2007 New Hampshire Regional (BAE SYSTEMS Granite State Regional)

[Jonathan Norris]

I am surprised no one has made a thread for this regional yet (correct me if i am wrong), seeing that it is a first week regional. This will be the first year that 610 has traveled to the New Hampshire regional, and it looks like our Canadian counterparts and 2006 Champions team 296 will be joining us as the two international teams. I remember that there was some controversy last year with the general first week regional blues, hopefully it will be smoother this year. What's the regional like? How is the venue? Who are the teams to look out for?

[Ken Streeter]

... This will be the first year that 610 has traveled to the New Hampshire regional, and it looks like our Canadian counterparts and 2006 Champions team 296 will be joining us as the two international teams.First off, we're glad to see that you'll be attending the BAE Systems Granite State Regional -- welcome!

We've enjoyed the fact that multiple Canadian teams have attended in recent years!
... there was some controversy last year with the general first week regional blues, hopefully it will be smoother this year. There's always some leve of controversy about rules in the first week regionals, as the referees and teams are seeing how the rules actually play out for the first time. The only significant controversy I recall from last year concerned disqualification of teams that penetrated the restricted space in the low goals when opposing robots pushed them there. However, any controversy is usually handled quickly and fairly since the referee crew at the BAE GSR tends to be amongst the best anywhere, with some very experienced refs.
How is the venue?We think you're likely to have an awesome time at this regional event. From our perspective, the volunteers at the BAE GSR have always been very friendly, helpful, and eager to ensure that all teams are treated well and fairly. The venue itself features close seating for spectating team members, excellent access between the pits and the field, top-notch professionals in an on-site machine shop that can fabricate almost anything a team might need to repair their robot, a half-court practice area for robots, and a very friendly atmosphere. The announcers are awesome, and the multimedia A/V equipment is second-to-none for FIRST events. The level of excitement and intensity is fantastic!

About the only troubles are that parking near the Verizon Wireless arena can be a bit of a hassle on the weekdays (but even that isn't a problem if you don't mind walking a couple blocks) and that the morning waiting area to get in is outside, where it can be bitter cold! (Then again, you might find New Hampshire in March to be downright balmy compared to the weather back home... ;) )
Who are the teams to look out for?As far as the level of competition goes, there are dozens of teams capable of fielding top-notch robots. With over 24 teams at the regional being veterans of 5+ years, 18 teams that have been to the championships two or more times, 15 teams that have been past regional champions, 6 different teams that have earned regional Chairman's Awards and 2 Championship Chairman's Award winners, it's unlikely that any team will have more than one match that doesn't include one or more powerhouse teams on the opposing alliance! The competition at BAE's GSR features many teams that have a lot of battle-hardened experience -- this isn't the regional to attend if you are looking for an easy path to bring home a trophy! There's almost too many powerhouse teams to list but teams that have been regional champions multiple times within the last few years include teams 126, 131, 133, 134, 175, 501, and 549. (Please forgive me if I've left anybody out!) Add to that list the 8 other teams that have won regional championships in recent years, and you can count on some very steep competition!

We look forward to meeting you in March, and hope that your team is at their best for the regional!

[Ian Curtis]

I was just looking at the team list, and BAE has only 1 rookie... :( (http://www.usfirst.org/frc/map/index.lasso?page=event_teamlist&event=NH)

Is it just me or is rather unusual to have so few rookie teams? But I guess judging by the number of teams at other regionals, they all went to Boston, with a few heading to UTC.

[Ken Streeter]

I was just looking at the team list, and BAE has only 1 rookie... :( (http://www.usfirst.org/frc/map/index.lasso?page=event_teamlist&event=NH)

Is it just me or is rather unusual to have so few rookie teams?...I agree that it seems very unusual to have so few rookies. However, given the density of teams in Southern New Hampshire, it's not surprising that there aren't many local rookies.

I am hoping that there will be still more rookies signing up for the event -- even though the tournament is full, space is reserved for rookie teams to attend. Team 2218 only signed up within the past week or so. I think many rookie teams don't establish their funding sources until December, so it is possible that more rookies might attend that just haven't yet registered.

However, if more rookies don't attend the BAE Granite State Regional, it should make it easy for the judges to select the Rookie All Star winner! ;)

[Rick-906]

yo
we sooo would have won that regional last year... we were DQd in the semi's for a stupid reason, one of our alliance partners [1547 <3] was rammed and their ramp was pushed into a lower goal...
im pretty sure it states in the rules that that is not cause for a DQ
hopefully theyl get their rules figured out this year.
hehe

[kaszeta]

Team 95 is going to Manchester, like we've gone for virtually every year since we started (I think we missed one year). We need to go back, our experience last year at BAE was awful (not any fault of BAE, it was that darn 8.2V bug), and we need to purge the demons.

BTW, we're probably going to bring a 30 degree plywood ramp so that we (and other robots) can practice ramp climbing.

