Waterbury District 2016

[MooreteP]

After watching Palmetto week 0.5, Stronghold is great from the start.

155 Technonuts Berlin CT
176 Aces High Windsor Locks CT
177 Bobcat Robotics South Windsor CT
178 The 2nd Law Enforcers Farmington CT
228 Gus Robotics Meriden CT
230 Gaelhawks Shelton CT
236 Techno‐Ticks Old Lyme CT
348 Norwell Robotics Norwell MA
558 Elm City Robo Squad New Haven CT
571 Team Paragon Windsor CT
999 MechaRAMS Cheshire CT
1027 Project Jabberwocky West Springfield CT
1071 Team MAX Wolcott CT
1099 DiscoTECHS Brookfield CT
1124 UberBots Avon CT
1991 Dragons Hartford CT
2064 The Panther Project Southbury/Middlebury CT
2170 Titanium Tomahawks Glastonbury CT
2785 Prometheus Kent CT
2836 Team Beta Woodbury CT
3104 The Cyber Rams Stamford CT
3314 Mechanical Mustangs Clifton NJ
3464 Sim‐City Simsbury CT
3525 The Nuts & Bolts of Fury Waterbury CT
3634 Spark City Bridgeport CT
3654 TechTigers Middletown CT
3718 Junkyard Battalion New Britain CT
3719 STEM Whalers New London CT
3780 Robot Unicorns Providence RI
4055 N R G Winchester CT
4557 FullMetal Falcons Middletown CT
4572 BArlow RobAutics Redding CT
4682 Sintian Robotics Hamden CT
5129 Digital Devils Plainville CT
5142 Robo Dominators Hamden CT
5686 Wirecats Simsbury CT
5746 Human Error Deep River CT
5856 Bullbots Waterbury CT

A classic collection of Connecticut teams, plus three more, one each from Massachusetts and little old Rhode Island, and the Mechanical Mustangs from New Jersey. (they must have enjoyed their experience last year)
Watch out for the rookie BullBots, they were impressive at the Suffield Shakedown.

Predictions Week One: Overlooking the Outerworks
New England District- Waterbury:
Waterbury has the potential to be brutal this year, but it will be highly dependent on who shows up the most ready. This is one of the deepest events in New England with a large pack of upper and mid tier teams all looking to prove they have what it takes to take on Stronghold. People often talk about "East Coast Defense" and if there was any District to see how it will be played in 2016, this is the one. Based on Suffield Shakedown it looks like 177 is back in form with a solid drivetrain and a high release catapult. The last time 558 got to build a powerful drivetrain, they brutalized their way to the finals of the NE DCMP, word is they have a derivative of that same drivetrain tucked into their low bar robot. Team 228 put together a tank of a robot this year, and their choice to play it a little more simple then they have in the past should pay off big early in the season. 176 Built one of the few tall robots we've seen so far, with a CD7 intake and a rumored scaling device. The Gaelhawks (230) have a habit of starting the season off on a good foot, and you can expect them to show up ready to run in week 1. 2170 and 2836 both had breakout seasons last year, and rumor has it Beta picked up a long time mentor from 176. 1071 came to scrimmage able to pop shots into the high goal and look promising if they can get it all dialed in. A collection of teams have been building momentum over the past few seasons and one would be smart to keep your eyes on the likes of 236, 999, 1991, 1124, 3525, 3719, 4055, and 4557.


Post your thoughts, predictions, and observations here.

Webcast:
http://www.twitch.tv/nefirst_red

[Hitchhiker 42]

I'm excited for this... Got a just a tad of auto testing left for tonight, and then we're off!

[MooreteP]

Everything looks wonderful at Wilby High School.

The Robots seemed to be more ready than usual.
Inspections appeared to go smoothly.

So nice to see a new field. Should be scarred by Sunday.

Frank Merrick will be in attendance today. :yikes:
Maybe he will blog about our work.

[ShinyShips]

FRC 3314 had another great time at Waterbury this year. We learned a lot and made a bunch of friends. We hope to come back next year if NE lets us in again!

Hope to see you all at BattleCry in the offseason!

[dag0620]

So nice to see a new field. Should be scarred by Sunday.






That prediction ended up being quite an understatement. It'll be interesting to see how the field looks when it rolls into the XL Center in 6 weeks.

[Fletch1373]

That prediction ended up being quite an understatement. It'll be interesting to see how the field looks when it rolls into the XL Center in 6 weeks.

Seriously... ouch my defenses

Signed: Your friendly neighborhood Defense Coordinator

[Mark McLeod]

FRC 3314 had another great time at Waterbury this year. We learned a lot and made a bunch of friends. We hope to come back next year if NE lets us in again!

Hope to see you all at BattleCry in the offseason!

Hey, shout out for 3314 staying late to help out with field break down!

[MarcD79]

Waterbury was a VERY interesting learning curve on what we expect, what actually happened & what could be changed. I had a lot of fun, everybody LOVED my reveal of the new hat...goodbye Mr. Hasenpfeffer for now. The new hat goes great with the Medieval theme. It is a dragon with flailing wings.
It was a daunting, but fun task to construct the field. I saw it at Dean's big to-do but with so many people on the field, it was impossible to really inspect the field. The field is well thought out, except for how the defenses are attached to the bases on the carpet. I guess they didn't anticipate how hard robots would slam into the rock wall defense. They hit them so hard that they bent/dislocated & generally destroyed the holes used to secure to the mounting base. The pins & "S" clips we used just couldn't stand up to the abuse. That was a constant battle starting late Saturday afternoon & remained a battle right to the end of the eliminations, causing delays & replayed matches. By that time everybody was tired & with all the delays we ran into the evening for the closing ceremonies.
The one thing I hate is that for whatever reason the take-down crews tend to be less than what we need. It happens at a lot of events. I had to work today & needed some rest, so I finally left at 9:30pm last night & they hadn't even started packing the crates. I'm sorry I had to leave, but I was tired. Accolades to all who were there; FTA, VC, EC and so forth. you guys are incredible!
These fields are now going on to the remaining events & somehow I don't think FIRST will be able to correct this problem with no down time in between events. Good luck to all. I had to step down from WPI due to family obligations, but will be in Hartford.