2014 midwest regional
 

I haven't seen a thread for it yet so I thought I'd start one.

I'm personally super excited for Midwest this year! Looks like we've got a fantastic lineup of teams - Congrats to 1732 for winning Wisconsin and 1625 for ranking 3rd. 71 and 2451 both performed spectacularly at crossroads and central IL - I can't wait to see what improvements they've made to their machines since then.

Can't wait until Thursday rolls around!

Arpan, team 3061

Re: 2014 midwest regional
 

Reports show that 1625, 2338, and 2451 were practicing at the bot shop in Winnebago, while 1675, 1732, and 2062 were up in Oshkosh getting some practice in as well (thanks Wave!).

Should shape up to be a pretty competitive regional (both in robot and non-robot aspects)!

Re: 2014 midwest regional
 

HUGE thanks again to 2826 Wave Robotics!

After a two year absence, 1732 is excited be back at Midwest. While it may not have the depth that Wisconsin had, I think it will be competitive at the top with five teams battling to be the best robot at the event. Should be exciting.

Re: 2014 midwest regional
 

I guarantee 1781 is coming back with a vengeance ;)
Quite a few modifications were made with both our Crossbow shooter and our intake. We'll be a force to reckon with.

Re: 2014 midwest regional
 

Five teams?
I count at least 8 who I'd consider top tier just based on excellent performance at previous regionals, with 111 as a wild card (I'm sure I'm missing great robots here too).

71 -Fantastic shooting on the run, double sided collection.
1625 -Incredibly long distance shooting. Can inbound from offensive human player and shoot without moving.
1675 - Nice short shots, effective drivetrain
1732 - Mecanum collector, 2 ball autonomous, HAS THE THUNDER BELLOWS
2338 - Fast and pushy with an accurate shot
2451 -Reminds me of 2056's killer robot, but on a swerve drive.
3061 - Fast and pushy, accurate shot

If you don't agree with him, then prove him wrong. I for one am kinda curious of what 5 teams he's referring to though...

Re: 2014 midwest regional
 

Midwest will be tough enough without giving 49 teams additional motivation :cool:

My main point is that although Midwest is a week 6 event, there isn't much clarity (especially at the top). While I feel there are five teams who will be in the coversation for sure, there is a handful of other teams looking to take the next step and join that group and over 50% of the teams haven't even played yet. Should make for an exciting and unpredictable event.

Re: 2014 midwest regional
 

Darn, now I'm curious too! :ahh:

Totally agreed on the unpredictable part. Very flat at the top - should make for some exciting eliminations matches. If 111 is still experiencing problems, it'll be interesting to see who rises up to challenge the perennial 2451-1625 alliance.

Re: 2014 midwest regional
 

I echo our thanks to WAVE for opening their facilities and giving us valuable practice time on their full field.

There will be lots of good teams ready for Midwest, should be exciting.

Re: 2014 midwest regional
 

We finished our new improvement while packing today :)

See everyone Thursday!

Re: 2014 midwest regional
 

Outside of seeing robots in week 0 events or through other means, there are 24 bots attending Midwest that have a regional this year for us to look to. Out of those 24 teams, 10 have made it to eliminations, and 7 of those had a winning record: 71, 1625, 1732, 2338, 2451, 2506, and 3061.

I'm looking forward to an exciting elims, hopefully the alliances balance out.

Re: 2014 midwest regional
 

I don't quite know about perennial. Only the last two years haha. Nothing like the streak 1114 and 2056 have had in the past.

Who knows how alliance selection will shake out this year. Midwest always has something crazy happen.

-Nick

Re: 2014 midwest regional
 

Maybe I spoke too soon in my previous post :rolleyes:



Good luck to all teams participating.

-Nick

Re: 2014 midwest regional
 

We had a lot of fun at Midwest (as we always do)

Congrats to 2451, 1625, and 5125. Your alliance was incredible to watch all elims. We thought 5125 was an absolute steal getting all the way back to you at number 1, definitely among the best defenders at the regional. We later learned that the team was basically only 4-5 members, and all of the students were 7th graders. (This is all second hand, so feel free to correct me if this is incorrect). Still very impressive performance by the rookie which was probably heavily overlooked. Also wanted to give a shout out to our pit neighbors and friends from 1625 who had hosted 5 of the top 8 teams in the regional at their shop for practice in the weeks leading up to the regional.