[Ian Curtis]

Who's gearing up for New England's first regional of the season? I'll be coaching for 1276.

Did anyone take a camera to BAE's robot revealing deal? Or are those teams trying to keep their robots a secret? Last year BAE hosted pictures of it on their site, but this year there is no such gallery. :(



On the subject of those doing scouting before the regional, if you're interested...

1276

4 ft
120 lbs

6wd (all of which are tread covered)
3 speeds (4fps, 10fps, 15fps)

Tube scoring on all levels
Spoiler removal on all levels

Pickup from the floor only

Capable of climbing steep ramps, providing you don't have have high guide rails on the inside edge

EG
We can climb a ramp like this |_____ _____|
But not like this |______| |_____| (unless the inside rails are shorter than 1.5")

Ramps and Autonomous: Ask me Friday morning.

[Dan Petrovic]

Who's gearing up for New England's first regional of the season? I'll be coaching for 1276.

Did anyone take a camera to BAE's robot revealing deal? Or are those teams trying to keep their robots a secret? Last year BAE hosted pictures of it on their site, but this year there is no such gallery.



I'm assuming you're talking about Unveiling.

I don't know about pictures from BAE, but we have a mentor who takes pictures non-stop so I'll post some of the team's pictures here. I don't see a reason to keep robots a secret. If anyone has any serious problems, then just PM me or something and I can get rid of the picture.

131 (http://images14.fotki.com/v386/photos/3/319100/4613599/DSC06185-vi.jpg?1171454728)
More of 131 (http://images21.fotki.com/v516/photos/3/319100/4613599/DSC06188-vi.jpg?1171454855)

I'm assuming this is 134 (http://images20.fotki.com/v382/photos/3/319100/4613599/DSC06190-vi.jpg?1171454943).

151 (http://images22.fotki.com/v519/photos/3/319100/4613599/DSC06206-vi.jpg?1171455555)

40 (http://images20.fotki.com/v384/photos/3/319100/4613599/DSC06210-vi.jpg?1171455728)

166's Magnificent Robot (http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=54679)

238 (http://images14.fotki.com/v386/photos/3/319100/4613599/DSC06224-vi.jpg?1171456278)

241 (http://images21.fotki.com/v517/photos/3/319100/4613599/DSC06232-vi.jpg?1171456611)

811 (http://images14.fotki.com/v386/photos/3/319100/4613599/DSC06237-vi.jpg?1171456816)

1073 (http://images22.fotki.com/v518/photos/3/319100/4613599/DSC06252-vi.jpg?1171457477)

1277 (http://images14.fotki.com/v386/photos/3/319100/4613599/DSC06261-vi.jpg?1171457846)

1519 (http://images22.fotki.com/v518/photos/3/319100/4613599/DSC06283-vi.jpg?1171458767) (there's another ramp that was deployed earlier)

1721 (http://images22.fotki.com/v520/photos/3/319100/4613599/DSC06293-vi.jpg?1171459147)

That's what I've got. Sorry about the lack of chassis pictures, but our photographer was sitting close to the stage.

[Tom Bottiglieri]

I will be there on Friday and Saturday getting footage for The Blue Alliance. Can't wait!

[amos229]

Chickenman from 229 is coming friday and possiblt saturday, I cant wait, it was my rookie year competition so it should be cool to return to the venue again as my last year on 229 :(

[Daniel_LaFleur]

I am surprised no one has made a thread for this regional yet (correct me if i am wrong), seeing that it is a first week regional. This will be the first year that 610 has traveled to the New Hampshire regional, and it looks like our Canadian counterparts and 2006 Champions team 296 will be joining us as the two international teams. I remember that there was some controversy last year with the general first week regional blues, hopefully it will be smoother this year. What's the regional like? How is the venue? Who are the teams to look out for?

I'd like to take the time to welcome all those that will be traveling to New Hampshire this coming weekend, and to wish you all the best of luck (except against us ;) ) at the BAE GSR.

The BAE GSR has one of the best venues in FIRST (IMHO). Theres not a bad seat in the house. Seating is very close, excellent access to the pits, close to many resturants (if you dont want to pay the consession prices) and close to the hotels. Parking is close by (but a bit expensive). There is a full machine shop available and the machinists there are very good. There is a 1/2 size practice field (sign up early!!!) and a practice driving area.

You will find few regionals with a higher level of play. Most of the powerhouse teams of the northeast will be here (as well as a number of them from around the country), this is a bit offset by the fact that it's an early regional, so many teams have not been able to work out all the bugs yet.

The weather is generally cold outside (10-20 F) and the wind can blow quite hard (Thursday morning standing in front of the Verizon Wireless Arena gets rather chilly).

Again, Good luck to all.

[Greg Perkins]

I will be attending BAE GSR as a spectator, and if all goes according to my timeline we should have some students from our rookie team we're launching. BAE is always a fantastic competition with top-notch teams and edge of your seat matches. I look forward to enjoying the show!

