BattleCry SITREP 3, dtg 16May12/1500Z

“Arrival Info, etc.”

  1. Upon arriving to campus, any vehicles with materials to drop off should proceed to the Beech Tree Circle and unload. Quickly unload your items and proceed to parking. Please be aware of your surroundings and do not block through traffic.
  2. Free BattleCry Warrior parking is available on WPI property and some surrounding streets. Please consult our event map for details or ask a staff member to direct you to parking. Parking is not available on the Quad.  Those staying overnight should park in the Stoddard/Hackfield Lot (corner of Institute Rd & Hackfield)
  3. One adult member from each team should enter the lobby of Harrington Auditorium to begin your registration process.
  4. Upon Arrival:
    • Check your team in
    • Pay any remaining balance due (check preferred: “WPI/BattleCry”, credit card not accepted on-site)
    • Receive your information packet with pre-purchased event t-shirts and dinner tickets
    • Bring your robot to the Pit Admin table to update your WPA key before going on the field.
  5. Report to Pit Boss table in pit area for any needed pit assistance, directions to machine shop, and to sign up for your team’s practice time.
  6. Pay-as-you-go breakfast items are available Saturday in the snack bar (on gym level, by pit area).
  7. There will be a limited number of BattleCry 13 T-shirts for sale @ $10 at the registration table.
  8. There is a limited number of additional Battle Ration lunches (for Saturday) may be purchased in the snack bar area. NOTE: The campus Food Court will NOT be open on Saturday.

BattleCry SITREP 2, dtg 7May12/1400Z

“Deals, Meals, Games, etc.”

1. Territory Reconnaissance

For your advance scouts to get the “lay of the land”, we are working on setting up campus tours.  Check at the WPI Admissions table in the lobby for more details

2. Friday Evening R&R (Rest and Relaxation)

The Friday night campaign ends and the pits close at 2100, but then the teams can enjoy the evening from 2100-2300 by jumping into any of the following (and more to be added later) FREE activities centered in and around the Campus Center (CC)–participants in the asterisked items can compete for raffle tickets and win prizes to be given out on Saturday.  Participants who complete the scavenger hunt will be entered into a separate raffle drawing for a special prize.

  • Kinect*: Aiming to be the competition with the most Kinect use per-capita,  BattleCry is proud to offer a chance for everyone to use Microsoft’s new toy! You can choose to ride the rapids or dance the night away: either way you will make a fool of yourself and have a great time!
  • 100,000 FIRST Pyramid*: Contestants chosen from the audience will pair up with FIRST “celebrities” to try and get to the top of the Pyramid! Hosted by none other than BattleCry announcer, Andy Grady.
  • CRUD*: Play Team 190’s post-battle favorite on three CRUD tables in the CC’s 1st floor game room. Rules and training will be provided to teams who want to learn to play.
  • VEX Freeze Tag*: The fine folks at intelitek have graciously donated the use of their VEX Freeze-Tag robots. Go head-to-head, robot-to-robot in a battle to see who can turn off their opponent’s robots while keeping theirs online.
  • DDR*: Dance the night away
  • Wii Bowling*: Despite our real bowling alley is being dismantled, you can still play virtual bowling on the Nintendo Wii in the lower floor of the Campus Center!
  • Mario Kart Wii*: Find out who really is the best driver on your team.
  • Guitar Hero*: Outplay everyone else while showing off your rock star moves.
  • Rock Band*: Does your team have what it takes to be the best FIRST rock band?
  • Twister*: Test your flexibility and agility in this classic party game.
  • Lawn Games*: Play your tailgating favorites inside! Games include Ring Toss, Bean Bag Toss, and Ladder Ball.
  • Foosball: Spin tiny men in a low-tech soccer simulation.
  • Scavenger Hunt: Complete a list of tasks Friday evening and Saturday morning to be entered into a special raffle drawing.
  • …And of course the Ice Cream Sundae Bar: Make your own delicious ice cream creations.

3. Field Rations

As part of your entry fee you get:

  • 10 Free Friday night BBQ dinner and Ice Cream Sundae Bar
  • 10 Free Saturday team lunches
  • There will also be a concession stand operating from approximately 0700 to 1600 on Saturday on the main floor of the gym offering light snacks and beverages.

