2012 Washington DC Regional

[rabridges]

The final list is done for the Washington DC regional, the link is below if you have not view it yet.

http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/regional-events

Any preseason predictions?

[Grim Tuesday]

Team 639 is very happy to be attending DC for the first time ever! I heard a rumor that there is no dancing; is this true?

Based on my limited pre-scouting, 888 and 2377 look to be quite dangerous...

[Frenchie461]

This will also be 461's first DC regional. Good luck to you all, hope to see you in finals (assuming we make it that far :D )

[Alan Anderson]

The final list is done for the Washington DC regional, ...

I wouldn't consider it final just yet. It only shows 54 teams, and there were 63 registered last year. Many of the waitlisted teams will undoubtedly move to the official list over the next several weeks.

[SteveGPage]

Now that the Chesapeake Regional is finished, we are focusing our attention on returning to the DC Regional! We haven't been there since Lunacy, but are looking forward to being back! We are thrilled to see so many of our friends again, as well as meeting new ones! We will be bringing our mobile RAP team to assist anyone who needs help of any kind in the pits.

See you all in 18 days!

[Grim Tuesday]

1218 looks like the team to beat...I wonder how well they can do without 341?

[cougarobotics08]

Watch out for the Flying Cougar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjdu8bn1JIs&feature=player_embedded

[Lil' Lavery]

1218 looks like the team to beat...I wonder how well they can do without 341?

They'll do just fine without Daisy. There's a reason they were ranked #2 at both events and have a 21-3 record in qualification matches.

[Wetzel]

2914 learned a lot and fixed a lot at VCU and we are looking to make some noise at home in DC.

Wetzel

[JesseK]

1885 is taking the opportunity to make more progress on our software. We hope to have the more advanced stuff working by the end of Friday so we can become a scoring machine on Saturday.

[nahstobor]

Team 612 is looking forward to another great DC regional!

[Will Andrews]

1218 is excited to be making our first appearance in the DC Regional.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4PYIiezhnQ

[Grim Tuesday]

Getting pretty pumped for our first DC Regional!



Alright, I have a question:

Where is the screen oriented? At FLR, our vision system detected the projected screen as a rectangle, and screwed with our shooter. Is it to the side of the field? Or is it behind one of the alliance stations?

[Lil' Lavery]

Getting pretty pumped for our first DC Regional!



Alright, I have a question:

Where is the screen oriented? At FLR, our vision system detected the projected screen as a rectangle, and screwed with our shooter. Is it to the side of the field? Or is it behind one of the alliance stations?

The first two years of the event it was beside the field. Last year it moved to a different convention hall and was on one of the ends. I don't know the set up for this year.

[Alexa Stott]

The first two years of the event it was beside the field. Last year it moved to a different convention hall and was on one of the ends. I don't know the set up for this year.

I believe it will be behind the blue alliance station if I'm reading the layout/map correctly.

[EricLeifermann]

It will be behind one of the player stations, I tried to get the layout changed during our walk through of the venue with SRE, but the guy from SRE felt that the screen would be better behind a player station because then we could have stands on each side of the field.

I personally don't like having the screen behind one player station it creates an advantage for one alliance and it forces the crowd to turn their head away from the field, but the event will still be awesome no matter what.

[Grim Tuesday]

At FLR, because the screen was behind one of the stations, they brought out a large flat screen TV for the other alliance, and propped it up on the side. It wasn't perfect, but it did help. If there's still time to make such an accommodation, it might be a good idea.

[SteveGPage]

Thursday, March 29th - Team Showcase Schedule


1 PM - FRC Team 141 – Promotional Items (1 Hour)

1 PM - FRC Team 836 – AutoDesk Inventor (1 Hour)

2 PM – FRC Team 836 – growingSTEMS (2 Hours)

growingSTEMS is a 501(3)(c) non-profit organization, started by FRC Team 836, to promote STEM awareness in our area. We want to encourage teams to partner with us, and invite teams to become members of the growingSTEMS organization. During our growingSTEMS presentation, we will be discussing the STEM curriculum we have developed, our line of Children's books, and our new wii-bots (Elementary School Robotics Demostration Robots, using the Nintendo wii-board as the control system). Additional topics will include, Outreach, Using Arts for STEM, ESDP Program, and basic hints and tips regarding Chairman's submissions and presentations. For more info, see our website, www.growingSTEMS.org

[mehrkam]

Does anyone have the link for the web casting of this event?

