2014 Virginia Regional
 

Well we are less than a week away.....so now is a good a time as any for
folks to post about it. BTW....This year marks 15 years for the Virginia
regional.

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

Blue Cheese is excited to be returning to the VA regional this year. We look forward to seeing how everyone has come up with to play this year's game.

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

Team Talon 1598 is very excited to see all our friends at the VA Regional. My daughter and another FTC 5086 teammate will be working field reset. Look for the pink and teal tutus.

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

The blue and orange will be there for our fifteenth anniversary! We would like to thank all our sponsors for making this possible for us.

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

Here's the current team list for VARI 2014:

122 NASA Knights
346 RoboHawks
384 Sparky 384
388 Maximum Oz
401 Hokie Guard
422 Mech Tech Dragons
435 Robodogs
539 Titans
540 TALON 540 Godwin Robotics
611 Saxons
614 Night Hawks
617 Enginerds
619 Cavalier Robotics
1033 Team CLUTCH
1086 Blue Cheese
1095 RoboCavs
1137 Rocket Sauce
1262 the STAGS
1418 Vae Victis
1522 DOTM - Defenders of the Multiverse
1533 Triple Strange
1541 MidloCANics
1598 Team Talon
1599 Atlee Raiders
1610 B.O.T. (Builders of Tomorrow)
1629 Garrett Coalition (GaCo)
1719 The Umbrella Corporation
1793 The Pilots
1829 Carbonauts
1895 Lambda Corp
1908 ShoreBots
2021 F.A.R.
2028 Phantom Mentalist
2053 TigerTronics
2068 Metal Jackets
2106 The Junkyard Dogs
2107 LuluBots
2186 Bulldogs
2363 Triple Helix
2383 Ninjineers
2402 RoboJackets
2434 Blue Devils Gear Heads
2607 Fighting Robo-Vikings
2988 RoboGenesis
2998 Vikings
3072 Backwoods Bots
3136 Official Robot Constructors of America (ORCA)
3168 Warriors
3258 MADawgs
3274 Big-Blue-Botics
3307 Robo Dawgs
3359 Royal Robotics
3361 Governators
3373 Team RoboHawk
3709 RTC Blastro Robots
3872 PanTech
3939 Robotic Knights
4286 C-FED's & LDHS Robotics
4472 SuperNOVA
4538 Enginuity
4714 The Millennium Falcons
4949 Robo Panthers
4969 Iron FeNix
5279 ACS
5323 WildCats

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

There are 51 blue banners coming to Richmond, with 36 of those won after 2005.
BBQ = 0.78
SAUCE = 0.55
Waterloo stats for comparison

There are 8 teams from out-of-state:
3 from MD
2 from NC
1 from FL
1 from PA
1 from NY

All 3 defending champions will all be attending: 1262, 1541, and 1610

7 of the teams are as old or older the Virginia Regional: 122, 346, 384, 388, 401, 422, and 435
On the other hand, VARI will be fielding 4 rookie teams: 4949, 4969, 5279, and 5323

I'm looking forward to this event.

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

I'm pretty sure Dan means these tutu's. John is gonna be so embarrassed....
or not.

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

Yup those are the ones. You are a bad man to do that to John. The girls love him for wearing that. He is such a great guy.

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

2607 is sooo excited to attend this year! Cant wait! :D

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

We're looking forward to seeing all of you this week!

(And for the record, John LET me take that picture of him in the Tutu.)

:D

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

It's The Field Supervisor's turn to wear the tutu my friends.

I'm looking forward to the anniversary of the event. If things keep up at this rate, things look like they're gonna go well.

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

Impressive stats. I have to ask, is there an easy way to calculate BBQ and SAUCE? or do you just have to brute force go through every team?

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

I just used /team/####/history on www.thebluealliance.com for every team. If anyone can find an easier way of doing it, that would be appreciated

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

Team 1629 -GaCo is excited about attending the Virginia Regional for the first time. Hopefully we will be seeing some warmer weather!!! Good luck to all teams at the competition!

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

That is how cool he is :D

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

Team 2383, the Ninjineers, are excited to be traveling all the way from sunny South Florida!!