[platypus]

I've got an announcement for the Granite State Regional... Team 166 will be running a scouting database that is open to all teams for both contributions and usage. In other words, we are trying to start a universal scouting database for everybody to use.

Last year, we found that there were wireless networks at GSR, so we made our team's scouting data available to everybody. This year, we're trying to take is a step further and make one database for all teams to add scouting data to.

As the scouting lead for Team 166, I came to the conclusion that the data that could be obtained by cooperation among teams offered much greater upside than the benefits of traditional, cuthroat secretive scouting. Mass cooperation will help insure that every match is scouted, and duplicate accounts of the same match will help to cross-check the accounts.

I have attached a copy of the scouting sheet that our team has based the database on. We placed an emphasis on making as many items on the sheet "circle all that applies" responses as possible rather than "fill in the blank" responses. We went through about 5 or 6 iterations before we finally agreed on the current scouting sheet.

On Thursday of the competition, two people from Team 166, Rob (myself), and Zach (the team member who is responsible for programming the database), will come around the pits with paper copies of the scouting sheet and copies of a document on how to use it. We need other teams to help in order to make this experiment into a success. If we can achieve any level of mass cooperation, we can make traditional, every-team-for-itself scouting a thing of the past.

[Koko Ed]

Me and the X-Cats drives team are comming down for Saturday to get a feel of what the competition will look like.

[kaszeta]

On the subject of those doing scouting before the regional, if you're interested...

1276

4 ft
120 lbs

6wd (all of which are tread covered)
3 speeds (4fps, 10fps, 15fps)

Tube scoring on all levels
Spoiler removal on all levels

Pickup from the floor only

Capable of climbing steep ramps, providing you don't have have high guide rails on the inside edge

EG
We can climb a ramp like this |_____ _____|
But not like this |______| |_____| (unless the inside rails are shorter than 1.5")

Ramps and Autonomous: Ask me Friday morning.

This is almost exactly Team 95's robot (except that two of the six wheels are treaded, the four corner wheels are omni wheels so we can pivot).

We have concepts for making our ramp interferences less of a problem.

[akshar]

is BAE being webcasted? if so where is the link?

[Jonathan Norris]

is BAE being webcasted? if so where is the link?

I don't believe it is being web-casted... but I am recording the regional and will be uploading it all to the SOAP archives early next week. I may be wrong, but I don't remember it being on the webcast schedule.

My team, team 610, will be traveling down to BAE for the first time, joining 296 as the Canadian contingent down there. I think you'll be seeing alot of the Canadian flag this weekend :p. Here are some specs on our robot:
- 6 wheel drive
- 2 speed AndyMark Gearbox's
- Turreted arm
- Two joints on the arm, main joint and manipulator joint
- The upper portion of the arm also extends out
- here is a pic:
http://img47.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img0035ch6.jpg

[Ian Curtis]

So after a day of watching this game, here are a couple of observations:

With defense, it becomes very difficult to score, and if a robot of the opposing alliance is between you and the end zone, you aren't getting home. While today seemed promising that high scores would happen (there were several instances of a row of 8), I don't see that happening tommorow.

Also, there needs to be a ramp graveyard. Several teams removed them. Also, although ramps are few and far between, they are a match swinger, assuming you get robots up them.

No Bumpers?!?! In our row of the pits, which is about 1/3 of the 46 teams at the regional, there are about 3 robots with full bumpers.

Just plain double ramp bots will be at a premium.

This game is all about teamwork. You must work with your alliance partners, and follow your strategy to the end. We scored much better in our practice matches when we had a plan then when all just tried to score as much as possible.

[Dan Petrovic]

No Bumpers?!?! In our row of the pits, which is about 1/3 of the 46 teams at the regional, there are about 3 robots with full bumpers.


Yeah I was surprised with the number of teams not using bumpers. Free protection, free weight, free stability. It's also a very easy way of making sure you have numbers on your robot.

There are a couple of ramps, but none of them look really promising. We tried to get up one, but we ran out of time. Teams would seriously have to get back really early on in hopes of getting up a ramp. A forklift design might be different, but ramps definately provide some trouble.

The rack does really swing around. There were many many instances when a team would place a tube on the goal and try to back away without letting go of the tube. The rack proceded to shake violently and I actually did see a couple teams miss putting rings on while the goal while it was swinging.

Not many human players scored on the rack. One of our mentors (who is actually a field resetter for this event) said she counted four tubes scored by human players. One of those was scored by our human player. :D

As far as I know, only one team (Buzz 175) was able to score in autonomous.

I saw a couple of very good scorers. I see most of the time between scoring tubes is taken up by actually picking up the tube. It takes some time to line up, actually grab it, and all that.

That's my overview of just what happened during practice matches.

[Joel J]

Any robot pictures taken today that you can upload?

