2010 Los Angeles Regional [Archive]

rsisk

18-03-2010, 21:26

I predict 330 as part of the winning alliance with their great female drive team and legendary coach.;) ;) ;)

Ha, that's like predicting the sky is blue and grass is green :D

Can't wait to see 330 competing again, it was exciting every match it played in AZ especially when it self-righted in the last match of the qualifiers... suhweet!

Smoores

19-03-2010, 17:05

team 2272 has something up their sleeve this year

KathieK

19-03-2010, 21:24

I hope to see some of the California teams while here on business travel!

RyanS

21-03-2010, 22:47

294 will be there!

EricH

21-03-2010, 22:49

This will be the first L.A. Regional that I have missed. Period.:( (Attended 2001-2009)

Have fun out there!

DCA Fan

21-03-2010, 23:18

I'll be there!

bhsrobotics1671

22-03-2010, 00:14

does anyone know if there will be a webcast for this event?

Sunbun

22-03-2010, 00:24

does anyone know if there will be a webcast for this event?

If previous years were any indicator, nope. :/

sanddrag

22-03-2010, 00:53

Team 968 is happy to be returning to the Los Angeles regional, after two years of competing at other events. Should be a good one! :)

Mageofdancingdr

22-03-2010, 01:22

Team 599 looks forward to a great weekend with interesting matches. We will be running the Robot FIRST Aid Station (RFAS as we abbreviate it), so we hope all teams that need help take the time to ask for it.

Personally, I wonder if there will be a student ambassador program similar to the one run in San Diego? any insight would be greatly appreciated.

David Brinza

23-03-2010, 12:15

Team 980 is looking forward to competing with some awesome teams in Long Beach!

P.S. This was my 980th post on CD. An omen?? :D

dantheflipman

24-03-2010, 17:31

Team 1388 ready to compete at our second competition in long beach. This is always a fun one. We've also made a long overdue change to our robot. Make sure to Grab one of our new red and green injection molded battery tabs! Because we know how it feels to have your next match in two minutes and not know which batteries are charged or not haha...

Our team is getting on the bus to leave in approximately 1 hour!

Good luck and see you there,
--Dan K.

Tom Bottiglieri

24-03-2010, 17:34

Good luck 968!

bhsrobotics1671

25-03-2010, 03:05

TheFish

25-03-2010, 17:55

I've never been to the LA regional. What are the best teams/people to look out for?

Thanks,
TheFish

EricH

25-03-2010, 17:59

1717, 330, 294, 1388, and 968 are the local powerhouses; 190 and 233 are from the East Coast.

599 and 980 are usually pretty good as well; 597, 1197, and some of the others have a regional under their belts already and are doubly dangerous.

Of course, never assume anything about how good a team is not... Someone's going to surprise all of us.

Cory

25-03-2010, 18:34

Good luck 968!

And 233!

XaulZan11

25-03-2010, 19:57

And 233!

In the last half of 233's practice match that I saw, they scored 1 from the middle, cleared another one and then hung. How did they not get picked in Florida?

sdcantrell56

25-03-2010, 20:36

In the last half of 233's practice match that I saw, they scored 1 from the middle, cleared another one and then hung. How did they not get picked in Florida?

Because they didnt do any of that at florida and were probably the most penalized team I saw on the webcast. Clearly they are firm believers in design being an iterative process and is one of the reasons they are such a successful program every year.

IBdrummer

26-03-2010, 16:25

In the last half of 233's practice match that I saw, they scored 1 from the middle, cleared another one and then hung. How did they not get picked in Florida?

They had a couple of matches where we got a lot of penalties followed by the last two matches where our radio power cable was severed, so needless to say we left a bad impression. With the addition of a tower and kicker this regional they're definitely a different robot.

EricH

26-03-2010, 21:22

Different robot indeed. They're #5.

Congratulations to Nancy McIntyre! I'm surprised that she hadn't already won the WFFA.

DCA Fan

26-03-2010, 22:45

Different robot indeed. They're #5.

Congratulations to Nancy McIntyre! I'm surprised that she hadn't already won the WFFA.
Every time her team has submitted her nomination, she has withdrawn it. Somehow this time it slipped by her. It is long overdue in my opinion.

