2014 Central Valley Regional
 

Surprised that this thread wasn't created already. Anyways, this will be 2073's first time competing at CVR, although I went down last year as a volunteer and I must say that it is the most well put-together regional for its size. I can't wait for competition.

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

CVR is gonna be amazing this year. One of the best run regionals in California with some of the greatest teams from the west coast all battling it out Aerial Assault style. Can't wait. :cool:

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

Have to admit, I haven't always been impressed with the venue @ CVR, the pits are always cramped (last I went 8ft x 8ft) and so are the stands.

That said, I Haven't attended since 2012, so maybe the venue has changed.

In any case I'm looking forward to a weekend of great competition!

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

3501 can't wait. Our final preparations were all finished up last night, and we're ready to go! We've had a blast the past two years, and it's always run super well. Though I'm not sure if we can manage to nab first seed again, we may have set our sights too low for that...

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

Aw, man, I was hoping for Assist Ascent style.

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

Anybody know of there is going to be a live stream? There was last year, but I'm not sure about this year.

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

Team 2085 has been going since its inception, and we're very much looking forward to this event again! Thank you to all the awesome volunteers and teams that make it such a successful regional!

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

Maybe CVR can set a new standard for play this season. Less "Robot Bashing" and more "Robot Scoring".

Sure, defense has it's place, but so does all out scoring!
Don't get me wrong, defense WILL BE PLAYED! I just hate to see teams bust their back sides for 6+ weeks and have their robot destroyed in 160 seconds.

If you ignore all the learning that has taken place in those 6+ weeks, and just look at the money spent, it is CRAZY expensive! If you only go to one competition, you can estimate $500+ per round of competition. Yes, that amount drops as you add in practice rounds and eliminations, but what about the teams that don't make it in?

I'm not advocating we frown on defense, it certainly has it's place. I'm just suggesting we think about setting a new standard.

CVR is going to be AWESOME!! Let's help each other set a new national scoring record!!

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

The unfortunate byproduct of this game is brutal, I mean majorly brutal defense. Defense will dominate all of eliminations, no matter how many good scorers there are. If you're not prepared for your robot to be destroyed, you are not prepared to play Aerial Assault.

I'm not saying it's a good thing, I'm just saying what it expect.

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

My friends on 148 have described our matches at IE as "clean"

Maybe CA is rocking a different style of Aerial Assist?

Can't wait to watch the action, I'll be inspecting at CVR again this year!

-Mike

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

I fully agree with all you points.

I am just suggesting it doesn't have to be this way. It's a choice.
Unfortunately, brutal defense is the choice that is made the majority of the time.

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

There will be one on TBA GameDay.

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

Pits have been full 10x10 both years of this event.

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

West Coast Offense? :rolleyes:

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

This year has far more defense than the past few years simply because of the game design. There's only one ball for your alliance! So if you are the "forward" on your alliance, what do you do while waiting for your alliance to move the ball to you? Play defense on the opposing alliance (or set a screen for your alliance).

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

At least in my mind, California (and the west coast in general) tends to play more offensive, faster and with prettier robots than the rest of the world. IE fit that generalization.

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

You haven't even seen the pretty robots play yet! ;)

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

+1

I think CVR is going to be EYE POPPIN!!

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

If those matches were "clean", then I gotta wonder about the rest of the country. I think they were referring to some of the robots out there.

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

I am really excited to watch CVR, considering 254 and 973 are going to be there as well as my team (696). I agree this regional will include some of the prettiest robots if not in just in California but the country as well. :)

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

I know I speak for everyone else on 2637 when I say WE ARE PUMPED!!!!!! I absolutely can not wait to see all the robots and I hope this regional will be awesome.

I for one can't wait to see some of my favorite teams at CVR.

See you tomorrow evening!

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

Here's the full team list. I got this off of TBA so it might not be 100% up to date.

