary... if it actually ever gets made.

We are going to meet West Mifflin in Ohio at the end of the week and I hope we can talk about some of the things that are happening behind the scenes in PA. Things look strong for a east coast arena and 32 new PA teams for next year. It will be centered around Philly, but I'm hoping I might be able to play there. Otherwise I'm still sitting in "no man's land". We can also talk about finding an arena that might be able to travel to various locations of the state. I saw the rental fees the southwestern group is trying to charge and it is way out of touch considering a state grant was used to obtain it in the first place...

Lets ll keep working towards a common goal of bringing the sport to more and more schools... This thing is growing fast and we need to keep pushing the limits!

marsh368 wrote:

Well this is something we can look forward to if Moto does ad a 15lbs. class to its already full schedule. I know they tried to add a 15lbs class to the Franklin Institute event last summer and no one showed up. My guess would be that is was a little short notice and most schools were off for the summer anyway.

Adding weight to a 12lbs robot is no big deal at all. But the entire idea of having a 15lbs class is to PREVENT professional builders to up their robots to 15lbs. and have their kids drive them. That takes the design and construction of the robots out of the kids hands. And that is what BotsIQ is all about. Having a driver is great, but I don't think we are promoting this robotic event to train robot drivers. We are in the program to train future design engineers, machinists, CAD designers, graphic artist, and basic workforce training...

I would have made every effort to get to the BotsIQ Nationals, but I knew with the short notice we could never make it. It was over, before it started for us.

I will back Nola with all my energies and have in the past, but this event is just going to kill the BotsIQ movement and drive teams to the NRL. Next year if I propose going to the BotsIQ event and they request a team list and numbers, our school board will laugh and say no way. National events have to have some substance... not just four local teams. You have to look at he BIG picture, not just the narrow view of a few local teams that are going to benefit from a documentary... if it actually ever gets made.

We are going to meet West Mifflin in Ohio at the end of the week and I hope we can talk about some of the things that are happening behind the scenes in PA. Things look strong for a east coast arena and 32 new PA teams for next year. It will be centered around Philly, but I'm hoping I might be able to play there. Otherwise I'm still sitting in "no man's land". We can also talk about finding an arena that might be able to travel to various locations of the state. I saw the rental fees the southwestern group is trying to charge and it is way out of touch considering a state grant was used to obtain it in the first place...

Lets ll keep working towards a common goal of bringing the sport to more and more schools... This thing is growing fast and we need to keep pushing the limits!

I'll see you in Ohio!

Beating a dead horse....

see what happens next year....

ha 2008 wasnt even botsiq it was "Bots Worldwide"
all going back to Nola and the NTMA

OOOOOO carolton is attending!

one of their NEW bots is a melty....we'll see if they get it right!! could be a force to be reconed with...

or not..

Oh yee of little faith.....Carrolton is flooding the event with bots...they're up to 7 or 8..I believe...in the 15 lbs. division

and i thought RE robotics was the one with the swarm of mini's

carrolton,RE and christopher columbus have made up atleast 1/3rd of the 15lb class at nationals in the past i think

numbers are growing abit...up to 38 bots...9 120's !!

I am of little faith because when I was talking to Crockwell, he didn't sound very confident either!

with only a couple of days left, the numbers are growing!!

up to 27 15 pounders (hs) and 1 collaege entry for a total of 28

120's are up to a dozen or so...total of 55 bots in total ....so we have a competition !!!

We have gotten our advisor to register on time for once!!!! Now to build the robots that we registered

get em done...we expect a great showing from you guys...and it'll be good to finally meet you in person as well!!!

and theres only two teams from outside of miami in 15lb class