EricH

26-03-2010, 23:01

Every time her team has submitted her nomination, she has withdrawn it. Somehow this time it slipped by her. It is long overdue in my opinion.
I wonder if it was intentionally hidden from her this time around...Just so she'd get recognized for what she's been doing at long last.

sanddrag

27-03-2010, 01:40

Does anyone have the rankings as of tonight? It's not on FIRST's website.

chaoticprout

27-03-2010, 02:09

I've been extremely busy with school and have been watching FIRST, but not actively participating in the past few years, but I need to say, I'm so proud that Nancy won the WFA yesterday/today. I've never met anyone who works as hard as she does, she deserves it more than anyone. The joy I feel right now cannot be expressed in words.

EricH

27-03-2010, 02:20

Does anyone have the rankings as of tonight? It's not on FIRST's website.
From memory, and we'll see how far I get:
330
1717
294
190
233
3120
1388
1160
__?
1515

968 is somewhere down the list.

NoahTheBoa

27-03-2010, 22:40

Congratulations to 1515 on Chairman's! You guys definitely deserved the recognition after being such a huge presence in Los Angeles for so many years. Also, congratulations to 1717 for Inspiration and winning the regional as well. Good luck to both teams in Atlanta.

Nancy winning WFFA definitely capped off a great season for 1138.

Sunbun

28-03-2010, 01:13

Congrats to 1515, 1717, 330, and 1452 on their success!

Thanks to 1160 and 1671 for being great alliance partners! Shame that we couldn't get further, but glad that our opposing alliance made it all the way to the finals.

For the record, there were four finals matches played: 12-12, 14-10, 8-10, 9-3.

dexo568

28-03-2010, 01:25

Hey, team 3328 here. Just wanted to say how impressed we were with everything. We had no idea it was going to be anything like this- everyone was so enthusiastic and positive, and the crowd was incredible. We were also sort of impressed with how far we got, so thanks to nerdherd for picking us for their alliance. Two questions, though: First what was up with the WFFA winner? She didn't seem very happy. Two, what was causing the ~20 minute delay between the last finals match and the finals tiebreaker? Was it a field problem or a team robot problem?
Anyways, thanks for making our rookie year such a great experience..

Oh-- I was 3328's human player (the tall kid). If any of you saw me around, hey, that's cool.

EricH

28-03-2010, 01:56

Let's just say that when 1138 won the Regional Chairman's last year, Nancy had to be pulled into the line by the students and mentors on the team. She doesn't like taking credit for doing something. At least she won't have to accept it next year...

I have no clue on the delay, but there's a mandatory 6 minute delay, plus any timeouts (6 minutes each, one at a time) and whatever the MC works in in terms of dancing.

Incidentally, I understand that more than 200 people were watching the eliminations on the webcast. That's a lot of people. Thanks to 1515 for organizing that, and I hope to watch the finals once you get those uploaded to TBA (assuming that they were archived).

NoahTheBoa

28-03-2010, 02:19

Let's just say that when 1138 won the Regional Chairman's last year, Nancy had to be pulled into the line by the students and mentors on the team. She doesn't like taking credit for doing something. At least she won't have to accept it next year...

Yeah, you pretty much hit the nail on the head. Nancy isn't one to seek the limelight and as a mentor she is always thinking of the kids first so she feels that the honors should go to them instead of to her. This attitude is the reason why we feel she deserved this award and why we've worked for 5 years to get her this award. We know that our team would not be where we are today without her. And even though we did not qualify for Atlanta this year I know that the team sees this season as a success.

DCA Fan

28-03-2010, 03:47

Yeah, you pretty much hit the nail on the head. Nancy isn't one to seek the limelight and as a mentor she is always thinking of the kids first so she feels that the honors should go to them instead of to her. This attitude is the reason why we feel she deserved this award and why we've worked for 5 years to get her this award. We know that our team would not be where we are today without her. And even though we did not qualify for Atlanta this year I know that the team sees this season as a success.
The thing is, Nancy deserves this award more than anyone I know (that hasn't already gotten it), and at some point, she was inevitably going to get it. Now we just need to convince her to take the recognition because really this is just formalizing the recognition that everyone up to Dean and Woodie already have given her for her work.

akeisic

28-03-2010, 13:33

The finals are the most exciting regional finals I've ever seen in my 11 years in first! I can't wait for the videos to surface. We knew it was going to be a battle when the first match resulted in a 12-12 tie! And then to take it to 3 games after that! We've managed to completely confuse thebluealliance.net; it isn't even capable of displaying a four match final nor is it displaying the correct winners! I don't think anyone expected the finals to be THAT close! Jim Beck and the regional committee must be ecstatic to have hosted such an exciting regional.