This is our first out-of-state regional, and we are ready!

Are there any tips or things we should know about the Regional?

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

The biggest this is that no outside food is allowed in the venue. Prepare to have your bags checked for food/drinks by venue security. Equipment entering pits through the loading dock has been checked in the past as well.

Speaking of the loading dock, it's actually a steep ramp. Make sure anyone rolling equipment down has a partner.

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

Team 422 is excited to be one of the six teams celebrating its 15th anniversary with VirginiaFIRST this weekend at the Virginia Regional! It's wonderful to think that some of our team members have been alive for less time than VirginiaFIRST and our team have been working on spreading STEM and conveying the message of FIRST!

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

To recap...

Things you can bring into the Siegel Center: knives, scissors, drills, powered saws

Things you can't bring into the Siegel Center: Bottled water, Sugar Shack Donuts (located on the opposite corner of Lombardy and Leigh as Maggie Walker, just a few blocks away. They're awesome)

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

The Kroger Parking Lot next door may seem like a great place to park for free but I discourage it. They are not FIRST friendly so be sure of your parking arrangements.

And do not exclaim "Robot!" in the process of moving your robot as a request. Something more apropos is a person in front of the cart clearing a path. "Excuse me." works far better. Just a request.

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

Parking is a total pain. +1 on the non yelling of "robot." We have a great crew of teams in VA. If you have any questions, look for the folks in the blue shirts and the cheese heads. They should be able to help ya out :)

Lots of food options within walking distance. Big plus there.

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

GreatWraps, BoDillaz, Exreme Pizza, Subway, Panera, Chipotle, Qdoba, and Five Guys are all in the area. As PayneTrain said, local favorite Sugar Shack Donuts is also within walking distance.

Supplies for robots are available at a nearby Lowe's and there's a Pleasant's hardware store about 6 blocks away.

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

Oh, don't get me started on the bag checkers. Last year they made me throw away an EMPTY bottle on Saturday morning, even though I had purchased the bottle full of water inside the day before.

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

If there was one thing I would change it would be the stupid bag checks.

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

So how is the seating at the event? Is it hard to get ~7 good seats for scouts?

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

Seating is your usual College Field House set up, the field sits on the basketball court with pits set up behind the black curtain. At least that is what I assume it will be as its been that way all the years we have been to the event.

I want to second that load in ramp is a nightmare, especially if you have heavy tool boxes or carts going down it. If Richmond is getting anything like the snow we have in NOVA right now it would be awesome for sledding.

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

Seven Seats ought to not be a problem. Only thing I'll ask/recommend is don't save entire rows or blocks of seats. Section 4.14 of the Admin portion of the manual prohibits this. 65ish teams and all the people, space won't be tight until Saturday. Remember to be GP on that front.

Leave the air horns/vu vu zellas behind too. I personally find them just as grating as the food check or "Robot!" yelling.

on the Ramp front, a warm front will thaw it out I hope. Otherwise the field crew will be sledding on lunch breaks.

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

All of these things are also covered in the "Site Info" by VirginiaFIRST. They will be enforcing these things.

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

I'm trying to think of anything anyone missed..Hmmmm....Food and Drinks at VCU are a bit pricey....its a better deal to go to one of the places across the street, but keep in mind with the teams there they all will be busy. If you can stagger lunch times for students and mentors that might work better.

The music is LOUD....so if you have students with sensitive ears bring ear plugs.
A plus though is we have some great announcers and Jeff Seaton is our MC.

The team social should be....as its has been the last ten years or so at the Va. Science Museum....
Unless they change it this year...the food isn't so great
(i think it was better 10 years ago...my opinion) but the museum is a neat venue
and there is lots to see and do while there.

The Va. First folks are a great bunch of folks and know their stuff...Most of the Einstein crew
from CMP last year were the Va. folks. The head ref has
already reffed at two other regionals so she knows her stuff.
Queuing...They like to try and stay "on time" and they do announce matches often...
but keep on your toes for match times sometimes its hard the hear
the match announcements.

Load in and out can be a pain...but you can load in early on Wednesday night until 8pm i think...
there is more information on the Va. First site.