Also wanted to give a big Congratulations to our friends from 1732 for their Chairman's award win. We had a blast having our pit next to you all weekend, and the award is well deserved. Your incredible season is a fitting tribute to Andrew's memory.

Thanks to our partners in the Flaming Bear Squad alliance, 2358 and 3352. We had a blast playing with both of you, wouldn't have changed a thing despite the results. Hope to run in to you both again in the future.

Now I'm going to go to take about a week long nap.

Re: 2014 midwest regional
 

Yeah, that's right. They brought enough kids to fill out a drive team, and they had one mentor who had been with 4096 before. Because they needed a lot of help to get running, there were people from other teams that were helping out throughout the competition that I guess became unofficial members. Off the top of my head, there was someone from 3061, 2022, and myself, along with a volunteer who did a great job filling in the mentor role, but I'm probably missing someone (sorry!). Various teams helped out with parts and tools too. I think that this team became the posterboard example of what first is all about: helping everyone get the most out of the experience, learning as much as they can while still having fun.

Re: 2014 midwest regional
 

Thanks to UPS and Bearbotics for a fun eliminations! Despite the replay and outcome, I still had a blast driving in my first elimination match. I look forward to many more, and hope to see you guys next year, or maybe sooner.:)
Go Flaming Bear Squad!

Re: 2014 midwest regional
 

CORE team 2062 would like to thank our alliance partners for helping us make it to the semi finals. A big shout out to team 695 for picking us on their alliance. Congrats to teams 5125, 1625, 2451 on your championship and dominance. You were inspiring and humbling to watch.

I'm thankful for meeting so many great people at this event and hope friendships are developed in the future.

Another big shout out to big Al. Watching you work and get everyone up and running is incredible to see. Very nice facilities and location, great MC and announcers. Now if we could only get FIRST to update the music....... Lol

Re: 2014 midwest regional
 

Thanks to all who mentioned our team and congradulated us on our win. I also would like to thank our alliance partners #2451, Pwnage and #1625, Winnovation. Thanks to all who helped out to get our robot running on the field.
Overall the midwest regional was a blast. All teams did a great job competing.

Re: 2014 midwest regional
 

It is always a pleasure being at a competition with UPS, I hope to see you in the off season!

I want to thank 2338 for returning the favor and picking us this year, you guys have an excellent robot and team. I want to apologize to 2338 and 3936 for our bumper issue. After a weekend of wanting to blame things on someone else, we ended up shooting ourselves in our own foot.

The alliance of 2451, 1625, and 5125 was going to be very difficult to beat even if we kept our bumpers on. All of you certainly deserved the win and I look forward to seeing you at CMP. I loved that we got a chance to play with 1625 during quals for I believe the first time in team history. 2451 that swerve drive is incredible, we talked about experimenting with a similar design this summer the whole ride back to Milwaukee.

I want to give our safety captains a lot of credit for getting the #1 for Pit Safety Award and runner up in the overall safety award. This is the most effort our team has ever put in to safety so it is great to see their work rewarded.

Re: 2014 midwest regional
 

Feel free to message me with any questions! I believe you guys have already seen the pictures and CAD file we posted to CD a few days ago.

While I was not at the regional, I would first like to thank all of the referees and field management personnel who did a fantastic job this weekend. I think this might have been the first event I watched where there weren't absurd calls being made and there weren't a ton of matches decided by a technical foul. I think the game actually played out how FIRST envisioned it before the season started and it made eliminations fantastic to watch.

I would also like to thank our alliance partners 1625 and 5125 for helping make an amazing alliance. 5125, as rookies you guys performed so well; there's very few teams whether veteran or rookie that can drive as well especially playing defense as you did. I can't wait to see how your team improves before STL and for next year.

1625, I am so glad that we were able to win this event together. After 3 straight partnerships in 2012-2013, it was great to finally see the magic happen. Fantastic bot and I look forward to seeing you guys compete at STL.

A big shout out to 2338 as well. You guys had an amazing robot and I am very glad that we were able to practice with you a few times leading up to the regional. I wish you guys had qualified for STL because the World Championships will be missing a high caliber robot. Any chance you guys are on the waiting list?

