MAYHEM in Merrimack 2012
 

Re: MAYHEM in Merrimack 2012
 

I believe this is the second year you share the date with Beantown Blitz. Our team always went to both of these events for years. Now we have to pick one of them to go to. I know these events are not easy to plan but I just wish the dates were different. It would seem that you are pulling from the same robot pool?

Re: MAYHEM in Merrimack 2012
 

I know that this is an issue. Our mentors were discussing this and told me that, If we move it back a weekend we are too close to battlecry and the weekend after is graduation at our school. So we are kind of stuck at this date.

Re: MAYHEM in Merrimack 2012
 

It's a shame you're stuck on June 2nd.
We've also been trying to attend both events! Maybe next year.

Re: MAYHEM in Merrimack 2012
 

Registration is now open!
Register here: http://www.chopshop166.com/drupal/node/25

Looking forward to seeing you on June 2nd!

Re: MAYHEM in Merrimack 2012
 

13 Teams Registered so far-

95 Grasshoppers
131 C.A.H.O.S.
155 Techno-Nuts
166 Chop Shop
190 Gompei and the H.E.R.D.
213 Dirty Birds
811 Cardinals
885 The Green Team
1058 The PVC Pirates
1073 The Force Team
1922 OzRam
3323 Potential Energy
3930 SMART Robotics

11 Spots Left!

Re: MAYHEM in Merrimack 2012
 

15 Teams Registered so far-

95 Grasshoppers
131 C.A.H.O.S.
155 Techno-Nuts
166 Chop Shop
190 Gompei and the H.E.R.D.
213 Dirty Birds
811 Cardinals
885 The Green Team
1058 The PVC Pirates
1073 The Force Team
1922 OzRam
3323 Potential Energy
3467 Windham Windup
3930 SMART Robotics
4176 Iron Tigers

9 Spots Left!

Re: MAYHEM in Merrimack 2012
 

Very excited for this event!

Re: MAYHEM in Merrimack 2012
 

17 Teams Registered so far-

95 Grasshoppers
131 C.A.H.O.S.
155 Techno-Nuts
166 Chop Shop
190 Gompei and the H.E.R.D.
213 Dirty Birds
238 Cruisin Crusaders
811 Cardinals
885 The Green Team
1058 The PVC Pirates
1073 The Force Team
1721 Concord Robotics
1922 OzRam
3323 Potential Energy
3467 Windham Windup
3930 SMART Robotics
4176 Iron Tigers

7 Spots Left!

Re: MAYHEM in Merrimack 2012
 

Are there any game/rule changes planned for MAYHEM in Merrimack?

We are having a meeting to discuss that tonight, after the meeting I will post any rule changes here.

18 Teams Registered so far-

95 Grasshoppers
131 C.H.A.O.S.
155 Techno-Nuts
166 Chop Shop
178 2nd Law Enforcers
190 Gompei and the H.E.R.D.
213 Dirty Birds
238 Cruisin Crusaders
811 Cardinals
885 The Green Team
1058 The PVC Pirates
1073 The Force Team
1721 Concord Robotics
1922 OzRam
3323 Potential Energy
3467 Windham Windup
3930 SMART Robotics
4176 Iron Tigers

6 Spots Left!

Re: MAYHEM in Merrimack 2012
 

No rule changes have been decided on yet.

With our 19th registration today we have broken our all time registration record!!! This year will be the biggest MAYHEM IN MERRIMACK yet!!!
19 Teams Registered so far-

95 Grasshoppers
131 C.H.A.O.S.
155 Techno-Nuts
166 Chop Shop
178 2nd Law Enforcers
190 Gompei and the H.E.R.D.
213 Dirty Birds
238 Cruisin Crusaders
811 Cardinals
885 The Green Team
1058 The PVC Pirates
1073 The Force Team
1721 Concord Robotics
1922 OzRam
2648 Infinite Loop
3323 Potential Energy
3467 Windham Windup
3930 SMART Robotics
4176 Iron Tigers

5 Spots Left!

Re: MAYHEM in Merrimack 2012
 

I don't see the registration fee for MAYHEM in Merrimack in this thread, or on the registration site. Am I missing something?

Re: MAYHEM in Merrimack 2012
 

Nope, your not missing anything! :)
The fee to register is $175.

19 Teams Registered so far-

95 Grasshoppers
131 C.H.A.O.S.
155 Techno-Nuts
166 Chop Shop
178 2nd Law Enforcers
190 Gompei and the H.E.R.D.
213 Dirty Birds
238 Cruisin Crusaders
811 Cardinals
1058 The PVC Pirates
1073 The Force Team
1519 Mechanical Mayhem
1721 Concord Robotics
1922 OzRam
2648 Infinite Loop
3323 Potential Energy
3467 Windham Windup
3930 SMART Robotics
4176 Iron Tigers

5 Spots Left!

Re: MAYHEM in Merrimack 2012
 

I've personally always enjoyed the "2v2" format of MAYHEM in Merrimack. Hopefully that is a rule change that will be implemented again for this year -- running a 3v3 schedule with fewer than 24 teams would just be too frantic with out enough down time between matches.