[Andy Grady]

Yeah I was surprised with the number of teams not using bumpers. Free protection, free weight, free stability. It's also a very easy way of making sure you have numbers on your robot.


Bumpers = Bad for climbing ramps.

Thats what I learned today. I hope that teams realize that 30-60 points a round might be worth sacrificing those little pool noodles for a round or two.

[Tom Bottiglieri]

Bumpers = Bad for climbing ramps.

Thats what I learned today. I hope that teams realize that 30-60 points a round might be worth sacrificing those little pool noodles for a round or two.
Modifying your robot to "fix" another team's design flaw = Bad, period.

[Jonathan Norris]

Andy, that last match together, that team couldn't get up your ramps b/c they were on backwards and scraping on the ground... I did tell them to turn around to their other end and it would have worked.

[Andy Grady]

Andy, that last match together, that team couldn't get up your ramps b/c they were on backwards and scraping on the ground... I did tell them to turn around to their other end and it would have worked.

Jonathan,

It wasn't my intention to single out any teams in that statment. I think its just a fact of life...bumpers make it more difficult to climb ramps. I think you guys would have been fine climbing on top of us.

In response to Tom, you are partially right...its not necessarily fair for teams to have to pull off bumpers to climb another robot...but when the robots that dictate whether or not you might win a round or the championship need these little tweaks, it might be a risk worth taking.

Also note that in the matches I watched at the scrimmage et al, there must have been ALOT of design flaws. I dont know if I saw a bumpered robot sucessfully climb a ramp bot all day at the scrimmage. I couldn't tell you how many did or not yesterday because I wasn't watching.

My conclusion...not necessarily a design flaw, but more envelope dictating ramp. We shall see though.

[Tom Bottiglieri]

Also note that in the matches I watched at the scrimmage et al, there must have been ALOT of design flaws.
It may not be a design flaw, per se, but you have to wonder what teams were doing building ramps that are barely wide enough for another team to climb up and expecting them to do it in the final couple of tense seconds in a match.

Have fun with the delay today, see you around 1 pm Mr. Grady.

[ZZII 527]

Modifying your robot to "fix" another team's design flaw = Bad, period.

Having little credibility, since I'm with a team with a narrow ramp, I can only say that I respectfully disagree. I imagine we'll see lots of ramp bots of all shapes and sizes at Boston, definitely a higher percentage than in Manchester. I would think flexibility on the part of both teams would be the key. Maybe the climbing team can take off just the constraining set of bumpers or the ramp team can remove their guardrails.

[Rosiebotboss]

It may not be a design flaw, per se, but you have to wonder what teams were doing building ramps that are barely wide enough for another team to climb up and expecting them to do it in the final couple of tense seconds in a match.

I also have to respectfully disagree with you Tom.

A team should resonably expect that the other teams it is designing a ramp for them to climb would NOT have a width of a wheel base that is not out to the limit. But a reasonable amount of distance 'inboard' (1 inch?) of the limits put forth by FIRST.

[Ben Piecuch]

At the WWS, we were able to (barely) climb a ramp with our bumpered robot. The extra 6-7" of width makes it very difficult to fit on most ramps. Also, the fact that the bumpers are soft makes it hard for them to slide off of any vertical sides of the ramp, or similar. I hope that we don't have to remove our bumpers, but it if makes the difference between 30 points or not, we'll be taking them off.

Designing a ramp-bot to handle all types of robots and drive trains is a difficult task. Not surprisingly, it's about as difficult as an arm/elevator/grabber to score the ringers. You'll see both excellent and poor designs of both types of robots. The teams that compromised the design of their robot to accommodate both systems may find it difficult to be successful with either aspect of their robot. Single purpose robots may prove to be the winning design this year, which has been the case for a lot of years now...

Best of luck to all this weekend!

BEN

[Daniel Brim]

I also have to respectfully disagree with you Tom.

A team should resonably expect that the other teams it is designing a ramp for them to climb would NOT have a width of a wheel base that is not out to the limit. But a reasonable amount of distance 'inboard' (1 inch?) of the limits put forth by FIRST.Let's not forget about driver's skill in getting up a ramp. Certainly, being almost the exact width of the robot makes it extremely difficult to climb up.

[K.Porter]

Has anyone found the YouTube videos that were featured today at the competition? I've tried out the tags that they've displayed, yet, nothing. (seeing as 172 was specifically mentioned, I wouldn't mind seeing the video...)

By the way; 172 would like to invite all of our potential allies to take a look towards using our ramps! We hold the potential for 60 easy points... We've had surprisingly few robots who have even come back to them at the end of the game...:(

[Dan Petrovic]

Has anyone found the YouTube videos that were featured today at the competition? I've tried out the tags that they've displayed, yet, nothing. (seeing as 172 was specifically mentioned, I wouldn't mind seeing the video...)