8 The Vikings
254 The Cheesy Poofs
256 Robo-Rams
295 Renevatio
649 M-SET fish
670 Homestead Robotics
691 Project 691
696 Circuit Breakers
702 Bagel Bytes
841 The BioMechs
973 Greybots
1072 Harker Robotics
1148 Wafflebots
1159 Ramona Rampage
1323 MadTown Robotics
1422 The Neon Knights
1458 Red Tie Robotics
1671 Buchanan Bird Brains
2073 EagleForce
2085 RoboDogs
2135 Presentation Invasion
2443 Blue Thunder
2637 Panthers
2643 Dark Matter
2761 IronHorse Robotics
3022 MKS Explosion
3045 SWAT Robotics
3120 RoboKnights
3189 Circuit Breakers
3256 WarriorBorgs
3303 Metallic Thunder
3482 Arrowbotics
3495 MindCraft
3501 Firebirds
3512 Spartatroniks
3562 LiveWire
3970 Duncan Dynamics
4135 Iron Patriots
4159 CardinalBotics
4543 The Illuminators
4695 Chowchilla Robotics
4973 Gateway Gators
5102 PAL Robotics
5104 BreakerBots
5136 Mechapirates

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

LiveWire Robotics 3562 can't wait for the competition! We're making the 12 hour drive from Idaho to compete in California for the first time since 2011, and we're excited to be back!

LiveWire's robot "Wilma" is quite unique as far as we've seen thus far. With only two motorized parts (excluding drive train) on the entire robot, it'll be interesting competing against the likes of 254 and 973. We're looking forward to some excellent competition and an overall fantastic regional!

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

Is there a webcast for this event?
Checked out TBA but doesn't seem to be loading.

Nevermind this started working: http://www.thebluealliance.com/gamed...w_0=2014cama-1

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

Should be working now.

We're trying something new this year. Matches are uploaded to TBA a few minutes after each match. Check it out!

http://www.thebluealliance.com/event/2014cama

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

Awesome! Can you do this for every regional, or is it not automatic?

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

It's currently mostly automatic, but requires manual input at the start and end of every match. We are working on making it fully automated.

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

I have noticed that many teams at this event are driving to the white zone when transferring the ball to another robot. Are the refs not giving credit for position unless a boundary in the field is crossed?


R | W | B | Robot #
X | - | - | 1
X | X | X | 2
- | - | - | 3

and

R | W | B | Robot #
X | X | - | 1
- | X | X | 2
- | - | - | 3

Should have identical Assist Values. So why waste Robot #1s time carrying the ball to the white zone if robot 2 is already in the red zone waiting?

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

254 just chose 973 as the number one overall pick.

973 was ranked third last with a record of 2-9. Were they having issues, or just the worst schedule imaginable?

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

And also the 41st rank. (in addition to the 43rd) I didn't get to watch enough matches, but it does seem like a deep field.

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

973 looked like they were having growing pains switching to a new drive coach combined with pretty poor partners throughout. Regardless, it looks like they are getting those issues figured out(look at their last match) and have really good synergy(973 being good at assists, and 254 being good at shooting with a great auto). It doesn't hurt that they won champs with each other and are great friends too.

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

Does anyone know: Is there an FRC-wide policy (applicable to all FRC competition events) regarding the process for filling the "extra slots" in the schedule? Or is the policy a local decision?

For example, at CAMA there were 83 Qual matches. 83*6=498 "slots" to assign teams to.

But there were 45 teams. 498 div 45 = 11 rem 3. So, 3 "extra slots".

Who decides which teams fill those 3 extra slots? For example, are they assigned automatically by the scheduling program? And what if one of those selected teams cannot, for some reason, participate in one of these "surrogate" matches - are they penalized in some way?

Or do the organizers at the venue ask for volunteers?

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

973 pick looks very fishy to me. Smells of collusion, but would the judges ever do anything? Don't think so.

