2013 Minnesota North Star Regional
 

The Minnesota North Star Regional has reached initial capacity. The team list is below;

50 teams currently registered
171
2129
2143
2175
2177
2207
2220
2225
2239
2472
2491
2525
2531
2549
2606
2654
2667
2847
2883
2989
3023
3090
3130
3206
3261
3275
3290
3291
3298
3610
3633
3690
3691
3699
3747
3848
3883
3926
3928
4198
4225
4226
4239
4397
4607
4632
4648
4663
4665
4687

Teams in bold are rookies. There are 6 rookies currently registered for North Star.

2 teams from Wisconsin and 1 team from Iowa are also attending this event. We look forward to hosting them in Minnesota!

Re: 2013 Minnesota North Star Regional
 

Things are a little odd this year... Last year, we had no problem signing up for two regionals (first NS as our "home regional" to make sure we got in, then Lake Superior when second event opened). This year, it all looks questionable - North Star is full, 10,000 Lakes is full, Lake Superior is down to 5 open spots, and the brand new Northern Lights is down to 12. That's just astonishing!

Re: 2013 Minnesota North Star Regional
 

Looks like it's time for that 5th regional already.....

Both Duluth regionals opened at 40 teams. Depending on how many more rookies come out of the woodwork, there may be some waitlist spots that open up. Now I just need to make sure I'm not stuck in a meeting tomorrow morning :)

Re: 2013 Minnesota North Star Regional
 

You know Jeff, before we can let you open a regional in Rochester, you need to find an LRI replacement for yourself up north!

Re: 2013 Minnesota North Star Regional
 

The Minnesota regionals are filling up fast! Lake Superior is now down to 3 initial capacity spots and Northern Lights is still sitting at 12 initial capacity spots. I know tomorrow morning my mouse will be hovering over the register button for Northern Lights for team 3081.

It looks like 26(?) MN veteran teams have yet to register (taken from Mark's map) and we are currently sitting at 154 teams in Minnesota surpassing last year's 153 teams.

Re: 2013 Minnesota North Star Regional
 

There are still 29 openings at Wisconsin if you cant get into a Minnesota regional, although I have a feeling they will go quickly.

Re: 2013 Minnesota North Star Regional
 

Our former lead mentor, Mike Sundblad, moved and is now leading team 4665. I wish he was a bit faster so he could be team number 4633.

Can't wait, but if any organizers are reading this, only having one entrance into the pits/arena/practice field is a horrible mess. I recorded 11000 steps on my pedometer on the event's Friday.

Re: 2013 Minnesota North Star Regional
 

It is rough, but it's also pretty much the same everywhere else! At 10,000 Lakes you don't have all the stairs North Star does, but the pits are in a separate room, through a hallway split in half for robots/humans, with only one entrance. Lake Superior/Northern Lights is similar, with the pits and arena in different rooms, and a ton of stairs to get up to the stands.

With the need to safety glasses stands at the entrance to the pits, it makes it pretty tight to fit the teams in as is - we can't really leave any more room on the other side for a second entrance without interfering with the teams located on that side.

Think of it this way: All those steps makes up for all the sugary drinks and bad food every team scarfs down at events and the end of build season!

Re: 2013 Minnesota North Star Regional
 

We're coming up to join from Ames, hopefully we've got our stuff well enough together I can join you to help inspect.

Re: 2013 Minnesota North Star Regional
 

967 joined the wait list for this event. I was sad when the event filled up to initial capacity before registration for second events opened today.

Re: 2013 Minnesota North Star Regional
 

Last year 63 teams attended the event, so there is potential for 13 teams to be moved from the waitlist... Not saying that will happen, just reporting the facts of last year.

Re: 2013 Minnesota North Star Regional
 

Yep, that's the hope. Like a lot of other teams, we'll just figure out a plan B if this one doesn't pan out. Seems like a pretty crowded year for registration overall!

Re: 2013 Minnesota North Star Regional
 

Bumping this because it's two days away! If you have pictures, please post them.

3633 is going fullcourt.

Re: 2013 Minnesota North Star Regional
 

Hey yall! If you want to watch a live webcast, head over to fightingcalculators.org to keep up with all the action!

Re: 2013 Minnesota North Star Regional
 

First year in The Daredevils' history that we aren't competing at North Star. (or 10,000 before there was North Star) Feels quite odd not competing down there with all of the minnesota teams. Good luck to all teams competing in the cities this weekend.

Re: 2013 Minnesota North Star Regional
 

What an astounding final series of matches!

More notes and things i nthe morning, but shout out to 4665, Predators, the team we mentored, for winning Rookie Inspiration! These guys are going places.

In addition, we are very proud of our Industrial Design award win. Thank you to all the judges for giving this amazing award.