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

And yes Dan.....John is a cool guy.

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

TigerTronics from Endicott, NY will be making the trek again this year after such a great experience last year.

We look forward to playing with our Finalist partner from last year, 2363 - Triple Helix again. We also just ran into our other partner, Ranger Robotics this past weekend at the NY Tech Valley Regional.

The game is intense and we're looking forward to playing again this week... and seeing all the great robot designs and mapping out good game strategies with all the teams.

See you in a few days...

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

is there a webcast this year?

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

I attempted to find it but the Virginia site still says coming soon.

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

It will be listed here when the stream is available.

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

Good morning Ladies & Gentlemen and welcome to Day One.

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

Bus leaves in 1 hour!

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

Thank you ladies and gentlemen for a good day yesterday and welcome to Day Two. See you guys at the Siegel Center.

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

FIRST Team 2607 has been having an amazing time so far! It's so nice and warm down here :D

Good luck to everyone tomorrow!

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

Thank you to Virginia FIRST and everyone at the regional!

We had a blast at our first out of state regional, and as finalists for the first time.

Thank you also to the best alliance members 1418 and 435. You guys were awesome.

We made a lot of new friends! If any team wants to come to Florida, look out for the Ninjineers to show you around.

Thank you again everyone and congratulations to all the winners.

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

Congratulations to 1610, 384, and 2607 on the Regional win. You had a great alliance. Hank -- Love the tutu. Thanks to 346 and 540 for joining us in eliminations -- we put up a good fight. Congratulations to 422 on the Chairman's and 540 on EI -- both well deserved. Thanks to all the volunteers and refs for a well run event. It has already been stated that this is a tough game on the refs -- I think Lisa and the crew did a great job of getting everything as "right" as they could. Pattie, Carol, Sally, and all of VA FIRST -- wonderful. Some of you know that my son's '76 Corvette that we spent 6 years restoring caught on fire and was destroyed while he was coming to Richmond Friday (he is okay), so Saturday was a day of mixed emotions for us, but it was great to be around friends in Richmond. Thanks everyone for a great time!!

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

Team 346 Here. Thank you for selecting us to join your alliance. Together we put up a really good fight. We enjoyed working with you. Your drive team was fun to work with.

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

Triple Helix would like to congratulate team 2607, the Robovikings, and our friends from Sparky 384 and 1610, Builders of Tomorrow on your win at the Virginia Regional. Also, congratulations to all of the award winners, especially our friends at 422, the Mech Tech Dragons (RCA), Talon 540 (EI), and 4969, Iron FeNix (RAS). And a BIG CONGRATULATIONS to our own Sarah Selim for her selection as a Dean's List Finalist!! Triple Helix has three Dean's List Finalists out of the four years that we have submitted essays, which is a testament to the quality of students that we have at Menchville High School. You're all great, and your dedication to the team and your commitment to the ideals of FIRST is a major contributing factor in our team's success over the past several years.

We would like to thank team 1533, Triple Strange, and 2068, the Metal Jackets for being such awesome alliance partners in the elimination matches. You guys all performed excellently, allowing us to consistently execute our plan. Another second or two and we would have cashed in on another 3-assist cycle and we would have been in the finals, penalty or no penalty. Thanks for being so good to work with! We would also like to thank all of the sponsors, volunteers, and the dedicated staff at VirginiaFIRST for another awesome Virginia Regional. We look forward to at least one more Virginia Regional before we go to the district model. Keep up the great work!

Finally, we would like to thank all of you who complemented our team and our robot this weekend. As a few examples, we had a student from the Chairman's-Award-winning Mech Tech Dragons come up to us and tell us how our team inspires them to excel, we had someone ask if he could buy one of our team hoodie sweatshirts, and we had several people tell us that they consider us to be the easiest team to work with in the state of Virginia. We feel that these statements validate our approach to being good representatives of FIRST, and we humbly appreciate all of the support that you provide us. Our team is dedicated to turning Virginia into a state that people mention when the subject of the best-of-the-best among FIRST teams comes up. We look forward to working with each and every one of you in the future.

