2015 Cow Town ThrowDown

[cdurgan]

The 2015 Cow Town ThrowDown will take place on Friday October 30th and Saturday October 31st, 2015.

Registration is now open. For details about the event and to register, visit http://cttd-robotics.com/

[CalTran]

Is CTTD adopting any of the off season rule changes, ie IRI auto can rules?

Apart from that, my former team, MMR 2410 is always looking forward to this event, and I certainly love volunteering at it! (Speaking of which, who should I email this year for that? Same as last year?)

[bstew]

Is CTTD adopting any of the off season rule changes, ie IRI auto can rules?

According to the CTTD website here (http://cttd-robotics.com/pages/competition_information/detailed_competition_information):

FIRST and the Game Design Committee did an excellent job creating rules for the 2015 game, Recycle Rush. There may be a short list of rule changes to the game and how it is played and scored. These changes will be emailed to all registered coaches and posted here. As in the past, the following tournament rules will apply

+5 pounds allowed. Honor system, unless the referees question you.
Four teams will be on each alliance in the finals. (see section I)
Alliance selection is:

1-8 (from outside the top 8)
8-1
1-8
(See section I. (Alliance Selection) for a complete description of the alliance selection process.)

No extra backup teams are needed, since each alliance has its own backup. there is no requirement to play the backup team.
Alliances may choose to field any three of the four teams in the alliance. Lower seeded alliance must declare robots first
FIRST tiebreaker rules apply except for the finals where ties will be replayed.

[holygrail]

Here are the teams that are listed as registered so far. As always it is shaping up to be a great competition! Looks like 34 teams registered so far. Sorry about the rough formatting from the iPad.

Team # Team Name School Name
525 Swartdogs Cedar Falls High School
967 Iron Lions Linn-Mar High School
1094 Channel Cats River City Robots
1108 Panther Robotics Paola High School
1339 Angelbotics Denver East High
1619 Up-A-Creek Robotics Career Development Center
1710 Ravonics Revolution Olathe Northwest high School
1730 Team Driven Lee's Summit High School
1763 Paseliens Paseo Academy of the Arts
1764 Liberty Robotics Liberty Public Schools
1769 Digital Hawks J.C. Harmon High School
1775 Tiger Bytes Lincoln College Preparatory
1802 Team Stealth Piper Robotics
1806 S.W.A.T. Smithville High School
1810 Jaguar Robotics Mill Valley High School
1847 Bulldogs Wyandotte High School
1939 The Kuh-Nig-Its The Barstow School
1982 Cougar Robotics Shawnee Mission Northwest
1986 Team Titanium Lee's Summit West High School
1987 Broncobots Lee's Summit North High School
1994 Horse Power FL Schlagle
2001 HERMES Ruskin High School
2335 Sargon Shawnee Mission East
2410 Metal Mustang Robotics Blue Valley CAPS Center
3284 Camdenton 4H LASER Camdenton High School
3485 Cyclone Robotics Bishop Ward High School
3528 Up Next! KC Northland Homeschool
3792 Army Ants Columbia Area Career Center
3928 FIRST Team Neutrino Ames High School
4329 Lutheran Roboteers Lutheran High School St. Charles
4522 Team SCREAM Smith-Cotton High School
4646 ASAP Des Moines
5006 Apophis Haas Hall Academy
5730 The Professionals Monett High School

[Alpha Beta]

The website (http://cttd-robotics.com/pages/competition_information/team_list) shows 50 teams registered, and none on the wait list. Last year's event had 50. What is the capacity this year? Looks like a fantastic slate of teams.

[KCruz]

CowTown Throwdown released their rule changes:

http://cttd-robotics.com/files/2015.CTTD.Rule.Changes.pdf

Highlights include:

*Can only access right-side step cans during autonomous
*One extra can per alliance
*Yellow totes are score-able on scoring platforms
*Relaxation of transportation configuration rules

[Tom Ore]

We just got our robot back from China. We have some repairs to make - we had a somewhat minor failure in China in our last semi-final match that twisted the frame we carry totes with and jammed up our elevator. We'll be good to go for Cow Town - we're excited to be going back again.

