Motorama 2019

Event Description

Welcome to Motorama 2019!!
Taking place at the Harrisburg PA farmshow complex February 15-17, 2019.

This will be a 150g-30lb Combat Event

Fairies and Ants fight in the 8 box on Friday.
Hobby-Featherweights fight in the 16x16 box on Saturday and Sunday.
Beetles fight in the 8x8 box on Saturday and Sunday.
Registration:
Registration will happen over 2 windows
The first window will open 11/11/18 8pm and continue until 12/8/18.
The second window will run from 12/8/18 8pm and continue until 12/28/18.
Teams that register in the first window MUST HAVE THEIR PAPERWORK AND PAYMENT
SUBMITED AND ACCEPTED BY THE END OF THE WINDOW!
Teams that do not have their paperwork and payment submitted and accepted by
the end of their registration window will be dropped no exceptions and will not be
allowed to enter into later windows or the waitlist.
In the event of a team being dropped from registration due to missing the payment window
that slot will be opened again in the next registration window.

Wait list: The wait list will be handled as follows, teams that are unable to register in either
window due to demand may submit paperwork and payment which will be logged in a first come first serve
queue. You must submit complete paperwork and payment to be entered into the wait list. Entering into the
wait list is not a guarantee of entry. After the end of the second registration window I will backfill
waitlist entries to try fill out the brackets.

Registration limits:
We will be allowing 1 robot per driver per weight class. If you want additional robots beyond that the extra bots must be placed on
the waitlist. Teams may have multiple drivers allowing for multiple robots but if the extra driver is not available
your extra robot may be dropped for a waitlist bot


This is going to be another awesome event at the Farm Show Complex!

If you have not yet found the forms for completing your registration they are found here:

NERC Liability Form
http://www.nerc.us/forms/NERC_Liability_Form.pdf

Motorama Release Form
http://www.nerc.us/forms/Motorama_Release_Form.htm

We need one of these forms per team member.

NERC Ruleset

Forms may be Scanned into a PDF and emailed into
Robotconflict@gmail.com or ioccajr@yahoo.com
PDFs must be clearly ledgible and of good quality and either be submitted as a team email
or clearly reference the team affiliation.
Payment may be made via Check made out to NERC or through the builders database
or through the NERC paypal at Robotconflict@gmail.com
Teams with minors (under 18) should still mail their forms to me at the addres below.

Forms should be mailed to:
James Iocca
20 Berkley Dr.
Yardley PA
19067

Directions:
Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex
2300 North Cameron Street
Harrisburg, PA 17110-9443

Its very easy to get to.
The main highway to get there is I-81 (North and South). If youre coming from the west, take the PA Turnpike to the Harrisburg West exit, and take I-83 North until it runs into I-81 North. If youre coming from the east, you can take the PA turnpike to the Harrisburg East exit and take I-287 North to I-81 South. Use Mapquest, Google, etc for specific directions.


Any other questions, feel free to contact us through the email links at the top or at the following facebook groups.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/NorthEastRoboticsClub/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/RobotCombat/

Fees are as follows:

Fairweights: $22
Antweights: $22
Beetleweights: $33
Hobbyweights: $45
Featherweights: $60
Sportsman:$60
Superheavyweight (parking pass): $20

For each team the first 2 robots registered include pit passes. Additional pit crew require addition pitpasses at 48 dollars each.

for instance a team of 3 team members and 3 robots. the first 2 team members get their pit pass included with their robot reg. The third unfortunately requires an additional $48 pass beyond the fees for their robot. I am sorry if that is confusing but these are the rules handed to us by the parent group that runs the larger Motorama event.


Here is last years schedule. It should be close. Followed by Petes excellent advice for newbies, and Eds advice for everyone.

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Fairies and Ants will fight on Friday, everyone else is URGED to arrive on this day at some point to check in, safety, and prep their bots.

9AM: Start arriving

10AM: Safety Inspections for Fairies/Ants

1PM: Fairies/Ants Tournament begins

7PMish?: Fairies/Ants Tournament is done.

At some point that day we will announce when inspections begin for Beetles and up, once the main arena is assembled. Help out with arena assembly! By helping you can get your bot safetied sooner! Safety will run all day (as volunteers permit) until about an hour after the Ant and Fairy competition is done, depending on who is staying around. We will be kicking people out when we are leaving.

Saturday

8AM-9:30AM: Safety Inspections.

At this point if you are not through safety, you will not compete. We have to fit everything in to insure we are done at a reasonable time on Sunday.

10:00AM: Drivers Meeting. Attendance is MANDATORY. You must be present so that you understand the rules clearly (we will go over unsticks, immobilized bots, etc), and this is your time to ask any questions about the rules that you are unsure of.

