MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

Copy and Pate from Email Blast #1

Hi Teams,

Another year for our annual offseason hosted by Team 1323 and hopefully 1671!

The event will be held on November 8-10. This year we are giving teams the option of going either Friday - Saturday or Friday - Sunday. Friday is still not mandatory, we highly encourage it as teams can get up to 10-20 practice matches in for new and existing drivers. We will have the competition field open around 3 till about 7 pm.

We are looking at doing either:

Saturday - Half day qualifications with half day eliminations OR

Saturday - Start around 9 or 10 and go full day qualifications till 6-8 pm (TBD). Sunday - Half day quals and then elims starting at 1 pm. You must show up both days with this option.

A few teams have shared with us that they would like the extra matches. Regardless of choice, pricing for registration will be the same. This year's registration fee is $200 for one robot and $250 for 2 or more robots. We do reserve the right to remove practice bots if there are teams on the waiting list.

Robot Weight Limit: 130 lbs
Maximum Slots: 32

Event Location: Madera High School North Campus on 200 South "L" Street - Madera, CA
Date: November 8th - 10th.
Payment is Due by: October 25th
Please mail to:

Attention: Alan Hollman - ET School of Engineering and Technology
200 South "L" Street
Madera, CA 93637

A paypal option is available as well, please email for more info.
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Rule Changes:

We are not looking at any rule changes. The only thing we will most likely do is add in "Pink" or "Yellow" Frisbee to support cancer. We can't thank you guys enough. Last year we raised $2-3,000 dollars and supported a young child with brain cancer. We appreciate the generous support from the FRC community. The painted/decorated Frisbee will be worth an extra few points in the game.

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Volunteers:

We would like to thank Austin Schuh and Team 971 for helping us run the WPA booth last year and helping us unload the field. We extremely appreciate the help. Along with Andrew Nabors and Team 1671 for FTA'n the event and providing an enormous amount of volunteers not only for the ThrowDown but for the CVR Regional as well!

We would appreciate any volunteers for this event!
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Live Scoring:

I hope teams enjoyed the live scoring last year. We'll be doing an online rankings page that refreshes after every match along with Live scoring. I know teams had an issues being able to see the projector/live scores at times. We are looking into putting some form of a tablet at each driver station that has live time + scores (Looking at your Andrew!). Each Driver station alliance wall will have a power strip so your more than welcome to plug your PC there to charge during the match.

Please feel free to email me suggestions/concerns about the live scoring.
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To Register - Must fill out form to be able to compete:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1llb...XKUrA/viewform

Please share this email with any team you think that would be interested. Spots are first come, first serve. So far we have registered 15/32 robots (Team (# of Robots)):

1323(2)
973(3)
295(1)
2135(1)
3859(2)
3482(1)
256(1)
3309(1)
2073(1)
4543(1)


and one pre rookie! Registration just opened yesterday but it will fill up quickly.

Thanks!

-R.C.

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

Can't wait for our first Throwdown. This is gonna be an awesome event.

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

This will be awesome if it's a friday load in, then saturday and sunday event.

Allows teams a crazy value in terms of matches per dollar, and also allows teams to get more valuable scouting experience (with a nighttime scouting meeting!) than a single day event.

RC, that list of teams adds to 12 ;)

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

Adam, what's this 3rd bot 973 will bring? Is it a rebuild for rookie students?

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

The 2nd and 3rd bot are both new. One has a butterfly drive, the other is a really, really, really simple to manufacture 6wd based off of vexpro's product line. Both have the same frame dimensions and perimeter so they will share common superstructures. I assisted with the design of the drives, but after that it's on them so it's up to the students if they want to post details.

Aside from comparing the two drive options, it's more a lesson in process management to the students than anything else.

I've provided design review, but fundraising, scheduling shop, managing fab, managing workflow, assembly, etc... has been on the kids. They've been doing a solid job so far.

They're competing sep 14 in sacramento, oct 12 in san diego, and at this event.

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

He may be counting the pre-rookie in his total. Not sure if the pre-rookie is registered under one of the duplicates from 973, 1323 etc. though.

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

You're likely correct. Thank you.

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

I'll be there, looking forward to attending my first West Coast event.

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

RC, post a tentative team list in here?

It's the best offseason on the west coast! Good choice.

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

Awesome! Hella Stoked!

