Re: 2012 North Carolina Regional
 

It was interesting to watch, but it almost cost them a birth in the finals. There was a question if this was a strategy or not. The refs conferred for nearly 10 minutes. If it had been deemed as such, they would have received a red card and disqualified their alliance. They were warned not to do that again for the rest of the tourney or they would have been disqualified.

Re: 2012 North Carolina Regional
 

The team social at NC wasn't much of a social, unfortunately. They also ran out of food that we PAID for ahead of schedule. 3196 and us had to load up somewhere and go eat; luckily the VA Regional secretary got a refund from the NC regional director for both teams.

The Dorton pit layout was solid in structure, but not numeration. When I saw 401's pit on Thursday I said "hey, we must be right near there." We were on the opposite side of the stadium. The numeration at VCU makes sense, but creating dead ends and narrow walkways doesn't. Maybe the regionals should trade notes on pit structure and numerations.

At NJ, they had it so the veteran teams sat on an "outer ring" while the rookies were nested in the "inner ring" closest to pit admin.

I liked NC's "loading bay" pit queuing, but entry to the pits was awful. Heaven forbid anyone that needed to be somewhere in the pits move at anything faster than a snails' pace. VCU queuing is nightmarish because it's so tight, but pit access isn't ridiculous. Once again, trade notes!

Re: 2012 North Carolina Regional
 

Going with the always welcomed double post, I was commenting on how I saw that during qualifiers. I also heard that there was almost a red card in the semis, but I was so exhausted after sleepless nights of chairman's award prep and scouting prep that I managed to pass out in the stands for some matches, including the last semifinal and the first final.

Re: 2012 North Carolina Regional
 

That is too bad. In previous years the social was held outside near the engineering buildings at NC State. Teams could either play/dance outside or go inside to learn more about projects done at NC State. I heard that the team social this year was also loud and crowded.

I believe the idea behind the layout at the NC regional is that there is a rookie team situated next to a veteran teams so to facilitate rookies and vetrans working together.

Re: 2012 North Carolina Regional
 

Interesting comment. I wonder if the refs knew this at the time of the Elims.

Re: 2012 North Carolina Regional
 

I wasn't particularly happy with that style of play, at all. Pushing people all over the field isn't really in the spirit of the game or in the spirit of competing against the challenge. I'm really surprised they didn't get red carded.

Just my 2 cents.

Congrats to the all the teams that attended the NC Regional and thanks to all the volunteers and organizers that help put together such a great event..

Re: 2012 North Carolina Regional
 

I wasn't watching what transpired on that end of the field, I was watching our team score on the other end, but afterwards I talked with our human player who was watching closely, and here is what he saw: (keep in mind that the GDC intentionally made it difficult to defend the bridge during balancing. They wanted to make it expensive to try and block the bridge)


Spork was blocking access to our bridge, so 4083 pushed them into the bridge causing a penalty. They then backed way off to allow Spork to leave the area. Spork instead positioned themselves in front of the bridge again. After a pause, 4083 again pushed them into the bridge causing a penalty, again they backed off and waited for them to vacate the are. Again, Spork positioned themselves in front of the bridge blocking access. 4083 pushed them into the bridge a third time, causing a penalty. I think Spork's alliance partners finally told them to get out of there and they moved. (the total number of may be off, I have not seen a video of he match, if someone has one, please post it for review).

I know that 1086 was upset, and yelled at our coach (who had no idea what he was being yelled at for) and they complained to the head ref. If what was described to me was accurate, there no way a red card should have been received for those actions.

All the controversy aside, if you subtract all the penalty points, our alliance still would have won the match.

Re: 2012 North Carolina Regional
 

As has been discussed to great length in the Queen City Regional thread, being pushed into the bridge should not be a penalty unless you also contact an opposing robot touching that bridge ([G44]). Were they called for that?

Re: 2012 North Carolina Regional
 

During the match they were but I spoke with the head ref afterwards and he said that it was a mistake and the penalty was taken off. It didn't affect the outcome of the match so it wasn't reported to everyone. The penalties that were called were for contacting an opposing robot in their lane and not for contacting the opposing alliance's bridge.

Re: 2012 North Carolina Regional
 

There is at least one video of that particular match up on youtube, though the focus isn't on that particular spot on the field.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-_jT...CYDiN9c-ENAnM=

Re: 2012 North Carolina Regional
 

Thanks so much for coming out on Wednesday night! We sure had a lot of fun! Also, Congrats on getting Chairman's!