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

I haven't been able to keep up with the regional...but if you are accusing 973 of intentionally sandbagging, the Greybots are not a team that would do something like that.

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

Collusion.

What do you think is illegal, dishonest,or deceitful about it?

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

The way I've had it explained to me is that they are randomly filled by the FMS and teams always play their surrogate match as their 3rd match. Don't know what would happen if they couldn't participate.

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

1. 973 would absolutely not do this. 973 would not throw 9 matches to be the first selection of the draft, and 254 would definitely not take a gamble with someone going "trust me, we're really good, we just threw matches so you would pick us". Especially when you consider one of 973's highest scoring and closest losses was against 254. Not to mention there is almost no incentive for 973 to throw matches if they're the first pick of the draft. The number one seed picks first.

2. Do you really want judges to be able to "do anything" to a team based on an alleged fishy looking hunch? What action could possibly be appropriate for a judge to take here?

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

Don't take records as seriously this year as you have in previous years. Since winning matches this year requires your whole alliance to be good, teams are getting screwed out of matches that in previous years they may have been able to win by themselves. There's such a value to teamwork this year that having bad teammates can make your record a lot worse than you really are. Not saying this is definitely what happened to 973, but it's a pretty good assumption I think.

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

Could you clarify what you meant by this? Are you saying that for those 3 teams who played 12 matches at CAMA, the 3rd match of those 12 matches they played was their "surrogate" match? If so, any idea what would be the rationale for that?

Can anyone confirm this from an authoritative source?

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

Yes, the third qualification match for the team is counted as the surrogate if they have one. it says so on the bottom of the match schedule handed out at the regional. Why it's the third, I do not know.

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

973 had issues all weekend. They replaced literally every component on their robot in an attempt to be able to connect to the field reliably. There was easily 100+ years of FRC experience between 973 and 254 attempting to figure out the problem last night, which was finally traced to a bad PDB.

If they were sandbagging we would have been trying to pick them with the 23rd pick, not the 1st pick.

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

Yes, if a team plays a surrogate match, it's always their 3rd round. No, the match schedule is not random, but no details have been released about the algorithm that generates the schedules other than the priorities and specifications. So we can't really say if the surrogate teams are random. More info can be found here: http://www.idleloop.com/matchmaker/

Personally, I'd assume that team numbers are not taken into account in the algorithm, and since that's the only team-specific information that the match scheduler takes in, every team should have an equal chance of being a surrograte.

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

From the manual

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

So, questions remaining:

- Is this policy a local decision or an FRC-wide policy*

- Who decides which of the participating teams will play surrogate matches*

- Any particular rationale for the 3rd match being the surrogate?

- If for some reason a team cannot play their last match, does their "surrogate" match become official?

* Karthik & AllenGregoryIV answered in previous posts

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

I don't know for sure, but I would imagine that you want it be as early as possible to prevent using it to easily manipulate standings but late enough to minimize the likelihood that the surrogate team will have any chance of having not passed inspection or otherwise be non-functional (obviously damage can happen in any match and render the robot inoperable for the next match).
Nope.

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

Used to be that the LAST match was the surrogate one. However, there were complaints about teams sandbagging it, just to keep their robot in good shape for eliminations. (Or similar stuff like that.) Basically, enough teams weren't caring about it that their partners, who DID have something riding on it, were noticing a decrease in play quality. So, it was switched to 3rd match, when it could be reasonably expected that everyone still has something to play for (including scouting).

And for the other question, no.

If you take a look at the match schedule at the event (not online), there's a column of letters next to each team number. If that letter says "T", that team is a surrogate team. If it says "F", they are not. The list is generated by FMS, and FMS doesn't take to changes in schedule very well. Thus, there is no way to make the team's surrogate match into the one that counts.

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

1323's robot is looking very effective.

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

Thanks guys. I'll link this thread if I ever see this question pop up again.

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

Anybody know why they are replaying Semi 1-1? It was recorded as a win for the #1 Alliance and they have said there's a replay, but haven't stated rationale....