By the way; 172 would like to invite all of our potential allies to take a look towards using our ramps! We hold the potential for 60 easy points... We've had surprisingly few robots who have even come back to them at the end of the game...:(

Yeah. Those ramps are really nice. Too bad you guys have had the problem with robots touching the wall (except for the match we tied.. :rolleyes:)

It definately looks like you'll be one of the top picks at BAE.

I'm kind of surprised with the strategies. Most of the scoring is actually happening on the bottom row. It takes too long to get high up, apparently. There are a lot of teams that do not have working robots. Some of them can play some pretty tough defense. No yellow cards have been assessed, as far as I know, and they have called teams on the 72 x 72 box.

Autonomous is pretty rare. Buzz scored once yesterday, and I don't know if anyone else scored today other than 1073. It was the first time it worked and they were on our alliance. Perfect!

[K.Porter]

Yeah. Those ramps are really nice. Too bad you guys have had the problem with robots touching the wall (except for the match we tied.. :rolleyes:)



Yeah, that was really a mistake on our part. We backed into the corner without really judging the distance to the side wall. As long as we deploy towards the center of the field, there is no problem. Our drivers have been talked to a bit about this already. Won't happen again.
I'm disappointed at all the low chassis and mecanum wheels though. Even with a gentle 18 degree slope, there have been a lot of robots that have just said no. (and the robots that can climb are all too busy scoring tons of points.)

Our hope is that the ramps will be attractive enough to the top 8 to be chosen into a good (winning?) alliance. :cool:

[Daniel_LaFleur]

Our ramp and platform have been working well here at BAE GSR.

We've had robots on top of us all day, we even had 2 in one match (only 45 points though :( )

And defense has shown to be very effective in this game :yikes:

[rocknthehawk]

Modifying your robot to "fix" another team's design flaw = Bad, period.

I would also disagree with this. Our platform will not hold a robot with bumpers, BUT with the removal of one, it becomes very easy.

Also, after talking with Andy for a short time today, I think we have come to the conclusion that most teams going up ramps need to slow down a bit and just take it easy.

We have been giving teams 30-40 seconds, and it seems not worth it at this point. We cut our guardrail down as low as possible for low bumpered robots. We give them tips on driving up. What more does it take? Any thing to add to this Andy? Even some experienced driveteams are having trouble with this...with a low approach angle fo 14 degrees, we did not think this would be a problem....

[Greg Marra]

Does anyone know why the FIRST site for the BAE Regional is not displaying match scores or rankings? I think it might be something similar to why the Pacific Northwest scores are corrupt halfway through, or maybe they just don't have a net connection at the venue. Anyone at the regional have the inside scoop?

[platypus]

Attached is the data from the multi-team scouting database that team 166 started.

Thanks to the teams that contributed. Hopefully, we can expand on this idea in future years, as this is still mostly a database of strictly Chop Shop's scouting data. It isn't particularly complete, but it should be a help to teams out there that might be picking tomorrow.


(Shamless Plug/ Team 166 is ranked 20th and has won its last 3 matches after stumbling early. We're definitely worth looking at, as we might even slide into the top 10 if we win our two matches tomorrow /End Shamless Plug)

[Jonathan Norris]

Yea I don't think we get wireless in the arena, so far (from what I have heard) the scoring here has been a good deal higher then at other regionals, there have been a few matches in the 200's. the best teams so far (my opinion); 40, 175, 126, 58, 500 (or 501 can't remember), 1276, 296, 172 and 190 have good ramps. Thats about all I can remember in my half asleep daze.

edit: But then we have played the same group of teams the whole day.. so I am sure I am missing some teams that have performed well.

[teenmisfit]

I love the ramp bots.. They make the game sooo much more fun and interesting. Anyone have an updated score board? im up late trying to figure out who is ranked where :yikes:

PS: i love 172s robot. The pink is in! And i wish i had gotten the chance to drive up your ramp

[soap108]

...

Thanks for uploading the movies. Note the 'deinterlace' option in WME. I sent a PM on it.

Good work!

http://soap.circuitrunners.com/2007/movies/nh/

KA-108

[Heretic121]

Any updates on Alliances, Rankings? anything?

Last i saw on First's website it only shoed the top 6 rnaked teams...

[Jonathan Norris]

501, 175, and 18** (the ramp bot) won the regional. 190 won Chairmans, 610 won EI, 1991 got all rookie awards, 172 won spirit.. thats all i can remember right now

[Dan Petrovic]

501, 175, and 18** (the ramp bot) won the regional. 190 won Chairmans, 610 won EI, 1991 got all rookie awards, 172 won spirit.. thats all i can remember right now

1824 was the ramp bot.

166 won the second day Judge's Award for the second year in a row :D

What was a great about 1991 is that they are from a deaf school. So instead of clapping, they raise their hands and wave them. Since we were behind them the entire time in the stands, when they won their awards we waved our hands instead of clapping. Eventually, the entire stadium was waving their hands. :cool:

[Abrakadabra]

The eventual winning alliance, 501/175/1824, posted an amazing score of 316(!) in their 2nd quarterfinal round. They completely encircled the rack on the lower level for 256 points (primarily due to 175 "Buzz"es fearsome scoring ability) and then both 501 and 175 drove on top of 1824 ("the Rampbot" - big, ugly, and totally effective!), to finish the scoring off with a 60 pt. bonus.

