Cowtown Throwdown 2014
 

Thought I would start the thread for this year's Cowtown Throwdown. As usual it looks like it is going to be a great group of teams. Thanks to Teams 1730 - Team Driven, and 2001 HERMES for putting on the event.

I'm curious as to what FMS we will be using at Cowtown this year. Any chance we might use Cheesy Arena? I've heard so many good things about it.

Here is the team list according to the event website: http://cttd-robotics.com/

44 Teams are signed up. Usually they have a capacity of 48.

Team # Team Name - School Name
16 Bomb Squad - Mountain Home High School
938 Team Botman - Central Heights High School
967 Iron Lions - Linn-Mar High School
1094 Channel Cats - River City Robots
1108 Panther Robotics - Paola High School
1444 Lightning Lancers - Engineering and Technology for Lutheran Youth
1619 Up-A-Creek Robotics - Career Development Center
1723 "The FBI" - Independence School District
1730 Team Driven - Lee's Summit High School
1764 Liberty Robotics - Liberty Public Schools
1769 Digital Hawks - J.C. Harmon High School
1775 Tiger Bytes - Lincoln College Preparatory
1777 Viking Robotics - Shawnee Mission West High School
1785 United Robocats - Blue Springs School District
1802 Team Stealth - Piper Robotics
1806 S.W.A.T. - Smithville High School
1810 Jaguar Robotics - Mill Valley High School
1825 Metro Homeschool Robotics - Metro Homeschool
1939 The Kuhnigits - The Barstow School
1982 Cougar Robotics - Shawnee Mission Northwest
1984 Raider Revolution Robotics - Shawnee Mission South
1985 Robohawks - Hazelwood Central High School
1986 Team Titanium - Lee's Summit West High School
1987 Broncobots - Lee's Summit North High School
1997 STAGrobotics - Bishop Miege
2001 HERMES - Ruskin High School
2335 Sargon - Shawnee Mission East
2345 Animal Control - Kearney High School
2346 Cel-Techs - Archbishop O'Hara High School
2410 Metal Mustang Robotics - Blue Valley CAPS Center
2874 Eagles - Grain Valley High School
3284 Camdenton 4H LASER - Camdenton High School
3397 Robolions - University City High School
3485 Cyclone Robotics - Bishop Ward High School
3528 Up Next! - KC Northland Homeschool
3612 GearHogs - Springdale High School
3792 Army Ants - Columbia Area Career Center
3928 FIRST Team Neutrino - Ames High School
3931 Cockadoodle Dominators - Chickasha High School
4329 Lutheran Roboteers - Lutheran High School St. Charles
4522 Team SCREAM - Smith-Cotton High School
4455 The Burger Bots - Warrensburg High School
5006 Apophis - Haas Hall Academy
6001 Rocky Balboabots - Booneville High School

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2014
 

Much more than a local tournament. It looks like we will have teams from Kansas and Missouri (Both sides of the State), plus Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, and Oklahoma.

Edit: Website confirms 48 team capacity
I wonder how many local teams will end up on a wait-list? Does KC need a 2nd offseason event?

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2014
 

Kind of a bummer that it's on Halloween...

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2014
 

It's fallen on Halloween before and it was a blast having everyone dress up in costumes.

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2014
 

Last year Cowtown Throwdown was the day after Halloween, which just gave our team (from Colorado) an excuse to eat lots of candy on the car ride over. I think it'd be pretty cool this year if teams brought candy to go trick-or-treating in the pits with while checking out the other robots.

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2014
 

4 Arkansas teams! 4 years ago, we didn't even have 4 teams total! Cool to see Championship Rookie All-Star 5006 and pre-rookie "6001" on the list. Rocky Balboabots will have competed 3 times before their first season even begins. They were on the finalist alliance at the Ozark Mountain Brawl and will be at the Gateway Robotics Challenge this coming Saturday.

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2014
 

Cow town ThrowDown planning team is hard at work getting ready for this years event. As mentioned we have a full slate of teams from 6 states with others on the wait list. So please have your payments in by Oct. 1st. If payment is not received the team will be moved to the bottom of the wait list. To answer the question on FMS we will be using the FIRST FMS system.