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

That. Was. Brilliant. What an awesome finals match!

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

This is a good one...

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

Looked like the pedestal delay for blue.

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

Team 1671 did great, winning Chairman's award and nearly becoming regional champions in tiebreaker finals! Go Bird Brains!

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

I was field reset on blue pedestal, and I did notice pedestal delay multiple times. Some of the human players and drive team guys got really angry

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

Not that it matters anymore, but our score for out precious cycle was not entered into the system and, therefore, the pedestal never lit. They never signaled for us to retrieve the ball from the pedestal for the remainder of the match.

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

Sorry to deviate from the current conversation. But rather than create a new thread, does anyone know were the Thank You Google video teams performed is posted?

Thanks, and congratulations to all teams for a great competition!

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

Even more than just 254 was trying to figure out 973's issues. They had the best drive team going during the fall off-season tournaments, and I was glad to see that they finally worked out their bugs just in time.

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

I don't want to seem like a sore loser, I simply want to make it evident to everyone of the situation. In the 3-3 elimination match (Match 11) our alliance as well as 1671's were having an AMAZING match. We were neck and neck the hole time. at the very end it showed us ahead by 5 but they ended up having forgot to give them a pass that they had gotten (understandable). However, according to one of our alliance teammates the refs had forgotten one of our truss passes. Obviously we thought that it may have just been a mistake on our part, but we went through the footage several times and discovered that they did make it. That would have made us continue through the elimination rounds.

Anyways at first we were hoping to get a rematch, but obviously that wasn't going to happen. I really want to see the implementation of a video replay system. Possibly an addition to elimination rounds where each match is reviewed over once if challenged by a certain team. This has probably been brought up several times. I just want to rekindle the thoughts.

Anyways I want to give my congrats to everyone that attended CVR. It was one of the best regionals I have attended and it was a great start to my senior year regionals.

Thanks,
Kevin :)

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

The regional was a lot of fun and was really competitive.

The match you are referring to was Qual 27. 973 was having communication problems and was only alive for part of the match, our other bot I believe was also dead for some of the match. It was essentially 3 on 1 for most of the match and we almost won it.

I know 1671 is looking forward to playing in St. Louis.

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

This is pretty funny. You clearly don't know 973's mentors at all.

You also don't seem to understand when sandbagging is even effective (not that any happened here).

Congrats to the winners, but also to 1323's alliance as finalists :) What a nice bot!

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

I loved both 1671 and 1323, they were great machines that meshed really well. I'm dreading going up against 1671's shooter at Davis next week...

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

Bad power distribution board, eh? That sounds very familiar...

Does anyone have video of the finals matches? I've heard they were amazing.

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

I'm assuming the PDB issue was with one of the voltage regulator outputs? I recall 330 having a PDB issue in 2011 or 2012 (I think) where the 24V regulator would have semi-random very short duration dropouts that would cause their cRio to reset.

Fortunately this issue will go away in 2015; the new control system not only uses straight battery power for the roboRio (operates natively down to ~4.5V), but also the new PDB has no regulators whatsoever (an separate power converter module provides regulated 5V and 12V for radio/custom circuits), making for easier replacement of just the regulator component.

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

Can't wait to see you guys up here again!

And some advice to all teams, it's probably not the best idea to go to a Fri-Sun regional that's immediately followed by a Thurs-Sat regional...oops!

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

I love that you post this anonymously. I put my name and reputation behind everything I post on these forums and it is sad to see someone cowardly taking potshots from the cover of anonymity.

I'm tired and will post a full explanation (not that we owe that to anyone) tomorrow as I know a lot of people were curious about how we pulled it off.

All I'll say now is my pit crew and drivers are champions and put up with hell this weekend but always kept a positive attitude and kept moving forward. No second was wasted and at no point was quitting ever considered. This is the most worn out they've ever been, but it's also been our most satisfying win.