See you there?

[Phyrxes]

http://robotics.arc.nasa.gov/events/2012_frcwebcasts.php#webcasts

[stundt1]

Good luck to all the teams representing the rochester area. And good luck to all of the teams in DC.

Last year we went to the DC regional and it was simply one of the best regional we have ever been to. So have fun everyone!!!

[Grim Tuesday]

Anyone know what the fault was that required a two match replays?

[Grim Tuesday]

639 had a great time at our first DC regional!

First off, a thanks to our two fantastic alliance partners, 888 and 346. When we were making selections, we took quite a few factors into consideration: Robot orientation, teleop scoring, and hybrid scoring. Every list we made, you guys came out on top. I have no idea how neither of you were already chosen. Honestly, I was expecting 888 to be chosen by the first seed, considering they had the second highest OPR, second only to 1218. I was ecstatic when we got the second robot on our list too! We had a list of 24 teams and only had to go two down. It's unfortunate that we couldn't pull off the triple on the field that we had practiced successfully three times :(. Also, we had one of if not the highest hybrid score at the event. Regardless, it was one of the best alliances, and I think we honestly could have won the event if we had gotten past the 620 alliance.

As such, I think that there are congratulations in order for the 620, 3123, and 1731 alliance. Our first semifinal was, with combined scores, the second highest scoring match at the event, only second to finals match 2. There was no funny business in our matchup at all. All of our alliance worked, as did yours. There were no uncalled for fouls. It was a win well deserved, and especially to 620, your creativity award was well judged. The combination of dumper/shooter was a really cool and creative mechanism that performed perfectly in eliminations.

Congratulations to the winning alliance, 2914, 467, and 357. To quote one of the members of my team, "467's robot is made of pure 3/16 aluminium sex". 357's Jester drive was also very very neat, I would love to learn more about it. It was great the entire regional, and the gameplay was great in elminations, once again, simply outplaying the opposing alliance.

Speaking of the opposing alliance, we wish 1218 the best of luck at the MAR district championships! We would love to see you guys again in St. Louis.

Finally, congratulations to 461, the RCA winners and 1885 the EI's! We hope to see both of you at the Championships in St. Louis! Every time I hear the judges read off the reasoning behind a Chairmans or EI team, and wonder why we didn't win it, I think to myself "Because these teams are just so $@#$@#$@#$@# awesome". And they are.

Also, a special shoutout to team 174, our friends from the fingerlakes that beat the first seed in the first semifinals match. Once again, fantastic play. There were no broken robots, and no funny business. (Though, in the second semifinals match, the luck you guys encountered was almost comically atrocious: First 174's shooter jammed, then 116 got stuck on the fender, then 1418 tipped over, leaving the entire alliance incapacitated.)

888 mentioned that they were interested in attending the Finger lakes Regional next year, and we would love to see them in attendance!


We do have a few criticisms of the event. I was trying to decide whether or not to post them, but I'll preface this with the fact that my goal is to be constructive rather than insulting:

Not having internet at the arena was a huge issue for our team, as our entire scouting system relies on internet access to get to our database. Tethering phones is not a good enough solution. I understand that it is a convention center, but at the Fingerlakes regional, the planning committee provides the teams with a temproray login to the RIT network. I feel like a similar thing could be planned for, with a team login to to the convention center net. In the future, we will be checking at regionals for those that have internet, and not attending those that don't.
On the same subject, the lack of power in the stands was an inconvenience, but definitely understandable, because there really was no way to provide power to them.
The refs missed or made the wrong call a more than a few times. There was an incident where, during a double balance, one of the robots fell off and was touching the barrier. Instead of counting the bots as none balanced, the team got 10 points for the one robot fully supported. We also noticed quite a few instances of robots possessing 4 balls that were not penalized. That said, the crew was great and overall did a fantastic job all weekend.


In the neutral category, does anyone know why there were three field faults called over the course of the event? They replayed two qualification matches and a semifinal, even though it seemed to me that all robots were functional in that semifinal. Also, we noticed 1218 intermittently losing connection during the last final match. I wonder why a fault wasn't called on that one when there was such a history of them being called before?

