2014 10,000 Lakes Regional
 

Looks like we are going to have some great competition at this week's 10,000 Lakes Regional.

Notes:
First regional ever where all of the teams are from Minnesota.

Out of all the teams attending, 2500 is the only team to have ever won Chairman's or EI. Looks like we may have some new blood for the Chairman's award and/or the Engineering Inspiration Award in Minnesota.

4 rookies teams are competing.

2052 - 1st pick on the winning alliance at Lake Superior
2470 - 8th seed and quarter-finalist at Wisconsin
2502 - 2nd pick on the winning alliance at Northern Lights
3313 - 1st seed and finalist alliance at Lake Superior

Team List:

Re: 2014 10,000 Lakes Regional
 

I was just thinking about doing a post like this Evan! Thanks for starting it!

That "all MN teams" stat is pretty crazy!

My biggest advice? Bring spare parts.

Other random notes:

No 525 Swartdogs is a pretty big change. They're dominated competition at 10K for quite a few years in a row. I mean, they've made the finals every year the event has been around and won the Regional the past 3 years. Last year, they also won Chairman's.

Another big absence will be 3018 Nordic Storm. They won Engineering Inspiration last year and kicked butt at Duluth already this year (we would know, haha).

It'll be interesting to see how teams who have been to a competition already this season will adjust to the hard hitting battles (2052, 2470, 2502, 2750, 3081, 3184, 3313, any others?). We definitely learned a lot at Duluth and by watching more Regionals the past couple weeks.

My biggest concern is consistent foul calls throughout qualifying and elimination rounds. Watching Wisconsin and how the refs really focused on calling "high speed ramming" fouls only in Elims has me a little worried. But I hope with a week to let the new rule stew, the calls are made consistently. It is what it is; I just want to go into each match with a general idea of what is allowed and what is not.

But yeah! We are super excited! I've been to 10K for 4 years now and it's so awesome to get to know so many of the teams throughout the years.

Cannot wait to see everyone and play Aerial Assault... I mean Aerial Assist!

Is it Thursday yet?

Re: 2014 10,000 Lakes Regional
 

We'll miss 10K for sure. We're going to Queen City this week instead (10K was full.) Looking forward to meeting lots of new teams.

Re: 2014 10,000 Lakes Regional
 

Sorry to burst your bubble, but three teams are from Wisconsin - all three are part of the 7 Rivers Robotics Coalition.

4021 - IgKnighton from Onalaska (WI) Luther HS - former Rookie All Star winner
5003 - Topperbotics from Onalaska (WI) HS
5019 - Gearbox Heroes from West Salem (WI) HS

Re: 2014 10,000 Lakes Regional
 

I thought there were some WI teams... But I was too lazy to look it up. Haha.

Thanks Steve!

Re: 2014 10,000 Lakes Regional
 

Team 2823 is looking forward to being there with its St. Paul Hub buddies!

Re: 2014 10,000 Lakes Regional
 

Yep, 3018 tried to get into a Minneapolis regional, but they were completely filled up after we registered for Duluth that day. Since we wanted to give our robot a better chance at nationals (we were very fortunate to beat a great alliance headed by 3313 in Duluth), we signed up for Milwaukee once we found out we had very little chance of getting into either 10,000 Lakes or North Star. We took the last spot in Milwaukee, but only half of our team actually made it due to saving cash up for St. Louis. We ended up with a runner-up finish there, so hopefully that bodes well for us in Championships. Good luck to all the MN teams up at both Mariucci and Williams! Hope to see you in St. Louis in April and Minneapolis in May!

Re: 2014 10,000 Lakes Regional
 

You mean 3 teams from East Minnesota, right :p

Re: 2014 10,000 Lakes Regional
 

4215 is excited to be back at 10k for the first time since our rookie year!

Re: 2014 10,000 Lakes Regional
 

3081 is excited for 10K this year. We had a ball at WI (wow, I don't even have to try to make bad puns now), and are prepared for 10,000 Lakes. Wisconsin had some tough competition, and we were happy to be in the top 10 for most of the weekend and the top half for the whole thing. Our final ranking was our best ever in a regional despite the intensity, so look out, Minneapolis. :p

In all seriousness, I hope 10K will be free from the problems that have plagued other regionals - inconsistent reffing, auto issues (timing of hot goal and disabling), pedestal lighting, etc. It'll be interesting to see how the regional plays out with 525 and 3018 not around. It was a pleasure to play with 3018 in Wisconsin (heck, we played with AND against them in different matches!), and I'll miss that opportunity with 525, considering we took home a blue banner with 525 at our side in 2012 and played with them in two regionals in 2013.

