The 2011 Beantown Blitz- Presented by Team 125

[Brandon Holley]

Everyone's favorite time of the year is almost upon us! The 2011 Beantown Blitz is only a month and a half away!

When? June 4th, 2011
Where? Matthews Arena, Northeastern University, Boston MA

The Blitz is one of funnest and largest off-season events in the New England area! Last year we attracted 40 teams from around New England and the Mid-Atlantic states to Boston for a fun day of competition.

Spots are filling up fast at this year's Blitz and we encourage any team who's considering coming to get in touch with us as soon as possible!

Last year teams had the opportunity to participate in several practice matches, play 7 qualification matches each, participate in the mentor tournament and if chosen, to compete in the standard elimination tournament. A professional lighting and audio crew make the event regional-esque, and the massive arena we compete in allows you to drive into the arena and right up to your pit to drop off your robot! (we're not kidding, RIGHT up to your pit!)


Teams interested in learning more about the Blitz, do not hesitate to get in touch with us at beantownblitz @ gmail (dot) com! We're always looking for volunteers as well, so feel free to get in touch with us if you want to help out for the day.

The current list of teams is as follows:

125 NUTRONS
1058 PVC Pirates
88 TJ2
1071 Team Max
78 Air Strike
181 Birds of Prey
2648 Infinite Loop
1965 MJSA Eagles
176 Aces High
3126 FlashPoint
121 Rhode Warriors
175 Buzz
69 Hyper Robotics
246 OverClocked
348 Norwell Robotics
3273 Springfield High School of Science and Technology Cybercats
1100 The T-Hawks
2713 Iraiders
172 Northern Force
1511 Rolling Thunder
1991 The Dragons
3461 Simply Robotics
467 The Duct Tape Bandits
839 Rosie Robotics
2877 LigerBots
2593 Brobot
2423 Kqwarks
4648 (Team 2648's Twin Robot)
5125 (Pre-Rookie team using NUTRONs old robot)

Get your spot now, you do NOT want to miss this years BEANTOWN BLITZ!!

-Brando

[AmoryG]

The current list of teams is as follows:

125 NUTRONS
1058 PVC Pirates
88 TJ2
1071 Team Max
78 Air Strike
181 Birds of Prey
2648 Infinite Loop
1965 MJSA Eagles
176 Aces High
3126 FlashPoint
121 Rhode Warriors
175 Buzz
69 Hyper Robotics
246 OverClocked
348 Norwell Robotics
3273 Springfield High School of Science and Technology Cybercats
1100 The T-Hawks
2713 Iraiders
172 Northern Force
1511 Rolling Thunder
1991 The Dragons
3461 Simply Robotics
467 The Duct Tape Bandits
839 Rosie Robotics
2877 LigerBots
2593 Brobot
2423 Kqwarks
4648 (Team 2648's Twin Robot)
5125 (Pre-Rookie team using NUTRONs old robot)

Get your spot now, you do NOT want to miss this years BEANTOWN BLITZ!!

-Brando

Tis the KwarQs, not Kqwarks. :)

Oh, and remember the Q must be capitalized, that's very important. :P

[TPNigl]

If this were a regional on it's own it'd probably be one of the more intense ones xD

I can't wait!

[dag0620]

I know I'll be there, can't wait!

[jwfoss]

I don't believe the team will be able to make it this year, we have a busy offseason. I will most likely drive up to check it out, need a backup game announcer?

[racesick222]

It is unfortunate that the Tigertrons are hosting PARC the same day as the Beantown Blitz this year. Hope you guys have a great event.

[MikeE]

We're very much looking forward to a rematch of some of the more memorable moments of this year's Boston Regional :)

[Brandon Holley]

Here is an updated team list as of 4-26-11:

We are approaching our maximum capacity, but are still taking teams. If your team wants another shot at LogoMotion sign up at beantownblitz@gmail.com!

125 NUTRONS
1058 PVC Pirates
88 TJ2
1071 Team Max
78 Air Strike
181 Birds of Pry
2648 Infinite Loop
1965 MSJA Eagles
176 Aces High
3126 FlashPoint
121 Rhode Warriors
175 Buzz
69 Hyper Robotics
246 OverClocked
348 Norwell Robotics
3273 Springfield High School of Science and Technology Cybercats
1100 The T-Hawks
2713 Iraiders
172 Northern Force
1511 Rolling Thunder
1991 The Dragons
3461 Simply Robotics
467 The Duct Tape Bandits
839 Rosie Robotics
2877 LigerBots
2593 Brobot
2423 KwarQs
5125 Pre Rookie Using Team 125s Old Robot
4648 Infinite Loop 2nd Robot
1973 Burning Tigers
3555 Aluminati
1916 MP Robotics

Good luck in St. Louis to all teams competing!