And a couple fantastic things that we loved about the planning of the event:

The pit layout was positively fantastic. Instead of simple rows of teams, the aisles made moving through the pits an absolute dream. This is even more essential at the 60+ team events like DC, and it was absolutely nailed.
The advent of that "teams inspected" projector was one of the best ideas I have ever seen. It's only only useful to see where your team is in the inspection process, but it was also incredibly useful for us to see that during our first match of the day on Friday, we were partnered with an uninspected robot, and though we tried to get them inspected as quickly as possible (They didn't have a set of red bumpers, so we taped some blue cloth red), we didn't make it in time. So we knew to tell them to send a player to the field, but not to interact with anything, and no DQ's were given.
All the teams in DC were great, and it was really fun to help and compete with you guys. In particular, we enjoyed helping 4067 with their rookie machine, they were really having some bum luck. Also, our pit kinda became a hotspot for other teams programmers, which was really fun, and made our programming team feel really good.


Onwards to St. Louis! We hope to see everyone who qualified in DC in a few weeks!

[Alexa Stott]

639 had a great time at our first DC regional!

*snip*

We do have a few criticisms of the event. I was trying to decide whether or not to post them, but I'll preface this with the fact that my goal is to be constructive rather than insulting:

Not having internet at the arena was a huge issue for our team, as our entire scouting system relies on internet access to get to our database. Tethering phones is not a good enough solution. I understand that it is a convention center, but at the Fingerlakes regional, the planning committee provides the teams with a temproray login to the RIT network. I feel like a similar thing could be planned for, with a team login to to the convention center net. In the future, we will be checking at regionals for those that have internet, and not attending those that don't.
On the same subject, the lack of power in the stands was an inconvenience, but definitely understandable, because there really was no way to provide power to them.
The refs missed or made the wrong call a more than a few times. There was an incident where, during a double balance, one of the robots fell off and was touching the barrier. Instead of counting the bots as none balanced, the team got 10 points for the one robot fully supported. We also noticed quite a few instances of robots possessing 4 balls that were not penalized. That said, the crew was great and overall did a fantastic job all weekend.


*snip*

In the neutral category, does anyone know why there were three field faults called over the course of the event? They replayed two qualification matches and a semifinal, even though it seemed to me that all robots were functional in that semifinal. Also, we noticed 1218 intermittently losing connection during the last final match. I wonder why a fault wasn't called on that one when there was such a history of them being called before?


Onwards to St. Louis! We hope to see everyone who qualified in DC in a few weeks!

RE: missing calls. I was volunteering at the event and noticed a few botched calls. As I was behind the player's station, I mostly noticed the ones happening back there. There were a few times when balls simply sat in the corral for 10-15 seconds and even a few instances of teams having more than one inbounder. I know it's hard for the refs to keep an eye on the stuff going on back there, but that was slightly concerning.

As for the field faults...a robot having intermittent connection with the field is not cause for replaying a match unless the issue is on the FMS side. The FTAs are the ones who handle this. I am guessing this is why those two qualification matches were replayed--robots had connectivity issues that were the FMS's fault and not theirs. In the semifinals, the match was restarted because the red alliance clogged up their goal and shots that would have gone in were bouncing out. This also happened at times in 2006 when the field would be unable to keep up with the shots pouring into the higher goal. This was not the fault of the teams involved as the field crew is responsible for clearing the nets should balls get caught. The inability to do this in a timely fashion caused the teams from losing out on points, again, by no error of their own.

[Duke461]

...and even a few instances of teams having more than one inbounder.

Could you please elaborate on the issue here?
-Duke

[nahstobor]

Team 612 would like to send out a special thank you to teams 1646 and 1747. Although our partnership in the playoffs was brief, it was still a lot of fun working with all of you. We gave the #1 seed everything we had, but that triple balance isn't easy :rolleyes: . Good luck to your teams in the future, and I hope our teams cross paths again.

[Tetraman]

174 had a wonderful time at DC. It was a great change of pace for us than always going to Buckeye or Boston and we again continued our best season in the 15 years we've existed. 8-1 in Qualification, and reaching the semifinals. The students of 174 have never been so excited on our list of successes.