We will also again have the FLL scrimmage going on Saturday. Presently 10 teams are registered with an opening for 6 more teams.

Stay tuned for more information on events taking place during the 7th annual CTTD.

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2014
 

Cowtown Throwdown Mgmt,

In past years, some/all of the IRI Rule Changes have been used for the Throwdown. On this year’s Detailed Competition Information page, the Rules of the Game section indicates that no rule changes to the game will be made.
Is this just the initial/current position OR has the topic of incorporating IRI Rule changes been considered and declined already?

For those who attended or observed IRI this season, most felt the rule changes used there made the 2014 game far better than the “original” FRC game (as a competitor, an official and as an observer).

The elimination of the zone requirement for “Assists” and the adjustments to G12, G14 and G21 seemed to have the biggest impact on the game (and without requiring adjustment the game management software).

Please let us know if these rule changes could be considered. If not, what considerations lead to NOT incorporating these changes into this year’s Throwdown?

For other Cowtown participants who have experience with the IRI rule changes, please let us know your thoughts. Maybe the people I've heard from are a "biased" sample.

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2014
 

We have a meeting tonight to discuss rules for CowTown.

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2014
 

I think the small changes from the IRI rules are great. They're unintrusive tweaks that take advantage of hindsight to improve the experience for everybody.

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2014
 

About a month away. Took a sneak peek at where our participants were registering for their first events.

Team # Team Name Regional
0016 Bomb Squad ----- Arkansas - Wk 2
0938 Team Botman ----- Kansas City - Wk 3
0967 Iron Lions ----- MN North Star - Wk 6
1094 Channel Cats ----- St. Louis - Wk 4
1108 Panther Robotics ----- Arkansas - Wk 2
1444 Lightning Lancers ----- St. Louis - Wk 4
1619 Up-A-Creek Robotics ----- Colorado - Wk 5
1710 Ravonics Revolution ----- Unregistered
1723 "The FBI" ----- Kansas City - Wk 3
1730 Team Driven ----- Kansas City - Wk 3
1764 Liberty Robotics ----- Kansas City - Wk 3
1769 Digital Hawks ----- Kansas City - Wk 3
1775 Tiger Bytes ----- Kansas City - Wk 3
1777 Viking Robotics ----- Kansas City - Wk 3
1785 United Robocats ----- Kansas City - Wk 3
1802 Team Stealth ----- Kansas City - Wk 3
1806 S.W.A.T. ----- Kansas City - Wk 3
1810 Jaguar Robotics ----- Kansas City - Wk 3
1825 Metro Homeschool Robotics ----- Kansas City - Wk 3
1847 Bulldogs ----- Unregistered
1939 The Kuh-Nig-Its ----- Kansas City - Wk 3
1982 Cougar Robotics ----- Kansas City - Wk 3
1984 Raider Revolution Robotics ----- Unregistered
1985 Robohawks ----- St. Louis - Wk 4
1986 Team Titanium ----- St. Louis - Wk 4
1987 Broncobots ----- Kansas City - Wk 3
1997 STAGrobotics ----- Kansas City - Wk 3
2001 HERMES ----- Unregistered
2335 Sargon ----- Kansas City - Wk 3
2345 Animal Control ----- Kansas City - Wk 3
2346 Cel-Techs ----- Unregistered
2410 Metal Mustang Robotics ----- Kansas City - Wk 3
2874 Eagles ----- Kansas City - Wk 3
3284 Camdenton 4H LASER ----- St. Louis - Wk 4
3397 Robolions ----- St. Louis - Wk 4
3485 Cyclone Robotics ----- Unregistered
3528 Up Next! ----- Kansas City - Wk 3
3612 GearHogs ----- Lone Star, TX - Wk 6
3792 Army Ants ----- Kansas City - Wk 3
3928 FIRST Team Neutrino ----- MN North Star - Wk 6
3931 Cockadoodle Dominators ----- Oklahoma - Wk 5
4329 Lutheran Roboteers ----- St. Louis - Wk 4
4522 Team SCREAM ----- Oklahoma - Wk 5
4455 The Burger Bots ----- Kansas City - Wk 3
4646 ASAP ----- Kansas City - Wk 3
5006 Apophis ----- Arkansas - Wk 2
5013 Trobots ----- Kansas City - Wk 3
5437 Rocky Balboabots ----- Arkansas - Wk 2

5 teams attending CTTD who are still unregistered for the season. (Or on wait-lists)

Rocky Balboabots now have an official number. Not sure if they will be using it at CowTown. Welcome aboard 5437.