With 525 and 3018 unable to attend 10K due to the event being full, it does raise the question of when MN will have five regionals. From what I understand, this is due to a lack of available volunteers. I'll have to change that after I graduate. ;)

I'm personally most excited to see 3313 and 2052 - teams with consistently well-designed and well-made robots I'm going to enjoy the opportunity to play with/against.

Hopefully we won't have Thursday rule updates this week. It doesn't give teams or referees enough time to adjust accordingly. I even think Tuesday pushes it, but that's another rant for another day. The refereeing at Wisconsin on Friday and Saturday was like night and day - as a result, the gameplay was, too. The play always gets rougher throughout a weekend just like in sports, but it's the referees' job to be consistent and not let things fly once they start happening. Otherwise, we don't know what rules will be enforced on Saturday in eliminations. Granted, the referees have far too much on their plate this year, so I'll cut them some much-deserved slack.

Overall, I expect this to be a fun event with plenty of surprises in store. Who will win the RCA? What wildcard slots will be generated? How will teams who played in previous regionals (or who haven't and planned for the rules released January 4) adjust to whatever changes come out on Tuesday/Thursday/some other day that could have been earlier?

Re: 2014 10,000 Lakes Regional
 

I always look forward to returning to this event each year. Great city, great people, and great competition! See you all on Friday!

Re: 2014 10,000 Lakes Regional
 

Looking forward to having you. You're my mom's (and my) favorite MC.

Re: 2014 10,000 Lakes Regional
 

We will definitely miss seeing everyone in Williams Arena this week. We have either been there or across the street every year since the inaugural Minnesota Regional in 2008 so it will be strange to not be there this year. It's been great to watch the teams grow from rookies in the early years to veterans now. We definitely need more regional capacity in the upper Midwest. How about having one in Iowa? Maybe that can happen in the future.
Other than the long bus ride, we are looking forward to Queen City and seeing old friends we have played with in the past in the St. Louis and Kansas City Regionals. We are also looking forward to meeting new teams and making new friends.
Good luck to all at 10,000 Lakes! I'm sure we will see some of you in St. Louis.

Re: 2014 10,000 Lakes Regional
 

Only a couple days away and 3082 can't wait to participate! Here is a little look into what we have.

Re: 2014 10,000 Lakes Regional
 

If you can walk to MN from the town, it's hardly Wisconsin.

Looking forward to seeing everyone -- look for me in the pit in the floppy orange hat, reminding you to update your software and fasten down wires.

Re: 2014 10,000 Lakes Regional
 

I'm tempted to bet we'll be going to Districts before we get a fifth regional, and the Districts will be in MN in 2016 or 2017 (I haven't heard nearly enough buzz for it to happen next year).

Re: 2014 10,000 Lakes Regional
 

Yeah, Districts in MN isn't happening next year. 2016 or 2017 would be well within reason, but I would bet we get a fifth Minnesota regional first. We may be almost at the state's current carrying capacity for teams, but we're going to get a lot of additional pressure as states around us go to districts before us, both from their teams looking for out-of-state play, and from Michigan teams having fewer nearby options.

Unless we see an Iowa regional in the very near future. But I honestly don't know how likely that is. The FRC community in the state is certainly growing close to the number of required teams.

Re: 2014 10,000 Lakes Regional
 

Team 4536 will be ready for some exciting matches at 10K Lakes this weekend. We are hoping that our double-sided intake will be worth the effort. Since we only have 2 minor things to do on Thursday morning, our plan is to be out practicing all day Thursday.

I challenge anyone try to score more low goals than us in a 1v1 practice match. I hope 2052* comes out so that we can crush them, since our intake is at least twice as good as theirs. :p

I am also very interested to see who will win Chairman's and EI. Minnesota is still young, but there are many great up and coming teams that will finally be recognized through these awards.

(*my old team)

Re: 2014 10,000 Lakes Regional
 

How about a regional right on the MN / WI border - close enough that it's an easy trip for Iowa teams - and in an area that is both growing in FRC teams, yet ripe for explosive growth? Hmmmm. Wherever could that be.