With the "2v2" format, I'd suggest having each robot start with 3 balls at the beginning of the match, rather than 2, so as to keep the same total of 18 balls in play for the entire field. I'm not sure whether there should be just two inbounders per alliance (assuming 2v2) or if one of the teams should supply an extra human player so that there would be three inbounders per alliance... My initial reaction would be to just have two inbounders, which would help keep more balls in play, since each alliance would only be able to "hold" a total of four balls, rather than the current six.

Re: MAYHEM in Merrimack 2012
 

Three more teams registered today!
This brings the total to a record breaking 22 teams!

The current team list is...
95 Grasshoppers
131 C.H.A.O.S.
155 Techno-Nuts
166 Chop Shop
178 2nd Law Enforcers
190 Gompei and the H.E.R.D.
213 Dirty Birds
238 Cruisin Crusaders
811 Cardinals
1058 The PVC Pirates
1073 The Force Team
1289 Gearheadz
1519 Mechanical Mayhem
1721 Concord Robotics
1735 Green Reapers
1922 OzRam
2648 Infinite Loop
3323 Potential Energy
3467 Windham Windup
3930 SMART Robotics
4042 Spartan Eagles
4176 Iron Tigers

Only 2 spots left!!!!
Register soon!

We haven't made any rule changes yet, but we are still tossing a few ideas around. Once we make a decision it will be posted here. If you have any interesting ideas for a rule change, please post them here!

Re: MAYHEM in Merrimack 2012
 

23 teams registered so far-

95 Grasshoppers
131 C.H.A.O.S.
151 Tough Techs
155 Techno-Nuts
166 Chop Shop
178 2nd Law Enforcers
190 Gompei and the H.E.R.D.
213 Dirty Birds
238 Cruisin Crusaders
811 Cardinals
1058 The PVC Pirates
1073 The Force Team
1289 Gearheadz
1519 Mechanical Mayhem
1721 Concord Robotics
1735 Green Reapers
1922 OzRam
2648 Infinite Loop
3323 Potential Energy
3467 Windham Windup
3930 SMART Robotics
4042 Spartan Eagles
4176 Iron Tigers

Only 1 spot left!!!!
Register soon!
Any teams that register after the 24 team mark will be placed on a wait list.

Re: MAYHEM in Merrimack 2012
 

23 teams registered so far-

95 Grasshoppers
131 C.H.A.O.S.
151 Tough Techs
155 Techno-Nuts
166 Chop Shop
190 Gompei and the H.E.R.D.
213 Dirty Birds
238 Cruisin Crusaders
501 Power Knights
811 Cardinals
1058 The PVC Pirates
1073 The Force Team
1289 Gearheadz
1519 Mechanical Mayhem
1721 Concord Robotics
1735 Green Reapers
1922 OzRam
2648 Infinite Loop
3323 Potential Energy
3467 Windham Windup
3930 SMART Robotics
4042 Spartan Eagles
4176 Iron Tigers

Only 1 spot left!!!!
Register soon!
Any teams that register after the 24 team mark will be placed on a wait list.

Re: MAYHEM in Merrimack 2012
 

23 teams registered so far-

95 Grasshoppers
131 C.H.A.O.S.
151 Tough Techs
155 Techno-Nuts
166 Chop Shop
190 Gompei and the H.E.R.D.
213 Dirty Birds
238 Cruisin Crusaders
501 Power Knights
811 Cardinals
1058 The PVC Pirates
1073 The Force Team
1289 Gearheadz
1519 Mechanical Mayhem
1721 Concord Robotics
1735 Green Reapers
1922 OzRam
2648 Infinite Loop
3323 Potential Energy
3467 Windham Windup
3930 SMART Robotics
4041 Iron Tigers
4042 Spartan Eagles
4176 Iron Tigers

Only 1 spot left!!!!
Register soon!
Any teams that register after the 24 team mark will be placed on a wait list.

24 teams registered!!!

95 Grasshoppers
131 C.H.A.O.S.
151 Tough Techs
155 Techno-Nuts
166 Chop Shop
190 Gompei and the H.E.R.D.
213 Dirty Birds
238 Cruisin Crusaders
319 Big Bad Bob
501 Power Knights
811 Cardinals
1058 The PVC Pirates
1073 The Force Team
1289 Gearheadz
1519 Mechanical Mayhem
1721 Concord Robotics
1735 Green Reapers
1922 OzRam
2648 Infinite Loop
3323 Potential Energy
3467 Windham Windup
3930 SMART Robotics
4041 Iron Tigers
4042 Spartan Eagles
4176 Iron Tigers

Registration is full but we are taking reserves.

