MARC Registration is NOW OPEN [Archive]

Steve Ketron

28-05-2007, 19:16

For all those teams interested in attending the Michigan Advanced Robotics Competition, registration is now open. This event will offer 8 qualification rounds with your standard elimination rounds. The schedule of events and rules of engagement will be posted on our CD-Events page shortly. Please send your registration form via e-mail to ketron@monroe.k12.mi.us.

Beth Sweet

28-05-2007, 20:05

Steve,

Is this (http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/1999) the proper form? We're seriously considering it and I want to make sure that I have all of the final information

Steve Ketron

29-05-2007, 07:01

Steve,

Is this (http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/1999) the proper form? We're seriously considering it and I want to make sure that I have all of the final information

Beth, that is the proper form. Once we get the official forms turned in there will be some secondary information that we will request on the invite like estimated number of attendies and advance food/t-shirt request. But this is the correct form.

KTorak

29-05-2007, 20:52

We have added a Schedule of Evernts (http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/2003) as well as a Mock Round Schedule (http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/2004). All other information, which is available through CD Events (http://www.chiefdelphi.com/event/detail/4431) is still up to date. We will add revisions to CD Media.

KTorak

31-05-2007, 19:55

We still have many open spots. Any teams that are interested, but wish for more information, can contact myself or Steve Ketron.

KTorak

05-06-2007, 22:00

cbale2000

06-06-2007, 01:15

I have added a Rules of Engagement (http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/2007) paper outlining changed in scoring and rules to help teams participating in the event.

Also, we are working on concessions currently and we will be providing hot dogs, nachos, pizza, and water/pop during the event (both days). In town, there are also several fast food restaurants for teams if they choose to go that route.

We are still looking for great teams to come fill the open roster positions.

One Question regarding the ROE, is the extra bonus for Keepers really necessary? It would tend to give an alliance with a robot capable of autonomous a major advantage wouldn't it?
I mean, had it been part of the game rules it wouldn't have been a big deal because teams could have planned for it and put extra effort into an auton mode, but doing it after the season only insures that teams that already have the capability will get an added advantage that they probably don't even need (the teams that do have working autons tend to be really good already).

Maybe it's just me, but from my point of view it seems to make the game a bit unbalanced. :(

Well, now I've just got to get people to show up to a team meeting so we can discuss coming to this event. Isn't it amazing how they all just seem to disappear after the season is over? :rolleyes:

Steve Ketron

06-06-2007, 07:07

[QUOTE=cbale2000;630688]One Question regarding the ROE, is the extra bonus for Keepers really necessary? It would tend to give an alliance with a robot capable of autonomous a major advantage wouldn't it?
I mean, had it been part of the game rules it wouldn't have been a big deal because teams could have planned for it and put extra effort into an auton mode, but doing it after the season only insures that teams that already have the capability will get an added advantage that they probably don't even need (the teams that do have working autons tend to be really good already).

At the events that my team went to very few teams had the capability to score in auton mode. Several off season events are giving extra points for auton mode because they feel that not enough play was put into this part of the game. IRI is giving 15 points for bonus. I do not believe it should be given that many points but it should be given some. This is also some incintive for teams to do some summer projects. My teams robot is a stright defensive/ramp bot and we currently are gaining no extra value out of this rule. Because we are going to IRI and other offseason events, some of my build team is trying to find a way to add an auton mode. I really believe this is an excellent off season project for the young members of a team.

cbale2000

06-06-2007, 14:07

Alright, well, just throwing that out there. ;)

KTorak

07-06-2007, 13:35

Steve said it best, but we pretty much adjusted the rules to try and help out teams more.

Also, any more questions - please contact myself or Steve Ketron.

Dylan Gramlich

07-06-2007, 15:30

i am meeting with one of my prospective mentors tonite and should have a very good idea of whether we are coming by this weekend!

KTorak

07-06-2007, 21:57

Steve Ketron

07-06-2007, 23:00

I'm proud to announce that Paul Copioli has offered his services as MC for the event. If everyone could give him a little extra "thanks" for donating his time to help us out, it would be greatly appreciated. :)

Thank you Paul. It is an honor to have MC our event. You are the man and we really need you so again thank you very much.