Overall, a great regional and congrats to all the teams. Can't wait for another Midwest regional (or will it be a district event?).

-Nick

Re: 2014 midwest regional
 

On behalf of 2338, I'd like to give a congratulations to all teams in attendance, but especially:
2451, 1625, and 5125 for a great win and 2 tough matches.
Our alliance partners and fellow finalists 1732 and 3936.
Another congrats to 1732 for Chairman's and 4645 for Engineering Inspiration.

As someone who interviewed for the Dean's List, I definitely want to congratulate Arpan from 3061, and Jacqueline from 4645.

Thank you so much for the kind words.
Sadly, even if we could make it from the wait list, we wouldn't be able to attend. Our sponsors will only cover the entrance fee if we qualify.

It's sad that my time as a student is now over... I was hoping for it to last all the way through April...

We had a great time practicing with 2451 and 1625, and had a great time competing with all other teams at Midwest.

Hopefully I see everyone again as a mentor of a Chicago team, seeing as I am going to school at DePaul.

I will hopefully see some of you again as a spectator at STL.

Re: 2014 midwest regional
 

What's the status of Illinois and Indiana joining the District system? Has anything official been announced? I enjoyed Midwest this year (and in 2011 when we last played there) and had a lot of fun at Boilermaker in 2012 and 2013. I'll miss those events and all the teams that we got to meet down there.

Huge congrats to the winning alliance. Even before Midwest started, some of our scouting team figured that if 2451 and 1625 teamed up the Regional would be over. It was a lot of fun getting to play in elims with 2338 again. Thanks for making us a part of your alliance. Thanks to 3936, too, for the great assist work. I'm surprised that you were still available to be picked as late as you were.

I got to see a lot of good coopertition and gracious professionalism in the pits this weekend. Seeing a crowd of mentors and students from several teams help Team Borusan re-do their electrical system (which wasn't too scary once that huge custom circuit slathered in solder was removed) and work on getting the robot into a legal configuration despite the language barrier and types of parts that nobody had ever seen before was great. Getting to help work on 4551's pneumatic system was fun, too. The huge crowd in 5125's pit during lunch on Saturday was another highlight. I'm sure that I missed a lot of GP, but those are the big examples that I saw.

Finally, I look forward to seeing a lot of you in a few weeks in Saint Louis! It'll be fun getting to see great teams like 1625, 2451, and 111 at another event before their state is potentially shut down to Wisconsin teams.

Re: 2014 midwest regional
 

Sorry, just can't agree with this statement. I was there and saw just the opposite. I saw over zealous refs who do not know all the rules. It appeared that the number of games with significant fouls was high until quarter finals. The number of field resets was unacceptable. Young children (no matter how cute) should not be handling field elements and jeopardizing the fate of teams who have worked hard to get there.

Re: 2014 midwest regional
 

You mean like an autonomous ball resting inside of the goal and bouncing back into the field once the match started forcing a replay? Or mysterious technical fouls being awarded after matches ended that change results?

How about damage inside of the perimeter apparently not meaning anything? Because the 7 refs somehow "didn't see it"? I could start ranting about specific matches, but, like Wes said in his post, "After a weekend of wanting to blame things on someone else" and after what I thought was a very well refereed Wisconsin Regional, I am really frustrated by a lot of calls. I can't really blame the refs for not being able to handle the huge burden that they were handed, but some of it was aggravating. I'm looking forward to when match videos are posted so that I can raise my blood pressure again.

Re: 2014 midwest regional
 

I was in no way saying there weren't mistakes or that every match was called perfectly. It just seemed like compared to a lot of regionals this season, it ran better, especially compared to earlier this season (week 1 and week 3 anyone?).

If you would like to see a lot of replays pile up, I suggest checking out what happened at the Las Vegas regional this year.

-Nick

Re: 2014 midwest regional
 

Ya I kinda agree with Sunshine. Hammond actually lost a couple matches because the opposing alliance pinned their ball against the wall for about 40 seconds and no fouls whatsoever were called. Wildstang, Winnovation, and a couple other teams were penalized for high-speed ramming when it was obvious the opposing alliance purposely got in their way when they were traversing down the field. One of the drivers from the Hilltoppers specifically asked if this exact scenario would be considered high-speed ramming and the head ref said no. There was quite a bit of inconsistency unfortunately and some of our scouts said that there were about two or three matches that should of been won by the other alliance but improper scoring and/or lack of calling fouls affected who won.

