Re: New Central Illinois Regional Looking Good!
 

As the Team 171 driver, I apologize, it was not intentional (even though some think it was). During the finals matches we were playing hard. Congrats to 525, 1986 and 4926 :). I would also like to thank our own alliance 2039 Rockford Robotics and Mars Wars 4143, I don't think we could have gotten as far as we did with out you guys.

Re: New Central Illinois Regional Looking Good!
 

I don't remember what match it happened it, but one match was tied with under 10 seconds to go, both alliances had possession of their ball and are going for a truss shot to win. The red alliance got their shot off first and it cleared the truss for 10 points. Then the blue alliance shoots their ball, and just as it leaves the robot it collides with the red ball that is coming down from the truss shot and deflects away. A few inches further over on the red ball shot and blue would have tied it up at the buzzer.

As a side note for the regional, the box lunch delivery was one of the smoothest lunch breaks I've seen for our team at a regional. Usually it is utter chaos with missing sandwiches, long walks outside in the cold, and mentors trying to corral students who "forgot" where the meeting place was. Having food delivered into the venue, and having a place to eat it right there was quite convenient.

Re: New Central Illinois Regional Looking Good!
 

I believe that was Match 27, with 1806 shooting the red alliance's ball.

Re: New Central Illinois Regional Looking Good!
 

We are sorry for any damage done to your robot, it was not intentional and are sorry for breaking any part of your robot. It was some tough quarterfinals and we had problems our selves with our shooter during the same match from all of the defense being played. Great Job and good Luck at other regionals your attend!

Re: New Central Illinois Regional Looking Good!
 

Yes, I believe we shot the blue truss attempt that would have tied the match, but for it colliding midair with the winning red ball truss shot.

Re: New Central Illinois Regional Looking Good!
 

Oh, no hard feelings what so ever. You have nothing to apologize for. The battery box was the least well thought out part of our robot. It was already damaged and we didn't think it would cause an issue, but we were wrong. The battery literally rotated 90 degrees in the box. It was a hard fought quarter finals and we finally had the strategy figured out, but it just wasn't in the cards. We were frankly a little surprised we ended up choosing our own alliance, but we ended up with quality teams. Your alliance played extraordinarily well and we were caught off guard after the first match, so it took a huge regroup to get it figured out.

Again, great work. Good luck to you at the rest of your events as well.

Re: New Central Illinois Regional Looking Good!
 

The joy at 1:29 in the third match.

Re: New Central Illinois Regional Looking Good!
 

It took us an extra 9 hours to get home in the midst of a winter storm fittingly named Titan. A bonding experience made a bit sweeter by the weekend's successes.

We had a great time. The enormity of the venue gave the event a very grand feel. The hospitality and professionalism of the volunteers made it easy to forget this was a 1st year event.

The level of competition was top notch, full of old friends and some very impressive new ones. Thank you 525 for inviting us to join you on the run to the regional championship. Your drive team handled their machine beautifully, and adapted well to the changing circumstances. Your whole team was a pleasure to work with from the PR department making the alliance buttons down to the scouts willing to collaborate on our pick-list. We've attended many regionals together, but this was our first time aligning in elims, and it was fun. 4296 was a great compliment to the alliance, possessing an agile drive train, quick roller intake, and a drive team with a calm focus able to switch between the triple assist and the shut down defense.

Much has been made of how over worked the officials were in this game. While I agree that a dedicated pair of score keepers would enhance the field crew, I want to give my heart felt thanks for the job they did.

On the tipping in finals. Now that the videos are up I've had a chance to reflect on the robot flips. All but one of the tips were generated by bumper to bumper contact on robots that had demonstrated a CG a little higher than what their drive train depth could support. 4296 frequently popped a wheelie when changing directions, and 4134 nearly tipped over in the first final match when their partner 171 hit them right after flipping 4296. No need to vilify the drivers here, and no hard feelings. We'd gladly play with 171 in the future.

I do wish the calls for deliberate or damaging contact inside the frame perimeter would have been enforced. The one tip that wasn't bumper to bumper we thought would fit into this category. Anxious to hear what the referee's have to say at the week 2 driver's meetings regarding appendage contact inside other robots.

Extremely proud of the team. It was quite an honor to receive the Regional Chairman's Award among such a veteran group in a year when everyone can present at every event. I work with a fantastic set of mentors and students whose dedication to helping others through FIRST continues to amaze me. It is impossible to outwork this team.

Re: New Central Illinois Regional Looking Good!
 

I had access to a Google Glass during the event and recorded a few matches from the drive team coach's perspective. Here is match number 11 from start to end: http://youtu.be/ORwTxVWRt5I If anyone is interested I may upload a few more. I thought it was a pretty neat perspective to have for a video. Thanks to 1806 & 3138 for being awesome alliance partners in this match!

Re: New Central Illinois Regional Looking Good!
 

can I have the footage of the 3 quarterfinals between 2022, 292, 2081, and 1786?

Re: New Central Illinois Regional Looking Good!
 