My scouts are also great, but they had a less stressful weekend:rolleyes:

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

This game is incredibly physical, fun to watch, and easy to follow. FIRST did a fabulous job with this one!


Adam,
Before you post, let me say this:

As curious as I am about the logic behind the choice, it really doesn't matter.
We were all out run, out gunned, out done and then you won!
It was a hard fought battle and you came out the victor because YOU EARNED IT!! This is another shining example of what can be achieved if the work is put in to achieve it.

I want to go on the record as saying, Congratulations!!

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

All right, here we go....

Around 1 PM on practice day we get all our mechanical changes done, tether and test a bunch in pit, and then go drive some on the practice field. We're loving it, it's just like practice bot (just without the shots being tuned the same yet).

We go to play our first real practice match and the driver complains of lag. We discuss with the FTA who shows that our trip time, battery voltage and cpu usage are all looking great. We play two more like this, same issue and now practice matches are over. Between each and every one of these matches we went to the practice field (on radio not tether) and it drove like a champ.

The actual symptoms weren't log, but rather three different states that rotated around during the match.

1) A several times a second jitter in all motor outputs, so if the driver was driving "full speed" the robot actually went about half.
2) Complete lack of control to motors.
3) Blissful moments of freedom that lasted a few seconds at best.

In our first qual match, we were unable to move the arm but were able to open the pneumatics so the ball was loose. We called an audible midmatch and asked 254 to ram us each time to knock the ball out and we ran 4-5 assist cycles this way.

We know switch into a calm panic mode, going down the logical list of items to try/test. I don’t remember what happened when exactly, but for the entire day the pit crew was operating with the same intensity as a timeout during elims. By the end of the day we had failed to perform in 8 consecutive matches, but remained hopeful that the NEXT fix will be the one that fixes it. We had been only changing a few things per match (new driverstation, new signal wiring, etc…) so that we could isolate the flaw, but now decided to shotgun fix as we were running out of quals to test in. In between nearly every match we drive in pit, and drive on the practice field (via radio) and it works GREAT. It’s not the same robot it seems like.

The final batch of fixes included replacing the PDB, along with some other details I’m forgetting. At this point every electrical component except the talons/victors had been replaced (some multiple times!)

Reading the above, I’m somewhat underselling how frustrating the problems were. The FTA was stumped, all of 254’s mentors and several other teams were stumped. We called experts from a far, they were stumped. Over 100 years of FRC mentor experience was working on our robot all day..We don’t know what fixed it, but we just took relief in that the problems are gone (once we worked, it worked flawlessly so we have faith we’re good to go. It’s also an not the same robot electrically in any way since we started).

Saturday night at the scouting meeting I give the option to the scouts to not make a picklist if they would rather go to bed, but despite us being 43rd (of 45th) at the time they decided that the team NEEDED to be ready for the moment when we work again, and ran one of the most thorough and informative scouting meetings we’ve ever run. Our list for 3rds matched nearly perfectly with 254’s, so that was cool to see.

Our first match sunday morning we work. Well, we drive around without issue at least! However, at this point our robot is tuned to make shots at all, so we can intake and truss toss at best. We decide to reduce shooter tension a huge amount to just do a soft truss shot and maybe a top goal. Our practice bot was reliably making 8-20’ shots driving and stationary without much lineup so this was a real bummer, but that late in quals we had to make such a decision. However, we’re now thinking (especially after watching 330 put on a show in San Diego) that we prefer this closer, softer shot.

Incredibly, the entire team was still in good spirits after this ordeal, and was ready to play. We just at the moment weren’t sure where we’d be in elims.

Full disclosure, we did practice with 254 prior to this event, but in no way was that collusion. We’ve practiced with them literally every season (except 2011, when we actually did win together!) and they have passed over picking us numerous times in the past (no hard feelings, better picks were there). 254 informed us they were looking for a team player with a solid intake that could run the ball up and down and do a soft truss shot, and since we were able to drive in our last 3 quals, had faith in our problems being gone. Our robot in elims was maybe 20% of our capability of our practice bots, so the team is excited for future events.