Re: 2014 midwest regional
 

I agree that some calls were bad, and they affected us greatly. In match 72, against our future alliance partners 1732, we lost by 49 points because we received a g27 tech for ramming. We were about 4-5 feet away in low gear and hit someone. It pushed them upwards slightly, so they called it "high-speed" ramming. It is what it is, but that win would have made us the #1 seed...

Also in eliminations, i think every match we had fouls called on our alliance, and as far as I know, we didn't do very much wrong, besides the one opponent ball possession. They didn't change any of the outcomes, but it was just annoying and seemingly unjust.

Semis 2.2 was just plain unbelievable. 1732 we entered by someone, (I believe 71), and had their ziptied battery unplugged and ziptie broken, and a pneumatic fitting broken.

All matches probably went the way they should, but weird calls were a constant annoyance throughout the competition.

Re: 2014 midwest regional
 

High speed ramming was certainly called differently here than at Wisconsin. At Wisconsin is was simply full speed collisions that were called. Who they awarded the penalty to seemed random. At Midwest it seemed that they penalized teams for hits on another team that resulted in obvious damage. In our match against each other our partners battery was lifted out of them by the hit. I don't think it should have been high speed ramming but the match might have turned out differently had they not been disabled for their battery hanging out.

As far as the semis match you referenced with 71. I think the fault for the collision was on both teams but it happened that 71's pickup was down at the time. Though we had damage inside the perimeter after nearly every elims match such as broken cylinders, cracked fittings, ripped LED strands, and our Thunder Flaps being nearly ripped off their mounts. These damages were shown to refs and they just said they did not see it happen.

I certainly hope all the refs are on the same page at CMP. Even if they are calling things a bit differently, I just want to know in advance.

Re: 2014 midwest regional
 

I was personally thrilled 3936 was still there at #23. Their defensive and driving ability was impressive at NY Tech Valley and when they added their manipulator at Midwest, I knew they would be a fantastic alliance partner. I was surprised the "Assist Bot" wasn't picked earlier.

Thanks again to 2338 for picking us. I thoroughly enjoyed talking 3rd partner before alliance selections and strategy during our elimination run. Hopefully we see you at some offseason competitions this summer as you built your best robot this year.

In terms of some of the calls, there were some weird calls and some missed penalties. I've never attended a perfect regional. At the end of the day, however, the best two teams and the best alliance won. The refs would have had to really screw up to keep them from claiming gold. While I wish we were at full strength to give them a close match, I have no problem losing to 2451/1625/5125. Congrats, you all certainly earned it.

Re: 2014 midwest regional
 

Yes, HUGE shout out to both 1625 and 5125 for their incredible contributions to the #1 seeded alliance's success in eliminations. As an alliance, we far surpassed the expectations our scouting directive group had when we hashed out our pick lists.

DohertyBilly and Smitty1707 spoke on this earlier, but for those of you who haven't already heard, 5125 is a part of an FTC oriented organization who expanded to FRC this year. They had an FTC competition in Iowa as well as the Midwest Regional in the same weekend and ended up sending essentially a drive team comprised of seventh graders, a mentor who had previously been a part of 4096, and a parent of a student on the team to attend Midwest. On Thursday morning their robot was in violation of R3 A (the total length of the FRAME PERIMETER sides may not exceed 112 in.), and by Saturday afternoon they were shutting down some of the best teams and alliances that Midwest had to offer. On behalf of team 2451 and the #1 seeded alliance at Midwest, I would like to thank all of those, both individuals and teams, who helped contribute to their success at Midwest.

My thoughts exactly. After three straight regionals, and three straight PWNAGE Ultimate Alliance Partner Awards going to 1625, we were finally able to turn PWNavation into Winnage. Watching the two of us work together on the offensive end was nothing short of awe inspiring. From the stands it looked as if four hands of the same mind were controlling our robots.

We really enjoyed playing against the 2338/1732/3936 alliance in the finals. Those were some of the most intense matches of Midwest. We at PWNAGE are very proud to say that we had to go through the #2 seeded alliance at Midwest in order to claim our first ever regional championship.

