Hardest Regionals?

[Squeje250]

What do you think is the hardest regionals and why????

[Alan Anderson]

I only have experience with two regionals, but I'm going to have to go with the Midwest Regional. It's right next door to Hammond, Indiana, home of the four-time [inter]national champions, Team 71. Many other well-known and well-respected teams attend as well.

[MattB703]

I only have experience with two regionals, but I'm going to have to go with the Midwest Regional. It's right next door to Hammond, Indiana, home of the four-time [inter]national champions, Team 71. Many other well-known and well-respected teams attend as well.


I have been noticing some of the teams going to the Boilermaker Regional. It reads like a who's who of midwest robotics;

16 Baxter Bomb Squad
45 Technokats
68 Truck Town Thunder
71 Team Hammond
111 Wildstang
...

and many others.

[Billfred]

I think Boilermaker will be an amazing regional. (Now if only I could get up there for it!)

At the risk of tooting my own horn, I think Palmetto's got something going for it. 25, 180, 343, and rookie mind-blowers 1319 will all be there (along with several teams that I've likely forgotten about). It should be a great competition.

[sanddrag]

Can there really be such a thing as a hardest regional? Because in this game your worst enemy one match can be your best partner the next match.

[CrazyCarl461]

your worst enemy one match can be your best partner the next match.

Right, but if you don't perform as well as the top bots, people will notice and you don't stand to be picked for the finals. If it is a mediocre regional, people will pick mediocre bots for their alliances. At the top regionals (like the Boilermaker) only the best will make it.

[tribotec_ca88]

I think this topic has already been discussed here (even though it applies to the 2004 season):
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23325&highlight=hardest+regionals

[Koko Ed]

This is a "horse before the cart" moment at this moment. It would be a more valid discussion when people actually start revealing their robots in week four, five and six.

[JudyVandy]

This is a "horse before the cart" moment at this moment. It would be a more valid discussion when people actually start revealing their robots in week four, five and six.

But, Ed, some teams DO have a history....

[Jeff Rodriguez]

I would have to say any regionals with the most veteran teams around them. More specifically, UTC, BAE, Boiler, Michigans, Midwest come to mind.
Which One is the hardest? That can't be determined until nationals.

[sanddrag]

I see "hard" not only as having good robots to compete against but not having good robots to compete with.

[Koko Ed]

But, Ed, some teams DO have a history....
Past success does not guarantee future results....

[dubious elise]

i find it interesting that boilermaker has been mentioned already, considering that no one has attended it yet. i noticed that many of these statements are based on the teams that are participating in the regional, but to paraphrase Koko Ed, it can change from year to year!

[Billfred]

i find it interesting that boilermaker has been mentioned already, considering that no one has attended it yet. i noticed that many of these statements are based on the teams that are participating in the regional, but to paraphrase Koko Ed, it can change from year to year! This is true. However, given the odds of such a long list of teams with amazing track records all having off years during this particular season (which I calculate to be mighty slim odds), I'm willing to take that calculated risk.

I liken it to when I hold off on a project until the night before it is due. I take a chance of my computer dying, the dorm printer failing, et cetera. However, I know my track record when it comes to these sorts of situation (I'd say about 98% of my projects done this way come out as A's or B's) and assume that risk. Sure, I could completely bomb--and when it happens, I'll take what comes with it.

If Boilermaker proves to be a bust, I'll crack eggs on my forehead in Atlanta. A dozen, Grade A Large.

[Karthik]

Past success does not guarantee future results....
Agreed, but I think there is a strong correlation between past success and future results. For example, based on what I've seen over the past 7 years, I don't think I'm going out on too much of a limb by saying that Teams 71 and 254 will be pretty good this year.

This by no means precludes any upstart team from entering the class of elite teams. But, I just think that going into the season there's certain teams out there that we know to expect great things from. To me it's sort of like Vegas setting the early lines on who's going to win the 2006 Rose Bowl. There's a good chance that USC, the favourite will come through, but just because they're favoured doesn't mean that Ohio State (Go Bucks!!) won't be in the big dance.