Just a thought :)

Re: 2014 10,000 Lakes Regional
 

We're in the process of making quite a few improvements so we hope to use all day Thursday to get everything up and running at full strength. I'm not positive we'll have time but I really would love a little 1v1 exhibition match against you guys. I have heard quite a few good things about your bot :)

Re: 2014 10,000 Lakes Regional
 

I always loved that name, Chicken Bot Pie :)

See you in the pits at 10K, I'll be pit announcer most of Thursday and all day Friday

Re: 2014 10,000 Lakes Regional
 

Team 2502 is excited to be at 10,000 lakes again this year! We've been working really hard making improvements to our robot since Duluth. Robot reliability has been our biggest focus, because we had a little trouble with that in the qualifying matches in Duluth. Can't wait to see all the great robots this weekend!

Good luck to everyone!

Re: 2014 10,000 Lakes Regional
 

Seeing as we had some real trouble fielding enough volunteers for our 4 regionals this year (it's really been a headache for some reason), I doubt we'll be looking to try to fill out 12 district events (we've done the math - that's how many we would need) any time soon!

Re: 2014 10,000 Lakes Regional
 

Thanks! I can't wait to see 2052's robot in action this year in person! I hope we will have the chance to play with you guys this year too. good luck!:D

Re: 2014 10,000 Lakes Regional
 

Agreed. I think we'd see a fifth regional before districts. Plus, who wants to leave 525 out (again)?

While I'd like to see districts (more matches, more events), I don't think it's feasible. One thing areas with districts have over us is they've had area-wide participation in FRC for a while (I at least know this is true for Michigan and out East - not 100% certain on PNW). As far as I know, the oldest still-active team in MN is eight years old. Anyone care to fact-check me?

Point is, they've had years of students who've graduated, gone off to college, and come back to volunteer. Minnesota doesn't really have that. Our biggest assets as a region have been growth and sustainability - I haven't seen (looking at usfirst.org) many MN teams fold, and growth was huge in the late 2000s and early 2010s. Hopefully, as more kids graduate and come back to volunteer, we'll have enough volunteers to make more regionals or districts work.

Ideally, I'd like to see a district that includes several Midwest states (the Dakotas, Iowa, Wisconsin, for instance), even if it's temporary - just to allow for and encourage growth in the Dakotas and Iowa. I don't think we should be making districts that exclude these areas until they have their own regional, at the very least.

My $0.03 (since that was longer than intended).

Anyway, very excited for this regional. My birthday is actually tomorrow, and this regional is going to be enough celebration for me. :D

Re: 2014 10,000 Lakes Regional
 

It's just Minnesota without access to PSEO, and with public finance laws that Tax Increment Finance coordinators complain to their children about. :p

We love you, Wisconsin/East Minnesota teams. :)

No Defense Thursday?
 

After missing last year because my California Team was competing, I am so happy to be back as your Game Announcer. As everyone knows, defense IS an integral part of the game and will make scoring tough. One thing I would like to suggest is that teams avoid playing hard defense during practice matches on Thursday. Thursday is meant as a day for teams to practice, perfect strategies, scoring, fine tune their robots and some teams just learning how to drive their robot. We don't do game announcing on Thursdays because it seems to add a competitive feel to the practices.

So as you set your robots on the field, talk with the opposing alliance and think about no defense Thursdays to help teams with the basics. Just a thought.

Looking forward to seeing all the teams.

Re: 2014 10,000 Lakes Regional
 

I think the best place for this 5th Minnesota Regional would logically be Mankato. There are a bunch of FRC teams in southern Minnesota who have to go up to either Minneapolis, Duluth or out of state, spend money on lodging and travel there, and have no real alternatives in the area. Mankato is centrally located and has the Verizon Wireless Center downtown with a large hockey rink area. It is much like Mariucci with just a little less seating in its crowd set-up. It also has ballrooms connected to it if pits could not just be behind the hockey floor space. Plus, up the hill, Minnesota State University has a beautiful basketball arena with a lot of space near it, including Minnesota's largest indoor field house connected to it just down the hall. MSU has been doing well in their winter sports lately, so scheduling before mid to late March in either location may be an issue if they continue the trend. However, if you are really looking to do something in Minnesota, those are my suggestions. Thanks, and good luck!

