2014 Waterloo Regional
 

This may be a little early, but since no teams registered for Waterloo are competing at a week 3 event, we already know everything we're going to know about the Waterloo teams.

254-Central Valley Winners
771
781-GTRE Chairman's Award Winners
865
1114
1241-GTRW Chairman's Award Winners
1285-GTRE Winners
1305
1334
2056
2609
2702
3161-GTRE Engineering Inspiration Winners
3683
3756
4039
4069
4519
4525
4678
4732
4777
4907
4917
4943
4992
5032
5033
5039

What's interesting is that neither 1114 nor 2056 will create a wildcard if they win, due to 1114's semifinal exit at GTRE, and the fact that this is 2056's first regional. There's a very high chance that 1114 or 2056 (or both) will actually earn a wildcard at this regional, seeing the amount of other top tier robots that already can create wildcards.

I expect everyone from the finalist alliance to qualify for champs, just like last year.

Expect another insane Waterloo regional. I just mentioned the very top tier.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

I'm making the nearly 4 hour drive out to Waterloo to visit this regional, and I may or may not be bringing an alumnus of team 67 with me. Of the events outside of Michigan that I have visited, this is one of my favorites. I'm really looking forward to an awesome event.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

Gregor, of the teams you didn't mention, both 1334 and 4039 had some of the best robots in the WORLD last year, both incredibly talented teams. 3683 was selected first by 1114 at GTRE, 865 was a defensive beast at GTRW, 2609 and 2702 both have been good teams for years, and two of our awesome chairman's award winning teams in 771 and 1305. The alliances that are going to be created at this small regional are almost going to be of Championship quality. I'm sad i'll be missing Waterloo this year, looks like its going to be a blast.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

What else do we know?

3161 is the oldest team in attendance without a blue banner.

Blue Banners in Attendance:

1x 25-time Regional Winner (254) [16 since 2005]
1x 22-time Regional Winner (1114) [21 since 2005]
1x 17-time Regional Winner (2056)
1x 3-time Regional Winner (781) [2 since 2005]
3x 2-time Regional Winner (771, 865, 1305) [865 only has 1 since 2005]
7x 1-time Regional Winner (1241, 1285, 1334, 2609, 2702, 3756, 4069)
1x 4-time Championship Division Winner (254) [3 since 2005]
1x 3-time Championship Division Winner (1114)
1x 2-time Championship Division Winner (2056)
2x 1-time Championship Division Winner (781, 1241)
3x 1-time Championship Winner (254, 1114, 1241)
2x Championship Chairman's Award Winner (254, 1114) [254 was in 2004]
1x 6-time RCA Winner (1114)
1x 4-time RCA Winner (1305)
2x 3-time RCA Winner (771, 1241)
2x 2-time RCA Winner (254, 781) [0 for 254 since 2005]
1x 1-time RCA Winner (2056)

A total 117 Blue Banners, at a 30 team regional (101 since 2005).
Waterloo's BBQ = 3.9
Waterloo's SAUCE = 3.3667

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

Those two would sound cooler if you said "since 2011" :p

Great stats.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

For what it's worth: I think this is the highest BBQ/SAUCE any event has ever had, primarily thanks to 254 bringing their collection to join 1114 and 2056's.

In all the BBQ/SAUCE threads in the past, I haven't noticed any BBQs >= 2.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

Well, when we had a robot running (Silly RSL light!) :rolleyes:
Thanks for the compliment! :)

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

Just a small correction, which I am sure you already know but just forgot to mention. 1114 Has won their championship division a total of 3 times ('08, '10, '12). I guess they are due in 2014 then huh? :D

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

I wish everyone would give BBQ analysis when they post things like this.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

Huh. It seems I did miss that. I wrote that post three times due to accidentally leaving the page while collecting the stats. One second while I fix it.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

With this much BBQ/SAUCE, teams better bring their A-game

Here on Team 254, we have developed the Basic Robot Information, Strengths, and Kryptonite Evaluation Toolkit (BRISKET) to help scout a robot's capabilities and exploitable weaknesses among this distinguished field of teams. Because quantitative metrics aren't the be-all and end-all this year, we also utilize Polled Pool Of Robot Kids (Polled PORK) to combine all of our scouts' qualitative observations after all of the matches are finished.