As far as the refing at Midwest and in this game in general, I think we all can agree that this year refs have a lot of tough calls to make, and while they may not get them all right, they are trying to make the right calls to the best of their abilities. At Midwest there were a couple of times where contact inside the frame perimeter calls were missed such as the unfortunate contact resulting in damage to 1732, a couple of possession calls could have been called as Jibri Wright mentioned, and a few issues with the grey area that high-speed collision calls fall under could have been handled differently. I sympathize with anyone who feels they are victim of a bad call. The feeling you're left with after those matches and sometimes on after those regionals is one of the worst, but just as wesbass23 said all we can do is hope that the refs are all on the same page moving forward.

Re: 2014 midwest regional
 

Well, this is almost exactly what I was going to say lol. 3936 was one of those team numbers you almost don't want to write down because you are so sure they will be picked by time you have a chance to. Teaming up with them and 1732 was completely necessary if we wanted any hope of beating the world class 2451/1625/5125 alliance. Congrats to them and especially pwnage on their long overdue win.

Also, so proud of 4096 for finishing with the 4th seed and really coming to play in elims. Thanks to 71 for the dominant offensive play and to 2506, it was very gracious to risk your spot in eliminations in order to update everyone on the status of your bot, was definitely the right choice to stick with you.

Overall, great regional, we obviously would have loved to qualify for championships but the best teams really did win and the run they had in elims was nothing short of art, must have been something in that Winnebago water.

Re: 2014 midwest regional
 

HUGE shout out too 2451 and 5125 for our first win in five years! Winnovation decided we will start selling bottled air from our shop to sprinkle on bots! We knew the #2 alliance would be a challenge and we were right. You gave us a run for our money! But we are excited to once again go back to STL for the first time in 3 years! Can't wait to see everyone down there on the field!:)

Re: 2014 midwest regional
 

For those of you who are sad because you think your season is over - gotta put in a quick plug for R2OC, being held in Rockford on July 26th. You can still play Aerial Assist if you wanna! www.r2oc.org/index.html

I hope this isn't too maudlin, but this really was one of those regionals where you wish there could be more than one winning alliance, because there were more than three teams of championship character and robotic abilities. There were several other teams that, but for small twist of fate, coulda/shoulda won. Gear It Forward, The Beast, Hilltoppers, Flaming Monkeys, UPS come to mind immediately, but you can all add to the list.

Always good to be in a competition with Flaming Monkeys, because you can hear people in the stands yelling things like, "Shoot, Monkey, Shoot!" And Flaming Bear Squad NEEDS to be a band name:)

Finally, I want to acknowledge Team 5350, Chicago Hope. These guys came in with no prior experience or even exposure to FRC, and by lunch on Saturday realized they could do this, they could play with "the big boys", and they are pumped for next year.

Luckily, 1732 Hilltoppers won Wisconsin and won RCA at Midwest so I hope to see them at CMP!!

Re: 2014 midwest regional
 

We will certainly be attending, and with better bumper mounts too!

Re: 2014 midwest regional
 

. . . Although I do apologize to you for pronouncing C.O.R.E.'s hometown wrong a few times. I asked a team member early on how to say "Waukesha," (I'm not from the Midwest) but I was mostly concerned with the second syllable, not the last one.

Another apology for not calling FIRST Responders by their preferred name and instead using the one in the FMS (BisonBots) during their first elim match; I wrote the new name in on all of my announcer sheets, but got new ones for elims and didn't have the chance to fix them before my mind was turned off so I could frantically get through sponsors as fast as I could.

Thanks for the shout-out, nonetheless! And thanks to everyone else who thanked me for announcing and volunteering this weekend; it's my favorite volunteer role! I went to three regionals this year, and Midwest was super fun to watch, as always!

-Purple-haired-announcer Kori

Re: 2014 midwest regional
 

Kori,

I really enjoyed your announcing. I liked that you told what the penalties were and what they meant.
I overheard that you might be coming to the R2OC this summer?

Yeah, definitely planning on announcing R2OC again this summer if I can get out of work!

Re: 2014 midwest regional
 

What do you mean Dennis? Are you saying the hokey pokey isn't cool any more?

