BattleCry in Just ONE WEEK!

[WernerNYK]

I hope everyone is excited! I know I certainly am! We are planning a great event this year, and I can't wait to see all of our ideas put into action. We have more teams attending just on Friday than the total number of teams at the entire event last year.

If you can't be there, make sure to check out the webcast on the event website at http://www.wpi.edu/+battlecry. They webcast link should become visible on Friday, June 23. In addition to catching the entire event, you'll want to be sure to catch the excitement planned for the opening ceremonies and find out who some special guests are!

See everyone next week!

[Dan Petrovic]

I can't wait!

It's gonna be sick!

[Julia Magoolia]

I've gotta admit, I've been looking forward to Battlecry since... Well, last year's event!!
I'm psyched to finally be able to stay over and enjoy the Friday night festivities, also. (First time in 3 years!)

[Greg Marra]

Has the webcast URL gone up yet? Our team isn't competing today, but I'd love to watch once Battlecry begins!

[Greg Needel]

It doesn't start till 4ish today.


schedule of events


23 JUN
1600-1700 Team registration and set-up
1615 Practice begins
1715 Opening Ceremony
Initial Skirmishes (Qualifying Rounds)
1730 Play begins
1830 Dinner break
1900 Robot Driver Skills Test
1930 Play resumes
2100 Pits close
2100-2300 Campus R&R Activities

24 JUN
0700-0800 Late team registration and set-up
0715 Practice begins
0830 Opening Ceremony
0845 Play begins
1215 Final Alliance Selection
1230 Lunch Break
1300 Human Player Skills Test
Final Battles (top 16 seeds w/ 2 partners)
1330 Finals begin
1700 Awards ceremony
1730 Event ends

[Adam Richards]

Has the webcast URL gone up yet? Our team isn't competing today, but I'd love to watch once Battlecry begins!Team registration isn't happening until 4pm, so I don't think a webcast should be available until around then.

[Greg Marra]

I know that it starts later, I was just wondering what the URL to the webcast would be. I guess it doesn't make sense to post that though until there's actually something to watch. Thanks though!

[WernerNYK]

I know that it starts later, I was just wondering what the URL to the webcast would be. I guess it doesn't make sense to post that though until there's actually something to watch. Thanks though!

Here at BattleCry 7, Harrington Auditorium is really starting to come together, it looks awesome!! The webcast URL will be posted on the home page (www.wpi.edu/+battlecry) once everything has gone live. Be sure to tune into the opening ceremonies both days to avoid missing any special events!

[Alex Cormier]

wow...

1519, 1126, 195! great job guys!

[Koko Ed]

wow...

1519, 1126, 195! great job guys!
How did 195 go from a championship runner up to the kid in the cast with broken glasses nobody wanted on their team? :confused:

[Alex Cormier]

How did 195 go from a championship runner up to the kid in the cast with broken glasses nobody wanted on their team? :confused:
with a record of 2-5. like many off-seasons, new drivers and such i would assume.

[Melissa Nute]

How did 195 go from a championship runner up to the kid in the cast with broken glasses nobody wanted on their team? :confused:

The 3rd pick teams are randomly chosen by a draw of a hat.

[Alex Cormier]

ouch, late by a few seconds and not allowed onto the field. too bad.

1519, 1126, 195 = Quarter-finalists.

[BoyWithCape195]

What team was not allowed onto the field?

[Alex Cormier]

What team was not allowed onto the field?
1126. I'd figure it being an offseason, a few seconds late would be ok.

[Kristian Calhoun]

Congrats to the Champions of BattleCry 7 @ WPI - 177, 176 and 839!

That last match was pretty intense, and if it wasn't for the 5 pt ramming penalty that 173 had, it would have been a tie match and went on to a 3rd. But good job to all the teams who attended, you all put on a great showing. :)

[Morgan Gillespie]

In addition to what Kristian said you guy have very nice facilities over at the WPI dorms. Almost looked like a rave a lot of the time with the lighting, very good showing for all the teams.
Congratulations again to 177 176 and 839.