As we all know, at the end of the day you need to come up with the strongest possible pick list in order to pull out the "W". This is where we turn to our patent-pending Typecasted Robots we Intend To Immediately Pick (TRITIP) list, where each class of robot is stack-ranked against all the others at the competition.

We firmly believe that our BRISKET, Polled PORK, and TRITIP will form an unbeatable combination. Top that all off with the awesome BBQ/SAUCE at this event, and I think we have the recipe for something special.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

For what its worth:

The formula for the BBQ and SAUCE of a fixed event with the same set of 1-regional teams is:

BBQ = (4*N)/T
SAUCE = (4*[N-N_pre-2005])/T

Where N = the number of years the event has run and T = number of teams.

For Waterloo, this would result in a BBQ and SAUCE of 1.333 (as its a 30 team event, started in 2005).

In other words, there are roughly 3 times as many blue banners in attendance at Waterloo 2014 as Waterloo has ever generated.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

Not the best place to discuss statistics, but since the intention of the SAUCE statistic is to gauge recent success of the teams at a regional using blue banners, shouldn't Npre-2005 actually be Npre-2011 or 2010 by now? We could call it the Regional Iota Banner, or RIB for short.

Just saying this to make 781 sound more awesome.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

Billfred get in here and teach these boys about some sauce.

Edit: I'm excited to see my pre-season prediction come to fruition.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

Additionally, 86 of the 117 Banners coming to Waterloo are held by 3 teams (1114, 254, 2056). Together, the three of them account for 73.5% of Waterloo's BBQ.

Without them, the BBQ of the rest of the event is: 1.148

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

Jared, stop making me hungry. Waterloo isn't exactly in a region known for delicious barbecue...

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

Would you prefer the Finalist Uniform Difficulty Gauging Evaluation (FUDGE)? I propose FUDGE gives 6pts to Championship Winner, 5pts to Championship Finalist, 4pts to Division Winner, 3pts to Division Finalist 2pts to Regional Winner, and 1pt to Regional Finalist, sum and divide by teams.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

I think the proper metric to use here would be Performance Of Upper-quartile in Tournament Intervals of Near Equality (POUTINE). Each team receives a point for each event they were in the #1 or #2 seeded alliances in eliminations.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

Our machine shop actually got in trouble (deservedly) last year for barbecuing at Waterloo...

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

Hey there, not all hope is lost. I would love to get a barbecue going the days of the Regional. There are a couple in residence that I know of.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

I thought Jared was letting us in on a little secret about the Waterloo region, I almost booked my flight just to get some Canadian BBQ; oh, and to watch robots of course.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

Sounds like fun. Can I come?

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

I'm not really into this number analysis stuff,

but I do know good BBQ. I would have to say the Dallas Regional will have the best BBQ of Week 3. ::rtm::

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

The BBQ/SAUCE stated is a little bit inflated. If you look at Billfred's original post he states he uses 2005 era as a starting point in 2008 because 2008 was the last year of high school members who were around in 2005. I say update the BBQ/SAUCE for this competition with 2011-2013 as seniors this year were freshmen in 2011.

Though the BBQ/SAUCE mentioned is incredibly amazing and definitely shows how hard this competition, and competition in Canada as a whole, is going to be this year.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

BBQ is independent of the year.

SAUCE is the only one that would change.

Billfred's post defines SAUCE as starting from 2005, because that's the year we switched to 3v3, hence, Sextuple Advancement Uniform Counting Era. When he coined the term in 2008, it happened to coincide with being the year that Seniors (Gr12) would have been freshmen (Gr9).

I can see an argument though, that a four-year rolling version of SAUCE could be of value. Perhaps BRIQUETTE, the Banner Ratio Indexed to Quadrenniums of Unified Education Total Talent Estimation.