-Brando

[Brandon Holley]

I don't believe the team will be able to make it this year, we have a busy offseason. I will most likely drive up to check it out, need a backup game announcer?

Justin- We'd love to have you as a volunteer. Send an email to the beantownblitz@gmail.com and we'll get you in a spot!

It is unfortunate that the Tigertrons are hosting PARC the same day as the Beantown Blitz this year. Hope you guys have a great event.

Yeah man it sucks. The off-season schedule gets more and more crammed each year and unfortunately with championships being pushed back a couple of weeks it shrinks the window for teams trying to get events in before summer. Have fun down there though, PARC is always a good time.

We're very much looking forward to a rematch of some of the more memorable moments of this year's Boston Regional :)

As are we Mike. Good luck in St. Louis. I hope Candy and Raven help you guys greatly! (Candy's the big one, Raven's the little one)

-Brando

[Waffles]

Cannot wait to attend this wonderful event! I had so much fun last year :) the pressure is off, and the fun is on! We've got a bigger crew coming this year too, I think.

Looking forward to seeing Infinite Loop & Duct Tape Bandits!!

[Andrew Bates]

Only 29 Days till the 2011 Beantown Blitz!

We are still looking for some volunteers to help out at the event. If you are interested please send an email to beantownblitz@gmail.com

Thanks for you help!

[Brandon Holley]

We are less than a month away from this year's Beantown Blitz!

Currently we are sitting at 38 teams and have VERY few spots remaining. If your team is interested in coming to the event, let us know as soon as possible! Even if you are not sure, it's better to let us know you are considering coming so we can try to accommodate as many teams as possible!

Current list of teams :

125 NUTRONS
1058 PVC Pirates
88 TJ2
1071 Team Max
78 Air Strike
181 Birds of Pry
2648 Infinite Loop
1965 MSJA Eagles
176 Aces High
3126 FlashPoint
121 Rhode Warriors
175 Buzz
69 Hyper Robotics
246 OverClocked
348 Norwell Robotics
3273 Springfield High School of Science and Technology Cybercats
1100 The T-Hawks
2713 Iraiders
172 Northern Force
1511 Rolling Thunder
1991 The Dragons
3451 Simply Robots
467 The Duct Tape Bandits
839 Rosie Robotics
2877 LigerBots
2593 Brobot
2423 KwarQs
5125 Pre-Rookie using 125s old robot
4648 Infinite Loop 2nd Robot
1973 Burning Tigers
3555 Aluminati
1916 MP Robotics
3236 Tri-Force
2079 Alarm
1027 Mechatronic Maniacs
529 Mansfield Hornets
2523 Labrats
1761 Lynn Tech Robotics


Get ready, the Blitz is coming!!

-Brando

[Brandon Holley]

The Blitz is AT CAPACITY!

We have filled all 40 of our spots, but are still accepting teams to be placed on the wait list. There's still a strong chance for a team on the waiting list to get into the event, so be sure to get your name in if your interested...beantownblitz@gmail.com

Here is the preliminary 40 teams for this years Blitz!

125 NUTRONS
1058 PVC Pirates
88 TJ2
1071 Team Max
78 Air Strike
181 Birds of Pry
2648 Infinite Loop
1965 MSJA Eagles
176 Aces High
3126 FlashPoint
121 Rhode Warriors
175 Buzz
69 Hyper Robotics
246 OverClocked
348 Norwell Robotics
3273 Springfield High School of Science and Technology Cybercats
1100 The T-Hawks
2713 Iraiders
172 Northern Force
1511 Rolling Thunder
1991 The Dragons
3451 Simply Robots
467 The Duct Tape Bandits
839 Rosie Robotics
2877 LigerBots
2593 Brobot
2423 KwarQs
5125 Pre Rookie using team 125s old robot
4648 Infinite Loop 2nd Robot
1973 Burning Tigers
3555 Aluminati
1916 MP Robotics
3236 Tri-Force
2079 Alarm
1027 Mechatronic Maniacs
529 Mansfield Hornets
2523 Labrats
1761 Lynn Tech Robotics
2871 John D. O'Bryant School of Mathematics and Science
177 Bobcat Robotics


3 weeks from this Saturday! Get ready for the BLITZ!