We want to thank team 116 for choosing us. It was an incredible experience for us to be a part of your legendary team and we won't forget this alliance. And to 1418, you were a great partner as well, and we would love to work with you again if we ever meet once more. That Semifinal match we won was probably the best match played during the entire event. It's a shame we had so many bugs in the second matches - I'm sure we could have gone all the way.

(Though, in the second semifinals match, the luck you guys encountered was almost comically atrocious: First 174's shooter jammed, then 116 got stuck on the fender, then 1418 tipped over, leaving the entire alliance incapacitated.)

We call this "174 Luck". We also lost in the semifinals at FLR to the #1 seed as the #5 seed. It was supposed to happen. I'm sorry 116 and 1418, we sorta ruined the alliance from the get-go.

And I want to shoutout to you, 639. It was nice to see another FLR team around so we didn't feel like we were in completely strange territory. While I was watching the webcast, I was rooting for you guys to pull off that triple balance again. Can't wait to see you at FLR next year. (you know, we are only an hour and a half drive away - our teams should do something together sometime.)

Congrats to 461 on their well deserved Chairmans award. I remember seeing them at Buckeye back when I was a student and they were such an inspiring team. Good luck to you in the future!

We choose our second event on impulse, but DC was really good to us so I'm sure 174 will be back if not next year, soon. Thank you to all of the teams we played with and against for being inviting and all of 174 wishes you luck in your next events or next year!

174 ended their year 26-8-0, an absolute record year for us - even without a finals appearance, you can't imagine how much this trumps the three FLR wins in a row and the other victories we've had. I think it's time to convince the rest of the 174 mentors about IRI.

[Wetzel]

In regards to the internet, the cost from the venue is astronomical. If you connected to the buildings internet, you could see they wanted something like $17 an HOUR for internet access for one IP address. You can imagine what the cost would be to provide internet access for everyone over the course of the event.

In the two Friday replays, every robot on the field experienced around a 3-5 second lag and/or "stuttering" communications. There was a guess as to why, but only a guess was that the field might have run out of bandwidth due to all 6 teams using camera feeds with relatively low compression.

I did see some missed calls, but that happens all the time in all sports, even with professional referees. There were 5 referees, 6 robots, and 24 human participants in every match, you can't see everything all the time. I think they did a pretty good job over all. Full disclosure: the head ref is my brother.

2914 had an awesome time at the event, and is excited to keep playing and represent DC in St Louis!

Wetzel

[Ryan Dognaux]

This was my first time attending the Washington D.C. regional and I was very impressed by how smoothly the event ran. The venue had a ton of space and there were funnel cakes right on the other side of the pit curtain! It doesn't get better than that.

357's experience at this competition was fantastic. Everyone was welcoming and friendly. A big shout out to all of the Purdue FIRST teams - 461, 1646 & 1747. These teams cheered for us and we cheered for them. 1747 collaborated with us on scouting and provided data when we needed it, which helped us out immensely during the competition. Also congratulations to 461 for winning the Chairman's Award!

To 1218, 836 & 141 - our final matches were great. I knew that all things being even, these were going to be two very close, competitive matches. The 30 point autonomous routines you were putting up prior to our matches had me nervous. Good luck in any other events this season.

To 467 - your scouts had a great strategy in mind and correctly assessed that 2914 would be a great 3rd robot in our alliance. Your robot's 2 point shots were many times just what we needed to have an edge in our matches. Your ability to quickly balance on the ramp with 2914 were great as well. Thanks again!

To 2914 - our team began referring to your robot as 'bubble bot' - and wow were you guys good with that bridge manipulator. The few balls you passed to our end stopped our alliance from running dry towards the end of our matches. Give your drivers a huge compliment for their defensive abilities and for fixing your robot under pressure (can we get a picture of the bent drive axle?)

All in all, DC was a great experience and I hope that we'll be back next year.

[Koko Ed]

and there were funnel cakes right on the other side of the pit curtain!

Oh, that's what those things were. I thought they were the DC version of crepes.

[Akash Rastogi]

All of 3929 wants to give a huge shout out and congratulations to 357 for winning and 1218 for being finalists. Great work guys!

[Grim Tuesday]

Oh, one other thing: The speech by the Mayor of DC on Friday morning was totally inappropriate and somewhat offensive. You could tell that the astronaut was joking about "it being all about winning", but I'm not sure that this guy was.