[Alex Cormier]

congrats 177 176 and 839, it was great to see it happen from my couch. :p

[JamesBrown]

Any one who saw the quarter finals what happened to 121's alliance (121, 126, 151) I missed all of todays matches and was looking at the scores, how did that alliance go from scoring an average of 83.5 points in the 8th finals to averaging 10 pts in the quarter finals? Was is ridiculously good defense on the part of 1733, 1685 and rage or did something happen to one of their robots?

[Tom Bottiglieri]

How did 195 go from a championship runner up to the kid in the cast with broken glasses nobody wanted on their team? :confused:
It's quite simple. We aren't the allinace leader. We're just that big guy that stands in the back that no one wants to mess with. For qualifications, the alliances simply weren't clicking for us.

A little bit of tough luck in the eliminations, but its all in good fun. Good job BobAcie.

[Francis-134]

Any one who saw the quarter finals what happened to 121's alliance (121, 126, 151) I missed all of todays matches and was looking at the scores, how did that alliance go from scoring an average of 83.5 points in the 8th finals to averaging 10 pts in the quarter finals? Was is ridiculously good defense on the part of 1733, 1685 and rage or did something happen to one of their robots?

Their defense was simply that dominating. For those that were there, it was great to see such tough, tenacious defense the teams played. 1733, our old buddies 1685, and 173 all played to their strengths and the other team's weaknesses. I thought it was great to see a team that wasn't one of these "super alliances" make it all the way to the finals. Overall, I thought it was an awesome competition. Great job to everyone!

Oh, and once again I'd like to congratulate Dan Larochelle on winning the STAR award. :)

[AcesPease]

Thanks to 177 for believing we could still help them after our poor qualification showing. And thanks to 839 for taking a couple killer hits for us in the last two rounds.

And special thanks to Ken Stafford and everyone at Team 190 and WPI for putting on a terrific event.

[raceteen48]

Congratulations, It was really a great event, and I heard that 177 won two regionals, one of which they won with 176.

[1733_programmer]

It was such an awesome competition, so many things went wrong with our robot (we're rookies...) but we managed to pull together and play our strengths to make it to the finals. Facing off against Gael Force's alliance was the best part, they played incredibly well (as usual) and it was really close. Towards the end though our robots started to fall to pieces (In the last match our battery holder essentially broke and out fell our power supply :( not to mention that 1685 was driving with 3 out of 4 chains on their wheels). Overall though it was great fun, especially for a gang of rookies who never expected to make it anywhere near as far :yikes:

[vVigglEs]

we also managed to win galileo and place 3rd einstein

[Koko Ed]

Are they going to archive the matches like they have in the past?

[BTC000]

the matches were awsome, we seriuslly didn't think we were going to make it past the 8th finals, one robot had transmission problems and we weren't sure of another atonomous capability, and we were running out of bateries, but we had stron team work that really helped us out, our alliance was probrably the most odd ball there was, and congratulations 177, 176 and 839 on winning, and also Dan Larochelle for winning the start

also any one know were i can get the videos of the competion, have some friends that couldn't make it but want to see how every one did

[Greg Marra]

I believe WPI has said they will be posting video of all the matches online. I assume they just need a few days to clip it all and get it up on the site.

Battlecry was pretty amazing. We were really happy to be able to select our previous regional-winning partners, 176, and we kept our fingers crossed that we'd wind up with the third team in that alliance, 1124. We got 839 as our partner, and that wound up being just what we needed. Between our new shooter, Aces High's ability to keep the 'toggle' under our control, and Rosie's effective defense, we were able to pull it off. I really expected to get knocked out in the semis, but we managed to come back from behind a match (sound familiar, Aces?). All of our competitors were fierce competition, and you guys managed to keep most of the matches within ten points.

Great work everyone, and thank you WPI for putting on a wonderful event!

[BobC]

Thanks to Ken Stafford and everyone else at WPI. What a great time I had at the event. This is the first time I ever went to BattleCry. I have been with team 176 for 5 years and was never able to attend before. Sorry I missed it in past years. Thanks again to team 177 for picking us to be their partner again. Thanks to Rosie Team 839 what a great win the alliance pulled off. The finals were one of the best I have seen in my 5 years of the events I have been to.