The match where the blue alliance robot got stuck, red freed it, and then both balanced at the end was actually us. That was a great match -- lots of fun to watch. Here's a link to a vid by our team. At 2:27 you can see us free the blue robot. http://www.teampyrotech.org/2012/nor...egional-video/

Thanks to all the teams on a great NC regional -- Can't wait for next year!

Re: 2012 North Carolina Regional
 

I just posted the video I shot of the match.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MIU4...fdWPQ6RuO9g%3D

I was supporting our student pit leader, and was behind the glass, so the video is a bit obscured. But, even with the view partially blocked, I think the video shows a different version of events than told above.

What I see is Spork trying to shoot when they are pushed into the red lane by 4083. Spork tries to get out, but is pushed under the red bridge by 4083. At this point I panned to the basket, but when I returned, Spork is still trying to get out of the lane, and 4083 is pushing them into the red bridge. When Spork manages to get turned and out of the lane, 4083 pursues Spork, pushing them across the field. 4083 is clearly pursuing Spork, not attempting to gain access to the bridge. Spork is trying to score baskets, not attempting to block the bridge.

While I admire 4083 for pursuing a vigorous defense, and have heard good things about design features of their robot that allowed them to do so, a strategy of forcing other robots to commit penalties is not permitted [G45]. The judges elected not to issue a red card because they couldn't be certain the actions in this one match demonstrated an ongoing strategy. Rather, they removed the penalty points and warned 4083 against using these tactics in future matches. I'll certainly be reviewing other match videos to see if these tactics were used in prior matches.

It's tough to swallow a loss when you feel you have been the victims of tactics that are prohibited. That said, those are the breaks. 1771, 4083, and 2614 were a fantastic alliance and beat us fair and square in the next match. While they may have gotten a little carried away in this match, 4083 was a great defender, and effectively thwarted our scoring plans. Congratulations to their alliance for effectively executing their match strategy.

Re: 2012 North Carolina Regional
 

Indeed, it appears that once spork was in the lane, 4083 was trying to capitalize on the penalty points. Additionally, for spork, it appears as if they continued to attempt to collect balls while in the lane, although because of the camera turning away, it's hard to tell.

However, once the teams leave the lane, in my opinion, that was perfectly fine defense. A defensive robot has the right to pursue/target the other team.

- Sunny G.

Re: 2012 North Carolina Regional
 

I watched your video, and I agree that the the actions weren't as cut and dried as I was lead to believe. 4083 did put up a great defense. They pushed 1086 across the field (and across the key), but I think they were trying to keep them off our scorers who were gathering balls, not trying to cause them a penalty. You can't judge someone's intent by watching their actions.

As for the action in the lane, it does appear that they initially pushed Spork into the lane, perhaps while trying to turn them and mess up their aim, (that's why we only shot from the key) but then they backed off and waited. Not sure why Spork didn't immediately leave the lane, but every time 4083 hit Spork, they backed up and waited. Again it is impossible to detrmine intent by observing actions.

As has been said before, the penalties did not affect the outcome of the match.

I admired 3196, they had a great robot. They were on the winning alliance that beat us in match #48. Blue cheese was awesome as always, as was Triple Helix. We enjoyed competing with all the teams at the NC regional.

Re: 2012 North Carolina Regional
 

Thank you everyone for an incredible regional! Congratulations to the Winners 1519, 2642, 1311 and Finalist 1771, 4083, 2614. A double congratulations to 2614 for winning the chairman's award, you guys definitely deserve it. Also thank you to 1086 and 2363 for being awesome alliance partners and helping us get to our first semi-final.
Our team looks forward to seeing many of you in St. Louis!

Also regarding the lane penalty ordeal, I'm not exactly sure what our driver was thinking at the time but I do know that our robot has been struggling with turning and driving in general this year, we can't turn in place very well. Our driver might have been attempting to leave the lane but wasn't able to turn out of it quickly enough.
I think its a bit silly that so many foul points can be accumulated so quickly, but I guess that's just part of the game and honestly its our own fault for not building a robot with a better drive train. Also 2614 and 1771 had us easily outscored just with hybrid and teleop points so in the end it doesn't really matter.