[TheBoulderite]

Any chance Cow Town will be livestreamed this year?

[Drivencrazy]

Any chance Cow Town will be livestreamed this year?

Yes according to internal sources

[IronicDeadBird]

East Angelbotics while registered is sad to say while we are down to clown at the cow town throw down we are not able to make it due to issues that have arisen. But good luck to all those we can make it. Please remember it is scientifically proven that the team that makes the most noise always wins.

[Ryan Dognaux]

4329 will be attending with both of our competition robot and practice robot. Unfortunately I can't be there but the rest of the team is well prepared and will see everyone tomorrow!

If there's a live stream link once things get going please post it, thank you!

[stopyourself]

2335 is ready to go! Though we'll be bringing a smaller team this year, we are still very excited!

[Drivencrazy]

Stream is live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAzBLKny68M

[runneals]

Photos from CTTD that I take can be found here (https://www.flickr.com/photos/runneals/collections/72157658239872034/). I'm trying to get some of all the teams that are in attendance. Feel free to use them for your team! :) Photos from Friday are up!

-David

[z4t143]

Team 4329, The Lutheran Roboteers, would like to thank all the organizers and volunteers for putting on another great CTTD event!

We also thank Team 1986, Team Titanium, for selecting both our primary (4329) and secondary (432) teams to be on their alliance for elims.

The students had a blast and the new parents who attended with our team are now hooked on FRC!

Well done by ALL!

See you next year as we compete and partner in "Stronghold"!

[runneals]

Photos from CTTD that I take can be found here (https://www.flickr.com/photos/runneals/collections/72157658239872034/). Feel free to use them for your team! :) All my photos are up :)

Shoutout to 1730 for hosting, along with ALL the volunteers who make CTTD happen. Without them, we wouldn't have such a great event.

[lpickett]

All the volunteers are happy to have provided a fun, safe and well-received event. We enjoy seeing the students have fun and enjoying meeting new people. We hope this continues to inspire students for years to come.

[andrewthomas]

Photos from CTTD that I take can be found here (https://www.flickr.com/photos/runneals/collections/72157658239872034/). Feel free to use them for your team! :) All my photos are up :)

Shoutout to 1730 for hosting, along with ALL the volunteers who make CTTD happen. Without them, we wouldn't have such a great event.

Quality + quantity = awesome. Thanks so much for these great photos!

Also, as stated above, huge thanks to Team Driven and the many volunteers for a fun and exciting event!

[Ryan Dognaux]

While I wasn't attending the event, I wanted to say that the webcast was great! Good job on giving viewers at home a way to experience the event.

As Dave mentioned, another huge thanks to Team Titanium for choosing both of our robots. All of our students continue to keep learning from these events and who better to learn from than 1986.

We now bid farewell to Recycle Rush and anxiously await FIRST Stronghold.

[Alpha Beta]

Team Titanium (FRC 1986) wanted to thank Team Driven (FRC 1730) and Hermes (FRC 2001) for hosting another fantastic Cow Town ThrowDown. As always a world class offseason event that continues to attract top teams from a multi-state area. I'll pass along a tweet between principals (https://twitter.com/JohnFaulkenberr/status/660519255197089793?scrlybrkr=1e8bcf0e) to demonstrate the support we all greatly appreaciate from the school district and community. Blessed to be in Lee's Summit.

Alliance Selection (No Picking within the top 8)
1. 1806 - 1825 - 1763 - 2335
2. 525 - 3284 - 5006 - 3928
3. 1730 - 5013 - 1810 - 1982
4. 1619 - 1987 - 1777 - 1094
5. 2410 - 4256 - 1939 - 3528
6. 1986 - 4329 - 432(9b) - 3612
7. 1775 - 4646 - 1769 - ???? (Apologies, I missed this pick)
8. 1785 - 1723 - 1710 - 1764 (3 of the 4 were on the winning alliance at KC this year.)