Steve Ketron

08-06-2007, 11:37

i am meeting with one of my prospective mentors tonite and should have a very good idea of whether we are coming by this weekend!

Once 1126 signs-up that will give 2/3 of the dream alliance (1126/1038/1526)together again. If we can get 1038 to commit and the three can alliance together again, we can beat any alliance out there.

Dylan Gramlich

08-06-2007, 13:15

we have the backing from our team now! all thats left is to get the selected students and mentors all signed up and suchthen we will be ready to attend and kick some butt!!!

P.S. thanks Paul it will be nice seeing you again!

Dylan Gramlich

12-07-2007, 13:44

so how many teams are attending as of now? and which teams?

Koko Ed

12-07-2007, 18:49

A suggestion: bring information about MARC to IRI and pass information around as one final push to attract teams. We're going to do that for Ruckus. The worst they can say is no.

johnr

12-07-2007, 19:25

great idea about handing info out at iri. you might want to think about telling the teams that if they attend the first marc they will always be invited back. you never know how big it might get in the future. just another selling point.

Steve Ketron

12-07-2007, 22:15

To answer a couple questions,

These are the teams that are scheduled to come so far; Teams Attending: 70, 226, 279, 503, 910, 1023, 1126, 1504, 1528, 1732, 1864. Not all have paid yet put I have received acommittment from these teams.

I am planning on bringing information about MARC to IRI and hopefully can get some of those teams to come to our event and I agree with John. If you committ to the inaugurial event you will be invited back to MARC every year. If you support us during the startup stages, then we will support you the rest of the time.

Steve Ketron

14-07-2007, 18:15

I am going to use a little Navy terminology here and say that every team that participates at the inaugarial MARC event will become a plankowner of the event which titles them to certain priviledges like always assured a spot at each years MARC event and guarenteed a discounted registration fee for the event. Again, I will bring this info to IRI also.

Alex Cormier

18-07-2007, 23:06

so what's the team list up to now?

Steve Ketron

19-07-2007, 06:53

Right now we have 12 teams registered but I'm going to IRI today and hopefully will have more teams by the end of the weekend.

Dylan Gramlich

21-07-2007, 23:30

how did the recquiting at IRI go?

Beth Sweet

23-07-2007, 21:37

how did the recquiting at IRI go?

Yeah, Steve, Steve, do we have any new teams???? ::acts like little kid asking for a cookie::

Alex Cormier

23-07-2007, 21:43

Yeah, Steve, Steve, do we have any new teams???? ::acts like little kid asking for a cookie::

cookies cookies!? i want some cookies.

ooo, and yeah is there new teams? :p

KTorak

23-07-2007, 21:44

I don't have any numbers handy for them, but Steve emailed me stating we will be looking at having around 20 teams or so for the event once some more recruiting is done and we get the registrations turned in. I'm sure he can elaborate more.

Steve Ketron

24-07-2007, 08:09

OK, I went to IRI and am sorry for all of you that missed the most entertaining event of the year. However, you still have an oppertunity to see something that has not happened all year in the "Rack-n-Roll". Team 910 is about to be the first team to score two racks in auto mode. They just barely missed this at IRI and the MARC is the next event they are attending and I believe it will be done. IS THIS A GOOD COOKIE?

I have received a verbal committment from a couple teams and a couple said they are very interested in attending but have to make sure they have enough students to come to the event. Now in order to make this event a huge success, I would like to ask each of you to talk to the teams in your area and try and get some of them to attend our event also.

When I have more teams signed up I will drop another post.

FoleyEngineer

26-07-2007, 13:06

910 (Foley Freeze) is really looking forward to coming. As long as one of our partners in a match doesn't have an auton mode, we can "use" their tube for our second score (it starts out touching their back corner and not ours).

We did it about 20 times in the practice gym at I.R.I. so given the right conditions (non-extreme rack angle & a little luck) we might get it!