11:00 AM-ish: First fights of the day. Well announce the first 8 fights and go from there. Be sure to have your bots ready to go. We will have the 8 box still up for testing and pre-fight checks.
At some point during the day we will take a break or 2, depending on how many fights we need to get done on saturday.
By about 8PM or so, fighting will cease for the day.

Sunday

10AM: First fights of the day will commence, arrive anytime before then, make sure you are ready to go if you are still in the tournament.
There will be breaks again, 1 or 2 depending on time. *insert Ms. Moto pageant comments..*
By 5PM fights should be all finished. We will have signups for grudge matches/rumbles and the "Official" rumbles. Come up with some themed or interesting grudge matches! Anything to entertain the crowd between fights where we might need more than a minute of break.
Almost immediately after the last match, we will do the awards ceremony.

Please stick around and help break down the arena!
Times are subject to change.

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Petes Tips

First timer advice for Moto......even if you are not competing in ants get to the venue on the friday afternoon/evening and then you can drive up to the entrance of the small arena (someone will no doubt post a map) and get you stuff dropped off. On Saturday you wont be allowed to do this and its a long drag (with stairs?) etc otherwise. Plus you can get through safety and maybe even give your bot a test or two.

Bring a comfortable fold up seat.

Ive never had anything stolen overnight so its probably OK to leave most stuff in boxes under the table......just dont tempt an idiot.

Get back in plenty of time in the morning, one day they will start on time!

If you have laptop with wifi you can use it to track whos on next etc. dont make them come hunting you when you should be ready!

dont stand in front of the audience unless you are driving or videoing your team (and if videoing kneel down)

Its usually sweatshirt temp inside and artic temps outside and outside weather can vary dramatically in one day. Its a long walk back across the car park when its 15 degrees and blowing a gale :)

Food etc is all fine....not fancy but hot and nearby

Restrooms OK likewise. (The restrooms are hot? - Ed)

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Eds comments (I love that poor Jim has done all the reg work and then I just get to come yell at people. So much easier for me. :) Thanks Jim! )

Please, please, please dont make us have to hunt you down. If you know you have a fight coming up, at least pay attention. If your team wants to wander (there is tons to see,) post a person at your pit table who can track you down if need be. Schedules change. Just because you thought you had an hour -- doesnt mean you do.

Lunch/dinner breaks are optional. We will try to accommodate them, but they are not guaranteed. If youre hungry, and you know you have a match coming up, send someone you dont need for the fight.

Ditto for bathroom breaks. If you have a fight coming up, send someone else. (Heh. OK, just try to be ready to fight.)

"I just need to put the lid back on" should not take 27 minutes. We all know you are trying to get your batteries topped off. 20 minutes between fights means 20 minutes.

If we just had a half hour lunch break, a postponement request first fight back will not be looked at kindly by the judges/EOs. Ditto first fights of the second day.

Apparently, I suck at mailing out prizes/trophies. I gave the last batch to Al in the hopes he could sort it out. Please, please, please -- wait around if you win something. If you cant, you might end up responsible for claiming your prizes. Trophies will be mailed if needed, but no loot.

Really, the arena is a lot of work. Brian loads the thing and schleps it down here, the least you could do is help put it up and take it down. I see the same 12 people doing it every year. You just put together a robot. Surely an arena cant be too hard. (Although, apparently, paperwork might be. :) ) (The one year I was in charge of arena setup, we had the nations only hourglass shaped arena. - Ed)

We all have real jobs.

Thank an officer or two. Its all the pay we get.

If you ask Beth to see brackets -nicely- shell probably let you see the paper ones -- once they are up to date.

Postponements. Really? One per day. Dont cheat.

The judging staff will be somewhat knowledgeable, somewhat impartial, and somewhat flexible. If you dont want to risk them having to make a decision, make sure your opponent is somewhat dead.

Unsticks from bots stuck together are pretty much the rule. Unsticks from the arena are at the judges/EOs whim. Dont count on them.

One person in the arena at a time. If the door wrangler isnt there for some reason, common sense prevails.

We get charged for any chairs that go missing. At the end of each day, all chairs will need to be returned to the pallet they stack on. If your chairs arent there, youll get charged $10/chair. If you have concerns, bring your own chairs. No sofas, please.

Volunteer, volunteer, volunteer. If youre standing around doing nothing and theres things that need to be done, be careful, or you may get pressed into the chain gang. If you volunteer, you can often pick a task.

Judges have really good seats.

Dont yell at the judges. They are right, and their word is final. See above re: somewhat dead.

Other Events by North East Robotics Club, Inc.