Here is something that will shock a lot of people. There were some great offensive robots there in 1671, 1323 and 696 but 254 didn’t want them. If we had been out comission, 254 would’ve used the #1 pick of the event to pick my favorite rookie EVER in 5136. A simple bot with a team JVN intake that also inbounded great. They ran assists better than anyone at the event and were great defenders. They almost beat the finalists alliance in quarters despite being thoroughly outgunned offensively in most peoples minds. These guys lost in elims, but won Rookie All Star and we are keeping in touch with them to make sure they go to champs. Awesome team, awesome robot.

This was the most difficult event for us in 973 history. It was a pressure cooker that would have wrecked most teams, and probably wrecked any single person on 973 but as a team we kept checking up on each other, covering each other when people needed breaks, and just toughing it out for the good of the team. It’s incredibly frustrating to run out of good ideas and have all your ideas yield no tangible results whatsoever. It’s tougher to then decide to shove you hand back in the fire to maybe not get burned again hoping that at some point it won’t burn you.

I am incredibly proud of all of the members of my team for making it happen. I’m also incredibly grateful that 254 believed in us and took that chance. 2135 was also a great 3rd that was an awesome team player that balanced inbounding and defense nicely. They also blended in just fine with the intensity that 254 and 973 bring to an eliminations alliance.

It is somewhat frustrating that many people assumed we were being disingenuous in what was really the proudest moment ever for our team, but we won’t let that affect us. We came through hell and won the event, no one can take that from my students. It was palpable that the entire event was cheering for us to lose in elims, but our entire alliance just ignored it and made it happen. I don’t understand how sandbagging makes sense if you’re shooting for the #1 pick of the event, but I’ll leave poor logic to the spineless who can’t stand behind their words.

Thanks again to everyone on other teams who killed themselves all day helping us, we could not have done it without you. Also thank you for the many people, both at the event and from a distance, who reached out to us and told us they believed in us, and knew that we played this right and any rumors of poor behaviour were thoroughly false.

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

This weekend was exciting, tough and exhausting for myself and my team. We enjoyed the competition and learned a lot about this game. Still not sure exactly how I feel about it, but we had a lot of fun.

I find it amusing and odd that there is/was so much buzz around our choice in alliance partners. FIRST robotics is a COMPETITION and we play to win. As many others have theorized we take scouting and strategy seriously. We have a dedicated team of mentors and students who put as much work into this part of our game as goes into the robot. With that said I stand behind the choices we made.

Last year, at the San Diego Regional, we (254) found ourselves in a similar situation to 973 this past weekend at CVR. We'd spent two days chasing mechanical issues and getting our design to function. We were struggling and our record showed it.

Saturday morning we approached the number one seed (987 the High Rollers) and plead our case. They knew that we'd be dangerous if we could sort out our issues. We ran our autonomous countless times on the practice field for them showing them our fixes and changes. They took a chance on the 18th ranked team and together we brought home gold.

Friday night Adam came to us and asked what they had to do or show us to be considered as a 2nd round pick. I'm throwing this point in for those ignorant enough to think, or say, that 973 was throwing matches to be picked. They were concerned that they would miss out on eliminations because of the issues with they were having.

We (254) had our scouting meeting, with Pat's delicious strategy brownies, and made our pick list. I'm certain our top two picks would astound most of you.

973 was at the top of that list, provided they could remain connected to the field and drive around, and we communicated this to Adam at the start of the day.

Second was a rookie team (5136) that, to our amazement stuck around until halfway through the second round of picking. These guys were awesome. They built the robot that every rookie (and many veteran teams )should have built. They were pretty much the perfect partner. A durable drive base, with a solid intake that could function as an inbounder or a low goal scorer. They played super smart, with great coaching and driving. Whenever they weren't passing a ball they were playing great defense and then were right back in position as soon as the ball was coming their way again. They were a rookie in number only. These guys are awesome and we are stoked they are coming to Championships.