After the quarterfinals the #1 alliance had a dominant 223.0 point average with #2 and #6 lagging behind at 164.5 and 160.5 respectively. The #3 alliance edged out the #4 133.0 to 131.5 to claim the final spot in the semis. All quarterfinal matches were over 100 points!!!

In the semifinals #1 again looked unstopable with a 207.33 average. The #2 alliance also advanced with their highest semifinal score, 212, giving a glimer of hope that the finals could be competative.

Final #1 both teams were hitting on all cylinders. In the closing seconds FRC 525 placed their 3rd stack. The noodled can rolled off and took 2 other noodled cans with it. 90 points hit the floor as the buzzer sounded. #2 would have had a 10 point upset win, but had to endure the loss in the best 2 out of 3 format.

Final #2 featured a rare mis-step for the most prolific scorer at the event. FRC 1806 (who showed the consistent ability to put up 4 noodled stacks on their own) had a stack misallign internally and cost them some precious time. Between that and some well thrown noodles by the #2 alliance (#1 didn't throw any) there would need to be a 3rd match to decide the victor.

Final #3 was almost an exact replay of #2. Congratulations to 525, 3284, 5006 and 3928 for winning the 2015 Cow Town Throwdown.

We (1986) wanted to thank the Lutheran Roboteers (4329 & 432-9b) and the GearHogs (3612) for joining us on our elimination round journey. The scouts were very excited to get two teams that could make a stack on their own from the human station and still have time to put out a base of 3 for us to finish off from the land fill. We played over our seed in making the semi's and had great synergy on the field.

Special shoutout to the Channel Cats (FRC 1094) who got the 3 yellow tote auto to work multiple times, joining 1730 and 1986 as the only teams to feature it at the event. Probably the most difficult autonomous ever devised by the GDC.

PS. Enjoyed setting the event high score of 235 (no co-op) with 1806 and 3528 during the qualification rounds.

[bmammen]

Team 1785 echo’s the sentiments of Team Titanium and the Lutheran Roboteers. Blue Springs Robotics looks forward to this event each and every year as we add new members to our team. The experience they gain prior to the new season is invaluable. I can only image the work and coordination it takes to host such a top notch event.

Many thanks to Lee’s Summit and Hickman Mills for this superb demonstration of everything FIRST stands for!

[holygrail]

1939 would like to echo the gratitude from other posts. This event is always so well run and always a blast! Thank you to 1730 and 2001 for hosting the event and thanks to team 2410 for inviting us to be on your alliance. Also, thanks to all the teams who voted for us for the Gracious Professionalism award, we are honored to receive it.

Congratulations to the winners and finalists. The winning alliance captained by 525 was consistent and never gave up. Thanks for giving us such an amazing set of finals matches to cap off the event.

If match video ever gets posted, it is worth watching team 1806 consistently making 4 stacks of 6 with a container and a noodle. I haven't seen other teams capable of scoring 168 points per match by themselves. It was an amazing site to behold.

Between Cowtown and a World Series Championships, it was a good weekend to be in Kansas City!

[Bruce Newendorp]

The Swartdogs also want to thank teams 1730 and 2001 for planning and running the Cow Town Throwdown. We enjoyed our trip there the last two years. It is a very well run event that we will look forward to attending again.

The playoffs were very exciting and full of highs and lows for all the teams involved. Thanks to our alliance partners 3284, 5003, and 3928. Together we made a great team and learned to never give up even if you lose 90 points at the buzzer in the first finals match. Congratulations to 1806, 1825, 1763, and 2335. Your alliance was impressive and put up high scores.

[z4t143]

A great shot of Titanium's rockin' 3-tote Auton mode from the on-board camera of Lutheran Roboteers' bot, "Comet", during Qrt Final Elims.
https://youtu.be/5FAopon4Oak

[Alpha Beta]

A great shot of Titanium's rockin' 3-tote Auton mode from the on-board camera of Lutheran Roboteers' bot, "Comet", during Qrt Final Elims.
https://youtu.be/5FAopon4Oak

Loved the video. A few others have been posted from the event now, inlcuding all 3 finals matches (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UntT0jpnQzs&spfreload=10&scrlybrkr=649f6276) courtesy of 525.