Re: MAYHEM in Merrimack 2012
 

With only 11 days to go have any rule changes been decided upon?

Re: MAYHEM in Merrimack 2012
 

Hey, PVC Pirates, do you have two robots? I just noticed you on the list here and on the Beantown Blitz list.

Re: MAYHEM in Merrimack 2012
 

Team 1058 will be at Mayhem in Merrimack, not at beantown blitz. We are very happy to be going to Mayhem in Merrimack, although Beantown would've been nice to go to as well. Unfortunately they were on the same say so we could only pick one.

Re: MAYHEM in Merrimack 2012
 

Very happy that you guys will be in Merrimack!

3467 is extremely excited for Mayhem in Merrimack after attending Battlecry this weekend and is equally excited to see many of our friends on the list and look forward to making new ones! :cool:

Re: MAYHEM in Merrimack 2012
 

Is there still room for volunteers? :]

Re: MAYHEM in Merrimack 2012
 

Our team has attended both Beantown Blitz and Merrimack in the past, so we made sure we were registered for both so that we could go to either one we decided to, and we picked Merrimack. See you all there, should be a great time!

Re: MAYHEM in Merrimack 2012
 

We have one rule change!

The bridge balance points will be:
10 for 1 bot
20 for 2 bots
30 for 3 bots on any bridge (as in 2 on alliance bridge and one on co-op bridge)
40 for 3 bots on their alliance bridge

7 Days until the MAYHEM begins, looking forward to seeing all of you there!

Re: MAYHEM in Merrimack 2012
 

Can either of those last two be done in qualifying?

Re: MAYHEM in Merrimack 2012
 

Yes, qualifications and eliminations.

Re: MAYHEM in Merrimack 2012
 

Very cool rule change! Another clarification, does this mean that if you have 1 robot on the co-op bridge it is a solid 10 points or do you have to have 2 on your alliance bridge?

Re: MAYHEM in Merrimack 2012
 

I feel like this will definitely impact qualification rounds, considering some teams may go for the extra 10 points instead of getting co-operitition, and this will probably lead to higher scores. I think it'll be interesting to see what alliances do during eliminations, by either attempting a triple balance or double balancing and trying to get an extra 10 points on the co-op bridge. Sounds like this will be a great event can't wait until Saturday!

Re: MAYHEM in Merrimack 2012
 

This should clear things up:

If all three robots of an alliance are balanced on a bridge, the alliance will receive 10 bonus points.
A true triple balance on the alliance bridge will give the alliance 20 bonus points, in both qualification and elimination rounds.
So to summarize:
1 robot on alliance bridge = 10 points
2 robots on alliance bridge = 20 points
3 robots, split between alliance & co-op bridge = 30 points
3 robots on alliance bridge = 40 points, in both qualification and elimination

Re: MAYHEM in Merrimack 2012
 

So if you have one robot balanced on the coopertition bridge but none on an alliance bridge you do not get 10 points?

Also, will there still be coopertition points?

Re: MAYHEM in Merrimack 2012
 

Yes.

and the coopertition points are not being changed.

Re: MAYHEM in Merrimack 2012
 

In past years at Mayhem in Merrimack with the 2v2 format when there have been only 16 teams in attendance, alliance selections have been done 1-8, with the top 8 teams excluded from making "in picks" of other teams seeded in the top 8. This has worked well for the 2v2 format with only 16 teams in attendance. However, in some cases, it has led to concerns of "sandbagging" (losing matches on purpose) by teams seeded in the middle of the pack which might find it highly preferable to be seeded 9th and below (and eligible for picking by a high seed), rather than be seeded 5th through 8th.

I'm curious how alliance selections will be done this year in a 3v3 tournament with only 24 teams in attendance. There are lots of options:
1 - Standard serpentine draft; 1-8, 8-1
2 - Standard serpentine draft, no in-picks; 1-8 (no in-picks), 8-1
3 - Old-style top-down draft; 1-8, 1-8
4 - Old-style top-down draft, no in-picks; 1-8 (no in-picks), 1-8
5 - BattleCry-style draft; 1-8, lottery for 2nd pick

When trying to consider how each of these would work out, I think that the standard serpentine draft is actually likely to work out the best at making fair, competitive alliances, while still giving top seeds an edge, which helps encourage all teams to play their best in every match.

What are some of the merits / drawbacks of each draft style?

1 - Standard serpentine draft; 1-8, 8-1: Rewards top seeds with 1st pick of all available teams. Discourages sandbagging. However, since 2nd pick is made in reverse order, lower alliance captains get to make an earlier 2nd pick, allowing them to avoid broken robots. Top seeds should have the firepower to compensate for a damaged or limited-capability robot being the 3rd alliance member.