If you missed the finals, you missed 5 of 6 robots moving in every autonomous with all 10 back balls being advanced to the front. In one match I think 8 points were scored in autonomous alone - 4 for each alliance. 294 and 1717 scored from the far zone. 330 and 968 scored from the midfield and 980 scored from the front. The coordination between the teams was fantastic.

I give mad props to 330, 1717 and 1452 for winning the event as well as 1515 for Chairman's and Nancy for WFFA. I also thank 968 and 980 for joining our alliance and making such a great run to the finals. We were soooo close... I must say that I walked away with a smile on my face in being a part of something that exciting!

Note: As a coach on the field, I didn't notice the ~20 minute delay between matches 3 and 4 of the finals. I thought the our reset time was about the same as the other matches. Naturally though, my perspective is skewed because we were in a flurry of activity between every match. We did call a time out between two of the matches, but I don't know which two.

Jamie Kalb

28-03-2010, 13:44

The finals are the most exciting regional finals I've ever seen in my 11 years in first!

I agree hands down. One of the best regional finals I've ever seen! Those were some incredibly powerful alliances. I think we just got a glimpse of what elims at Atlanta will look like.

If you missed the finals, you missed 5 of 6 robots moving in every autonomous with all 10 back balls being advanced to the front. In one match I think 8 points were scored in autonomous alone - 4 for each alliance. 294 and 1717 scored from the far zone. 330 and 968 scored from the midfield and 980 scored from the front. The coordination between the teams was fantastic.

I saw Red score 5 and Blue 4 in autonomous in one match. That's out of a maximum of 6 possible for each. Fantastic work!

Note: As a coach on the field, I didn't notice the ~20 minute delay between matches 3 and 4 of the finals. I thought the our reset time was about the same as the other matches. Naturally though, my perspective is skewed because we were in a flurry of activity between every match. We did call a time out between two of the matches, but I don't know which two.

I was watching the webcast, and I definitely noticed the delay. I wanted to see more action! The matches were such nail-biters that I couldn't wait for the next ones.

Brad Voracek

28-03-2010, 15:42

Congrats 1515 on Chairman's award, it's been a long time coming for you guys, and congrats 1717, 330 and 1452 for winning the regional! I'm glad 1717 won, you guys have one of the best robots this year in my opinion, and as your only way to atlanta I'm glad it payed off.

West coast represent at Atlanta! =)

On another note: I hope to see 399's return to Los Angeles next year, in my short visit Friday many people came up to me and asked where we were, and it was sad to have to tell them we chose not to come this year. So to all those wondering, the bright purple and orange should be back next year, louder than ever ;) Sorry to those of you that missed us!

Peter Johnson

28-03-2010, 16:58

One thing I noticed after alliance selection was that both 330 and 294 (alliance captains) had won previous regionals and thus were playing for their other alliance members to go to Atlanta (notably their first picks, 1717 and 968 respectively). Playing to win a second regional is a good motivator, but playing to help other great teams to get in is even more of one!

1717 ended up double-qualified for Atlanta as they won EI, but of course they didn't know that during the finals! It's a pity that 968 didn't qualify; they had many issues during the first day of qualifications but really got it together from late Friday onward (I believe they were the 8th seed when picked by 294).

Eric24

28-03-2010, 17:07

I had an amazing time at this regional! Congrats to 1515 on the Chairman's award and 1717, 330, and 1452 for the regional win! 294, 968, and 980 also did an excellent job and made the final matches some of the best I've ever seen. I also had the great fortune to have a match with 1717 and 294 which was very exciting. Despite not qualifying for Atlanta this year, team 1138 had a great time and we're glad that Nancy was finally recognized for all her hard work. We couldn't do it without her!

ShaneP

28-03-2010, 17:51

Team 330 would like to thank everyone involved in making this regional what it is. It was a huge amount of fun and very competitive. Thanks to 1717 and 1452 for making excellent alliance partners. Strategizing with you was very enjoyable (really, Amir, I enjoyed it :-) ) It was intense competing against you, 294, 968, and 980 - those 4 final matches were brutal! Congrats to 1515 on winning the CA. Congrats too to 1717 on winning the EI award. Thanks again to everyone - we now look forward to the championships.

David Brinza

28-03-2010, 18:19

Congrats to 330, 1717 and 1452, you were most deserving winners of the event. Those finals matches were exciting beyond words. My wife and friends who were in the stands said the finals totally rocked the arena.

Team 980 thanks Teams 294 and 968 for inviting us to their alliance. Taking on an offensive role was a change for Team 980, but the strategy worked well.