1x 25-time Regional Winner (254) [16 since 2005] [6 since 2011]
1x 22-time Regional Winner (1114) [21 since 2005] [8 since 2011]
1x 17-time Regional Winner (2056) [17 since 2005] [9 since 2011]
1x 3-time Regional Winner (781) [2 since 2005] [2 since 2011]
3x 2-time Regional Winner (771, 865, 1305) [865 only has 1 since 2005] [0 since 2011]
7x 1-time Regional Winner (1241, 1285, 1334, 2609, 2702, 3756, 4069) [1285, 1334, 2702, 3756, 4069 since 2011]
1x 4-time Championship Division Winner (254) [3 since 2005] [1 since 2011]
1x 3-time Championship Division Winner (1114) [3 since 2005] [1 since 2011]
1x 2-time Championship Division Winner (2056) [2 since 2005] [1 since 2011]
2x 1-time Championship Division Winner (781, 1241) [both since 2011]
3x 1-time Championship Winner (254, 1114, 1241) [254, 1241 since 2011]
2x Championship Chairman's Award Winner (254, 1114) [254 was in 2004] [1114 in 2012]
1x 6-time RCA Winner (1114) [6 since 2005] [2 since 2011]
1x 4-time RCA Winner (1305) [4 since 2005] [2 since 2011]
2x 3-time RCA Winner (771, 1241) [3 each since 2005] [2 each since 2011]
2x 2-time RCA Winner (254, 781) [254:0, 781:2 since 2005] [254:0, 781:2 since 2011]
1x 1-time RCA Winner (2056) [1 since 2005] [1 since 2011]

49 Blue Banners since 2011

BRIQUETTE = 1.6333

That means that in the last 4 years, the teams going to Waterloo have earned more than 3 times the Banners generated at Waterloo in that time.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

Don't worry, according to some reports one team actually had a barbeque in their pits, and promised hot dogs to all visitors.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

You know I'm really surprised there isn't a lot of talk about using Potential Out-of-town Upset Threat and International vs Native Experience, or the POUTINE rating system to predict match outcomes.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

Hogtails at Erbsville and Laurelwood is really good (to my standards anyways).

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

but how would you define that?

Is out-of-town defined by a radius? or a state/province? something else?

Additionally, how to quantify 'native' experience?

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

Mascot costumes in the form of pulled pork might be a little bit harder to find...

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

Very hungry, and there is no real poutine in So Cal, so sad.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

Out of town: outside of a radius of 60 miles
International: Blue Banners won in the same province/state/country as the event
Native: Blue banners won within the province/state/country of the event.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

Barbecue purists might say "that's not barbecue!" but there's a Mongolian "barbecue" place right next to UW that's very tasty:

http://www.mongoliangrill.ca/

I used to go there all the time when I was a student at Waterloo.


BTW: those of you joining us in Windsor for the Windsor Essex Great Lakes Regional in Week 6, we have real barbecue:

http://www.smokenspice.com/

A bit far from the University of Windsor, but worth the trip. :D

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

Went there as a 45 person team 2 years ago. We fit easily and at one point a cook was running laps of the grill to the space jam theme high-fiving everyone in the circle. This restaurant's Edible Affordable Theatre (EAT) stat has to be one of the highest in the region. Definitely not real barbecue though. (I went back to San Diego just to go to Phil's)

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

My Waterloo match schedule is color-coded Check it out here.

Qualification matches are going to be really competitive tomorrow:

• 3 matches where 1114 & 2056 play against each other: [3,45,64]
• 2 matches where 254 plays against 2056: [25,60]
• 1 match where 254 plays with 1114: [17]
• 1 match where 254 plays with 2056: [53]
• Match [25] looks like an elimination line-up with: 2056,1334,771 vs. 254,1241,3161

There are some really strong teams here and the pairing in qualification matches will make a huge difference in seeding. Of the titans, I think 254 has subjectively the best match schedule. With that being said, since there is so much interplay between the titans, there is a definite possibility other teams seed above them.

To make things even more interesting, The Blue Alliance Insights page shows that 254 moved up to 33 total Blue Banners after CVR, which ties them for the most ever with 1114...

Since their rookie year in 2007, 2056 has yet to lose a Regional Event.

1114 and 2056 have 13 Regional wins and 1 World Division title together, they truly are:
"The greatest combination in the history of FIRST"

Will 1114 and 2056 get to play together?
Will 254 overthrow 1114's Blue Banner Count?
Will 2056 keep their 17 Regional Win streak alive?

