Great Lakes-Midwest-Illinois Vex Robotics Championship

February 11, 2012

Fox Valley Robotics and Batavia Robotics are proud to be the regional host for the "Great Lakes-Midwest-Illinois Vex Robotics Championship" to be held on February 11, 2012. Qualifying teams will have a chance to continue on to the grand championship in April. The teams competing consist of kids who are middle school or high school level.

There is no charge for admission and the public is welcome.

Interested in volunteering to help out or judge?
Please fill in our volunteer form.

Teams needing to sign up for the competition
Go to the official registration site --- click here.

Specifics
The competition this year will be held on Saturday February 11, 2012 at the following location. Ample parking is available and admission is free.

Rotolo Middle School
1501 S. Raddant Road
Batavia, IL. 60510

Overview / Schedule
The tentative schedule for the event will be as follows:

Documents for Teams Participating

Every person attending the Regional agrees to the following FVR/BR/FVTech-ED Consent and Waiver of Liability for Attended Event

Every team member, mentor, and coach must turn in a Consent Form.

Here is the list of teams participating. If your team is incorrectly listed send an email to the regional coordinator.

RMS Event Facility General Layout (parking, rooms, concessions, competition, pit area)

Schedules
Team Judging Time Schedule (to be posted the day before the regional)
Inspection Times will be distibuted at check-in and will start at 8 am.
Qualification Matches (will be distributed before opening ceremonies)

Directions / Maps

Batavia is located approximately
- 1 hour due west of Chicago
- 1 hour driving distance from Rockford
- 2 hours from Milwaukee

The facility which is being used is approximately 7 minutes away from the I-88 Farnsworth Avenue North Exit.

Click here for google map
Click here for yahoo map

For your convenience, here are some pdf maps
Illinois and Batavia
Batavia regional
Batavia surrounding
Batavia from the expressway
Batavia Street and the competition location
More detailed regional competition location

A drop off area will be reserved in the parking lot for unloading of people or equipment.

Hotels / Accommodations and Surrounding Areas

Contact us for recommendations if you are staying overnight.
Discount arrangements have been made at a hotel which is approximately 8 minutes away from the facility.

Facility Notes

No rollers or blade-like shoes allowed.
No open toed shoes allowed in the pit area or the competition floor.
Internet access is not available.
No smoking or alcoholic beverages are allowed in the facility.

Check In

You will receive a "Welcome Packet" with all the pertinent information.
Don't forget to submit at the registration table the following:
a) Consent Forms
b) Engineering Notebook
c) Lunch pre-order forms with payment (check, credit card, or cash accepted)

Judging and Inspections

Don't be late! Judging and inspections will start promptly.

Judging will be held in rooms 109-112.

Inspections will consist of three parts:

a) Hardware inspections
b) Software inspections
c) Field connectivity and verification

You must pass inspection in order to compete. If you are having problems passing inspection, let us know immediately. We will find someone to help you. We want every team to be able to compete and have a great time.

Inspection times will be pre-assigned, but we encourage teams to go to inspection as soon as they are ready, especially if there is not a line. The sooner you pass the inspection the easier the day will go.

The checklists are located in the game manual in the back, or click here.

Awards and Advancement to the State Competition

The Regional will consist of more than 30 teams and will follow the guidelines set forth as indicated in the official game manual or at the IFI/VEX main site for advancment.

Pit Area

Each team will have a 6' cafeteria style table in the pit area with a surge protector.
The pit area is located on a raised stage and is not easily accessible by people who have a difficult time with stairs. If a member of your group has an issue with walking up/down stairs, let us know by Friday before the competition and we will make appropriate adjustments.
There will be an area set up with power tools operated our people for those circumstances where you need some heavier equipment to do the job. This tool area will be located by the inspection areas.

Reminders and things to check on

GENERAL ITEMS TO BRING
Bring your robot, original source code programs, computer. Make sure it works and you can modify your program properly.
Bring extra robot parts in case something breaks or needs to be replaced.
You may want to bring a back up of the program and an extra computer in case it is needed.

PROGRAMMING TEMPLATE
Don't forget to load the template for your programming language onto the robot.. One of the main issues for not passing inspection and for the robot not running correctly on the playing field is the lack of the template.

SAFETY GLASSES
Don't forget the safety glasses!. Safety glasses are required by everyone in the pit area and in the competition field area.

RULES
Know the rules and know the inspection checklists
A sample Bill of Materials (BOM) is located in the Game Manual
Check the forum for last minute clarifications.

SMILE and GOOD DISPOSITION
Bring a happy smile and a good disposition, and of course, don't forget about respect and courtesy.
Remember, everyone is a volunteer who is trying to make this event special for you.

Food the day of the competition & concessions

A large variety of reasonably priced delicious food items will be available for purchase through-out the day, including breakfast selections, refreshments, lunch items, and snacks. We appreciate your patronage of our concessions as it helps to defray the regional costs.

We will be selling the famous Hexbugs at the regional.

Purchase can be made with cash, check, or credit card.

Pre-order lunch forms need to be turned in at check in time or by 10:00 am.

"No one that comes to our regional goes away hungry!"

RoboTykes Area

For those of you participating in the event that would like to bring along young children, we will have a special location set up called the "RoboTykes Area". We will have movies and other entertaining things for the little botters to enjoy. This area is intended for kindergartners and older, is close to the competition area, and is complimentary.

Armed Forces Support

Our FRC team, pwnage #2949, will be collecting items for the Armed Forces. These items will be combined with our other regional events and mailed to the armed forces. We are asking each team to bring at least one bag to donate. You can include a letter with your bag if you like.

Bags should be dropped off at the check in table.

Click here for a list of suggested items.

Other Regionals

For a complete list of all regional competitions around the country, click here.

Check back soon for other updates.