[Rosiebotboss]

One BIG item of note.........I found out after the competition that during the semi final rounds, the alliance we were up against, headed by the Bad Boys of Bay Shore, Team 271, called a time out so we could finish repairs on our drive train that was being held together by a chain tensioner piece of delrin and 2 pieces of PVC manufactured on-the-fly and a prayer. I just want to thank Peter Burke and the boys for calling that time out. That was HUGE and set us up to go on to the finals and take some more abuse from RAGE, drawing them off of the scorers of the alliance, Aces and Bobcats.

Thanks to 176 and 177 to make this another winning all UTC alliance.

Peter, if you are reading this, the saga continues between Rosie and the Bad Boys. :D

[Tapoore]

Team 1519 would like to thank our great alliance partners 195 and 1126 for the time we spent as an alliance at BattleCry.

195- you guys really came through with some amazing defense in that last match!!! You definitely pulled your share of the weight in our matches. Also, we were very impressed with the fact that you almost shut down two high shooters on your own during their offense period. Thanks for your valiant effort!

1126- our two robots worked extremely well together in auto. Both your defensive and your offensive capabilities were impressive- they were sorely missed in our last match! We don't blame you AT ALL for what happened. We loved working together with you on our alliance!

It was disappointing that we didn't make it further, but getting the highest score of the day (101) with you guys almost made up for it. The Top Gun award was also very nice :D.

Congrats indeed to 176, 177, and 839 and thanks to everyone at WPI for a great weekend!

[Dan Petrovic]

I truely realized what New England Defense means after this weekend. I knew it was just something floating around, but after I saw scores between 30-40 with the powerhouses in the match, something must be up.

At Championships, teams were trying out-score eachother. At Battlecry, teams were trying to out-defend eachother.

[Justin]

I truely realized what New England Defense means after this weekend. I knew it was just something floating around, but after I saw scores between 30-40 with the powerhouses in the match, something must be up.

At Championships, teams were trying out-score eachother. At Battlecry, teams were trying to out-defend eachother.

A-MEN. BattleCry 7 was, as always, an extremely competitive competition and really put on display what all of those NERD type people are talking about when they say defense. I hope that the Mid-West and the rest of the country was watching the Web cast!! It is always interesting how competitive BattleCry is each year, I look forward to it just because I know teams are going to leave it all on the playing field win or go home, robot intact or not...either way, that is the mentality of BattleCry. Few other competitions exemplify the New England style of play better than that of BattleCry. Rivalries run deep (like 1990's deep folks) at BattleCry and the New England big boys show up to play and win. Congrats to all at BattleCry and to the BattleCry staff for another great event...it only continues to grow in both size and prestige.

Justin

[Chris Fultz]

Congrats to all the teams at BattleCry - what a fun and exciting event.

This was our first visit to this region and it was great to meet so many new
teams and people. The hospitality and the event was fantastic and the competition was intense.

Thanks to all of the planners and organizers and volunteers for making such a great weekend.

[Dan Petrovic]

A-MEN. BattleCry 7 was, as always, an extremely competitive competition and really put on display what all of those NERD type people are talking about when they say defense. I hope that the Mid-West and the rest of the country was watching the Web cast!! It is always interesting how competitive BattleCry is each year, I look forward to it just because I know teams are going to leave it all on the playing field win or go home, robot intact or not...either way, that is the mentality of BattleCry. Few other competitions exemplify the New England style of play better than that of BattleCry. Rivalries run deep (like 1990's deep folks) at BattleCry and the New England big boys show up to play and win. Congrats to all at BattleCry and to the BattleCry staff for another great event...it only continues to grow in both size and prestige.

Justin

So true. Our robot came back to the pits a couple times damaged.

You know something's up when powerhouses 121, 126, 1126, and 1519 get eliminated in the quarter finals.

There are a couple regionals in New England, but only one Battlecry, the off-season competition everyone wants to go to.

I hope to see more teams from outside of New England come to see what they actually mean when they say "New England Defense"

[Ken Streeter]

ouch, late by a few seconds and not allowed onto the field. too bad.
1519, 1126, 195 = Quarter-finalists.What team was not allowed onto the field?The quick answer is team 1126 (SparX) for QF1.3. The full answer is a long story...