Being able to score in about 4 seconds (from camera lock) should also be a nice thing as we're planning on assigning our cap hi/med/low buttons to that function in semi-auto or auto modes on our control board. Previously, the human players thought it was faster to do in "manual control" mode, but with our souped-up speed, we think the camera/computer can beat them. Especially around the back of the rack. We'll see!

Question... Will MARC use the same improved rules as IRI? We vote YES!

Thanks and see y'all at MARC!

:yikes:

JackN

26-07-2007, 13:58

Question... Will MARC use the same improved rules as IRI? We vote YES!

Acording to the "rules of Engagement"

Autonomous Bonus: 10 bonus points will be awarded to the alliance for each keeper that is scored during the autonomous period. These keepers also follow all the rules set forth in the FIRST Rack ’N’ Roll rules

Looks like 1126, 503, 1732 and 910 are going to be going for the points.

I am so pumped, this is going to be great.

I think that the alliances will all be really good.

Steve Ketron

28-07-2007, 11:17

OK, team 1126 is unable to make it to our event. It was a lons-shot for them to make and they just couldn't pull it off with the correct number of mentors/students so we lost one team. However, some of them are still coming to our event to help us out. So thank you guys for the long journey to help.

So this is what we have so far, the following teams are currently coming: 47, 70, 226, 240, 279, 503, 910, 1023, 1243, 1504, 1528, 1732, and 1864. That gives us a total of 13 teams as of now. I am waiting for a reply from 1038 who might bring a pre-registered team with them and I have a pre-registered team from my area also. Any of you that can sweet talk some of your other local teams into coming, We would greatly appreciate it.

Courtneyb1023

01-08-2007, 09:14

Im really excited fot this event! Its great to see that so many people/teams are going to be in attendance! Cant wait to see everybody there.

Courtney

XaulZan11

01-08-2007, 23:45

It should be a ton of fun with some really great teams!

How will the eliminations work? Only four alliances? Will the selections go 1-4, 4-1 or go 1-4, 1-4 like IRI?

Steve Ketron

02-08-2007, 08:09

four teams with a possible 5th if more teams sign up and 1-4, 4-1. Also because of the number of teams I am thinking we take the eliminations to a best 3 out of 5 (This will be asked of by the teams that come and if they want to do the 3 out of 5 we will).

Josh Murphy

06-08-2007, 19:08

Has any more teams signed on yet?

johnr

07-08-2007, 23:10

sorry to see west michigan event cancelled. i would think marc would be happy to invite everybody to come on over. i see a mentor driving skill test is planned. is that code for - " make fun of old guys" :D

Courtneyb1023

13-08-2007, 11:14

Just a couple days left. Who is getting ready for another awesome event?

Pat McCarthy

13-08-2007, 22:05

I may come down to MARC to check it out and/or lend a hand.
My mom is moving down to Monroe, so I've got a good excuse to come now.:p

Josh Murphy

13-08-2007, 23:19

I'm ready it's gonna be fun.:)

cbale2000

14-08-2007, 20:18

Team 703 will be unable to attend due to a lack of available mentors. :(

I however to plan on coming down, at least on Saturday to check it out! ;)

Rich Ross

17-08-2007, 01:10

I only have three words to say about tomorrow:

LETS GET DESPERATE!

(and have a bundle of fun watching the double keeper score)

Rich Ross

17-08-2007, 22:16

910 did it! ill post a video as soon as i can, but in the final practice match of the day, 910 (Foley Freeze) scored two tubes in the autonomous period.

CONGRATS

/edit
http://youtube.com/watch?v=XVCskqsaLBI
/edit

KTorak

17-08-2007, 22:43

That was pretty amazing.

Pat McCarthy

17-08-2007, 23:16

Dang, I missed it taking the reffing test...
Hope they do it again tomorrow!

FoleyEngineer

18-08-2007, 00:23

There'a neat picture in this thread taken by Ronnie Ann Tront from Team Ford First right after the second keeper went on. Thanks Ronnie!

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=58205&page=2

Jessica279

18-08-2007, 20:14

The MARC was definetly a lot of fun. I look forward to attending and helping out next year. Congrats to all the teams, I think everyone did a great job.