Re: 2014 midwest regional
 

I just want to say Congratulations to 2451, 1625, and 5125. What a great alliance! We knew all along that those finals matches were going to be tough. If we had to lose, I'm glad we lost to friends. The teamwork and coordination between PWNAGE and Winnovation was beautiful (unless you were opposing them). PWNAGE's swerve is gorgeous. We knew that we wouldn't be able to stop them from scoring. And Winnovation laying down those picks and screens was awesome. To 1732 and 3936, we could not have asked for a better alliance in the elims. We fought through multiple hurdles and were able to make it through to the finals with great teamwork even as each of us experienced problems. It was a lot of fun being able to work with the Hilltoppers again. We wish we could be competing with you all in St. Louis but that's just not in the cards this year. We'll all be rooting for you! Good luck and if you need anything Gear it Forward is here to help. We will see you at R2OC and hopefully IRI this summer!

Re: 2014 midwest regional
 

I echo the congrats to 1625, 5125, and 2451. You all are incredible teams and totally deserve to go to world championships! Your alliance was probably one of the best that I've seen - in my mind it rivaled the windsor 2056 - 1114 alliance!
2451's swerve drive was incredible; the machine was probably one of the best that I've ever seen.
See you in St. Louis!

Re: 2014 midwest regional
 

It was a pleasure teaming up with you guys, though of course it didn't end up like we'd hoped. We're still wondering who was able to get laminated Flaming Bear Squad signage made so fast.. :yikes: Trying to figure out if we can make it to Rockford, fingers crossed!

Congratulations to the absolutely dominant 1625/2451/5125 alliance! We were following 5125's rise to defensive powerhouse, it was so great to see them finish off the way they did.

Re: 2014 midwest regional
 

The laminated signs came out so fast thanks to one of our members getting online to find a logo as soon as our alliance was complete, and one of our mentors bringing along a heat laminator. I think it was a great way to bring our alliance together, and we will definitely bring it along for future alliances.

Hope to see you at R^2OC!

Re: 2014 midwest regional
 

I never saw the sign:(
Pics?

Re: 2014 midwest regional
 

As soon as one of our team members said "Flaming Bear Squad", one of our alliance members (not sure if it was a monkey or a bear) ran off and showed up with this after about 2 minutes.

https://twitter.com/FRCTeam3352/stat...03857709334528

We cut one out and put the Flaming Bear Squad logo on our puncher as well. I believe I also saw one on top of the Monkeys' bot.

Re: 2014 midwest regional
 

Too, too cool.:cool:

Re: 2014 midwest regional
 

Here's the official Flaming Bear Squad Logo: https://twitter.com/FRCTeam3352/stat...073344/photo/1

Re: 2014 midwest regional
 

Congratulations to the winning alliance and good luck them in champs!

Our team ranked 13th after qualification matches, we played quarters against 1732 3936 2338 with 2704 4241 and lost after 3 matches. It was a great season for us. We ranked 48th at MWR last year, our robot didn't even work mostly and with this disappoinment we worked much this season and tried to do our best. Midwest Regional left some really good memories on our team. Thanks for every team welcoming us!

Re: 2014 midwest regional
 

I'm a bit late here, but what a fantastic regional, as always! I've been attending the Midwest Regional since 1999 and it gets better and better every year. The staff is so friendly and the teams are awesome. Special shout out to the teams from Turkey - we got to play WITH all four teams, and each one was a real pleasure to work with!

I loved having 1625 and 1732 as our pit neighbors - we even used the "back door" entrance through 1732's pit a few times :p

Congrats to 1625, 2451, and 5125 for an absolutely DOMINANT performance. And huge congrats to 1732 for a well deserved Chairman's Award - you are a team that truly embodies all of FIRST and it is a pleasure to know and work with your team.

For Team 1675, this was probably our best and most complete regional performance ever. We won a match 1 vs 3. We were undefeated until we hit the gauntlet of facing 1625, 2338, 2451, 71, and 1732 in consecutive matches (EEK!). Our pit crew kept our robot in tip-top shape even when our break-away forks came off with our 4 match turnarounds in our schedule. So proud of the team - AND our first ever engineering award!!

Despite the way the replay of QF4-2 was handled and our season ultimately being cut short, we had a blast, and can't wait for next year! Thanks to 2358 and 3352 for playing with us and fully embracing the Flaming Bear Squad. Good luck to both of you in the future!

And if IL does go to Districts, can IL annex Milwaukee, just for FIRST??