Re: 2014 10,000 Lakes Regional
 

Congrats to our old partner in Duluth, 2052, and our final's opponent there, 3313, along with 2227! It was a fun finals to watch, as soon as I figured out where to find it on-line. I know 3313 had not ever made it to St. Louis as a team before, so 3018 looks forward to seeing you there for your first appearance. Maybe they'll put all us Minnesota teams in one of the four divisions - that would be pretty fun. Great job!

Re: 2014 10,000 Lakes Regional
 

Wow. That's all I've got to say (not completely true). Great refs, great volunteers, great game. 4536 went out and did great, and I am so proud of all of them. We decided to forgo any kind of shooter on day 2 of build, and instead build an awesome picker-upper/passer/assister/catcher/low goal scorer, and we succeeded at this. We ended up tying 2052 for total ASSIST points (400).

We had a spectacular alliance that realistically could have beaten out the 2-seed had 3202 not broken down. Still though, it was a blast. 2705 was an absolutely amazing high goal scorer. I think I only saw them miss one ball the entire eliminations, and that was because someone hit them right as they were shooting. I was pleasantly surprised that they were still around for the 4th pick, and again surprised when they actually accepted our invitation. 2705 has come so close to winning so many times now, I really hope they get the recognition they deserve in the near future. 3202 was an awesome second pick. They consistently caught the ball in their net, and pushed it out without issue every time. In the downtime, they played great D in our near zone.

My biggest surprise of the entire event was finding out that 2502 was picked 14th overall. 14th! Seriously, they were one of the top 5 shooters without a doubt, and their drive train blew everyone's mind. We didn't even put 2502 on our list because we were so sure that someone would pick them. Lesson learned there (since we could have had them as the 12th pick).

We are currently scrambling to see if we can afford to go to champs, since we qualified from 2052's wildcard. I hope we can go. Either way, we should be able to go to the state championship (assuming we qualify), which will be a ton of fun.

Shout out to Logan Mildenberger, one of the Dean's List Finalists. Logan is absolutely the best, and he has helped 2052 to continue to succeed even after they had major brain-drain last year.

That's all for now, but I might post another whole page later. :o

Re: 2014 10,000 Lakes Regional
 

inkling16, yes the MinuteBots along with your whole alliance was very good and gave the 2nd seed alliance some tough competition. I too am impressed with 2705's bot this year. WE Robot is consistently very good, I'm quite certain they are on the threshold of taking the next step.

Re: 2014 10,000 Lakes Regional
 

WOW! What a Regional.

I'm scared to even list out all of the thank you's that I would need to because I know I would miss someone. But here goes something...

I could write a book about how amazing knightkrawler 2052 as a group has been to us this year. Troy and the other coaches were always so kind and friendly. Logan is an amazing team member and a wonderful person. The entire cheering section was great too.

10,000 Lakes was definitely more of a struggle for our team, robot competition wise, than Lake Superior. Our drive train blew out in the semifinals. Knightkrawler's wonderful pick up system saved the day for our alliance for sure.

2227 was great to work with as well. They're team members were super nice and always had a positive attitude.

It's super special to me that our alliance won by basically doing 3 assists and 1 pt goals (with a last second truss mixed in of course). I think that's the sort of thing that the GDC had in mind with this game. Not the defensive WAR OF ATTRITION that Lake Superior was but the cooperation and passing and, well, assisting that 10,000 Lakes showed.

So many teams at 10,000 Lakes have been an inspiration to us in so many different ways. Our West Central friends of 2538 and 3244 were fun to talk to between matches. 2508 stopped by our pit to chat as well, they were great partners. I spoke a lot with 2500 and am super happy they won EI. We loved eating dinner with 3184 and 2470 on Friday night. There are a ton more that I'm just not thinking of right now but it was all great.

I'll never forget my first Regional there in 2011. We built an enormous scissor lift with mecanums. I kid you not. We also spray painted our bumpers outside the arena in the wind. Then we spent 2 matches in a row with the numbers upside down. Seeing the engineering and presentations that teams put on definitely inspired me and the team members to do better the next year. I don't know where I'm going with this except that a lot can change in 3 years.

Thank you to all the teams who competed so hard. Thank you to all the INCREDIBLE volunteers who helped put it on. The FTA, Chris, was fantastic.

We are so excited for St. Louis. We hope to see everyone at 10K next year!