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

Congratulations to the winning alliance of 2607, 384, and 1610, who won the regional for a 2nd year in a row! Kudos to 540 for winning the Engineering Inspiration Award again!

Thank you to 3939 for inviting us to the 5th seed alliance and to 2053 for accepting our invitation!

Thank you to 2363 giving us hardware for setting up cameras and for being great neighbors in the stands. We hope to be uploading match video eventually.

Shout out to 1086 for a well-deserved Judges Award! I'm looking forward to seeing the results of their impressive drivetrain in Queen City.

Team 422 is so grateful that we won the Chairman's Award, we appreciate the work of everyone who has helped our program succeed over the past 15 years.

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

Thanks to the organizers, volunteers and teams that made the 15th Virginia Regional such a great experience for all of our students! Congratulations to all the award winners (especially the Regional Chairman's Award-winning Mech Tech Dragons (422)), each year that bar is raised higher and higher.

Some alliances just seem to fit together perfectly and the "Triple Alliance" was one of them. Between the leadership and firepower of Triple Helix (2363) and the flexibility and adaptability of Triple Strange (1533), we formed a whole greater than the parts. We were honored to play with you and disappointed about letting you down at the end.

Your team's gracious, welcoming attitude was apparent throughout the regional. In the very short time we interacted in setting and executing strategy together, the quality of your team's student leaders was exemplary and Sarah's selection as a Dean List Finalist was well deserved. 2068 (among many others in the state) shares your team's vision for overall development and improvement of FIRST within Virginia and look forward to helping achieve this goal.

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

To the teams:
Thank you for showing the rest of the regionals how to play good defense. The quality of play was on par with last year. To the Finalists, you made them earn it. 1418 I knew was gonna make it to the semis just from their play on practice day. 2383's robot was different design that impressed me. 435 brought their usual solid performance up from Carolina. Triple Helix, your robot, I still maintain was one of the best ones to take the field. 1086, congrats on the Judges Award. It remains my favorite award just for it's nature. Talons, thank you for the TuTu loan. 422, you got the big one and it was well earned.
2607 thank you for the pick and to 384 Sparky, great team and great robot.

As a Volunteer:
Thank you all to the teams that provided help. Some of you provided help to many other teams in need. To all of you that help 3361 in their hour of need, words do no exist for me to thank you. I walked over to help more than once and saw they were in great hands. The robot that resulted was easily rival to the average of the season. I call it the Robot in One Day build. I've seen it happen before but never a robot of that caliber come out of the mix.

Thank you one and all. Walking out last night after we sent the truck on to DC, can honestly say I have never felt prouder of not just one group but everyone.

And the icing on the cupcake is this.

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

I've uploaded videos to youtube of all the qual and elimination matches we played, except one where I was taking pictures instead of video recording. Playlist here.

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

The TigerTronics, Team 2053 had a great time in Richmond again this year. Everyone is so friendly in Virginia. We came back to snow flurries and 26 degrees in NY! Thank you to teams 3939 and 422 for inviting us to your alliance. We will definitely be back next year!

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

First of all, what an incredible event the Virginia Regional was! The volunteers, especially the field crew, were very good. Field resets were smooth, yet teams were never rushed off the field like I've seen done many times before to start a match quicker. The referees were simply great as well. They took the time to get it right, even checking for buttons before every match, something I hadn't seen before at an event. While adhering to the rules, they were still very helpful, not bothered, if you had a question for them.

As for the teams, we couldn't have hoped for more. It was incredible to feel at home amongst all of these teams that we had never met before. Everyone was so cooperative and match planning was very enjoyable.

Thank you Virginia FIRST for putting on such a wonderful and well-run 15th anniversary event. It was awesome.

I'd also like to thank our opposing alliance in the finals, lead by 1418 with 2383 and 435, as well as all of the opposing alliances for a very close race for the win. Seeing scores in the 200's I knew it was going to be a brutal eliminations. It was incredibly tough play with many strong alliances and tough defense all around.