It was cool to attend a regional with Dave Lavery; I got him to sign my shirt! :D I tried to get John Dudas to sign it too, but he disappeared before I could find him.

[RoboMom]

The advent of that "teams inspected" projector was one of the best ideas I have ever seen. It's only only useful to see where your team is in the inspection process, but it was also incredibly useful for us to see that during our first match of the day on Friday, we were partnered with an uninspected robot, and though we tried to get them inspected as quickly as possible

This "inspection tool" was developed by the Chesapeake head ref, Steve Shade, and LRI, Anne Shade, primarily to help the Chesapeake inspection team. There are a lot of codes for each team on that pit map, corresponding to different areas where the team has passed. I "managed" inspections at Chesapeake, and witnessed the side benefits, like you experienced, to have this posted for all to see.
I am hoping that more events inquire about using it.

[Koko Ed]

This "inspection tool" was developed by the Chesapeake head ref, Steve Shade, and LRI, Anne Shade, primarily to help the Chesapeake inspection team. There are a lot of codes for each team on that pit map, corresponding to different areas where the team has passed. I "managed" inspections at Chesapeake, and witnessed the side benefits, like you experienced, to have this posted for all to see.
I am hoping that more events inquire about using it.

It was very useful to us in team que.
I would wander back into the pits and check who was and who wasn't passed and relay it back to Jeffrey so we could keep an eye out for unispected teams. I put it right up there with FLR's Media buttons as things that should be adopted on a national scale.

[Ryan Dognaux]

Oh, that's what those things were. I thought they were the DC version of crepes.

They had those too! The food options at this event were pretty awesome. I don't mind paying the venue prices when there's some variety, and there were plenty of other options within a couple of blocks of walking. Good job planning committee!

All of 3929 wants to give a huge shout out and congratulations to 357 for winning and 1218 for being finalists. Great work guys!

Thanks! Congrats on your regional win as well. Quite the weekend for some Philly area teams.

[Koko Ed]

They had those too! The food options at this event were pretty awesome. I don't mind paying the venue prices when there's some variety, and there were plenty of other options within a couple of blocks of walking. Good job planning committee!

I haven't bought venue food since I became a volunteer. Si I never check what a venue has to offer.
The people who feed the volunteers do such an awesome job.

[tim-tim]

First off, I would like to congratulate FIRST Team 461 on earning the Chairman's Award.

Second, congratulations to FIRST Team 1885 on winning the Engineering Inspiration Award for the 3rd year in a row. We knew we would be up against some stiff competition. Well deserved!

Thanks to FIRST Teams 1218 and 141 for an amazing ride through the elimination rounds. It is too bad we all started to fall apart at the same time. Good Luck to you guys at the FiM and MAR Championships. You guys were awesome to work with!

Congratulations to FIRST Teams 467, 357, and 2914 on the Regional win. You guys played a great set of matches, which were very competitive. Can't wait to see you all in St. Louis!

[Alexa Stott]

Could you please elaborate on the issue here?
-Duke

Section 2.2.3 of the game manual:
The Players
Each FRC team may provide up to four Players for each Match: two Drivers, one Inbounder, and one Coach. The Drivers must be pre-college student team members and are responsible for operating and controlling the Robot. The Inbounders must be pre-college student team members and are responsible for entering Basketballs onto the Court. The Coach may be a student or adult team member. The Coach must wear the designated “Coach” pin or button during the Match.

And <G31>

Only Inbounders may contact Basketballs; each Inbounder may hold a maximum of two Basketballs. During Teleop, Inbounders must remove Basketballs from the Corral immediately upon arrival. All Basketballs in the Alliance Station must be held by Inbounders once removed from the Corral.
Violation: Foul

Edit: you guys had a pretty awesome inbounder, by the way (not to mention overall a great team and robot). I saw him hit quite a few shots throughout the event.