Did anybody catch the school rock as they were leaving? Seems someone had a bit of fun, writing their team number all over. Wonder who that team was. There were some clocks, too. :rolleyes:. ^.~

FoleyEngineer

18-08-2007, 20:34

Thanks to the whole MARC Team for your wonderful job on this super event! You did everything possible to make us all feel welcome and to make it a fair and fun event. Great job on the rules, the reffing, queuing, announcing, scoring system, field setup, pairings, and concessions. Looking forward to coming back again for our "lifetime invitation!"

Thanks to our GREAT teammates - 1732 & 1023. Everyone did awesome and we seemed to come up with just the right strategy to stop our opponents in the playoffs. 6 straight wins... wow! Against some really TOUGH competition too!

Congrats to our opponents - 1243, 70, 204, and 220, 279, 1504. You played great and everyone was so considerate of each other (no ramming, tipping, or anything). Such a clean day of matches. We played 15 matches overall today and didn't have one complaint we could even think of for any partners or opponents - wow.

Sorry we missed the double-cap today. We came Soooo close! Maybe at Kettering eh? Take care all and thanks again for a great event!
:)

Steve Ketron

19-08-2007, 08:22

First things first. WOW what a great time and experience this was. I want to thank Mark Koors and Jack/Keith Jones for you FTA experience, Paul Capioli and Jack Nowakowski for the excellent M/Cand Game Announcing, Dan Swando (even though you failled me on my reffing exam), and crew for "flawless" referring, Kyle Dersch for event coordination and scorekeeping, Ronnie Tront keping the equipment up, Bruce Meyer for the great tunes, all the people that volunteered, and each and every team that came for your outstanding attitude, willingness to help and your competitiveness on the field. Everyone was coming up to me telling me how smooth the event ran and much fun and exciting they thought the event was and they could not believe that this was only a first year event. That is what made running this event all worth it and the credit goes out to all of you. Thank you
With only 12 teams, MARC was a huge success and it is only going to get better.

Congrats to teams 1732, 910 and 1023 for their flawless victory. I can't wait for next years event.

Gene Williams

19-08-2007, 21:38

Can someone post the outcome of this event?

FoleyEngineer

19-08-2007, 23:52

Hi Gene,

The playoffs were as follows:
#1 seed 1732 picked 910 then 1023
#2 seed 47 picked 503 then 1526
#3 seed 1243 picked 70 then 240
#4 seed 220 picked 279 then 1504

Playoffs were best 3 out of 5 matches.

Semifinals:
#1 seed defeated #4 in 3 straight
#3 seed defeated #2 and I think it was 3 victories to 1

Finals:
#1 seed defeated #3 in 3 straight

Sorry I don't have the scores. We were too busy playing. I know that they were all good matches and often went down to a last second ramp or extra tube to win it. My wife said that although it was a small, first-time event, it was surprisingly fun to watch and the competition was great!

We missed you Gene!

John Wanninger

20-08-2007, 09:22

Thanks MARC organizers and volunteers for putting on a GREAT tournament! What a fun and well organized event! Thanks to the teams who came out to this inaugural event and played clean and hard, to the refs for great officiating, to our super partners 910 and 1023! Team 1732 looks forward to coming back next year! Thanks again.

Gene Williams

20-08-2007, 09:57

John,

Thanks for the prompt reply and results of MARC. I hope everyone had a great time and I wish that my schedule would of allowed me to be there. As it turned out I think all went very well. I'll catch up on things when I hook up with my team this week!

Thanks and congratulations on winning this inaugural event!

Gene

XaulZan11

20-08-2007, 10:03

Thanks for everyone that made MARC a sucess. It was very enjoyable and provided a great opportunity to try out some new drivers. Thanks to our alliance partners 910 and 1023. Hopefully we'll see you next year!

Branden Ghena

20-08-2007, 19:40

My team's thanks go out to 70 and 1243. We had our shot at the finals, but 910 , 1732, & 1023 were just too good.

Our defense was the only possible stopper to 910's awesome autonomous mode. I think it even stopped them from making a second ringer once, but their auto mode was just far too fast to stop the first keeper from hanging.