Several of you who have said it are right. My frustration is more with the head ref than any particular team. For that, I apologize. I imagine this would be much more heated if it had effected the outcome, but thankfully it didn't.

This is my full explanation of my feelings regarding robots tipping (how I would expect for it to have been called had it been my team being called into question). Also, I've included my thoughts on a few rules that were blatantly ignored in one case in a rude and unprofessional manner by the referees.

Ignoring the intent, when something happens in the course of game play that is advantageous for a specific alliance it has become a strategy. This is a definition I've heard multiple times from different referees/head refs. Obviously the same robot ended up on its back multiple times in different matches, so by that definition, regardless of intent, it became a strategy.

Per G27:

Strategies aimed at the destruction or inhibition of ROBOTS via attachment, damage, tipping, or entanglement of ROBOTS are not allowed.

Violation: TECHNICAL FOUL and YELLOW CARD

So at a minimum it should have been a technical foul and a yellow card simply because it happened multiple times, not because of any intent on the part of the drivers/drive team/alliance.

If you consider that robots being tipped gained a strategic advantage for the alliance now playing 3 v 2 it could be considered a strategy on the first offense. In this case it could have been (and I think would have been totally justified) a technical foul and a yellow card the first time it happened. The second would have then been a technical foul and a Yellow Card, causing a DQ with a further Red Card based on G13, because regardless of intent the strategy resulting in repeated instances of robot tipping would be egregious behavior.

I've coached for long enough to know that there is almost always time to avoid tipping an opposing robot in a two robot interaction. The GP thing to do is to back off and let them down. Defense robot to robot in stable configurations on the floor is totally acceptable, but ANYTIME our driver has a robot off of its wheels I immediately advise him to back off and we do. Our robot spent a match on its back and it isn't fun. It isn't the way we want to win either. You guys do what you feel is right and we'll do the same. I certainly don't have any trouble sleeping at night with the way we play.

On G28:

In the course of qualifications on Friday we had a robot come to rest at the completion of a match with its appendage inside of our robot. This caused cosmetic damage to our sponsor panels, but more importantly popped the HDPE trim that the ball rides on through our shooter mechanism off in one area. The referees sitting at the scoring table not only acknowledged the fact that the robot was in contact, but also grinned. No technical foul was called. The head referee claimed he didn't see it, which is ridiculous, considering that the robots came to rest that way. The point of the rule is not to react to damage to robots, but discourage the damage from happening, at least that is our interpretation and the interpretation of the rule I've heard from reliable, knowledgeable sources, so it should have been called if there was even a question of damage. I'm sorry to hear that there were even more serious instances of this being ignored. 1736 built a heck of a robot. The only drivetrain we really ever struggled to control in defensive interactions in the course of qualification play.

G20 was also not being enforced. Teams repeatedly lost bumpers and continued to play. The rule is clear:

ROBOTS must be in compliance with Section 4.6: BUMPER Rules throughout the MATCH.

Violation: DISABLED

No interpretation required. If you lose a bumper, you're in violation, you pose a risk to other robots, you should be disabled. It happened many, many times with no instances of robots being disabled that I'm aware of.

This game is rough. Totally open field means very high speed robot to robot interaction. Bumpers have to be tough and rigidly mounted. I hope things calm down as the season wears on, because this is not battle bots and it was starting to feel that way.

Best of luck to all the teams of CIR with the rest of their season.

Re: New Central Illinois Regional Looking Good!
 

"That escalated quickly"

Re: New Central Illinois Regional Looking Good!
 

Thanks to Tim Koch and the rest of the planning team for a great event. Everything was well organized and ran smoothly. The staff and volunteers were all very gracious and helpful. The venue was a bit chilly in the morning but warmed up nicely throughout the day. The team social was a nice addtion - it reminds us of previous years when these were common.

We had a great time working with 1986 and 4296 in the elimination matches. It was nice to be able to partner with our friends from Titanium instead of playing against them in eliminations at our previous regionals. It was awesome to see the drive teams working together to form a strategy and adapt as needed when opponents or situations change. The matches were intense for all involved and are typical of how these events go on Saturday afternoon. The game rules this year allow tough defense so it's up to us to make sure our robots are ready for it. Matches like these expose our weak points we need to design out in the future. Thanks to 171, 4143, and 2039 for the exciting finals matches.

Congratulations to Team Titanium on receiving the Regional Chairman's Award - well deserved.


My personal highlight was being able to welcome my wonderful wife Jan to the field when she received the CIR Woodie Flowers Finalist Award. Woodie presenting it made it even more special.

Re: New Central Illinois Regional Looking Good!
 

This was due largely impart to the fact that the FMS did not allow the head ref or the score keeper to disable a robot without disqualifying them. If the bumper violation occurred early on in the match the head ref would go over to the player station and demand the team press or press the E-Stop button for the team. If the bumper violation occurred towards the end of the match the head ref did not bother to disable the robot because of the amount of time it took to walk over to the player station press the E-Stop button.

Re: New Central Illinois Regional Looking Good!
 

Seriously?... What's the point in having a disablement punishment in the rules, if the team has to disable themselves. Why didn't the FTA disable them?