[Duke461]

Section 2.2.3 of the game manual:


And <G31>


Edit: you guys had a pretty awesome inbounder, by the way (not to mention overall a great team and robot). I saw him hit quite a few shots throughout the event.
I was the human player :D
I also had a lot of shots that just clanked off the front rim :rolleyes:

Oh, so you're saying multiple members of one team acted as Inbounders? At first i thought you meant you couldn't have the three human players inbounding basketballs. Interesting, i never noticed that, but i didn't get to watch a ton of matches.
-Duke

[Alexa Stott]

I was the human player :D
I also had a lot of shots that just clanked off the front rim :rolleyes:


Nice! I was working behind the red alliance player station. You were one of the better ones out there this weekend that I saw!

[Tsom467]

FIRST Team 467 would like to thank FIRST Team 357 and FIRST Team 2914 for joining our alliance and becoming the DC Regional Champions! Extra thanks to 357 for giving us some aluminum stock so we could repair our bridge dropping arm. Also want to give credit to the student on 2914 (sorry I never got your name!) who was able to, in 6 minutes, tear down one drive wheel and replace a bent axle - amazing job under those stressful conditions!

Our scouting meeting on Friday night discussed what would be a "perfect" team - and we ended up being just that - everyone did their job perfectly. As the drive team coach, I don't remember being on an alliance that worked as well together as we did.

We are also very happy to be able to give a DC area team their first Regional win! Congrats!

Congratulations to FIRST Teams 1218, 836, and 141. We watched you play through the qualifications and eliminations, and knew we had a hard fight ahead of us.

Congratulations also to FIRST Team 461 for winning Chairman's. And a HUGE thanks to them for the Festo pneumatic valve!

We'd love to see you at Nationals - we've got to do some serious fundraising, in a short time (not to mention build a crate! :D ).

Thanks again!

[Wetzel]

FIRST Team 467 would like to thank FIRST Team 357 and FIRST Team 2914 for joining our alliance and becoming the DC Regional Champions! Extra thanks to 357 for giving us some aluminum stock so we could repair our bridge dropping arm. Also want to give credit to the student on 2914 (sorry I never got your name!) who was able to, in 6 minutes, tear down one drive wheel and replace a bent axle - amazing job under those stressful conditions!

Our scouting meeting on Friday night discussed what would be a "perfect" team - and we ended up being just that - everyone did their job perfectly. As the drive team coach, I don't remember being on an alliance that worked as well together as we did.

We are also very happy to be able to give a DC area team their first Regional win! Congrats!

Congratulations to FIRST Teams 1218, 836, and 141. We watched you play through the qualifications and eliminations, and knew we had a hard fight ahead of us.

Congratulations also to FIRST Team 461 for winning Chairman's. And a HUGE thanks to them for the Festo pneumatic valve!

We'd love to see you at Nationals - we've got to do some serious fundraising, in a short time (not to mention build a crate! :D ).

Thanks again!

That student is Ari, a junior and second year member of the team, and our only student with previous FIRST experience. We hope to see you in St Louis, we are building our crate tomorrow!

Wetzel

[Tsom467]

Please give him a pat on the back from all of us! :D

[Koko Ed]

Oh, so you're saying multiple members of one team acted as Inbounders? At first i thought you meant you couldn't have the three human players inbounding basketballs. Interesting, i never noticed that, but i didn't get to watch a ton of matches.
-Duke

This actually is not surprising as I have seen many teams playing it fast and loose with rules at several events. I actually caught a guy with a media pass go right up to a drive team during a match and start barking orders to them. I told him to go back and sit down. Looking back I should have just taken the pass from him and had him removed from the field.
Most of the teams that do this are lower end teams who obviously do not bother to read the rules so do things like bring whole entourages to the field (one team at Montreal to combat my stopping them bringing too many people onto the field due to a lack of driver button gave four extra driver buttons from a previous regional to other member so they could bring eight people onto the field) to having the wrong buttons (or even outright losing them) to having too many people handling the balls.
All these antics due is cause more work for already stressed out volunteers and it's neither funny or endearing. It's just stupid and unnecessary.

[LinuxArchitect]

Continuing with a new tradition that we started this year at the Chesapeake regional, GreenSTEMs and ERHS Robotics Team 53 are sponsoring a most improved team award, based on the simple net change in team rankings from 2011 to 2012. (Check my math!)

Improving from 57th to 16th for a net of +41 is team 3123, the Wildcogs from Owen J. Roberts HS in Pottstown PA.