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2014
 

Though it might be a blast to be on Halloween mentors, coaches and even some of our members have obligations to children and their trick or treat bag

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2014
 

With the rule change for allowing a 4th ball but not changing any other rules during autonomous. Would this mean that an alliance can have all three robots in shooting position with one team having a second ball? Does that ball still have to be in contact with an alliance member?

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2014
 

The Cowtown officials will make the final call on this but I seem to recall at IRI that balls in excess of robots in the white zone starting position were essentially treated as if their "owner" was set up in the goalie zone. In other words, the 4th ball (if all 3 robots were already in contact with another ball) could be placed without contacting any robot.

This would translate to mean that if an alliance DID have a robot starting in the goalie zone, they could place 2 balls not contacting a robot for the start of auton if they desired.

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2014
 

Cheezy Arena would be pretty sweet! ;)

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2014
 

Hey Mike, you are correct with your Auton ball explanations, thanks ;)

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More cool news from this weekend, we have just upped the # of teams attending to 50!!!! Just waiting to hear back from the first couple of teams on the wait list, but I do know that FROG has accepted!!!!

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2014
 

This event keeps getting better. :)

Shocked that 525 is on the waitlist. They usually don't get to travel out of state for offseason events. Would love to see them come down if they can make it.

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We are looking forward to being there and seeing old friends. We received permission and by then we ended up on the wait list. We are feeling fortunate to be able to attend.

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Can't wait to see you guys again and hear about your latest travels of first around the world to China! I'm coming down to watch with one of my friends from 1987 :)

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Is it true that there's not currently a live feed planned for the event? If there isn't, 4329 is willing to provide the equipment and arrangements.

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2014
 

There is a live feed that will go out as well, not sure of the website location just yet. But we will post things once we know for sure. :)

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2014
 

The Operation: Code Clash team will be attending Cowtown with team 1619. We would love to have some of the teams participating in the competition (you know who you are) to stop by. For those of you who aren't competing there's more info here.

The competition is going to be great this year. I can't wait!

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2014
 

Here is the link to uStream live feed video for all of the Cow Town Throwdown matches. Hope that anyone and everyone watching enjoys!!

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/19181706

Hope everybody has a great weekend,
Wyatt

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2014
 

30 of the 50 teams attending this weekend saw elimination play during the regular season.

15 of the 50 teams attended the world championship, with 6 of those being selected in the elimination draft.

Thought it would be interesting to let the draft position from previous events create a pre-ranking list for Cow-Town. Points were accrued as follows.

1. 30 - your average regional draft position.
*Undrafted teams were given a draft position of 25.
*Pre-rookies were given an average draft position of 30.
*Captains were given the same draft positions as their 1st pick.

2. Championship bonus of 10% of 30-draft position.
*Teams attending champs, but not selected in the draft were given a 0.5 point boost. (10% of 30-25)
*Teams not attending champs were given a 0.0 point boost (10% of 30-30)

3. Ties are listed in order of team number.

Some teams have made significant improvements to their machines over the offseason. Can't wait to see everyone again. Have fun scouting.

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2014
 

Excited to be headed out in the morning to help represent Arkansas with 4 teams and new members of a couple more along to learn! Next to CMP and IRI, this event looks to be the most competitive of our season.

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Team 1108 is excited to be attending and competing with the roboRIO for the entire competition. The first match today will be a roboRIO match. There are 6 2015 Beta test teams competing at the Cowtown Throwdown (16, 525, 1108, 1730, 1764 and 1777). Visit any of the beta teams to see the new control system for 2015 and learn what is new for next year.