Amir's dream to create the Engineering Academy at Dos Pueblos is becoming reality. Their program is just incredible, with awesome students who really standout in the program. I cannot imagine a more deserving Engineering Inspiration Award recipient than Team 1717.

Congrats also to 1515 for CA. They provided the webcast of the event, created MorTorq TV and have raised the visibility of FRC in SoCal in many ways.

WOW! The LA Regionals were just the best!

Smoores

28-03-2010, 23:56

Wow, I'm just in a daze after that competition. Why bother going to Atlanta, when you could go to L.A. I'm sure many of the robots there could have won regionals elsewhere (and many did). I am very honored to be apart of my team, that did so much with so little, for all four years of high school. Our robot was capable of doing everything exactly as we had hoped when we designed it way back in January. We have never ever had a robot do that. I hope that in the future, we can persuade the district to actually support us, and not hinder our efforts to meet. Maybe one day they could actually consider us a team at least. Unfortunately it is my last FIRST competition as a student, and I never got to see our team live up to its potential. I think the real goal of the team has been fulfilled though, with every High School senior going into an Engineering university. One is going into Biomedical engineering, another into electrical engineering, one into arcitectural engineering, and I'm headed into Aerospace engineering, where I will bring airplanes to the poor man. Thank You all for making this experience incredible, I hope college robotics is as difficult as this!

-
Smoores
(the big fat driver of 2272's robot)

dantheflipman

29-03-2010, 14:32

That competition was amazing. The final matches had some of the best autonomous performances I have ever seen. Although 1388 got knocked out in the semi's it was a great competition to end my career as a FIRST student. The little break-dancing competition i had with a kid from MorTorq on the floor was pretty fun as well :) Great job to all of the teams there, and I hope to see you next year as a 1st year mentor.

rsisk

29-03-2010, 16:58

The little break-dancing competition i had with a kid from MorTorq on the floor was pretty fun as well

Huh, you call that a little competition? Some of those moves were pretty awesome. Hopefully that is on video somewhere and someone can post a link.

dantheflipman

29-03-2010, 17:11

Huh, you call that a little competition? Some of those moves were pretty awesome. Hopefully that is on video somewhere and someone can post a link.

My team has it on video somewhere, I'll tell them to upload it. Apparently the kid from MorTorq is a 5 year break-dancer, whereas i'm a 10 year rouge gymnast, I can't actually dance, I can just flip like crazy :]

Here is one of my tricking teams videos on my youtube profile.

http://www.youtube.com/user/dantheflipman

Anyways, now we're definitely off topic, I'll post back here when i get that video up.

SamC

29-03-2010, 18:16

David Brinza

29-03-2010, 18:54

Also congratulations to Daryl Newhouse (head mentor of Team 597) for his Volunteer of the Year award! Working alongside of him on the planning committee as well as seeing how he works with his students he most definitely deserved that award!
The award presentation on Saturday was definitely a "feels so good" moment in the event.
Daryl really kept his composure, while others around him got a little misty-eyed.
Congrats, Daryl!

Joe Ross

30-03-2010, 09:52

My team has it on video somewhere, I'll tell them to upload it. Apparently the kid from MorTorq is a 5 year break-dancer, whereas i'm a 10 year rouge gymnast, I can't actually dance, I can just flip like crazy :]

Here you go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWl3UEtcTvw

lbridgwater

30-03-2010, 11:49

I took some gigapan pictures of the Los Angeles regional before the pits were opens, after the teams setup, and during the middle of the day when all the teams were present. Their links are below.

http://gigapan.org/gigapans/45756/
http://gigapan.org/gigapans/45767/
http://gigapan.org/gigapans/45769/
http://gigapan.org/gigapans/45764/

Rick Wagner

30-03-2010, 16:24

It was an awesome performance by the winning alliance led by 330, the Beach Bots. Thanks to 968 RAWC and 980 ThunderBots for getting us to the finals. I think it's the first time we have been allied with you in eliminations since I've been mentoring 294 (2003). We all had a great time at the LA Regional.

Andy S

31-03-2010, 00:17

Team 1717 had an amazing time at the Los Angeles Regional. We would like to thank team 330 and team 1452 for being alliance partners and winning an epic final.

We could not have asked for a tougher match up in the finals, meeting 294, 968, and 980. The finals went to 4 entertaining and exciting games. They were insanely close, and the 9 autonomous points in one match were fantastic.

I personally had a great time as 1717's co-driver and am glad to have the chance to experience Atlanta. I thought that every team in Los Angeles was so great to work with, and am constantly amazed by the "gracious professionalism" shown at a competitive sporting event.