Improving from 43rd to 8th, for a net of +43 is team 2849, Ursa Major from Hammond HS in Columbia MD.

And winning this year's award for the most improved team at the DC regional, improving from 58th to 14th for a net of +44 is team 2900, the Mighty Penguins from School Without Walls HS in the District of Columbia. A pizza party and trophy are on their way!

Congratulations to everyone on a great event, keep up the good work, and we look forward to seeing you again next year!

George

[LinuxArchitect]

There was an incident where, during a double balance, one of the robots fell off and was touching the barrier. Instead of counting the bots as none balanced, the team got 10 points for the one robot fully supported.


That was our robot (team 53) that was touching the barrier. When the score went up, I knew it was wrong. But it is up to the students on the field (by rule, as I was told by an official) to know the rules and to point it out. As it didn't change the outcome, except for 2nd tie-breaker, I didn't try (from the top row of the stands) to get our kids to correct it; they were already on their way to the pits.

On a different issue, I was stunned by the ball hoarding that I saw on my end of the field. I saw the official at the closest side call a foul at the start of a match, but then never check again. Human players were holding two balls and had 5 or more on many occasions. And in this case, there is no way the students on the other alliance would have any idea to protest; they can't see what is going on. Ball starvation could have been the difference in several matches, though I didn't try to track it.

George

[Alexa Stott]

On a different issue, I was stunned by the ball hoarding that I saw on my end of the field. I saw the official at the closest side call a foul at the start of a match, but then never check again. Human players were holding two balls and had 5 or more on many occasions. And in this case, there is no way the students on the other alliance would have any idea to protest; they can't see what is going on. Ball starvation could have been the difference in several matches, though I didn't try to track it.

George

<G31>
Only Inbounders may contact Basketballs; each Inbounder may hold a maximum of two Basketballs. During Teleop, Inbounders must remove Basketballs from the Corral immediately upon arrival. All Basketballs in the Alliance Station must be held by Inbounders once removed from the Corral.
Violation: Foul

So long as the Inbounders were holding at most 2 balls each and left none in the corral, they were not in violation of the rules.

I did see a few instances where alliances let the balls sit in the corral for a while (as mentioned earlier) and should have been called for a foul. I only saw one Inbounder holding more than 2 balls on the red alliance and that was called. It was called a few times. I understand that it is difficult for the referees to actually see what was going on behind the player's station. There are only 4 refs (plus the head ref) so each one of them typically monitors their part of the field. I did see some of the refs running back to check if the Inbounders were complying with G31, but, yes, there were times when calls were not made.

As for being the difference in the match, teams were really only starving their own alliance of balls so they were just hurting themselves. I know many Inbounders would hold onto the balls until robots were out of the way so they could make it to the other side over the bump or they would hold onto them if it was getting close to the 30-second mark where they could start throwing them over the wall.

[SteveGPage]

I want to say a very big “Thank you!” to Denise Lewis, Judges, Referees, Pit Admin “Divas!” and all Event Volunteers for a wonderful event!

A very special “Thank you!” to the FTAs – especially to Jacob and all his assistance!

To Jeff and Justin – you make these events a lot of fun! To me, you are the “voice of FIRST!”

Congratulations to FIRST Team 461 on earning the Chairman’s Award! You are an inspiration and a wonderful model for all of us!

Congratulations to FIRST Team 1885 on the EI Award! I hope we can partner together to expand the role of STEM education in the Capitol area.

A special shout-out to FIRST Teams 116, 174, and 1418! The Semis were one of the best set of matches I’ve ever had the pleasure to be a part of! You were all very high on my scouting data, so I knew it was going to be a tough set of matches, but never as thrilling as it turned out to be! I hope that one day we get to be on the same side of the glass!

Thank you to FIRST Team 1218 and 141! You were great partners! It was a lot of fun to work with you all! We fell short this time, but I eagerly look forward to working with you all again in the future! I hope to see you all in St. Louis!

Congratulations to FIRST Teams 467, 357, and 2914 for the Regional Win! I am thrilled that a local DC team is now able to hang a DC Regional Winner blue banner! I look forward to seeing you all in St. Louis!

I hope to see you all again next year in DC!