With that said, I'm happy to start the 2014 season a champion. Our partners were awesome. Each stepped up and played their part in earning this win, I'd play with either of them again no questions asked. 973 & 2135 ... Thank-you and congrats.

~EJ

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

I lost my voice today because I was rooting for the Blue Alliance in the finals. Even though we have great friends on 254 and 973 I found myself rooting for the underdogs. The Blue alliance had 1323 and their awesome puncher. It was exciting to hear the boom and watch the ball travel the length of the field, high over the goals and into the announcers video monitor. 1671 laser like shooter and fancy driving. Their El Toro intake was sucking balls up like a vacuum cleaner. Then there was 3970's all around play and heavy D. It was exciting to see 3970 deliver a full speed blow at the right place and exactly timed making the mighty 254 robot miss their money shot.

The Blue alliance had 3 very fast robots who could transition to any position. The Red alliance had a 3 shot auto, a high shooter that was almost unstoppable, and 973's powerful drive train .The Greybots could peel off a defense robot and drive them into a wall. The Blue alliance had great strategy and great shooting but they lacked the consistent 3 ball auto. After the first match they also didn't change up the strategy while the Red alliance made adjustments. In my opinion the blue alliance should have focused their double defense to 973 to prevent the truss shot and jam the inbound to stop the 40 point cycle

One of the things I didn't like was the refs let the defense play hard but a lot of the elimination matches were decided by the ref calls. The points for penalties are too large and the calls can be inconsistent with all the action going on. The announcers also don't announce what penalties were called on what team and the audience wonders what just happen.

One last comment was during the final rubber match you could clearly see there were com problems and both 3970 and 1323 sat idle for precious seconds during the match. I was wondering why a field fault wasn't called. After the first match the rubber match was a bit anti climatic. We can only dream of a rematch WWE Cage Match style. This game is brutal.

Congratulation to 254, 973, 2135, 1323, 1671, 3970. What a show you guys put on.


Two thumbs up to all the CVR staff. This regional is well run and the atmosphere is always like a big party.

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

Adam, as someone who has driver coached through two events like that, I tip my hat to you and your team. It is never easy to push through something like that. Congratulations on your win!

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

Hello Adam,

I almost never use Chief Delphi, but I heard that you had responded to the rumors of sandbagging by your team and read your comprehensive response above. I am the teacher advisor and founder of team 1671, and I would first like to congratulate you and your team on your amazing, hard fought victory yesterday. We wanted so badly to win, especially on our home turf with our friends from Madera and Duncan, and especially against teams like yours and 254's that carry such stellar reputations and history. Second, I would like to agree with you that anyone who posts a serious allegation like was made against your team team, and does so anonymously, should keep their conspiracy theories to themselves. It was a low blow and an ugly thing to do. I hope whoever Bitbucket99 is will read these words and refrain from such despicable behavior in the future.

I must say, in all honesty, that I was suspicious of the situation, but I think if you put yourself in my shoes, you'll understand why. In our qualifying match where we were alliance partners against 254 there were times when your defense against 254 seemed ineffective. Later in the tournament, we were in a qualifying match against you and the defense your bot put on ours was brutal, to the point of heavy penalty points made against your alliance, and we were concerned for the safety of our bot. Then, the Poofs picked you and you went on to beat us in the finals. Hey... there were dots there that, if one were angry and disappointed, one could put together.

But then, on the other hand, I remember seeing your team huddled around your bot on the field late Saturday night, trying to figure out your problems. That certainly doesn't fit a sandbagging theory. I talked to one of your team moms, and she was so anxious about all the problems you guys were fighting through. And then, I read your passionate and obviously honest defense of the honor of your team.