Pix here:http://www.baesystemsfirst.org/regional/event_photos_2007/sat2/pages/2007-0086-146.htm

and here:http://www.baesystemsfirst.org/regional/event_photos_2007/sat2/pages/2007-0086-148.htm

And, their opponents posted zero for the round.

An amazing sight to watch. Congrats to the winning alliance! They were indeed a match made in heaven!

[Daniel_LaFleur]

The eventual winning alliance, 501/175/1824, posted an amazing score of 316(!) in their 2nd quarterfinal round. They completely encircled the rack on the lower level for 256 points (primarily due to 175 "Buzz"es fearsome scoring ability) and then both 501 and 175 drove on top of 1824 ("the Rampbot" - big, ugly, and totally effective!), to finish the scoring off with a 60 pt. bonus.

And, their opponents posted zero for the round.

An amazing sight to watch. Congrats to the winning alliance! They were indeed a match made in heaven!

ROFL. "Big, Ugly and effective" ... Yep, thats us :)

Our alliance partners (501 & 175) were absolutely the best. Such awesome scorers. I can't thank them enough for picking us. I believe Buzz scored 6 ringers in that round and 501 scored the other 2, while we played a some hard defense. Seeing 2 up 12" at the end was fun too :)

[Petey]

What a terrific event!

A few notes

A) I can't believe how many teams didn't use 172's awesome ramp. Falgor, you guys were great for winning the spirit award and you designed the bot I wish we'd built.
B) Holy hell, the winning alliance was ultrapowerful. Congrats to 501/175/1834. I gotta tell you, I was sitting up there in the balcony when you were playing our alliance in the finals, just thinking "$@#$@#$@#$@#...there is to be a way to beat them. There has to be SOME WAY to beat them." But guess what? There wasn't. You'll do BAE proud at Nats!
C) Thanks to 1474 and 500 for picking us to be their alliance partner. I thought an alliance without a ramp be two and out, but boy was I wrong. 500, when we both scored in autonomous mode it was one of the greatest feelings of comp. We've been to the playoffs each of our five years in FIRST, but never to finals until now. Thanks for the trip.
D) Speaking of great feelings, how awesome of a feel-good story was Team 1991? Rookies, and half of their team is from the American School for the Deaf? I got chills when they won both rookie awards and the entire crowd, rather than clapping, signed applause.
E) I also got goosebumps during Dean's speech about changing the way we teach and bringing FIRST to everyone. I don't share his abject hatred for phyiscal activity--I like to walk, and I loved high school sports--but the man can speak.

Also, my team has a copy of the entire projector video feed from competition. We have to figure out our legal rights regarding it, but then we'll check on what (if anything) we can put on the web.

[Jonathan Norris]

Also, my team has a copy of the entire projector video feed from competition. We have to figure out our legal rights regarding it, but then we'll check on what (if anything) we can put on the web.

Don't worry I got that covered:

http://soap.circuitrunners.com/2007/movies/nh/
(will finish uploading as soon as i can)

[Stillen]

Thanks for the fun at GSR.... I do however have a few comments, I will not yet call them complaints because I don't feel like getting flamed right now.

Venue..... Food still kinda expensive for high-school students..

Parking... Again it was horrible, we made the best of the parking garage, we also had a few vehicles behind the venue. Which brings me to my next observation..

Why are the rear entrance/exit doors not accesible enter or exit. Security would not be an issue, I saw several "STAFF" or "SECURITY" that could have been watching these doors screening for what ever they screen for. These doors could have been used, I may have actually been dry on Friday if they were.

Pit access, One way in , one way out. Was it all because they wanted to control the use of safety glasses?? I call fire trap.... It was a complete bottle neck there.... I don't think the fire marshall would have approved.

Other than that, very friendly FIRST people as usual, the medical staff was very attentive to one of my students needs, thank you for that...

Stills

TEAM 549

[amos229]

govenors see innovation like judges see pornography, they dont know exactly what it is but they know it when they see it, I love you Dean.

[LocknLoad]

Norris, do you only have those 24 for NH? The quality is great and I bet I'm not the only one who wants to see the finals of GSR again.

[Rick-906]

What a terrific event!