2 - Standard serpentine draft, no in-picks; 1-8 (no in-picks), 8-1: Encourages sandbagging, but at least doesn't highly penalize the 5-8 positions, as these alliance captains get to make an earlier 2nd pick.

3 - Old-style top-down draft; 1-8, 1-8: Would lead to very strong #1 and #2 alliances. Highly favors the top seeds, but makes the elimination rounds very lop-sided. I think this style of draft only works well in very deep fields; in small tournaments the top seeds just have too much of an advantage. However, this style of draft definitely encourages all teams to play their best all the time -- sandbagging doesn't make sense with this draft style!

4 - Old-style top-down draft, no in-picks; 1-8 (no in-picks), 1-8: At first glance, the lack of in-picking would seem to make this arrangement less lopsided than the regular 1-8,1-8 draft, but in practice, it is even worse! Most of the better teams end up in the top 8, but inevitably one or two of the good teams ends up seeded in the middle of the pack. The #1 and #2 seeds get to pick these "diamonds in the rough" making their alliances significantly better than the rest of the elimination alliances which end up having only middle-of-the-pack robots (at best) on their alliance. The #7 and #8 seeds get stuck with their 2nd pick being the robots nobody else selected. Greatly rewards sandbagging.

5 - BattleCry-style draft; 1-8, lottery for 2nd pick: Still gives an advantage to the top seeds by allowing them to make a pick from any robot. Avoids the stigma of a team needing to be the very last pick (the robot that nobody wanted on their alliance) since the lottery puts the last 8 picks all at the same level. The lottery can be vitally important though in this year's game, where triple-balancing can be critical in elimination rounds -- with a lottery for the 2nd pick, can't really plan alliances for triple balancing. May actually make the lottery the most important part of the draft.

I think my preference would be for a standard serpentine-style draft, as it seems like the best balance of the alternatives. The BattleCry-style draft is a close second; avoiding the "last pick" problem is good so that no teams have to be embarrassed that they were last. (Although the serpentine draft avoids the stigma, too, as the last-picked team gets the reward of being on the #1 alliance!) The classic 1-8,1-8 draft just gives too much of an edge to the #1 and #2 seeds, leading to elimination matches that are steamroller events until the finals. I really don't like the "sandbagging" that comes from precluding in-picks, so I'm highly biased against those options.

Has a draft style been chosen yet by the Mayhem in Merrimack committee?

Re: MAYHEM in Merrimack 2012
 

WIWI has opted for the eliminations rounds to be a double elimination style. That is, two losses puts you out, but you don't play the same alliances against each other until one wins. In a small tournament, with a wide range of performance, this seems like a good choice. I guess we'll know by next Saturday afternoon if it works.

Re: MAYHEM in Merrimack 2012
 

This was a great event! A huge thanks to team 166 for doing a fantastic job with this competition! Congrats to teams 1519 and 1073 for winning and thanks to team 1922 for picking us to work with them in eliminations! I hope to come back in the future for another fantastic event!

Re: MAYHEM in Merrimack 2012
 

I really want to personally thank the Mayhem crew for making this a fun event. I achieved my dream of emceeing in heels, but even more important is I got to meet a lot of the future of FIRST and learn about what they think about the program...we're both learning at the same time. Thanks again!

Re: MAYHEM in Merrimack 2012
 

Jess thank you and Andy for emceeing this event it was such a treat to see/hear you two working together. Also, thanks for snapping a photo of doing our "thing" on the bridge! ;)

Another shout out to the emcee game which was a neat twist for an off-season event allowing students and some adults to try emceeing. Our team mascot tried it out and he had a blast! Thank you Jess and Andy!

This was actually my first Mayhem In Merrimack tournament and I was blown away by how smoothly and awesome the event was. No technical issues, a great game change, and a 2v2 game complimented teams using new drivers so it was easier for them to get a hang of the game with less traffic on the field. I am extremely excited for MIM12!!!!

Thank you to all the volunteers and team 166 for hosting such well run event!

A huge shout out to team 238 for joining our alliance! Your team was such a joy to work with and you had so many tricks up your sleeves every match! We couldn't have made it all the way to the finals without you guys and we look forward to working with you in the future!

Congratulations to 1519 & 1073 you guys fought hard throughout the finals! It was a shame we had to meet 1519 again but our team holds you with such high respect we have been honored to play with and against you over the past two seasons! What is ironic is that 1519 came to our shop a few days before the event to practice balancing and the finals ended with a close battle for the coop bridge between our two teams! :yikes:

I hope everyone enjoys their summer and hope to see everyone at River Rage!

Re: MAYHEM in Merrimack 2012
 

For someone who sports safety glasses so stylishly, we are not surprised to find you in closed-toe shoes, high-heels notwithstanding. I hope you didn't have metal cleats on them. You know the rule about metal contact with the field carpet. :D