Re: 2014 10,000 Lakes Regional
 

If anyone has the video of the third simifinal match between alliance 1 and alliance 4 I would love to see it! Thanks

Re: 2014 10,000 Lakes Regional
 

As usual, another awesome MN event! A huge thanks to all of the volunteers "behind the scenes" who make it happen day in and day out (and in the case of the "fashionably late" North Star field ... night out).

Congratulations to all teams for completing this year's tough challenge. All the robots continued to improve throughout the weekend and, as far as I know, our only explosion was when 3313's cart spontaneously popped a tire on the field. :)

We continue to be inspired by the amazing things teams bring to the table, not just in their creative robots but also in their mascots, carts, pit set ups, and never-ending enthusiasm and drive. I hope that all participants went home having learned something new.

Congrats to all deserving award winners, especially Chairman's winners 3313 Mechatronics. You guys have redefined what it means to be FIRST in MN and we are in awe of what you do. We wanted you to get that ticket to your first Champs, but you never needed our help. 2500 Herobotics, congrats on the EI and to your Dean's List Finalist Emelia Skagen. Your team continues to be an inspiration to us all. We had some impressive rookies yet again, with Rookie Inspiration winner 5271 bringing an effective robot and awesome mascot well beyond their years, and Rookie All-Star/Highest Rookie Seed 5019 adding to the impressive array of teams from the LaCrosse area. A special shout-out to one of our hub teams, 2846 Firebears, on the Imagery Award. Your creativity, construction, and of course LED light show are always impressive. We were honored and humbled to be presented the Gracious Professionalism Award. We can only begin to try to emulate the teams who have earned it before and from whom we have received so much help over the years.

All of the elimination matches were great, and the finals were an exciting showdown of two great alliances playing the game strategically, as designed. It's too bad that all robots weren't fully functional for all matches, as it would have been fun to see what they could really do.

Finally, congrats to our own Logan Mildenberger on the much deserved Dean's List Finalist selection. KnightKrawler will miss him next year, but I expect FIRST will continue to benefit from his contributions. He has big shoes to fill since our other two past Dean's List Finalists between them have already become mentors, inspectors, safety glasses advisor, FTAA, field supervisor, GoFIRST officer, and Finalist drive coach. No pressure Logan. ;)

Re: 2014 10,000 Lakes Regional
 

Unfortunately my team had to leave early as the first alternate because we didn't eat lunch thinking we would be drafted as 14th seed. Who ended up winning the elimination tournament?

Re: 2014 10,000 Lakes Regional
 

You can always look it up on http://thebluealliance.com but here is the results of all of the alliances.

1.) 2181, 2498, 3082 (SF)
2.) 2052, 3313, 2227 (W)
3.) 3038, 3007, 2502 (SF)
4.) 4536, 2705, 3202 (F)
5.) 3299, 2987, 2232 (QF)
6.) 2508, 5019, 3244 (QF)
7.) 3745, 2855, 2823 (QF)
8.) 3751, 2529, 3407 (QF)

Re: 2014 10,000 Lakes Regional
 

Thanks for the website link.

Re: 2014 10,000 Lakes Regional
 

No problem if you haven't heard of the blue alliance you are in for a treat :D

Re: 2014 10,000 Lakes Regional
 

Our media person recorded this match, and I have asked him for all of the raw match footage, so I will post this video when I get it (hopefully sometime in the next few days). I personally really want to see this match as well. After the match, our alliance was a little confused because the score shown seemed lower than it should have been. The head referee came to our alliance after discussing with the other refs and said that they had not scored one of our cycles real-time, and that the score shown before the screen went blank was still shorting us these points. I really hope that this didn't effect your alliance's strategy during play.

The 1 seed was an awesome competitor. 2498 and 2181 were great teams (we got the qualification high score with them) and 3082 rounded that alliance well. As a testament to 3082's good defense, the 2705 driver was somewhat frustrated after match 1 because 3082 played such good defense on him. In the next matches, our team tried to counter your defense (with varying success).

Re: 2014 10,000 Lakes Regional
 

We would love to see the video of the last semi-final match as well. Would it be possible for you to post it on thebluealliance? Congrats on your performance! You guys had an awesome bot and it was fun to be in the qualification high score match with you. Hopefully we will get to work together again at State (assuming we qualify).

Re: 2014 10,000 Lakes Regional
 

Thanks so much for the update. We had a lot of fun competing and wish you guys the best of luck at state!