-Brando

[Derek012]

This years Beantown Blitz is is looking like it has a very good turn out looking forward to playing some matches with people from the Boston Regional and to see some friends along the way like Rolling Thunder and the Neutrons! :D

[Brandon Holley]

Hello Everyone!

The Beantown Blitz is merely 5 days away! Team 125 is thrilled to be hosting the event and we are quite busy tying up all the loose ends.

We've had a couple teams come and a couple teams go, but we're still near full capacity. If there are any teams who are looking to join the fun at the last minute we may be able to accommodate you, but we will need to know ASAP! Get in touch with us at beantownblitz@gmail.com.

Current Team List:

125 NUTRONS
1058 PVC Pirates
88 TJ2 (TJ Squared)
1071 Team Max
78 Air Strike
2648 Infinite Loop
1965 MSJA Eagles
176 Aces High
3126 FlashPoint
121 Rhode Warriors
175 Buzz Robotics
69 Hyper Robotics
246 OverClocked
348 Norwell Robotics
1100 The T-Hawks
2713 iRaiders
172 Northern Force
1511 Rolling Thunder
1991 The Dragons
3451 Simply Robots
839 Rosie Robotics
2877 LigerBots
2593 Brobot
2423 The KwarQs
4648 Infinite Loop 2nd Robot
3236 Tri-Force
2079 Alarm
1027 Mechatronic Maniacs
529 Mansfield Hornets
2523 Labrats
1761 Lynn Tech Robotics
2871 John D. O'Bryant School of Mathematics and Science
177 Bobcat Robotics
3585 Rogue Robots of 4-H
1973 Burning Tigers


Volunteers:

We're also always looking for volunteers, so if you feel like coming to Boston for the day to have some fun and help out, feel free to get in touch with us!


T-Shirt Sales:

The NUTRONs are trying something new this year at the Beantown Blitz regarding t-shirt sales. We have always received great compliments on our t-shirt designs for the Beantown Blitz each year. In an effort to get more and more of these shirts to the masses we’ve come up with a fun way to sell them this year that we are calling “The Amazing Minibot T-Shirt Race”.

We are going to start the day by selling t-shirts for $5 each. These are high quality t-shirts with a very nice Beantown Blitz 2011 design on them. Then for every 25 t-shirts we sell, we are going to increase the price of the t-shirts by $1. To those who are proactive and get their t-shirts early, they will be getting a deal! We will stop the process when we sell out of t-shirts. We have enough t-shirts on order to expect the price to get up to around $13 at its maximum. There will be a minibot pole at the t-shirt table with a minibot indicating the current price of t-shirts.

We think this is going to be a fun way to get as many t-shirts as possible out to the masses! Remember, the earlier you get your shirt, the cheaper it will be, so get them early!


Game Changes:

The NUTRONs and the planning committee at this year's Beantown Blitz thought long and hard about what game tweaks we could add to this years game. We've talked extensively with our referee crew as well to ensure changes that will be well accepted and enhance the game, not dramatically change it. It is our belief that Logomotion plays very well, and as such we didn't want to mess with a good thing. That said, there are a few minor tweaks we will be making:

Teams will find that our referee crew will be relaxing calls on such things as:
- lane violations
- crossing into the opponents scoring zone
- scoring ubertubes DIRECTLY after the end of autonomous (still do not count, just no penalty)
- touching opponents towers during the end game
- other minor infractions

Our referee crew is hoping to use judgement in deciding whether red cards are warranted, or if a split second of crossing over a lane divider is worth a penalty. We realize this will only work as well as the judgement of our referees, but we have full confidence in our referee crew. We hope all teams will find this general relaxing of rules to be refreshing in a game where minor penalties often determined outcomes of matches and competitions.

We also are excited to announce a minor addition to the game we hope teams will find fun. The Golden Wildcard Tube.

The rules for the Golden Wildcard Tube are simple:
-The alliance who scores more points in autonomous mode will have a Wildcard tube placed into their home scoring zone.
-The Wildcard tube can act as any logo piece depending on which leg it is placed. It is essentially a fill-in for whatever game piece is required to complete a logo for an alliance.
-In the event of a tie in autonomous mode- both alliances will receive a Wildcard tube (excluding 0-0 ties which will result in no Wildcard tubes being distributed)

We hope this will be a minor, yet fun tweak to the game that will be unique to this year's Beantown Blitz.