So let me apologize for my suspicious thoughts. You should rename your robot: "The Phoenix." Honestly, I have no idea who Bitbucket99 is; I only hope it's no one from our team. The Bird Brains strive to live up to the core values of FIRST... co-opertition and gracious professionalism. But we are, after all, human (not birds)... prone to see the worst in our competitors (until they become our allies).

Finally, let me say how proud I am of our team and our Central Valley alliance. Perhaps irrationally, we in the Central Valley sometimes feel forgotten or disrespected by our neighbors on the coast. But there are smart, hard working young people here... and we aim to compete with anyone, anytime, anywhere. Sic 'em, DOC.

Sincerely,

Paul Lake
Teacher Advisor
Team 1671 "The Bird Brains"

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

There's an easy explanation here. 973 played us on Friday, when they were mostly nonfunctional and played you on Saturday when they had resolved the problem.

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

Understood.

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

Replace Friday with Saturday, and Saturday with Sunday. Funky Fri-Sun Regionals... :rolleyes:

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

Team 5102 had a great time at our first ever FIRST competition. We all really enjoyed meeting other teams and seeing what solutions they had thought up for this year's game. I'm so proud of all our students, they all worked hard to earn the Highest Rookie Seed award.

Our Oculus Rift was a great hit, and we hope to have an even better robot fpv experience for our next competition. For those who weren't there, we plan on posting all of our fpv video (normal and Oculus ready) real soon!

We'd like to thank team 3562 and 2761 for picking us. We had a fun time competing with them in the eliminations. 3562, it was also a pleasure to see you win engineering inspiration, good luck at champs!

We'd also like to thank the following teams for helping us:
691 offered to let us use their bimba voucher since there team does not use pneumatics. We hope to get our shooter working with these for LA!

702 was a great alliance partner in qualifications and helped us strategize before alliance pickings. We almost seeded in the top 8, and would have been totally unprepared if it were not for Bagel Bytes help.

973 helped us during season and gave us some great advice during the competition.

1072 was quick to respond when we realized that we were one gear short of completing our drive gearboxes on Friday. Thanks!

1323 gave us a lot of help, from getting us wcp parts during the competition to teaching us how to mount a mini cim onto a versa planetary, it's no wonder why they almost won the event. We were all very impressed by their gracious professionalism.

There are many more, but these teams stood out to us the most. Thanks!


We had hoped to win the rookie all star award but after seeing team 5136 realized that we were not as deserving. Congratulations on your win and we hope to see you succeed at the championship as well.

I have had the pleasure to talk to many 1671 students and mentors over the past few years and all I can say is great job. The Bird Brains have been deserving of the chairman's award for a long time. Take into consideration their near win in the finals I think 1671 will be back in the spotlight in the near future. Congratulations.

To the winning alliance, 254, 973, and 2135, we were all inspired by your performance. Goes to show that your final seeding doesn't matter, any team can win an event.

As per the overwhelming blowback against 973, all I can say is that I am greatly disappointed by this. It was obvious to the entire event that the 973 guys were frustrated, and the sigh of relief was witnessed by all when they won. Congrats on your win and we can't wait to see you reach your potential at LA.

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

We're expecting a repeat of the 2012 Sac Regional with tough competition from you. (And maybe we'll be on the same side this time.) See you Davis!:)

BTW, we're streaming the competition, so come by and check in so we can talk about teaming with your scoring system in the future.

Re: 2014 Central Valley Regional
 

We picked them and were honestly extremely surprised that they lasted that long. In our scouting meeting there was extreme debate over whether we should take them 1st or 2nd. Ultimately our representative decided to take a gamble on the 8th seed, figuring that they needed a good, accurate (high goal)shooter more than support and so we took 2085 first. Our scouts could not have been higher on 5136 though.

Working with them was amazing, in everything they seemed like a veteran team. Their drivers were really good, as was the drive coach. Great team to work with and I wish them all the best in the future, and hope to work with them again soon.