Waterloo 2014: The most hyped Regional Event in the history of FIRST

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

That Wrecking ball Move by Karthik. Priceless.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

Where do you see the match schedule?

Thanks

Cullen

===========

Never mind found it!

Sorry!

Anyone knows if the webcast is viewable through an ipad?

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

The match schedule has been up since yesterday here, but it looks like twitter data is not getting sent out.

So the Results and Rankings pages aren't working, anybody know when this will be fixed?

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

You need a flash enabled browser to watch on a mobile device.

FRCspy is working for match results (which I thought collected data from the twitter feed)

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

Hmm, interesting. Wonder why the Waterloo Event pages aren't updating.

*Manual W/L Rankings are posted in my spreadsheet (No tiebreakers)*

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

As best as I can tell there are no event pages updating at any regional so far today.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

Thanks a lot Navid!

Anyone experience lag in the webcast or is it just me?

Thanks

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

Webcast quality has been fine all morning for me.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

It was originally laggy for me, but it has since cleared up. These matches are intense!

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

Looks like Montreal (QCMO) and Buckeye (OHCL) are updating their event pages.

I'm getting push notifications from Spyder for Waterloo, Buckeye, and Montreal, but updating it to look for rankings + match results isn't working for Waterloo.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

In the bottom right corner of the webcast you can change your quality. "source" is 720p @ 30fps

Try medium or low if you are having connection issues.

- Bochek

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

G27 claims one of its first victims, 2056's alliance loses on 70pts worth of ramming penalties in Q16.

These are some great matches!

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

The announcer said that the rankings are up. I can see the rankings on the score overlay, but the Rankings page here is still down.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

FRC Spyder and BlueAlliance are not updating, and the feed at the bottom of the webcast doesn't have scores.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

Rankings are now online:
http://www2.usfirst.org/2014comp/eve.../rankings.html

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

Link 404s for me, and spyder/etc still not working.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

Spyder and link are both working for me.

2056 is ranked 1st at 4-0, even though they lost a match. I bet they retroacticvely corrected the fouls on match 16. Can anyone verify?

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

Looks like the 50 point technical foul against the red alliance in match 16 was removed. (3756 et. al.'s teleop score decreased by 50 pts)

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

...Weird. Q-16 is showing to me as a red alliance win, 148-101, but 2056 is showing as #1 seed with 4-0-0 (even though they were blue in that match, and have played only 4 matches [and were not a surrogate]).

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

Anyone know why/how the technical foul was removed? Would be interested in hearing the process for retroactively removing a technical foul.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

How is the video from The Blue Alliance for this Regional working for you all?

I get some scores across the bottom for Q22~Q28 and the message "Failed to load video." repeatedly. Rebooting didn't help. The Wisconsin Regional video works but keeps pausing. A few of the other ones work, many others don't. It could be the network here at work.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

I've been having Wisconsin problems throughout the day. Waterloo went out a while, but it appears to be back online and back from lunch.

*This Karthik lag :P

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

I'd be interested in the Bayesian Estimate of Average Net Score (BEANS) and CORrected Net Bayesian REduced Average Distribution (CORNBREAD).

Actually, BEANS/CORNBREAD would also be interesting.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

Webcast went out?

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

Yep, again.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

Okay thanks!

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

Try refreshing the page if the webcast is down, Justin.tv appears to have had a hiccup.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

It works now perfectly!

Thanks

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

The head ref will decide (for whatever reason) to remove the foul, he will go to the Scorekeeper and tell him to update Match x and to change the foul. The Scorekeeper can go back and edit previous results, so the foul can be removed there. Sometimes, this process takes a few matches to happen all the way through because of the workflow in the FMS software - you have to disrupt the matches to do this, you can't do this while another match is in process or prestarted.

Or at least that's how we handled it at my week 2 event.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

They must be busy with FMS workflow. Match 16 hasn't been updated yet and the rankings haven't updated since lunch (match 22).

Thanks for the insight!