All that being said I think the "tougher" regionals this year will be Boilermaker and Western Michigan But heed Ed's comment, all early lines are subject to change upon the release of robot pictures in weeks 4-6.

[tkwetzel]

This is true. However, given the odds of such a long list of teams with amazing track records all having off years during this particular season (which I calculate to be mighty slim odds), I'm willing to take that calculated risk.

If Boilermaker proves to be a bust, I'll crack eggs on my forehead in Atlanta. A dozen, Grade A Large.

I'll put out my opinion: I agree with Billfred and Karthik that many teams are expected to do well year after year and the aforementioned regionals have some good lists of teams. I will also say that the larger regionals will also be a little tougher: there are more teams that you have to do better than to win, more teams that you have to pay attention to when scouting, and fewer rounds per team thus fewer chances to make-up for one or two poor performances. The regionals that have over 60 teams attending fall into this category.

Edit: Billfred: I'm holding you to the egg-cracking bit.

[DivideByZero]

Edit: Billfred: I'm holding you to the egg-cracking bit.

Agreed. I'd buy that for a dollar.

[Revolverx7]

Past success does not guarantee future results....

But it is a very good indicator.

[pyroslev]

First week regionals, overall, tend to be the ones that set the pace. Therefore, any first week regional is, in theory, quite difficult. What you see at any of those regionals is likely to be seen over and over again before the season is over with.

[theory6]

Just to answer your question, in my opinion the hardest regional out of the two we've been to is probably the Canadian Regional. Why? Well it's got a lot of participants and I'd say that EVERY team is highly competitive hence making the regional itself very "interesting".

But like mentioned above it all depends on certain teams, or nationals. I'd rather not predict the future of something that has a high rate of uncertainty (ex: rookie's and innovative methods).

[Eagle X]

What do you think is the hardest regionals and why????I think that tre hardest regional is the Great Lakes Regional, in Ypsilanti, MI i will name somes power house teams 66,67,279,503

[slickguy2007]

I have been to a lot of the regional competitions and I have to say the Buckeye regional and the Midwest regional definitely stick out in my mind. They are just plain rough.... we'll see you there.


GO 1403!!!

[Daniel Brim]

Personally, I don't think that it's fair to judge a regional as the "hardest" before it happens. You never know what might happen, who might jump out from nowhere, or who could pull a huge upset. Teams come in and out of regionals, and who knows what some of the more advanced teams could be saving for the championships?

Also, what would be the criteria for a "hard" regional? Would it be the one with the highest scoring average? The closest difference between last and first? The most teams? How can this be assured before it actually happens?

My 2 cents (plus one dollar for the egg-cracking bet :D ),
Daniel

[Captain Rich]

Sacramento, Grand Rapids, and Detroit.

Why? 245 will be there.

[sdexp]

The only hard regionals would be those which have teams who participated in more than one regional previously. This of course would mean most likely all the regionals, but some regionals such as the Midwest and Chesapeake, tend to have these teams. Example teams are 111, 45, and 16.

[mizscience]

The UCF Regionals are challenging because you have temas like Think Pink, Swamp Thing, S.P.A.M., SigmaC@t, etc.... :]

[Kyle Love]

I think all regionals are tough...I mean every regional will have a few "powerhouse" teams in it...but if I have to choose one it would be Midwest because there is a mix of teams from all over the world and teams like 71, 111 and 108 will be there...I'm sure it will be exciting!

[Validius]

GLR is the hardest. We have the Big 3 sponsoring every other team and we have teams like 1(Juggernaughts), 66(Flyers), 67(HOT) and of course, 1547 :-D

[Heretic121]

UTC... usual teams...

121, 69, 157, 237, 236, 126, 20, 173, 176, 175, 195, 571, 716, 177...

sorry if i forgot anyone...

but that right there is the usually the big teams that is also about 1/3 of the competition...

[Quatitos]

I think that tre hardest regional is the Great Lakes Regional, in Ypsilanti, MI i will name somes power house teams 66,67,279,503I think that Dave voiced his opinion on what regional was the hardest with his "data" about half the teams that were division finalist last year attended GLR.

