[FTC]: FTC FIRST ATLANTA NATIONALS

[JohnFogarty]

Who's all going??
It's 3-4 days this year instead of 2 lol,
What are your robot alone high scores?
Autonomous strategy?
Overall Strategy??


GFORCE 3864, ATOMIX 3923, and 1102 M'aiken Tech Magic are all excited to be representing SC along with others I beilive 313 Fembots, 315 Blackout, Devilbots, Entech, and 1-2 one other teams all made it from SC.

[mjl2142]

Any information on what award those teams won to make them eligible?

We are curious what tier of the FTC lottery FIRST will get to?
ie first picked, second picked, THINK award.

Thanks

[JesseK]

FTC 1885 will be there with a beefed up bot that's been through some very tough matches. The kids have really taken the initiative to get creative in improving something we thought was already good enough.

Highest score: 220-ish.
Overall strategy: score, even under heavy defense. That 220 was under heavy defense in Delaware, and we've rarely ever not been under defense.
Auton Strategy: Have options. Lots of options.

Vague enough for ya? ;)

[JohnFogarty]

@ mjl2142

3923 Atomix was Winning Alliance Partner SC Day 1 (Confirmed Lottery), Winning Alliance Partner TN
1102 M'Aiken Tech Magic Winning Alliance Captain SC Day 1
3864 GFORCE Winning Alliance Captain TN
313 Fembots Inspire
Devilbots Winning Alliance Captain SC Day 2
Entech Inspire

GFORCE was single robot score Officially 260 final score 316, and now thinking about it we were under heavy defense.

Overall Strategy: Mostly Hording for endgame, but plan to score some high goal shots as well.
Auto: Several options I'm perfecting them as of now :)

@Jesse Vague is always good.

[Rick TYler]

Exothermic Robotics will be sending FTC 417, but we aren't very good. No need to worry about the black robot.

[mjl2142]

@ mjl2142

3923 Atomix was Winning Alliance Partner SC Day 1 (Confirmed Lottery), Winning Alliance Partner TN
1102 M'Aiken Tech Magic Winning Alliance Captain SC Day 1
3864 GFORCE Winning Alliance Captain TN
313 Fembots Inspire
Devilbots Winning Alliance Captain SC Day 2
Entech Inspire

Thanks.

Has anyone heard of a Tier 2 or 3 team being offered a position yet?
We aren't expecting anything, but we were caught completely off guard last year by an invitation 2 weeks before the tournament.
Hoping to be a little better prepared if and when they do get to tier 3.

Thanks,
mjl2142

[JohnFogarty]

417??? wait aren't y'all THE ONES WHO IN IDAHO SCORED OVER 600????

[JesseK]

417??? wait aren't y'all THE ONES WHO IN IDAHO SCORED OVER 600????

Shh. You're supposed to act like you didn't realize it. It's a counter to his counter intelligence.

[Abra Cadabra IV]

Team 25, the Rock 'n' Roll Robots, will be coming back to Atlanta again, courtesy of the Inspire Award. We're looking forward to testing out our new modifications against some awesome competition.

Anyone know when they release the division lists?

[FTC G-FORCE]

Team 2818 G-FORCE is going to Atlanta this year, I think this will be a fun year :)

[Kims Robot]

Is FTC only for teams from the USA now?

[emmell]

Is FTC only for teams from the USA now?

No. We have teams from The Netherlands, Mexico, Canada, and maybe Chine (I believe).

[NalaTI]

Techno Guards (#2848) will be in Atlanta again this year.

Inspire award winner at NorCal and captain of alliance #1 (although we didn't make it past the Semi-Finals)

Highest score in solo practice: 310 (with no gold ball!)

Autonomous? yes... so far 18 basic options x 4 starting orientations = 72 (all in 1 program), score, load, defense, different colors and positions... Most points in autonomous so far: 95 (9 in high goal and local column emptied).

Looking forward to doing better on the field than last year!

[Mushrooshi]

No. We have teams from The Netherlands, Mexico, Canada, and maybe Chine (I believe).