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

The FMS should update the rankings automatically after each match. If not, the FTA should be informed.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

I got word from Karthik that FMS is unable to FTP the results after each match. They plan to manually FTP during lunch and at the end of the day. I will withhold my snarky comment about the unreliability of the FMS data feed, this really isn't a hard problem to solve.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

Karthik just clarified it on stream. Apparently the other alliance let the head ref now that the foul was incorrectly assessed and that they didn't deserve the foul . The head ref gave the OK to fix the score.

*GP at it's finest*

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

Interesting precedence for the winning team contesting the referee's call.

Reminds me of our alliance getting DQed for knocking 1918 off the pyramid last year in the Curie finals, despite 67 and 1918 protesting the call, arguing that our alliance was not at fault.

Definitely GP, quality move by Team 781!

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

781/4678/3683 just put up 265 Auto+Teleop Points. Nicely done.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

Match 37 looked a lot like a lunacy match.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

In match 38 why wasn't one of the 3 assist goal counted?

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

it was added after the match ended

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

does anybody know the current standings?

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

Hopefully they can get this figured out for tomorrow.

Thanks to 1114 for posting this on Facebook (as of match 35):

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

I'm not sure that FIRST realizes exactly how much things like working Twitter feeds and live streams matter to making FRC an event people want to, and will, watch.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

Thanks.

In case anyone was wondering what happened to us after that match, a robot smashed into us and slipped out our left drive chain, beat up the left drive talon and disconnected a couple of spots on our welded shooter frame. For the next three matches, we only used the rollers and could not shoot/truss/etc with the shooter.

We hope that it will work a lot better tomorrow, but the damage was pretty bad. Rough game out there (the other alliance had 250 in foul points and a yellow card, in case you were curious). Really fun regional to watch, though, and teams like 3683, 4039, 4678, 1114, 254 amongst many, many others are all wonderful to interact with in the competition.

And if you wanted more clarification on the overturn, the call was initially made against a team on the other alliance for damaging our elephant ear, which won us the match along with a normal foul. We didn't feel it was right, so we mentioned it to the referee when the other alliance began protesting. Winning is great and all, but it felt pretty crappy to win like that.

Only thing I can think of right now, though, is the damage we took. It'll really hurt our scores, record and scouting data for other teams.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

They obviously don't care. Many people have commented that the current field system is way too complicated and poorly implemented. Streaming of events has been happening since 2003, and 11 years later, it hasn't got much better. There is very obviously internet access at this regional, but for some reason, it doesn't work with the FMS. The method of getting twitter data for matches is total nonsense. There's no reason why FIRST shouldn't make the data available in a way that actually makes sense.

The problem is that the FMS isn't set up in a way that lets FIRST modify it to fix problems easily. The field issues with inconsistent hot goal timing and pedestal delays are still causing multiple replays at each day at each competition for 5 weeks now. The fact that they can't figure out how to fix it in this amount of time is very telling.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

This is the second Canadian regional that's had no trouble at all streaming 720p video from the venue, but can't seem to get FMS updating to the web.

Historically, Waterloo hasn't had any issues of this nature from what I can recall. I wonder if something changed in the FMS for 2014 that's broken updating at *some* events.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

Yes, the FMS this year has changes. Changes include new fonts for the score, rank near team numbers, a score bar that looks good in a 16:9 ratio. There is also a longer delay between teleop and auto, and I think the scoring tablets are set up a little differently. I just hope that the new FMS for the 2015 control system works better than this one.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

It has been stated at the event that this is a problem with the FIRST FTP server.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

It must be the server side, because I am uploading match archives via FTP from the same network connection.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

4039 is dirty. Really nice driving.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

I don't debate that this may be the case, but other events are able to upload, so obviously *something* at HQ is working. Its strange.

Anybody know if the field in Waterloo is the same field that was at GTRW?

Perhaps there is a setting off on the field server?

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

4039 has been performing consistently well today. They definitely are a top 5 bot at Waterloo. Looking at their robot, I'm curious if they were inspired by past 2056 style design methods, or if they have any relation to OP.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

Their drive train is a bit weaker than I would like, but they've got shooting down.
They need to get with a team that has a strong drive train and good drivers that can run picks for them.