[George A.]

What about NJ? No one has given that any credit? You have 237, 56, 25, 11, 303, 103, 102, 222, 175, 365...just to name a few. Granted 222 175 and 365 didn't attend this year but they have, NJ is by far the most intense regional i've attended.


MY 200TH POST!!! HOORAY FOR ME! LOL

[nobrakes8]

The New England, Atlantic, and eastern midwest United States is where the top teams are located. With so many compeitions it seems like all the regionals have lost some power teams to the newer regionals. UTC, NJ, and NH are probably still some of the most loaded regionals with excellent teams, just fewer than in the past. The midwest also used to have some loaded regionals but just reading this post and some other posts, it seems like their top 2-3 regionals are loseing teams to newer places as well.

With so many regionals, I bet the invitationals in the northeast are going to be extremely fun to watch. I mean this year's UTC missed a few noticeible teams like Buzz and Sie-H20-bots, I'm willing to bet those guys as well as many of the NJ, NY, UTC, NH teams are going to be at the same invitationals makeing some memorible moments. WPI, Beantown Blitz, bash @ the beach, PARC (assumeing those invitationals are going to happen again) are going to have awsome teams signed up. Realisticly if the top Northeast teams show up to the same place, it will be harder to make elmination rounds at these invitationals than most regionals in the country.

[Dorienne]

Picking a hard regional is out of mere opinion. If a team has an unstable robot or whatnot, they will consider the regional hard. Or if they go against tough alliances, they will consider the regional difficult. It's not really accurate or whatnot to ask people what the hardest regional is. It all depends.

[Alan Anderson]

If Boilermaker proves to be a bust, I'll crack eggs on my forehead in Atlanta. A dozen, Grade A Large.
There'll be no egg on your face this time.

[Ali Ahmed]

The New England, Atlantic, and eastern midwest United States is where the top teams are located. With so many compeitions it seems like all the regionals have lost some power teams to the newer regionals. UTC, NJ, and NH are probably still some of the most loaded regionals with excellent teams, just fewer than in the past. The midwest also used to have some loaded regionals but just reading this post and some other posts, it seems like their top 2-3 regionals are loseing teams to newer places as well.

With so many regionals, I bet the invitationals in the northeast are going to be extremely fun to watch. I mean this year's UTC missed a few noticeible teams like Buzz and Sie-H20-bots, I'm willing to bet those guys as well as many of the NJ, NY, UTC, NH teams are going to be at the same invitationals makeing some memorible moments. WPI, Beantown Blitz, bash @ the beach, PARC (assumeing those invitationals are going to happen again) are going to have awsome teams signed up. Realisticly if the Northeast teams show up, it will be harder to make elmination rounds at these invitationals than most regionals in the country.

Hey what about us here in the west. We got great teams like 60, 254, 980, 330, and 968 just to name a very few. Anyway, I think that Boilermaker and Midwest are probably the hardest.

[Jeff Waegelin]

The midwest also used to have some loaded regionals but just reading this post and some other posts, it seems like their top 2-3 regionals are loseing teams to newer places as well.

That is very true. 4 or 5 years ago, I would have said the 2 hardest regionals were Great Lakes and Midwest, bar none. They were the only two regionals in the area, so all the powerhouse teams of the Midwest were there. I'd have also probably given the nod to GLR, because at that time, there were nearly 70 teams competing. 70 teams + all the midwest "elites" = the hardest regional in the country.

Now, with a new regional being added every year since 2001 (West Michigan, Buckeye, Pittsburgh, Detroit, and Boilermaker, in that order), the field has been diluted a bit. Not that it's a terrible thing, because more teams get to play, and more teams get to win, but it does lower the level of competition slightly. For this year, I would say the Boilermaker Regional had the toughest field of teams, which is fairly typical of the trend I've seen since 2001. The new regional always attracts a lot of big teams in its first year, because people want to go to the new event. Then, after a year, it generally tends to even out with the others.