I hope everyone is ready, this year's Blitz is shaping up to the best one yet!

Also, don't forget to help pick the playlist!! Details in this thread: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=95273&highlight=blitz

For any questions feel free to PM me or email us at beantownblitz@gmail.com

-Brando

[Daniel Brim]

Hey everybody,

This is our design for the 2011 Blitz T-Shirt. Be sure to get yours early for the biggest discount!

Front:
http://www.nutrons.neu.edu/btb/eventInfo/ShirtFront.png

Back:
http://www.nutrons.neu.edu/btb/eventInfo/ShirtBack.png

[TPNigl]

Will there be an area for our receivers to be reconfigured to the field? Ours is still configured from the field back in CT.

[Brandon Holley]

Will there be an area for our receivers to be reconfigured to the field? Ours is still configured from the field back in CT.

I assume you are talking about the wireless bridges? Yes, all radios will be re-encrypted specifically for the Beantown Blitz.


Setup is officially underway, less than 24 hours until the Blitz is here!

-Brando

[TPNigl]

Yep, that's exactly what I mean. Thank you and can't wait!

[ProgramLuke]

Will there be a webcast?

[Akash Rastogi]

Will there be a webcast?

Same question and what time does the Blitz start matches?

[Brandon Holley]

Hey everyone!

Webcast is here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/beantown-blitz-2011

Expect matches around 8:45 or so, although practice matches are playing now!

Brando

[racesick222]

Is there a match schedule any where?

[sgreco]

I just wanted to send out a huge thanks to team 125 for putting on yet another top notch post-season competition. It was run very smoothly, and I think everyone had great time.

I want to congratulate the champions, 78, 177, and 1027. You guys were scoring like crazy in eliminations, and set a very high standard for the rest of teams to strive for during eliminations.

I also want to thank 88 and 2648 for picking my team, and carrying us all the way to a tight rubber match in the finals. 88 couldn't have been a bigger help to my team at BattleCry, and it was honor to get play with them in the elimination rounds at the Blitz. I also want to thank 2648 for giving us an opportunity to compete with them for the second straight post-season event. These guys are really awesome. 2648 is one of the best up-and-coming teams in FIRST. If you don't recognize their number yet on a nationally competitive scale, you will soon.

[Muffinz]

I would personally like to thank 177, 78, and 1027. those were some epic Finals matches. You guys were very good.

I would like to thank our awesome alliance partners even more.
2648, i can not say enough about your team, you guys have competed against us many times and it was very fit that we finally got a chance to alliance up together. you guys were a obvious choice to our scouters.

2079, i also can not say enough about you guys, you guys were a great pick. you guys played some awesome defense in all of our matches together.

i also feel it was fit that the first and second seeds fight it out in the finals

Thank you 125 for putting on such a fun event and you can be sure to see 88 there again next year

Congrats 177, 78, and 1027 on your win.

[TPNigl]

HYPER would like to thank 125 and 1991 for creating the great alliance known as NU-HYPER-Dragons, haha.

We were so thankful for the Dragons for picking us as the third member to such a great alliance. We usually end up using Beantown as a way to train our rookies who will be stepping up for the next season, so having drivers who had never drive before was quite the challenge. Thank you for letting our new drivers experience a little stress before the big time next year. It was a great event and we can't wait till next year!

Thank you again 125 for putting on such a great and professional event year after year!

[Brandon Holley]

Thank you again 125 for putting on such a great and professional event year after year!

Thanks to all the teams that attended.

We put a lot of hard work into the event to try and make it as fun and professional as possible. We hope all the teams had a tremendous time at this year's Blitz and are excited to come back for next year.


If anyone has any pictures from the event, please get in touch with us at beantownblitz@gmail.com as we'd love to include them in our archives.

Thanks again!

-Brando

[Derek012]

Good job to all the teams who have participated in the Blitz this year especially our much appreciated alliance members 2079 and team 88 you guy played really well! and congratulations to our opposing alliance for a good game in the finals we hope to get a good rematch in later competitions! :) we hope to see a lot of the teams next year and at Mainely Spirit!

[Tom Bottiglieri]

Northeastern put together a really cool promotional video showcasing some of the robots, students, and volunteers at the Beantown Blitz.

Check it out here! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSd-1rJEk7E