But if they hold on to that #1 spot in the rankings, that won't be a problem.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

I know 4039 has practiced at the facility that 1114/1503/2056/2852 share. I'm sure there is 2056 influence afoot.

4039/254 v 1114/2056 could make for interesting finals.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

That would be one tricky pick list. The possibility of having to choose to play any one of 254/1114, 2056/1114 or 254/2056 as a consequence, before even thinking about 1241/1285/3683/4678/etc.

With so few teams but so much depth, it's ambiguous as to whether it's a case of 'impossible to get wrong' or 'impossible to get right'.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

Same field for all 3 Canadian events so far.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

I would say that the top 5 at the event, in order, are:

254
1114
4039
3683
2056

No matter who seeds #1, they're left with a REALLY tough choice. There is no clear choice as to who should be your first pick. If I'm 4039 and I'm #1 though? I'm picking 254.

The #2 captain's 1st pick is an even harder choice, and will likely dictate the finals matchup, but there is a serious possibility that the #1 and/or #2 seeds could get bit by the backside of the draft being fairly weak, allowing 3,4,5,6,7, or 8 to build a stronger alliance than 2 superstars and a weak 3rd, what with only 30 teams in attendance.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

So the field in QCMO is the 2nd field in Canada and ONWA's field is the same one that was at ONTO2 and ONTO? Or is ONWA using a different field, and the ONTO2/ONTO field went to QCMO?

If this field has played all 3 Ontario regionals, did ONTO have any trouble pushing matches to web? I don't recall it did.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

This is like playing fantasy robots, but for some harmless fun, I'll stick my neck out and suggest 2056.

Strategically, 4039 excels at the front zone (ie scoring) and 2056 seems designed to play the back zone perfectly (great inbound, 5ft blocker, great truss throw).

Rather cynically, as alliance captain, if they made it to the finals and played 254/1114 (or 1285/others?), they are ensured at least a wildcard. With the serpentine and so little to separate the elite robots (and ultimately how good 2056/1114 are together), it's at least an important consideration.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

The ONWA field was also used at ONTO/ONTO2.

I don't think the QCMO field has been used before this week.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

That *is* true.

There is also the consideration that 1114 and 2056 share a practice facility, and 2056 is clearly designed to catch. I'd bet anything that there exists a well practiced Truss/Catch up their sleeve much like the ~4 sec 40pt Balance the Eh Team showed off in 2012 division elims at CMP.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

But if you pick 254 you get all of that but the blocker, a more consistent autonomous, and they'd be a suitable back-up scorer, or you could run a strategy where you alternate 4039 and 254 between scoring bot and truss bot. Not to mention, if I were 4039, I'd be worried about the reliability of 2056 who spent half a match dead today, and 1114 who's had multiple claw issues today.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

Another thought. If you're 254 and #2 seed, do you decline 4039? That's a tough call.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

Fantasy pick-lists are fun.

Regardless of which teams get together in the top few alliances, the key will be the 3rd robot.

Whichever alliance can find a robot who can receive an inbound, outtake/pass a ball super cleanly, play smart defense (pushing, slowing down opponents, blocking shots), and not take penalties will win.

This is easier said than done, especially for the top few alliances because of the serpentine draft and the fact that there are only 30 teams here.

More than any regional I've seen, scouting will determine who wins this regional.

If teams do their homework, there shouldn't be any robots like this left for the #1 alliance, maybe not for the #2 or #3 ones either.

At GTRW which also fielded 30 teams, 188 worked tirelessly in the pits immediately after selections with their 3rd robot 3705 to make sure they could do this, and ended up storming through the elims, nearly winning the tournament.

IMHO, this tournament will be won tonight - at all the scouting meetings that will be taking place to find that gem of a 3rd robot.

Re: 2014 Waterloo Regional
 

How the rest of the rankings will probably have just as much an effect. If 3rd seed is not 1114 or 2056, then I think they would accept.

And although I've watched most of the matches today, I haven't really figured out who might be the 18-24th picks, which could swing things.

There's huge potential for blue alliances, especially 3-6.

EDIT: Mr Lim beat me to it.