The alliance of 1519, 1126, and 195 was the top-seeded alliance. In the eighth-finals rounds, we focused on offense and managed to achieve the highest score of the day -- 101 points.

However, the same "all offense" strategy came up short for our alliance in the first quarter-final round. The strong alliance of teams 271, 1103, and 181 played unrelenting defense against us while they also pushed hard on offense, winning the match by a score of 87-70. (That match had the highest total score of the day.)

We changed our strategy for the 2nd quarterfinal -- team 195 focused on defense for that match. Similarly, 271-1103-181 played even more energetic defense, and both alliances scores were greatly reduced. When the dust settled, our alliance came out on top with a score of 57-31, forcing a third round for the quarterfinals; alas, the win came at the price of having team 1126 snap two of their four drive chains and 195 threw one of their drive tracks.

The next few minutes were very hectic indeed, with two of our alliance members scurrying madly to get their robots repaired and our doing anything we could to help. Team 195 had an entire replacement wheel/tread assembly ready to bolt on to their robot. They made a complete swap faster than I would have imagined possible. NASCAR pit teams couldn't have done it any faster!

Meanwhile, team 1126 faced a difficult teardown and reassembly, as not only had their chains snapped, but the broken chains had jammed themselves tightly on one of their wheels. The difficulty of the repair was increased by the fact that the referees wouldn't let the team return to the pit area to make the repair -- the on deck area was in the dark, requiring the use of flashlights to try to see while making the fix. Given the difficult lighting and tightly jammed chain, before we knew it, our entire time-out period had completely elapsed.

At that point, in a great example of what gracious professionalism is all about, the opposing alliance of 271, 1103, and 181 took their time-out on our alliance's behalf in order to give 1126 the chance to get their robot ready for the match. We scrounged up a pair of halogen floodlights and brought them to the ondeck area so that 1126 wouldn't have to continue trying to repair their robot in the dark. In the meantime, we put our alliance's other two robots on the field and got ready for the match while the MC started to introduce the teams. The SparX pit crew continued to work on their robot and completed the repair to their drive chains just as the MC was finishing team introductions. However, as SparX went to put their robot on the field, the field crew said that our time was up and that we couldn't put the robot on the field -- it was too late.

We were stunned. After a gracious time-out by the opposing alliance and a gallant effort by 1126 to repair their robot, we missed the chance to get the third robot on the field by just seconds. We weren't even permitted to re-adjust our robots to different positions to accomodate a two-robot autonomous strategy. (A few minutes earlier we had arranged the robots for a two-robot strategy, but as SparX was headed back onto the field, we re-adjusted our robots back to a three-robot strategy, not realizing that they wouldn't be allowed on!) We were disappointed that after having worked so hard to restore the robot to operation, team 1126 wasn't able to put their bot on the field.

The third match started and team 181 succeeded in pushing us continually to slow down our autonomous shooting and cause some missed shots, holding us to only five balls in the high goal; meanwhile the combination of 1103 and 271 sunk six balls in autonomous, winning the all-important field advantage as well as the 10-point bonus by one ball! Despite valiant defense by 195 and our best efforts at scoring, being down a robot against such a strong alliance was way too much to overcome, and 271-1103-181 emerged the victors by a score of 54 to 31.

Our kudos go out to the opposing alliance of 271-1103-181 -- the gracious use of their time-out on our alliance's behalf was greatly appreciated -- without their extremely generous conduct, we would have had no chance to field three robots for the match. We were disappointed that they didn't go on to win the tournament, but we were ecstatic that team 271 was specially recognized in the award ceremony for their gracious professionalism -- it was very well deserved.

We also want to thank teams 1126 and 195 -- we were very excited to be able to have such extraordinary teams on our alliance. Even given the outcome of the tournament, we are very thankful to have you both partnered with us.

Most of all, however, our thanks go out to the many workers and organizers of BattleCry -- this tournament is an exceptional experience -- you can be sure we'll plan to be back again next year!