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2014
 

Very Cool. I'm excited to see the new control system in battle. See you tonight.


On a different subject, are any teams planning to have match videos uploaded to YouTube or TBA??? Livestreaming is fantastic, but I find myself watching a lot of matches after the fact and it would be cool to have for Cowtown since it is getting to be such a big/competitive event.

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What was the order and teams of alliance selections.

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Did the live stream get archived to be able to be watched? It would be nice to show people a few matches. (And learn what happened in some).

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Team Driven would like to thank all of those that attended today for being here and hope everyone had a good time. We enjoyed hosting the teams and wish to extend our congratulations to the winners and all teams who tried to achieve that goal. I hear there were some issues, but that is one of the reasons for this event This gives us a chance to introduce the new students to what a competition is like, while learning that we have to overcome obstacles when they happen. I met some new friends and enjoyed seeing old friends. That is one part of FIRST that I appreciate. I get to broaden my network of friends and learn new ideas from those I meet. Hope the trip home was safe and uneventful. And to those traveling tomorrow, have a safe trip home.

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2014
 

Team 4329 - The Lutheran Roboteers would like to thank the CTTD event organizers for another great experience! You were the inspiration for the Gateway Robotics Challenge (GRC) off-season event in STL earlier this year, and with the 50 team attendance this weekend and the level of competition you enabled, will continue to be our inspiration in the future!

We would also like to thank our alliance partners, Team 1986, Team 525, and Team 2410 for allowing us to be part of a great set of elimination matches. We certainly learned a lot from you and look forward to seeing you all again in the 2015 season!

Dave Zilz

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2014
 

Video Montage of the event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6RDPRZPsCc

Alliance Selection: (No Picking within the top 8)
1. 1619, 3284, 1810, 3792 (QF)
2. 1986, 525, 4329, 2410 (Winner)
3. 967, 1985, 1939, 1825 (SF)
4. 1775, 1108, 3528, 3160 (Finalist)
5. 1730, 3612, 1987, 4646 (QF)
6. 1806, 1723, 6001, 5013 (QF)
7. 4522, 1094, 1802, 1769 (QF)
8. 16, 3928, 2346, 1982 (SF)

Elimination Rounds were captured on USTREAM.
Alliance Selections, with Matches starting about 1 hour in. http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/54780199
Finals http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/54786376

Team Titanium was honored to receive the imagery award and thrilled to work with 525, 4329, and 2410 in winning the event. All 8 alliance captains were incredibly strong, and as the video will prove, there were no easy paths to victory. Clutch plays decided many close matches. Case in point: Finals match #2 - Blue Alliance takes 4 auto balls, making 3 and clears the 4th in the low goal at the start of teleop. Margin of victory??? They win by that 1 point with both alliances making a 2 assist low goal in the last 6 seconds.

Thank you Cerner, Team Driven, and HERMES for running a fantastic tournament that continues to attract top talent from Missouri, Kansas, and their surrounding states.

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2014
 

Team 967, The Iron Lions would like to thank 1730 for putting on a great event! This was the first time we have been able to go but had a great time and learning experience. Thanks to team 1986 and 16 We learned a lot from strategy and what we can work on to do better. Special thanks to teams 1985, the robohawks, They were our top choice and they did exactly what we were planing and more. 1939, Kaniggets They were great at in bounding the ball and playing great defense. It was a shame that they lost communications in the semis. This did give 1825 Their time to shine, They were incredible at what they did. Being able to get the ball over the truss quickly and making auto while still playing defense. Great event to keep coming back to.

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2014
 

Just had a chance to rewatch some of these matches. Quarterfinals against 4522, 1094, and 1802 were intense, with some clutch shooting on both sides. Absolutely could have gone either way.

One of my favorite moves happened at 2:15:30 here in the semifinals. Blue alliance is playing stellar defense when 1986 lays a fake so hard that the two defending robots (1939 and 1985) crash into each other. The hit intended for 1986 was hard enough to reset the radio on 1939. The sound from that hit did not translate to video, but it was impressive. 967 did an outstanding job trying to handle the offense down an alliance mate.