So, which one will be the hardest next year? Wherever they add an 8th (!) regional in the Midwest ;) Barring that, I'd have to go with my perennial favorite, Great Lakes.

[Conor Ryan]

From experince, I can say that New Jersey was a tougher competition than Buckeye. But from what I've heard and the teams that i've seen that went there, GLR is where the competition is. I also have a feeling the the Boilermaker will eventually be a tough regional. But who cares whats the hardest? Atlanta is where you prove it.

[Justin]

I think that UTC and BAE are still the regionals to beat. UTC was rougher than anything else I have seen this season. That includes the Boilermaker and Mid-west regionals. Add to this the fact that the NE is FIRST and we remember what it was like to play games that involved this little concept called DEFENSE!

I'll just say that it has been at least a good 4 years since any of the mid-west stalwarts 111, 71, 16, 47, 45 (and others I'm forgetting)...have ventured east. ;)

:) :)

Justin

[nobrakes8]

I think that UTC and BAE are still the regionals to beat. UTC was rougher than anything else I have seen this season. That includes the Boilermaker and Mid-west regionals. Add to this the fact that the NE is FIRST and we remember what it was like to play games that involved this little concept called DEFENSE!


AMEN to that.. I'm surprised this post hasn't gotten out of hand, this is like compareing the weak ACC to the powerful Big East conference in college basketball :ahh:

[Will Hanashiro]

Here's my OPINION:

GLR... "grand-daddy of all the regionals" is the hardest one there is. just look at the regional winners and finalists from the past five years at this regional, and see how they did at the nats... lets see we've got several national champs in that group, several more national finalists, and you cant even count the divisional finalists that we have in this group on one hand.

ya know what, i'm not even going to list the team numbers, we all know who they are!

[Bcahn836]

A regional is no walk in the park none of them are "easy" and no one regional is harder than another, IMHO, each competition is meant to push your robot and your team to its limits. Yes, you may have teams with 10-13 years experience but the game and the rules are new to everybody. And the way some of these rookies teams have been coming up experience really doesn't have much to do with it. And teams that go to multiple regionals may have an advantage it doesn't eliminate the chance of any other team winning that event.

[xzvrw2]

I have been to two regionals all three years I have been on the huskie brigade, Great Lakes and Midwest. In my opinion those two are the hardest regionals to comete at. Lets see here at Great Lakes we got teams 1,33,65,66,67,68,141,279,302,308,322,469,1023 and at Midwest we got teams 45,65,71,79,107,108,111,269,383,461,537,648,903,93 0. Yes i know that other teams at those regionals were really good but these teams here if you say their number in a convo about F.I.R.S.T. then you are going to be like "Man they are a good team." Now dont get me rong, Detroit, Western Michigan, and Boileemaker are all really hard regionals but you have to look at every team there and all of their acomplishments from the past. And I do know that past winnings don't mean much, 2003 national champs then lose to 71 and 494 in division quarter finals, but just take this for an example... when my teams robot didn't do to goot at GLR this year I talked to this mentor from team 1 and he said that he knows that we wernt good here but whwn we go to Midwest we will be a whole heck of alot better. He said that from past accomplishments. wow i realy got off track here. well i'm going to stop. i hope you enjoy reading my post. ha ha ha. And thanks Ken for giving me the chance to change the gripper.

[Lil' Lavery]

IMHO Purdue, Great Lakes, and the Midwest regionals are traditionally (or will become in the case of Purdue) the hardest regionals. 45, 71, ect, ect, ect all go there on a regular basis. As for the East Coast, VCU and UTC are probably the toughest in the East. VCU has a TON of underrated teams (Virginia has 55 teams after all, several are traditionally quite good, such as 122, 384, and 388), and is a first week regional, and UTC speaks for itself. The 3 California reginals are all tough as well (and with close to 100 california teams, they should be).
Its true every year the strength of individual teams does change. So I named some of the traditionally harder regionals. All regionals have a few "powerhouses" at them each year. Such as 233 and 118 going to a "weak" (no offense to any of the teams, but it is a weaker and younger regional) colorado regional, or 47 going to Pitts (same deal as colorado).
NONE of the regionals are easy to win, and im sure the balance of power amognst the regionals will change over time (in a couple years many of the young teams in colorado might become quite good for instance). But the midwest regionalS (not the midwest regional, but all the regionals in the Michigan, Indiana, ect area) currently are the strongest of them all, and there really arnt any other regionals that can compare to them.