Currently at 36 Robots!

1. 100
2. 254
3. 256
4. 295
5. 604
6. 846
7. 852 - 2 Robots
8. 971 - 3 Robots
9. 973 - 2 Robots
10. 1323 - 2 Robots
11. 1671
12. 1678
13. 1868
14. 2073
15. 2135
16. 2473 - 2 Robots
17. 2813
18. 3022
19. 3303 - 2 Robots
20. 3309
21. 3482
22. 3495
23. 3859 - 2 Robots
24. 3970
25. 4498
26. 4543 - 2 Robots
27. 4973

-RC

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

Can you Post official numbering for 2nd bots? I assume it would be;

9852 (852)
8971 (971)
8973 (973)
9303 (3303)
9473 (2473)
9543 (4543)
9859 (3859)
9971 (971)
9973 (973)

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

Those are correct, will email those pbot team numbers out this week. Thanks Adam!

-RC

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

100's super stoked to be going! I'm glad we've signed up for the first time in the team's history, it looks like there's a great crew of teams going (plus Aren Hill!). Maybe we can just start calling it NorCal Champs...

RC, wouldn't 973 be 3 bots, 1 comp and 2 offseason?

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

Haha, we are very very fortunate we get amazing/top notch teams to come out to our event!

973 is just two offseason robots, no comp bot for this event.

-RC

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

We decided not to compete with 973 so that we can field an entire scouting team.

Although, he might make an appearance to replay the disputed powerhouse pwnage finals.

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

Disputed?

It's too bad that we won't see much of Hurricane, it was really the gold standard for linear fed shooters. Of course, those two tiny offseason bots were on fire for PP, so I'm excited to see them play (and maybe play with them) again.

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

If you rewatch final match 2 and count all the points scored, it seems pretty likely that blue actually won it.

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

There were a lot of "rejected" disks on the Blue goal during that match. That might have made it confusing for the scorers to keep track.
Watching the video closely reveals....... you may have a point there.

This is where having the full blow field scoring system, with all it's idiosyncrasies, may have actually helped prevent this "dispute".

Ah hindsight! I guess it's a good thing instant replay shouldn't be used. We would have field reset times in the 10's of minutes every time someone disagreed with the outcome of a match.

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

I don't think anybody is really upset about it, it'd just be fun to replay at Madtown as all 6 teams will be there.

Can we make it happen RC? Last match of the day Saturday?

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

I'm down, as long as Brian is still driving 9973 :)

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

We def aren't upset, but like Adam, it would be fun to replay it!

Let's make it happen.

We'll schedule it to be the last match of Saturday, at worst it'll be a 2v2.

-RC

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

Why 2v2? Looks like all 6 teams are registered.

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

At worst it'll be a 2v2 if the other teams can't/don't wanna play. Otherwise it'll be a 3v3.

What I meant was either way we'll play the match, sorry for the confusion.

-RC

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

Can you post the correct list on your website. I think it has the 2012 list when I last checked.

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

Is there a tentative schedule for all 3 days posted somewhere?

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

Sent out in Email Blast #2. Will be sending out an email blast #3 by the end of this week:

Friday: Setup - No matches, might have practice. Teams can load in any time after 3 (Due to school being in session). Arena Open till 8/9 pm. (Updated)

Saturday:
-8 am: Arena Opens and Practice Match start (updated)
-1 pm: Qualification matches start
-6/7 pm: Qualification matches end

Sunday:
-8 am: Qualification matches start
-11 am: Matches End
-11.30 am: Alliance Selections
-12.45 pm: Eliminations start
-3 pm: Elims End and Awards

-RC

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

Fixed :)

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

Ooh, sweet! Will there be any pre-match betting?

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

Madtown Throwdown is almost upon us, and with all the awesome teams going, I thought it might be in order to do some LF style predictions.

While the whole event is very stacked (and multiple excellent robots won't even make finals), the clear favorite to bring home the blue banner is 254. 7 disc auto, 30 point climb, powerful shooter and premier strategy, this team checks all the boxes. However, look for them to have a potentially slow start as their drivers get back in the groove after a summer off. Of course, even if they aren't the quickest off the blocks, they're sure to be on fire by finals.