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2014
 

All the elimination matches were great fun to watch - any of the alliances could have come out on top. I really liked 16's shot while moving sideways. I don't remember seeing that before.

It was a real treat (no Halloween pun intended) to be able to make it to such a competitive off season event. Our driver, co-driver and coach all graduated so we had no one left with experience for 2015. Our new drive team got a little better each qualifying match and with the help of great coaching from our alliance partners they looked pretty good in the elimination rounds.

Definitely an outstanding event - we had an awesome time.

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2014
 

Team SCREAM wants to say thanks again to Team Driven and to all of those who once again put on this wonderful event.

We absolutely love this event. It is the highlight of our fall because it gives us an opportunity to bring our new team members, parents, and supporters to a competition so that they can experience what robotics is about before they dive in to the build season in January.

Our new students and families are always blown away about how much fun this event is.

We had a blast and are looking forward to competing with everyone again this upcoming season!

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2014
 

Bomb Squad had a blast at Cow Town. Glad to be back after our we-have-no-robot-left absence last year. Congratulations to the winners and thanks to the hosts. Great to hang out with so many of our friends with robots.

We had a crazy couple of days with only 6 students and 2 mentors! And did anyone notice that Nighthawk didn't play in our last qualification match? There is an explanation on our team Facebook page if you are interested in what happened.

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First off, Huge thanks to teams 1730 and 2001 for hosting the event, and all the teams in attendance for making this a great event year after year.
Also it was a pleasure to work with teams 1723 and pre-rookies 6001 in eliminations. I think it can't be stated enough how impressed I am with the Rocky Balboabots who seem to have knowledge and experience well beyond their months. I expect great things from them in 2015.

Considering this is the last Aerial Assist event for many teams, congratulations to everyone on a successful 2014 season!

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2014
 

Photos (and a few video clips) are posted on my flickr page. I tried to capture a photo of every team. Feel free to use in promo materials/etc. Please credit me (David Runneals) if possible.

Enjoy!

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2014
 

David,
I tried downloading some of the awesome photos you took of 3528. I get the message: "The owner has disabled downloading of their photos". Can you change the permissions?

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2014 videos
 

Videos of all of the matches 1108 participated in ('cept one that I missed) are out on youtube https://www.youtube.com/user/hrench now. Including all of the finals where we came so close to winning it all...

Thanks to a great alliance of Tigerbytes, UpNext and Frog. Had a great time.

Also many photos on our facebook site. https://www.facebook.com/pages/FIRST...0315492?ref=hl

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2014
 

Thank you all for posting pictures and videos. 1775 had a terrific time at Cow Town.

We'd like to thank our hosts Driven and Hermes, Cerner for sponsoring, Jerry from AndyMark, and the host of volunteers who put this together. We'd especially like to thank our alliance partners Panther, UpNext and Frog. It was a real pleasure playing the game with you guys.

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2014
 

Everything I've heard about the event makes me want to go in person next year. I certainly enjoyed the webcast. It seems like our team got some great experience and had a chance to interact with lots of great people last weekend. Thanks for putting on this event - I know it takes a ton of effort to make something like that happen.

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2014
 

Hey, I'm wondering if anyone has qualifier & elimination match results? I want to submit them to thebluealliance.com and get the word out about this awesome event. Thanks!

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2014
 

Elimination Scores pulled from the UStream. 6001 should be entered as 5437 on the Blue Alliance as that is their new permanent number. I've made that modification on the scores below.

Noticed that our alliance had a general trend of scoring lower and lower point totals throughout the elimination rounds until we simplified our strategy and eventually put up the elimination high score in the final match.

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2014
 

Thanks a lot! Now I'm asking if anyone has qualifying results, does 1730 keep track of that stuff?

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2014
 

There was a hand written record of the match scores kept at the scoring table in case questions about them came up. I do not know of any digital record kept after the event.

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2014
 

I just updated that after a couple people messaged me about it :) Try it now.

-David

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2014
 

Shouldn't they have access to it since they used AndyMark's FMS?