A few notes

A) I can't believe how many teams didn't use 172's awesome ramp. Falgor, you guys were great for winning the spirit award and you designed the bot I wish we'd built.
B) Holy hell, the winning alliance was ultrapowerful. Congrats to 501/175/1834. I gotta tell you, I was sitting up there in the balcony when you were playing our alliance in the finals, just thinking "$@#$@#$@#$@#...there is to be a way to beat them. There has to be SOME WAY to beat them." But guess what? There wasn't. You'll do BAE proud at Nats!
C) Thanks to 1474 and 500 for picking us to be their alliance partner. I thought an alliance without a ramp be two and out, but boy was I wrong. 500, when we both scored in autonomous mode it was one of the greatest feelings of comp. We've been to the playoffs each of our five years in FIRST, but never to finals until now. Thanks for the trip.
D) Speaking of great feelings, how awesome of a feel-good story was Team 1991? Rookies, and half of their team is from the American School for the Deaf? I got chills when they won both rookie awards and the entire crowd, rather than clapping, signed applause.
E) I also got goosebumps during Dean's speech about changing the way we teach and bringing FIRST to everyone. I don't share his abject hatred for phyiscal activity--I like to walk, and I loved high school sports--but the man can speak.

Also, my team has a copy of the entire projector video feed from competition. We have to figure out our legal rights regarding it, but then we'll check on what (if anything) we can put on the web.

the rookie awards were touching yes, however they were the only rookie team in attendance as far as i know.

the sign applause looks soooooo cool though!!!

haha and there was a way to beat 175/501/1834... but we couldnt pull it off more than once

[dcbrown]

Don't worry I got that covered:

http://soap.circuitrunners.com/2007/movies/nh/
(will finish uploading as soon as i can)

Thanks you saved me a lot of time. I'm the one that had the two dvd burners (overlapping coverage and backup just in case). I just wanted to make sure there was an archive copy of the matches as in the past GSR hasn't been as well covered. I also took additional video footage going wide when the arena feed was in close and close when arena feed was wide. Eventually I'll intercut these two streams but there really isn't a pressing need at this point.

Thanks again!

Bud

[Petey]

Don't worry I got that covered:

http://soap.circuitrunners.com/2007/movies/nh/
(will finish uploading as soon as i can)

I'm downloading these now, but what are they from? Are they the official feed? If so, how did you ascertain the legality of redistributing them? If not, what are the videos of, and who took them?


Venue..... Food still kinda expensive for high-school students..


Food is usually not the best at BAE. Heck, I was up in the VIP area on Saturday and even that was disappointing.


Pit access, One way in , one way out. Was it all because they wanted to control the use of safety glasses?? I call fire trap.... It was a complete bottle neck there.... I don't think the fire marshall would have approved.


That definitely was annoying, that you couldn't enter through the time-honored method of leaping over the walls on the opposite side of the robot entrance. Hopefully they change it back...

[Ian Curtis]

Another year, another great regional. Congratulations 190 on your chairmen's, you definitely have a shot in ATL. In a stunning turn of events, another BattleCry S.T.A.R. and UFH won a WFFA. Congratulations Dan, and the rest of team 40. And I've got to hand it to the Powerknights and company, you guys pulled it off in a big way.

I too got chills down my spine with the signing applause. Dean's speech was pretty darn good as well. Woodie was back for the first time since 2004, which I thought was pretty awesome.

A few comments:

-Next year, can rookie inspectors be teamed up with veteran inspectors, and at least given a crash course of what to expect?

-Entrance and Exit for the pits

It is a good idea, but less than perfect in solution. Traffic flow was much smoother in years prior when the additional gate was open. I like the the fact that safety glasses were handed out, but just one or two more entrances would have made things much smoother.

-Food

I don't know what you guys are talking about. It just isn't BAE without a chicken tender basket ($6.50) and souvenir soda ($3.50). I don't consider $10 a terrible deal for lunch.

And finally...

Thank you, very much to the GDC who designed this game. I thought it was on par with 2004, my favorite game thus far. Raising the Bar was my first game, and I think everyone recalls their first game as the best. This one was better. :)

[Dan Petrovic]

I too got chills down my spine with the signing applause.

You can thank us for that :D We totally started it... after 1991, of course. Nothing was better than listening to the arena gradually get silent after all of the other teams caught on.


-Entrance and Exit for the pits

It is a good idea, but less than perfect in solution. Traffic flow was much smoother in years prior when the additional gate was open. I like the the fact that safety glasses were handed out, but just one or two more entrances would have made things much smoother.


I grew slightly frustrated at the people who blocked the entrances to the pit because they didn't have safety glasses. Would be so hard to open up a different entrance for people without safety glasses?

[Koko Ed]

One of the most professional FIRST events I had the pleasure of attending. THe arena is very nice. The food had good variety for concession food but was rather pricy. The pits were on the tight side and it would have been nice if they had a place for the teams to dance. The Riot Crew's mascot came up to where we were up top and I was worried they were goig to fall down and really get hurt. THe parking wasn't so hot but at least it was free.
I would personally like to thank Jess, Andy, Greg, Kristin, Ryan (sorry our driver Jay had to take you down at air hockey but we need to get his competitive juices flowing for FLR. He's ready to go now!) and the crew for showing us a good time at the Jillains (I never knew they came so small but I was happy to see one since the one we had folded a couple of years ago).
I can't wait to go back next year!