The Field Ration Kit

BBQ Dinner (Friday)

  • You get a choice of two hamburgers, veggi-burgers, or hot dogs. In addition there are rolls, potato chips, watermelon, salad with dressing, and your choice of drinks.
  • BBQ meals will be available from 1800-1930 with 10 free meals for each participating team. Additional dinners (with later ice cream sundae bar) are $13.00.  We cannot guarantee that there will be unreserved dinners available for purchase.

Ice Cream Sundae Bar (Friday)

  • Ice cream and assorted toppings will be served starting at 2100 during the evening R&R activities. The cost of the sundaes is included with the dinners so anyone getting a BBQ dinner will also be entitled to ice cream.

Lunch (Saturday)

  • You get a choice of ham, turkey, roast beef, or vegetarian sandwich on a fresh-baked bulky roll, a bag of potato chips, fresh whole fruit, two fresh-baked cookies and your choice of beverage. The first 10 lunches for each team are free! Pre-ordered meals will be delivered to each pit table at 1130 on Saturday.

Teams MUST enter their BBQ/Ice Cream, Lunch, and T-shirt orders into the registration system in order to receive their included ones and any additional they’d like to order.  When you enter your order, the cost of the 10 free of each will be automatically deducted on the invoice page.  

For teams who do not enter an order by the 8-May deadline, it will be assumed you do not want your included items and nothing will be ordered for you!

4. Human Player Contest (Air Superiority Award)

During the Saturday lunch break, there will be a special on-field contest for human players.  Teams will compete individually to see who has the best human player of BattleCry@WPI. Details on this contest will be available soon.  All teams that wish to participate must sign up at Pit Admin by 11AM on Saturday.

5. Video Opportunities


There will be multiple video cameras running throughout BC13 that will be under the control of our mixing crew. The entire competition will be available on live streaming video and should be archived and available at this site, match-by-match for at least nine months after the event.

 

BattleCry SITREP 1, dtg 23Apr12/1500Z

1. Registration

Please confirm your plans as soon as possible. We have many teams on the ready reserves list and out of courtesy to them, would like to update their status ASAP. All Registration Fee payments were due by 23 April (today) to hold your spot. If there are any teams that can’t accommodate this please contact the staff at battlecry@wpi.edu.

All registered BC13 Challengers need to completely fill out their registration information ASAP. This includes addtional food and t-shirt requests.  The deadline for updating food & t-shirts is 8 May. Payment information can be found on the Invoice page of the registration web site.

Note

BC13 is a 2-day tournament. We ask all teams to come both days and take advantage of the Friday barbeque, ice cream social, and team party, as well as the 2 or 3 qualifying matches on Friday. Unlike some previous years, we will NOT run a separate (and painfully-derived) tournament schedule for each day-the match schedule will assume that all teams will be here for both days.

2. Housing

On-campus housing is available for BC13.  To utilize on-campus housing, teams must sign up on the registration site.  The deadline to register for dorm rooms is 30 April.  This deadline is set by our Residential Services office and we do not have leeway on it.

Single, Two-person, and Three-person rooms are available.  Cost for the rooms is $25 per person.  In order to utilize these rooms, teams must have chaperones who also stay in the dorm rooms.  These chaperones must be approved by their school and must include at least one chaperone of the same gender as the students staying.  Additional information on behavioral policies and contracts will be provided to those who sign up. 

Each on-campus dorm room will contain one, two, or three twin beds with linens provided.  Rooms do not have TVs, fans, or air-conditioning.  The three person rooms have lofted beds ONLY.  

Additionally, some discounted hotels have been secured but the rates are available for a limited time only!  Teams are also welcome to arrange their own stay at other hotels in and around Worcester.  Cities like Auburn and Shrewsbury are within a 10-minute drive of WPI and may open up a wider variety of options.

3. Game Tweaks

See Rules of Engagement

4. Awards and Decorations

By Battlestaff decry, the following have been established for BC13:

    • Campaign Medals – One per each team that arrives on scene
    • Medal of Honor – Judges’ award to team that does the “most with the least”
    • Purple Heart – Judges’ award to team that becomes most grievously injured through valiant campaign effort
    • Engineering Excellence – Judges’ award for best overall robot design in terms of quality, creativity, and control
    • Noncombatant Service – Judges’ award for most outstanding team spirit displayed during the finals by a team eliminated during the eighth- finals
    • General Staff – Judges’ special recognition awards (3), criteria TBD
    • Awesome Offense – People’s choice award to team with most scoring potential/performance
    • Dominating Defense – People’s choice award to team with best score-neutralizing or score-denial potential/performance
    • Best BattleCry – Emcee’s award for best spirit shown by a team during combat
    • Air Superiority – To the team that fields the top Human Player in the Saturday contest
    • Top Gun – To the number one seed in qualifying
    • Runners-Up – To each team on the three-team alliance defeated in the final match
    • Victors – To each team on the three-team alliance that wins the tournament
    • BattleCry STAR – Special Team Appreciation & Recognition award, adult mentor award presented by team selected by STAR reviewers (see below)

5. BattleCry STAR

Student team members are encouraged to submit nominations for their outstanding adult mentor. These nominations are due by 8 May (electronic format preferred to stafford@wpi.edu, 500 words or less) and will be reviewed and judged by past STAR winners. Student members of the winning team will be notified by 14 May and offered the opportunity to publicly announce their champion during the awards ceremony.

6. Robot Photos

Please upload photos of your robot using the photo upload page at the registration site. The photos should clearly show your robot and be full resolution .jpg images from your camera.

Unless noted below, BC will be played by all appropriate FIRST Rebound Rumble Rules. While we will not hold formal inspections, we expect all robots to comply with all FIRST criteria for construction and configuration. While we realize that some teams may have modified their ‘bots for other post season operations, every attempt should be made to restore the robots to inspection condition for BC. Judges and referees will have the final say on all alleged infractions.

If you are new to the game, you may want to check out this year’s game animation courtesy of FIRST.

Changes for BC13

  1. Bonus Circle (“BC”) End Game Opportunity: Four 12-inch circles marked as a “BC” will be placed on the coopertition bridge for each match.
    • The BC does not have a designated color and is available for any robot to utilize as a scoring opportunity.  The robot is considered to be completely covering a BC if no portion of the BC is visible outside the “belt line” of the robot (including its bumpers)
    • AT THE END OF THE MATCH: An alliance will be awarded 5 points for each BC a robot of its color is completely covering.  BC scores will be assessed 5 seconds after the match clock goes to zero or when rolling robots comes to rest.
    • Diagram of BC Placement
  2. Placebo Robot: The placebo robot will be, at a minimum, a driving 2012 FRC compliant robot (i.e. a kit bot).  The staff will be responsible for maintenance during the event although no guarantees on the reliability, functionality, or availability will be provided.  In all cases, the team who calls the placebo robot into action will be required to provide a driver and human player for the placebo robot.   The staff will provide a placebo robot to play for teams who:
      • Are not able to be in attendance on Friday.  While teams are expected to attend both days of the competition, we wish to be as fair as possible to alliances who may be partnered with a team unable to attend.  If a robot is missing from both alliances, the match will be played 2 v 2.  Any teams not in attendance Friday will receive the score of their alliance for that match. 
      • Become broken beyond repair or cannot be repaired within a reasonable time during the elimination matches on Saturday.  An alliance may petition the designated event coordinator to use the placebo in place of a broken robot.  The event coordinator will review the condition of the robot and make a determination. 
  3. Elimination Alliance Selection:  At the conclusion of the Skirmishes, the top 16 seeded challengers will pick their alliance partners for the Final Challenge rounds. Normal 2012 FRC selection rules will apply for their first picks, the second pick will be via a random draw from the remaining challengers.
  4. Elimination Rounds: The 48-team elimination matches will be structured in the following way:
      • Eighth-Finals – All teams will participate in the eighth finals.  These matches will be in a format TBD, to be played in the following order:
        • E1: Seed #1 v Seed #16
        • E2: Seed #2 v Seed #15
        • E3: Seed #3 v Seed #14
        • E4: Seed #4 v Seed #13
        • E5: Seed #5 v Seed #12
        • E6: Seed #6 v Seed #11
        • E7: Seed #7 v Seed #10
        • E8: Seed #8 v Seed #9
      • Quarterfinals, Semifinals, and Finals – The winners of the eighth finals will move on to participate in a ‘Best-of-3’ match format for the quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals, with the eighth finals feeding into the quarterfinals as following:
        • Q1: Winner of E1 v Winner of E8
        • Q2: Winner of E4 v Winner of E5
        • Q3: Winner of E2 v Winner of E7
        • Q4: Winner of E3 v Winner of E6