Chile or China? :P

The Alamo FTC Championships have yet to happen... but I hope 3033 can make a return to Atlanta, aswell as our new team 3943

[JohnFogarty]

We a huge test today running our robot for 5-6 hours straight almost, except for battery changes and bolt tightenings. It was a major success. :D

[JohnFogarty]

I just had a thought, I'm wondering....what kind of Shooters are you using??

Dual Stage Geared Wheel Shooter?
Kicker?
What does your team use?

[R0k0v]

Team 154 Renegade will be attending once again.

Our High Score is 440 (No yellow ball).

[JohnFogarty]

I think this a year for vets. Though my team is all rookies besides me. I'm seeing only 20 or so good teams from Competition footage. To bad USFIRST doest post match results like in FRC then I could know for sure.

The Powerhouses i know of are,
2818 G-Force
Team Duct Tape Florida
417 Exothermic
Smoke and Mirrors
154
1102 M'Aiken Tech Magic
3923 ATOMIX
3864 GFORCE
roboraiders i haven't seen theirs yet??
TechnoWarriors Advanced
Entech 281
complete the list because I haven't got a full scouter sheet yet.

[clwillingham]

our robot can be either a powerhouse or a roadblock


we use a 2 wheel shooter with a compound gearing system to get it up to speed and save space for hording as many balls as we can get with our Belt collector. which we attempt to fire all into the far goal at the end game. its a risky approach to the game actually. we usually either win spectacularly or lose spectacularly.

i can't wait to see the other robots at worlds, its only our second year and we have had a great time and a lot of support from family and friends this year.

i don't remember our high-score but we scored somewhere just over 500 at state with a yellow ball i think.

[Rick TYler]

I think this a year for vets. Though my team is all rookies besides me. I'm seeing only 20 or so good teams from Competition footage. To bad USFIRST doest post match results like in FRC then I could know for sure.

"Powerhouse" teams:

2818 G-Force
Team Duct Tape Florida
417 Exothermic, Redmond, WA
245 Xtreme Robotic Minds, Roberts Creek, British Columbia (paired with 417 for a 594 point match)
3231 X-Bot 2, Seattle, WA
Smoke and Mirrors
154
1102 M'Aiken Tech Magic
3923 ATOMIX
3864 GFORCE
roboraiders i haven't seen theirs yet??
TechnoWarriors Advanced
Entech 281

[NalaTI]

What's the definition of "Powerhouse"?

[emmell]

"Powerhouse" teams:

2818 G-Force
Team Duct Tape Florida
417 Exothermic, Redmond, WA
245 Xtreme Robotic Minds, Roberts Creek, British Columbia (paired with 417 for a 594 point match)
3231 X-Bot 2, Seattle, WA
Smoke and Mirrors
154
1102 M'Aiken Tech Magic
3923 ATOMIX
3864 GFORCE
roboraiders i haven't seen theirs yet??
TechnoWarriors Advanced
Entech 281

RoboRaiders (679) didn't make it this year. Look out for 1848 Team SOUP and 710 Mariners from Georgia. SOUP has a great archimedian screw and shooter that will hopefully dominate.

[JohnFogarty]

Archimedian screw!!!! I have to if that competes with Atomix's Helix it sounds awsome!! We will be looking for them :D

The Champs didn't make it, sorry to hear that better luck next year.

[JohnFogarty]

Check out GForce in action on our website, http://www.maikenmagic.com/?ref=gforce

[NalaTI]

We also just posted a video - http://www.technoguards.org

We were waiting for the video from the NorCal competition (it includes some of our autonomous sessions where we got 8 balls in the high goal, and another one where we got 6 in - with opposing defensive autonomous...)

Hopefully that will be posted later! This video includes some of our robot in competition and some of the robot in a demo area we did at the Sacramento Regional FRC tournament last week.

[Barry Bonzack]

I'll be volunteering Wed-Sat. Look for the umbrella hat, say hello.

[JohnFogarty]

I'll be volunteering Wed-Sat. Look for the umbrella hat, say hello.
i discovered a way to get 21 balls in autonomous :DD this will tip the balance of power alot :D

[Andrew Remmers]

i discovered a way to get 21 balls in autonomous :DD this will tip the balance of power alot :D

Sounds like someone thinks alot like I do. haha I had a plan for 23 balls in auto mode but it was never implied. If we were going to atlanta im sure we would have done something awesome like that we didnt quite earn our way in this year so i hope that works out for you!