[Koko Ed]

the sign applause looks soooooo cool though!!!
The sign applause was definately one of the best moments I had ever witnessed at a FIRST event.
Who knew silence could be so loud?

[kaszeta]

One of the most professional FIRST events I had the pleasure of attending. THe arena is very nice.

It's one of the better places that I've been over my several years of mentoring, although I always finding myself doing a double-take at several other places we've gone as well (the inside of the arena at Palmetto is so eerily like BAE that I had to look at dates on last year's picture to separate the two).

Myself, I had quite a good time, although I'm disappointed that Team 95's autonomous didn't work on the field (it works fine in the practice pit, but such is life and engineering).

In any case, thanks to all the teams who competed with and against us, everyone who welcomed me into their pit to show off their robot, and good luck in the rest of your season.

Now to wait until Atlanta...

[cbpetrovic]

The announcement of the BAE Regional Volunteer was done on Thursday afternoon, in a fairly empty arena.

Brian Lee, the recipient of the award, should have been celebrated in front of a larger crowd.

Congratulations, Brian!!!!

[Jonathan Norris]

Norris, do you only have those 24 for NH? The quality is great and I bet I'm not the only one who wants to see the finals of GSR again.

I just got home after a 12 hour bus ride, so i'll try and get everything else up tonight. It all got recorded don't worry. I'll put the finals up first.

[LocknLoad]

I just got home after a 12 hour bus ride, so i'll try and get everything else up tonight. It all got recorded don't worry. I'll put the finals up first.

Your the man, thanks :)

[Julia Magoolia]

The announcement of the BAE Regional Volunteer was done on Thursday afternoon, in a fairly empty arena.

Brian Lee, the recipient of the award, should have been celebrated in front of a larger crowd.

Congratulations, Brian!!!!


I can understand that they'd want to cut time on Friday with the delay and all, but you're right.. Brian deserves all the recognition for this award we can give!! I was so happy when they announced his name as the Outstanding Volunteer for the regional. He's done so much for the FIRST programs over the years!

[Neo3One3]

First of all, the BAE regional was great this year, yet again. To be perfectly honest, we all weren't exactly sure what to expect, after the poor showing we put up last year, but thankfully we turned it around a bit :).

I was wondering if anyone had an alternate video of match 7, other than the one that Norris had uploaded. And many thanks to you, by the way, for uploading all of the videos.

[Petey]

First of all, the BAE regional was great this year, yet again. To be perfectly honest, we all weren't exactly sure what to expect, after the poor showing we put up last year, but thankfully we turned it around a bit :).

I was wondering if anyone had an alternate video of match 7, other than the one that Norris had uploaded. And many thanks to you, by the way, for uploading all of the videos.

We do. I hope to have it up on YouTube under the username Team 1073 before too long.

[Greg Marra]

Does anyone have the BAE match listings? Hopefully with scores too? Can you send them to me? FIRSTs site doesn't have them and I would like them for The Blue Alliance Match Archive System (http://www.thebluealliance.net/tbatv/).

Thanks!

[dbell]

Greg,
here is a link to some videos posted by LocknLoad from team 501 on a different thread.
http://soap.circuitrunners.com/2007/movies/nh/

Here is the thread where I found the link.
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=55183&page=5&highlight=1st+week+impressions

[Greg Marra]

Greg,
here is a link to some videos posted by LocknLoad from team 501 on a different thread.
http://soap.circuitrunners.com/2007/movies/nh/

Here is the thread where I found the link.
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=55183&page=5&highlight=1st+week+impressions

I already have all of the videos, I just need to find who was playing in which matches so there is more than just the numbers of the qualifiers to go off of and to have WLT records for the teams.

The BAE Regional is now available to watch on The Blue Alliance Match Archive System (http://www.thebluealliance.net/tbatv/matchlist.php?eventid=8), however it lacks any team or score information because FIRST has not put it on their website. Enjoy!

[Andy Grady]

I would personally like to thank Jess, Andy, Greg, Kristin, Ryan (sorry our driver Jay had to take you down at air hockey but we need to get his competitive juices flowing for FLR. He's ready to go now!) and the crew for showing us a good time at the Jillains (I never knew they came so small but I was happy to see one since the one we had folded a couple of years ago).
I can't wait to go back next year!

Ed,

We thank you for comming out! The after-event air hockey tradition continues! With Jay...we met our match! Don't you worry though, we'll be practicing.

Who's next to take on the air-hockey tradition?

All I have to say is...if anyone is in Manchvegas...give me a call. I take all challengers!

-Andy

[mayhemscout1519]

Does anyone have the BAE match listings?

Greg,

I have attached the match schedule for GSR. I may or may not be able to gather the scores of the matches from our scouting data. If you have any questions/concerns/etc. please PM me!

Hope this helps...