[BrianBSL]

It may be a few days or weeks until we have all the matches online, as we are waiting for the WPI media server to have its storage space upgraded. I have put up "unofficial" copies of the opening ceremonies from Friday and Saturday, as well as the last finals match and the closing ceremonies on Saturday at http://users.wpi.edu/~brian/bc7/ .

[Dylan Gramlich]

well thanx for all the pats on the back but i believe team 271's alliance deserves it for giving us that timeout!!!
the stinky thing was that timeout they gave us lasted only 5 minutes instead of the alloted 10 minutes but oh well lessons learned

[Dan Petrovic]

well thanx for all the pats on the back but i believe team 271's alliance deserves it for giving us that timeout!!!
the stinky thing was that timeout they gave us lasted only 5 minutes instead of the alloted 10 minutes but oh well lessons learned

I hope that little bit wont keep you from coming back next year!

It's so nice seeing teams from farther away.

IMO, everyone should experience at least one Battlecry.

[jagman2882]

1126 snap two of their four drive chains and 195 threw one of their drive tracks.


im not placing blame at all......but after watching the video we had taken, 195's tread was caught in one of our chains....this caused the canes to break.

on behalf of the sparX i want to that 1519 and 195 for being understanding and sincerly apoligize that we could not get our robot back on the field

[artdutra04]

IMO, everyone should experience at least one Battlecry...each year. :p

C'mon, Battlecry is like a safety valve for all that pent up defense you have. During the main season you want to win, so you score, score, score. But now in the off-season you want to play a really fun game, so you defend, defend, defend. And is that not what the off-season is about, having fun?

(Just a note to everyone: Not all teams play defense at Battlecry. 228 did not play hardcore defense at Battlecry - as always, we made it our goal to, well, score in the goal. I think we didn't do that bad either. And, despite that fact that BattleCry is the king of defense, 228, 40, and 121 did set the secong highest score of the 2005 season (with 128 points) at BattleCry6. :p)

[vVigglEs]

Lucky for 177, we produced one of the strongest defensive robot(might i add, could score three pointer's). We just played are game, and it worked out to be a winning strategy...i have to say i loved the game this year...evey team had a diffrent style, you saw robots that did the same thing. however, the mechanics of each robot was total unique. Not to for get, i loved the new scoreing way battlecry introduced.

Over All,
i have to say this has been the Best Year, in my experience as a F.I.R.S.T.'er

Matt Pietkevich
aka
MaDcaDder

[EddieMcD]

Battlecry is always a fun competition to attend (my sixth personally). I have to admit, beforehand, I thought that the toggle above midfield would go mostly unused. But there were some fierce battles fought over that extra 10 points. Also, I haven't seen lighting like their's at a FIRST event in years. So props to the Battlecry crew for once again putting on an excelent event (and I swear, one of these years, I'll actually attend both days).

[ScoutingNerd175]

Well, I guess I'll start out by thanking teams 1027 and 1058 you guys were great alliance partners and I'm so glad that we made it to quarter finals. I had so much fun at BattleCry this year (as I did last year) and would like to thank WPI and team 190 and everyone else who helped to make it possible.

The fact that there would be 16 teams selecting alliances gave my team some trouble. I didn't think about the fact that, as a 21st seed, we could move into alliance captain position. We sent our spirit captain down to the field to "graciously accept" and then I realized that she had no list an no idea who to pick. Since we don't scout off-season competitions, I didn't have a list on hand. I had made a list of who I thought was good, mostly because I like to watch the selection and wonder why people make the choices they do. (I had info because I always watch with a pencil, but no real data)

So I ended up running down there and giving my illegible-to-anyone-but-me list to our spirit captain. She promptly told me that she couldn't read it and would have no idea who to pick. The driver for 181 was standing behind us and told us that they had been using off-season drivers for the seeding matches and would probably not be selected but would use their on-season drivers for the finals. Having had success with 181 before, and knowing that they had a good robot, my final advice to our team rep was...

"If you have to pick someone and you don't know what to do, pick him."

And that is how not to give a scouting report. So that was my official signing off as Team 175's resident scouting nerd.

I was glad to see all of my friends from other competitions and teams that I have spent the last two years getting to know. I wish you all the best of luck in the years to come. WPI was a great way to end my time as a student on team 175!