[JohnFogarty]

thanks :D it seems to work really well, though the feild differences might screw it up lol

[Chris is me]

My alma mater, (team number unknown) Conserve Steelers, will be competing. I will be cheering for them as much as possible as it's their last year as a normal high school. They were winners and Inspire winners in Chicago and Wisconsin.

[NalaTI]

We just posted our scouting sheets for both divisions, that are available for anyone to use if they would like them.

http://www.technoguards.org/node/197

[JohnFogarty]

We just posted our scouting sheets for both divisions, that are available for anyone to use if they would like them.

http://www.technoguards.org/node/197
Thanks!! I plan on using these!

[JesseK]

A 30 ball autonomous will guarantee a lock in probably 90% of the games it's successfully performed so long as the drivers use some common sense during defense.

Yet after the first time the probability of success is significantly reduced. You'd better have a backup plan for elims ;)

[JohnFogarty]

The bad part is you are right, but I have another more shall I say annoying trick up my sleeve, which will have teams saying...Where did all the balls go xD

[FTC G-FORCE]

I hope you all know that the team lists for Atlanta are out, so here's the team list it take up alto of space so I'm posting the links and not copying and pasting the lists

http://www.usfirst.org/uploadedFiles/Community/FTC/Events/TeamListEdison.pdf

http://www.usfirst.org/uploadedFiles/Community/FTC/Events/TeamListFranklin.pdf

[JohnFogarty]

Yeah so our funny dream may come true with with you guys in Franklin

[FTC G-FORCE]

lol it would be very funny

[JohnFogarty]

Please tell me I'm not imagining this but Edison seems to have more strong teams than Franklin.

[JesseK]

If by "strong team" you mean "a team who we've talked about on here" then yes, Edison has many more. To assume we know all of the "powerhouses" or even to presume a team will do well at nationals just because they did well at a State level is a bit naive, don't you think?

[JohnFogarty]

I've seen almost every robot in franklin i'm finding about 15-20 teams that can shoot at all, that's all I'm saying here. Though if you look at the main list and the divisions there is a pattern, they split it up by every other team.

[Janna Hutz]

For what it's worth, our team has been trying to find as much info as we can on how teams qualified for the Championship. Since we're in Edison, we've focused there, and from our current data, Edison has:

24 winning alliance captains
13 winning alliance first selections
5 Inspire Award winners

And for Franklin, we've identified:
7 winning alliance captains
6 winning alliance first selections
9 Inspire Award winners

Obviously, our data (especially from Franklin) is incomplete, and we probably have a few teams classified incorrectly. Plus, we obviously can't assume that all competitions were equally challenging.

But, if you assume that performance generally goes "winning alliance captain" > "winning alliance first selection" > "Inspire Award winner", then it looks like Edison is going to be more competitive. Should be fun!

[JohnFogarty]

but also I've been doing some "Internet scouting" and alot of Franklin teams are not high scoring robots.

[Rick TYler]

But, if you assume that performance generally goes "winning alliance captain" > "winning alliance first selection" > "Inspire Award winner", then it looks like Edison is going to be more competitive. Should be fun!

Given that most tournaments used 2-team alliances for Eliminations, and that only Alliance captains and Inspire winners were automatically invited to Championships, won't nearly every robot at the tournament fit into one of your three categories? How many teams in Atlanta are NOT alliance captains, first choices, or Inspire winners?

I don't pretend to be an expert on all the FTC teams in the world, but Edison looks like murderers' row to me.

[JohnFogarty]

Yeah I've scouted Edison too for our other two teams and it looks like the most compeitive division ever.

[normalmutant]

Hey! We may be a little late getting on the forums, but anyway - I'm Nathan from team 3539, Say Watt? from Edison, NJ. This is our team's rookie FTC year. We won Inspire awards at the Delaware, New Jersey, and Hudson Valley tounaments, and also were the winning alliance captain in Pennsylvania. Our coach is Jim Carr. We know we'll have a lot of fun, and we hope to meet you!