[Tetraman]

A special shout-out to FIRST Teams 116, 174, and 1418! The Semis were one of the best set of matches I’ve ever had the pleasure to be a part of! You were all very high on my scouting data, so I knew it was going to be a tough set of matches, but never as thrilling as it turned out to be! I hope that one day we get to be on the same side of the glass!

Agreed. Your robot was quite a wonder, and even though we lost the second two, you can bet we all really tout that first match as the most epic battle ever played and are proud of giving your alliance a scare. ;) Good luck for the rest of your year, and we hope to play with you sometime.

[Grim Tuesday]

That was our robot (team 53) that was touching the barrier. When the score went up, I knew it was wrong. But it is up to the students on the field (by rule, as I was told by an official) to know the rules and to point it out. As it didn't change the outcome, except for 2nd tie-breaker, I didn't try (from the top row of the stands) to get our kids to correct it; they were already on their way to the pits.



That particular one wasn't too big of a deal, since it didn't change the outcome of anything. If it had been, I would have gone down to the field and asked the refs myself.

[bearbot]

After some discussion during the quaterfinal FIRSt team 2849 ursamajor broke down and we called a timeout to try and fix the issue but in the end its couldnt be fixed before the start of the match.So it was a handicapped match and our alliance was down to 2 versus 3 bots why wouldnt the let us bring in a backup bot.

[Wetzel]

After some discussion during the quaterfinal FIRSt team 2849 ursamajor broke down and we called a timeout to try and fix the issue but in the end its couldnt be fixed before the start of the match.So it was a handicapped match and our alliance was down to 2 versus 3 bots why wouldnt the let us bring in a backup bot.
You have two minutes from when the head ref signals the all clear at the end of a match to call your 6 minute time out or to call for the backup robot. You have four minutes from when you call your timeout (2 minutes left in the timeout) to call for the backup robot. If you wait until the end of the timeout, you are not allowed to call the backup robot into play until the following match.

T28 and T29 are the relevant rules.
[T28]

In the Elimination Matches, each Alliance will be allotted one Timeout of up to 6 minutes. If an Alliance wishes to call for a Timeout, they must submit their Timeout coupon to the Head Referee within two minutes of the Head Referee issuing the arena reset signal preceding their Match. When this occurs, the Time-out Clock will count down the six minutes starting with the expiration of the Arena reset period. Both Alliances will enjoy the complete 6-minute window. In the interest of tournament schedule, if an Alliance completes their repairs before the Time-out Clock expires, the Alliance Captain is encouraged to inform the Head Referee that they are ready to play and remit any time remaining in the Timeout. If Alliances are ready before the 6-minute window, the next Match will start. There are no cascading Timeouts. An Alliance may not offer their unused Timeout to their opponent.
[T29]

If during a Timeout an Alliance Captain determines that they need to call up a Backup Robot, they must submit their Backup Robot coupon to the Head Referee while there is still at least two minutes remaining on the Time-out Clock. After that point, they will not be allowed to utilize the Backup Robot. Alternatively, an Alliance Captain may choose to call up a Backup Robot without using their Timeout by informing the Head Referee directly within two minutes of the Head Referee issuing the Field Reset Signal preceding their Match.


http://frc-manual.usfirst.org/viewItem/58#5.5.6
Wetzel

[EricH]

After some discussion during the quaterfinal FIRSt team 2849 ursamajor broke down and we called a timeout to try and fix the issue but in the end its couldnt be fixed before the start of the match.So it was a handicapped match and our alliance was down to 2 versus 3 bots why wouldnt the let us bring in a backup bot.
Without any further information, I would guess that you waited too long.

[T29]
If during a Timeout an Alliance Captain determines that they need to call up a Backup Robot, they must submit their Backup Robot coupon to the Head Referee while there is still at least two minutes remaining on the Time-out Clock. After that point, they will not be allowed to utilize the Backup Robot. Alternatively, an Alliance Captain may choose to call up a Backup Robot without using their Timeout by informing the Head Referee directly within two minutes of the Head Referee issuing the Field Reset Signal preceding their Match. (emphasis mine)

This should have been covered in the Alliance Captain's meeting after selections, and it's been in the rules since Day 1. It's quite possible that someone forgot, though--competition stress tends to do that to you.

[bearbot]

Thanks for the clarification i will pass onto the team most of the team were new members and those who been on the team was busy trying to fix the issue