Re: 2013 Minnesota North Star Regional
 

The Fighting Calculators would like to thank 967 Iron Lions and 4607 Coalition of Independent students for helping us to our first regional victory in our 7 year history, we couldnt have done it without you guys. Also congrats to 2220 Blue twilight who brought home the chairman's award

Re: 2013 Minnesota North Star Regional
 

The regional was really made great by all the teams there. Everyone got where they needed to be on time (in fact, the field crew was struggling not to get too far ahead of schedule the entire weekend!), and you guys really gave us some exciting matches! I know I was on the edge of my seat through the entire finals... it seemed like every match was a nail-biter!

A big shout out to the teams that pulled together to help a struggling rookie team build a robot practically from scratch. Everyone loves to point out the GP when one team goes over to help another. I think it says a lot more when you get 3 veteran teams working side-by-side for 6+ hours in one pit to help a rookie team have a successful regional. I know they were extremely grateful for all the help they got, and they are definitely coming back next year! In fact, I heard them speculating about a water game earlier today...

And taking off my inspector hat for a moment and putting on my team mentor hat... I really can't believe our robot did end up a pike of twisted metal when it fell from the pyramid yesterday! It was what our team had dreaded the entire season, and when it happened I figured we were done for. A few quick repairs, and we got right back on that horse (err, pyramid...) 45 minutes later in the next match. The team is bummed that we won't be going to champs, but it was still a great weekend for us (just like Duluth was), and we can't wait to see everyone again at the MSHSL Championship in May!

Re: 2013 Minnesota North Star Regional
 

2175, do you have an archive of the webcast and/or the awards ceremony?

Re: 2013 Minnesota North Star Regional
 

yes, we do im not really involved with the webcast stuff but i would expect we will have videos up within the next few days hopefully

Re: 2013 Minnesota North Star Regional
 

Thanks to everybody involved in a really great FRC regional. This was our first time attending North Star, and we found it to be really well run and staffed by very organized and knowledgeable and friendly volunteers. I talked to people from a bunch of teams throughout the weekend, and I was privileged to constantly meet sharp people who really care about FIRST.

I am a little heartbroken on behalf of the finalist captains who came very close, our fellow Iowans from Team Neutrino (3928), who are a great bunch of truly nice people. They brought an amazing machine that seemed like the clear favorite at the event, and our team is inspired by your work. The combination of 3928 and the lightning fast scoring 2574 was pretty daunting, and adding even more autonomous scoring (and defense) from 4239 was even scarier. After watching the predictably large scores and the way team 4239 was playing defense in the first couple of rounds, I was thinking "this is gonna be tough if we make the finals..." We knew we'd need to catch a couple of breaks. I thought both sides played great. The finals matches were the most exciting ones I've seen.

Our alliance partners 2175 and 4607 were terrific. 2175 had to work through some issues and after playing well all weekend ended up peaking in the last match. Their robot can cycle back and forth to score really quickly, and we loved the way our strategies worked together nicely to allow a smooth traffic flow. I must say it was fun being allied with a team that cheers so loudly! Our scouts were pretty tickled to get 4607 in the second round after watching them compete, and our alliance definitely couldn't have done it without your tough defense and hanging points. Defense in this game is a tough job - you have to do it just right to significantly slow a good scorer without drawing fouls. This rookie team knows how to play smart and work as a team, and I see them taking it to a new level on the way to bright future.

Congrats to our partners and the other teams who won awards, especially 2220 (Chairman's Award) and 1816 (Engineering Inspiration).

Minnesota rocks! 180 teams divided by MN population = highest team density of any state. Seeing the level of excitement and support for FIRST Robotics in Minnesota is really satisfying and inspiring. Thanks to everyone involved!

Re: 2013 Minnesota North Star Regional
 

Nemo covered just about everything I can think of except for one small detail....

Nemo was named a Woodie Flowers Finalist at North Star.

Team 967 congratulates Nemo for being named a Woodie Flowers finalist!

Team Neutrino gets the shout out for attempting to help our alliance out by trying to use a timeout so team 2175 could fix a broken CRio in the semi's.

Hats off to the whole alliance of 3928, 2574, and 4239 for showing what gracious professinalism is all about.

Re: 2013 Minnesota North Star Regional
 

Read our updates from North Star on our blog. Also for those of you who would like more information about our award winning robot, you can visit our robot pages!

Thanks Nemo. We were so disappointed not to finish our season strong, but you guys had a fantastic defense. In fact, our robot suffered a major impact that we think was enough to move our 25 pound weight forward enough to injure our pneumatics and our auton controls, which ultimately did us in. The only regret we had was to not use a vice but instead a large

Congrats to you as well for being named the WFFA recipient. Nice to have 3 Iowan WFFA's at North Stars.