As for our eliminations alliance, working with 384 and 1610 was some of the best FRC experience I've had in my (albeit small) 3 years. Thanks for accepting our pick Sparky; I was hoping to be able to ask you guys, but with the final push for assist points in the last few matches of the top ranked teams I wasn't sure it was going to happen. Of course a big thank you to 1610 for your great performance in our matches as well. You guys were great to work with. I really hope I'm able to see you all again in St. Louis.

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

Does anyone have video of the closing ceremony?

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

Fixed that for you.

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

groger pls

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

Just for reference and to elaborate, is anyone planning on uploading/is there a location to find a recording of most or even all of the event?

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

We are working on that.

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

We got pretty good coverage of the event, probably missing a few matches(I was told we missed none but we'll see...) and bits of awards. They're ever so slowly making their way from my computer to the team's youtube account and expect them to be uploaded sometime tomorrow. We'll have some students work on titling and publishing them to the public shortly thereafter(and adding to TBA).

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

I would also like to put in my thanks to those who help run the event. This VA Regional was by far the smoothest I've been to. The volunteers did a great job and everybody had a great time.

It is obvious by watching the elimination rounds that the quality of the VA teams is definitely on the rise. Congrats to both 384 and 1610 on your win and to 2607 for leading up that great alliance, we hope you travel down from PA to play with us again in the future.

Congrats to 422 on your Chairman's award win, it is much deserved. Hopefully we will earn our way to St. Louis so we can see you again this season.

Believe me, you didn't let us down. We missed our last shot that would have put the match away even with the penalty. We had a great alliance, and if I am correct had the highest unpenalized score of the regional at 195. We enjoyed working with both you and 1533 and would love to do it again in the future.

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

Team Blue Cheese would like to congratulate all the winners from last weekends event. The level of competition in VA is improving yearly. If you aren't moving forward you are falling behind.

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

I recorded elimination matches from the webcast, they're pretty crappy quality, but better than nothing.
Playlist.

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

Is it just me or is f1m2 video of the field reset?

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

I believe that our team has full-field video recorded of all qualification and elimination matches, and probably of the award ceremonies, too. Only the first three qualification matches are currently available on our YouTube channel, but hopefully more will show up over the next few days. Search YouTube for the channel called "Triple Helix 2363".

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

Whoops, typed a wrong time value into my script. Should be fixed now

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

Yes, I know that it is completely over due but some of us have jobs, family and trying to make last minute travel arrangements. Sparky had a great time and would like to thank the event co-ordinators, referees , volunteers and the field crew (they aren't the field crew on einstein for nothing).

1418, 2383 and 435 what a great final it could have gone either way, hope to see you guys in the future.

Triple Helix 2363 - what an incredible team and great mentors, props go out to Matt W and Todd F. They always had whatever we needed - air tanks that weren't bombs waiting to happen or video of key matches. One day we will run with you guys at Regionals. Wishing you the best of luck at Chesapeake.

2607 RoboVikings thanks for asking us to be a part of your elimination allliance. Sparky was worried that you guys weren't going to pick us. Griffin - I have worked with many students in my short 15 years in FIRST but it truly was a pleasure working with you. I look forward to seeing you guys at Champs.

1610 B.O.T. another great team we never seem to get a chance to run with until now. The wait was worth it. Kyle you and the other mentors have done a great job with 1610. You guys have one regional under your belt now show the guys at Chesapeake how to play the game VA style.

Thank you to our Sponsors: Flexicell, GE Volunteers, Showbest (15 years of sponsorship), BMG Metals, Hermitage Automation, Aerotek, Genworth Financial, CAPER, Henrico Education Foundation, Friends of Sparky.
A special Thank You to our mentorsDavid Cohen "Jumper"(WFFA), Thomas Halish, David Underwood, Mr. Jeff, Bob Shires, Sally Sylvester, Carol Edelman and Coach Lane.

Re: 2014 Virginia Regional
 

Match video is now available from the Mech Tech Dragons here and it and it looks like Triple Helix also has matches up here. Between the two of us the regional should be fully archived. You can probably find it all together here in a few days.

Congrats to all of the awesome teams at Virginia who finally got the berths to championships they deserved (1086, 1629, 2363) and we'll see all 11 Virginia teams and the out-of-staters 2607 in St Louis.