[Ken Patton]

I have been to two regionals all three years I have been on the huskie brigade, Great Lakes and Midwest. In my opinion those two are the hardest regionals to comete at. Lets see here at Great Lakes we got teams 1,33,65,66,67,68,141,279,302,308,322,469,1023 and at Midwest we got teams 45,65,71,79,107,108,111,269,383,461,537,648,903,93 0. Yes i know that other teams at those regionals were really good but these teams here if you say their number in a convo about F.I.R.S.T. then you are going to be like "Man they are a good team." Now dont get me rong, Detroit, Western Michigan, and Boileemaker are all really hard regionals but you have to look at every team there and all of their acomplishments from the past. And I do know that past winnings don't mean much, 2003 national champs then lose to 71 and 494 in division quarter finals, but just take this for an example... when my teams robot didn't do to goot at GLR this year I talked to this mentor from team 1 and he said that he knows that we wernt good here but whwn we go to Midwest we will be a whole heck of alot better. He said that from past accomplishments. wow i realy got off track here. well i'm going to stop. i hope you enjoy reading my post. ha ha ha. And thanks Ken for giving me the chance to change the gripper.

Stevie-
Next we work on your spelling :)

Nice job dude.

Ken

[santosh]

Of the 3 regionals I have gone to, P'tree, VCU and Boilermaker, Boilermaker dominated over everything I have seen. I think robotwise, nothing could touch Boilermaker. The BEAST basically dominated but still, there were many other good robots.

[Jim Schaddelee]

Now that the regionals are over we should be able to figure this question out .
How about you add all the points scored in all the qualifying matches then divide
by the number of qualifying matches played .I did this for the west Michigan and
the the combined score average per match was 66 points compared to L.A. 48 point.I am not trying to pick on LA but I didn't have time to do them all ,and the LA regional had 70 qualifying matches same as west Michigan so i used them . Maybe we could come up with some other factors to add to this simple equation.

thanks Jim schaddelee
team 107

[Mike_45]

I do have to agree with others that the Midwest Regional is one of the harder regionals just for the fact that there are many teams there with much experience such as team 71, 111,45,65,79, 269, and much more, but those were just some that stuck out in my mind. Also There were some really good robots @ the Midwest..
Congrats to Teams 111, 71, and 537

[65_Xero_Huskie]

I dont know this for a fact.. but hasnt the past 5 years champs come from Midwest or Great lakes?

[josh sjoerdsma]

I have been to the Midwest, Great Lakes, Buckeye, and West Michigan and I must say Great Lakes has been the hardest with West Michigan being second. The competition is great all over.

[slickguy2007]

The boilermaker and new jersey regionals aren't a walk in the park either. From what I have noticed, all the toughest regionals tend to change every year. Some are harder than others one year, then it changes the next. We'll have to see what happens next year, although I am trying to convince my team to sign up for the Midwest regional next year. :D


GO 1403!!!

[Ctrl Alt Delete]

I'm pretty sure the hardest regional is the new Hampshire regional. There is lots of competition there. We went to the UTC and Philly ones. To bad we didn't win, but we did win in our practice matches.

[Freddy Schurr]

Philly by far is the hardest regional

The best robots of the East Coast compete there

And you can never pick the winner

[whakojacko]

maybe unusual, but sacramento ended up being pretty hard. More teams from einstein went to sacramento than any other regional. Ive only been to two regionals though so I cant compare regionals very well.

[Barry Bonzack]

I have only been to two regionals this year, so I'm sure my opinion is bias.