A lot of teams at MTTD are in the predicament of being much better than defensive bots points-wise, but not quite having the firepower to go frisbee to frisbee with the greats. With strong CalGames performances, 604 and 846 both fit in this category. While it's unlikely that either will captain one of the first alliances, they will be important forces in eliminations, thanks to their years of experience in eliminations play. Especially if they manage to sneak onto one of the first alliances in the (non-serpentine) third pick, they could make the difference between a alliance being semi-finalists or taking home the gold.

971 clearly has the best floor pickup of the event, and possibly in the world. With a 7 disc auto, great drivers, and a solid shooter, they are clear favorites to both seed high and play extremely well in eliminations. Barring any of the technical problems that have held them back in previous competitions, they should be in the finals in this extremely competitive event.

1678 is another very clear favorite for this event. While they lack the 30 point climbing that makes 254 stand out (or even a consistent 7 disc auto), they play just as good a teleop game as any team in California. Of course, it's pure consistency that makes this team so great. They may have a lower ceiling than some other robots, but they manage to put up huge points virtually every match. It's no accident they made it to Einstein this year, and have only lost one match in offseason play. It's clear that if paired with 971, 973, 254 or 1323, they have the technical and strategic acumen to win the event.

Of course, there will be a few surprises at the event. 1671 could surpass their lackluster performance in season and at Powerhouse. Thanks to a little help with from 1323, they could have finally put their shooting consistency issues behind them. Look for this team to captain a lower alliance or be chosen first by one of the lower teams. 2073 has clearly had difficulties getting their FCS to work, but a few very solid matches at CalGames hint at their true potential. If they get their FCS working, they could be a huge force to be reckoned with, especially if they sneak onto a high alliance through the third time around this event's non-serpentine draft.

Both 973 and 1323 will be fielding very strong robots which could both become alliance captains and even event winners. Depending on how the gods of match scheduling come into play, one of these robots could very well seed first, pick well, and take home the blue banner. 9973 was particularly deadly at Powerhouse, so look for them to make a very strong showing at this event.

As LF always says, if you don't like the predictions, prove them wrong. Good luck teams!

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

I think that after a strong performance at Calgames, Team 100 deserves a mention. :)

Madtown will certainly be exciting this year.

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

R.C., any chance you can post a match schedule? I'm pumped about getting the pre-scout going!

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

Will there be a webcast?

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

Yes sir, link will be here and on TBA.

-RC

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

The webcast will be hosted on http://www.twitch.tv/frc1678, courtesy of 1678 Citrus Circuits and 1671 Buchanan Bird Brains.

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

After a very confusing alliance selection, here are the results:

http://i.imgur.com/yHW8PWL.jpg

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

What was confusing?

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

There were mix ups between 9970 and 3970. We picked 9970 but they put 3970 on the list instead, so another team tried to pick them.

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

Just tuned into the stream for elims. Anyone know what that thing on top of 1868's bot is? some kind of colored disc dumper?

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

It's a colored disk dumper for their 20 point climb.

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

Not to mention the new MC didn't know he had to wait for a team to accept or decline an invite. :P Luckily the MC from CalGames was there to make sure everything went on par.

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

What were all the results?

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

You can find results at throwdown.team1671.com

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

Thanks to everyone for an amazing event! Will there be match video posted soon?

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

Who designed the scoring overlay from the webcast and how was it implemented? I wish FIRST would evolve beyond the garish giant white and blue bar that looked dated in 2008.

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

Team 1678 the Citrus Circuits did the webcast, and the scoring overlay.

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

1671 worked with 1678 to integrate their live scoring app with the video overlay. As we switched between matches, pre-started, and finalized matches it triggered different events in their system to display/hide the different features. 1678 did a great job with it.

For those of you that used the http://throwdown.team1671.com app during the event - please feel free to PM me with any feedback of things you would have liked to see improved or different as well as things that you really liked any wouldn't want to change or go away.

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

I really, really liked this system. As a coach, it was amazing to have time and real time score in the palm of my hand, all in a clean and modern interface.

Is there any way that this can become the official scoring system? Even unofficially, it would be amazing to have at in season FRC events. If nothing else, the "time till next match" page would likely improve queuing a ton.

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

The only feature I would have liked it to have would be a searchable individual team match schedule. Something like what is available in FRC Spyder.
Other than that, it was absolutely fantastic!

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

Thanks for the feedback! We would like to work on the formatting to support more mobile devices better. All we really had to test with the time we had was iPads and therefore focused on the larger screen size.