JackN

21-08-2007, 00:43

Wow, what a competition. Those were some of the best matches I saw this year. Game two of the finals was silly, when Bedford and Foley Freeze made that row of six on the high row in the last seconds of the game securing their victory. I was really impressed with The level of teams there. The number one alliance was one of the best alliances I have seen in quite a while.

The two on two matches in the qualifying was really a cool twist, it made the game much more interesting. I thought that was the best part.

I really would like to thank Mr. Ketron and Kyle Dersch for giving me the chance to MC their event. I also would like to thank that Paul Copioli guy for teaching me the ways of being an MC/Game Announcer. A definite thank you goes to all of the volunteers for making the competition run super smooth and hassle free. Thanks to all of the teams that came out, especially to team 1732 for coming all the way from Wisconsin, it was sweet seeing all of those teams.

Congrats to all the teams, especially team 1732 (That must have been worth the drive), 910 (even though you never hit the two keepers while I was watching;) ), and 1023 (it is good to see you finally get a win, it can not go to a better group of people).

J@GMFlint

21-08-2007, 08:38

MARC was a great event! Our thanks as well to the organizers and Teams 70 & 240 for a great partnership in the Finals. Congrats to 1732, 910 & 1023!! It's been great playing with and against the Hill Toppers this past year! 910's Autonomous was always impressive to watch- great work guys! Understanding the time and challenge that went into making MARC a reality, it seemed fitting that 1023 be on the inaugural winning alliance!!

Kudos must also go to Team 1528 for effectively shutting-down our offensive capabiliy in the Semi-Finals. I'm pretty sure we had the highest ringer avg. in the quals, so we knew we'd be a target in the Finals, but 1528's super defense and getting our arm bent in the rack while scoring- about a 45 degree bend- really took the edge off of our alliance's offense. But the team impressively came together by doing it's best to straighten it and kept fielding the robot and scoring every match. With all the attention on the arm, we lost sight of maintenance on our drivetrain and a couple bad set screws took the punch out of our drivetrain.

We also got bent up again in the rack during the Finals- about 90 degrees this time- it's hard to hold a position with one drive box slipping- but again the team stepped up and got it close enough to get out and DO something. Though we were in really bad shape, the students never gave up and everyone worked to get all we could out of the robot. As a mentor, that was one of the biggest testaments to the students development we've seen yet. Despite the final outcome, not a single member felt bad or wished for anything different. Now, I just hope there's enough robot left to get it going for Kettering in about a month!! :ahh:

Again, it was a great event. We look forward to attending this event again. For anyone considering going next year, give it a try, you won't be disappointed!

Dylan Gramlich

21-08-2007, 09:00

This event sounds great, again i wish we could have been there but there is always next year. And who knows maybe next year we will bring out some of our Rochester friends!!! Congrats to the winners!

johnr

21-08-2007, 20:32

had a great time at marc. i put some stuff up on youtube. mostly 910, but i do have 240's block. someone asked me why i put our misses on the video,well our misses are alittle bit different. i think we missed two number one keepers. i think alot of teams would like to say that. i guess you could technically say our auto isn't working:) i would put alink up but my son hasn't taught me how yet.you would have to search----910's auto at marc----see you at kettering.

DanDon

21-08-2007, 23:30

Branden Ghena

22-08-2007, 20:20

I have to admit, our autonomous block of 910 was both great for me as the programmer,
and terrible for me because I wanted to see 910 make two keepers during competition.

Herodotus

22-08-2007, 21:59

I have to admit, our autonomous block of 910 was both great for me as the programmer,
and terrible for me because I wanted to see 910 make two keepers during competition.

Well I have to say I was impressed by the block. You guys got it pretty much spot on to block that second cap. Hopefully at Kettering we'll be able to get a more official double keeper using real keepers during a full match.

MARC was a great event, especially for being the first one. There is some serious potential I think for this little off season. Thanks 1732 and 1023 for being such great partners, it was a real pleasure working with you guys. And thanks to all the volunteers who made it possible for MARC to be such a great success. Next year will be even better, and maybe if it is at an open time I'll volunteer next year.