Huge props to the Florida teams like 233 and 179. Also a few others that put up quite a fight like SPAM, Metal in Motion, 1251 Tech Tigers, and 1402 Freedom Force. Then there was a crop of rookies that were able to hold there own, mainly 1592 Bionic Tigers and 1649 Lakerbotics. Watch for both of those teams to be "sleeping tigers" that are ready to pounce into action one they gain some more experience.

[Team75electric]

I think that Trenton was very hard this year with team 56, 75, cyber sonics, 25, and a ton of other hard teams this competition was very hard.

[JackN]

A tie between Sacremento and Detroit. Both regionals had 4 einstein teams. :ahh:

[rocketdawg3000]

I think that the florida regional is the hardest because we had swamp thing(179), think pink(233), spam, metal in motion(343), tech tigers(1251), freedom force, burning magnitos(342). We finished 2nd there but it wasn't easy getting to the final round!

[Vu2000]

We might as well just call the IRI a regional or just simply championships after the real thing. With the caliber of the competition at IRI it seems every year and by looking at the team numbers this year, it's almost ridiculous how many regional and championship (past and present) winners there are. If I had my choice of which competition to watch robot-wise every year, it seems like the IRI would win hands down. If only NASA would broadcast it...

[Beth Sweet]

I think that the later regionals are the toughest ones (yes, I know, I'm umbrellaing) especially to those who attend them and only them. This year we attended the WMR and (along with some fantastic teams) having had no regional experience made it super tough to be competitive. Everyone else already knew how to play the game and we were just starting out. So I say that the toughest regionals are the ones in 5th and 6th week when most have figured out some of the tricks of the game.

[IMDWalrus]

Now that the regionals are over we should be able to figure this question out .
How about you add all the points scored in all the qualifying matches then divide
by the number of qualifying matches played .I did this for the west Michigan and
the the combined score average per match was 66 points compared to L.A. 48 point.I am not trying to pick on LA but I didn't have time to do them all ,and the LA regional had 70 qualifying matches same as west Michigan so i used them . Maybe we could come up with some other factors to add to this simple equation.

thanks Jim schaddelee
team 107
Who's to say that this year wasn't an exception? We'd have to take data from as many years as it exists for, and then compare the regionals year to year to see if the trend holds up.

But I've had far too much experience with statistics, even as a high school graduate. ;)

I dont know this for a fact.. but hasnt the past 5 years champs come from Midwest or Great lakes?
It could just be argued that this is because there are so many teams in the Midwest region. In the past three years, 111 (Illinois), 494 (Michigan), and 67 (Michigan) have all been champions. But again, that could just be a fluke.

I don't think there's a fair way to answer this question, even though I don't really need to say that. None of us have experienced all of the regionals, and it's so strongly based on perception that there isn't an answer.

Out of the four I've experienced, though (Western MI, Detroit, Great Lakes, and Palmetto), I'd choose Great Lakes. Size definitely makes a regional more challenging, especially when it comes to scouting, and any competition that hosts as many long-established teams as GL usually does is bound to be a difficult one.

[Beth Sweet]

Just to throw it out there, maybe the reason that a lot of Midwest teams have won is that, well, there's a lot of them? And yes, I know that there are a lot of teams in California too, but that's just CA. There's oogles and oogles of teams in Michigan, Indiana and the surrounding area (I don't feel like typing out all of the states). I say that the reason the Midwest produces so many winners is proportional to the vast number of teams that exist there. Just my thoughts...

[IMDWalrus]

Just to throw it out there, maybe the reason that a lot of Midwest teams have won is that, well, there's a lot of them? And yes, I know that there are a lot of teams in California too, but that's just CA. There's oogles and oogles of teams in Michigan, Indiana and the surrounding area (I don't feel like typing out all of the states). I say that the reason the Midwest produces so many winners is proportional to the vast number of teams that exist there. Just my thoughts...
I could be wrong, but I could've sworn I said that in the post I made right before yours... ;)

[Beth Sweet]

I could be wrong, but I could've sworn I said that in the post I made right before yours... ;)

Alright alright, I admit it, I skimmed and didn't read... Baaaaad mentor... ;)