Regarding official use, I don't really have much say in anything like that but maybe it's something we can get FIRST to look at and consider or at least something similar. Like you said, the "time til next match" would be a nice feature to have. We would like to develop more of a team dashboard page to give full specs on the next match including alliances and their current rankings, what position you are (red1, blue 2, etc)

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

You are/were able to click on specific teams while viewing the ranking and match schedule, did you not discover this feature or would like to straight up search instead of having to find the number to click it?

Thanks for the feedback!

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

I find this to be an absolutely fascinating service but I know nothing about it (not being at MTTD because of the whole transcontinental distance thing). I have a few questions since I looked all over 1671's website and didn't find any other information

-Since the features are offline now, how exactly did live scoring (audience view) and the "drivers station" work? This looks like something that would be a killer resource for scouts and coaches at the event, but it would probably be accessed over the mobile data network. Since you FTA'd the event, did you just connect this into the FMS there or do something else?

I really wish there would be official updates to the official, in-season FMS beyond what has been nearly identical since 2009 and similar since 2007 on the front end (obviously controls and vital communications have improved, I'm talking about data drive teams and scouts can use). The fact that I have to peek around for a projector screen or TV to decipher a live score and time left on a match, in 2013, is barbaric.

In a dream world FIRST would open up the system so teams can take advantage of live scoring and time on the front end so they can develop apps like this all the way up to a HUD on Google glass.

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

As a Glass Explorer...you've read my mind. How amazing would it be for drivers and/or coaches to have this info. We've thought about a few potential applications for Glass as an HUD on the field, and this is one of them. However, there are a lot of barriers in place to making this happen at an official event.

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

Sorry to say, I didn't discover the feature because I didn't play with it much. I'm glad to hear it was there!

Adding a selection to the first screen to allow "Schedule by Team" might be a good extra feature for future versions.

By all means, please pursue having FIRST look at this application as an option for a possible "Official" version. It is a tremendous tool for all teams to have!

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

Is there a recording of the live stream broadcast? Or the matches anywhere?

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

Our media team archived all the footage from MadTown ThrowDown, we just have to get the feed split up into each match and uploaded. We will be using this as a teaching opportunity for some new media team members, so it may be a little while before the match videos get posted. Expect the match video to look similar to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnBdUJEhOro Edit: Apparently, the team numbers displayed in this video are incorrect. Whoops!

Also, huge thanks to 1323 and 1671 for hosting this event. Special thanks to 1671 for the live score and driver station timer, as well as working closely with my students to integrate the live scoring with the webcast. Ultimately, I think it was a huge success, and I'm excited for continued collaboration at future events.

Everyone I talk to agrees that MTTD is the off-season event to be at. Some more So-Cal teams need to make the trip up next year :)

-Mike

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

Awesome :D Thanks for all of your hard work!

Can't wait to see the footage

ALso, would it be possible to upload the whole stream?

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

We actually created our own system, completely separate from FMS. We had our own control panel to control the matches, control the status of the scoring devices (enable/disable) as well as the live audience view(enable, disable). 1678 then tied into our system with JSON variables and status booleans to feed their webcast.

The live scoring was done through tablets where the disc counts in each goal were counted and added through a friendly UI

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

I completely agree. As someone who would absolutely love to be a Glass explorer to start developing, this would be an awesome solution but there are in fact many barriers in place.

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

We've started uploading what we have too. I don't think our footage is as nice as 1678's, and we missed a couple matches, but anyways here is where we are uploading to: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...ILaQdUap4YHxXb

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

Some of the videos are private, are they meant to be private?

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

Once we upload matches we have to rename them. We leave them private while we are doing this and then change everything to public in batches. We are trying to upload as fast as possible, so I think we are going to make day 1 public soon.

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

We now have 7 Glass Explorers that are past or present members of 3309 - it's basically obligatory that we do something related to FIRST!

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

If you are looking for anyone else to explore, just PM me :)

Re: MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration
 

Hello Everyone!

The full archive of the livestream from Madtown Throwdown 2013 is now available on the Citrus Circuits Match Footage YouTube channel.

There is also a playlist that has all 84 matches in chronological order for easier viewing: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...StF87Rl8UkaaVs

Enjoy and please let us know if you find any errors in the footage