2015 Queen City Regional (QCR)
 

Now that the date is finally posted, I thought it was time to start the thread. Our event is on Easter weekend again, we missed that weekend the last 2 years. We'll see how that affects the teams who usually come. If you have any questions, post them and I will try my best at answering them.

Re: 2015 Queen City Regional (QCR)
 

I have some questions:

1. Is there a morning commuter rush hour on the roads around the University?

2. Can we bring in our own lunch food to the Arena? Or can we eat at Xavier dining? Or is there a park with a covered area where we can eat lunch? ( I am aware of box lunches but have bad luck with them.)

3. Are there any engineering tours that other teams have taken, like the Toyota tour, but that are closer in town?

4. What is your usual Friday social and what does it cost?

Re: 2015 Queen City Regional (QCR)
 

Yes there is a commuter rush in the area as the Campus is adjacent to downtown Cincinnati.

No. Like most venues where they have a contract with a food service company you are not allowed to bring in outside food. We are not allowed to promote the Xavier dining hall, but we can not prevent you from going there either. My team did the dining hall last year. I'm not sure if there are any covered park areas within walking distance. There are several green spaces/rec areas but I'm not familiar enough with the area to know if there is covered seating. I can check into it more if you need me to.

The Toyota tour was not arranged by us that was arranged by the team on their own. We have tried to get XU to arrange campus tours as well as nearby UC, but we have not had any luck. We are working that again this year.

Once an event can pay for its basic expenses through sponsors, it can then arrange a team social. Sadly, again, we are not fully funded as of yet and so we currently do not plan to have a team social.

Re: 2015 Queen City Regional (QCR)
 

Greetings,
We attended QCR last year, and I have to say it is a great event. The staff is excellent. The teams are extremely nice and the venue is top notch. We contacted a local restaurant and arranged food for the team each afternoon. We ate outside near the venue (we were lucky the weather was nice). As for traffic, we had a coach that would bring us to and from our hotel. I don't remember traffic being an issue. I highly recommend this regional.

Re: 2015 Queen City Regional (QCR)
 

Hi everyone! Team 537 will be attending Queen City this year, the first time since 2012. We hope to have lots of fun with all you Ohio and Indiana folk. :)

Re: 2015 Queen City Regional (QCR)
 

You probably won't see us Indiana folk. We're on districts now, and that's the same weekend as our district championship.

Re: 2015 Queen City Regional (QCR)
 

Team 1629 - GaCo will be attending the Queen City regional this year. We are excited to meet new friends, and reacquaint with old ones!!! Good luck to all teams!

Re: 2015 Queen City Regional (QCR)
 

Unfortunately due to the Indiana Championships being on the same weekend as QCR, 447 will not be able to attend one of our favorite regionals. This is always a great event, and I would recommend it to any team looking for another regional to go to.

Re: 2015 Queen City Regional (QCR)
 

Those last few slots didn't last long during open registration. This will be our first time competing in Ohio, and we're looking forward to the trip.

Chairman's Winners Abound Here:

0048 - 2012, 2006, 2005
0233 - 2012, 2006, 2005
0337 - 2013, 2009
0537 - 2013, 2012, 2010
0781 - 2014, 2013
1629 - 2014, 2012, 2010
1985 - 2012
1986 - 2014, 2009
3138 - 2011

A ton of EI winners as well:

0048 - 2004
0233 - 2013, 2009, 2008
0337 - 2014, 2011, 2010, 2008, 2007, 2004
0537 - 2011, 2007, 2005
0554 - 2003
1038 - 2012, 2008
1629 - 2013, 2012(Champs), 2011, 2011(Champs), 2009, 2008
1764 - 2012, 2011, 2010
1986 - 2012, 2011
2081 - 2014, 2013, 2008
3138 - 2014, 2013

Can't wait to learn from all of these great programs. Should be a fantastic event.

Re: 2015 Queen City Regional (QCR)
 

We have capacity for up to 55, so I hope to see several more teams compete. We will have our first Mexican team join us and a Colombian Rookie team!

Re: 2015 Queen City Regional (QCR)
 

For those teams competing at QCR, look for the Event Handbook to be sent out to your Team's main contacts soon.

For teams still looking for an event, we have several spots open and this event always provides great show.

Re: 2015 Queen City Regional (QCR)
 

are there any standard height doors we have to go through between the pits and anywhere else or can a 78 inch high robot use a 12 inch high cart?
this is our first time at QC so hoping to make some new friends.
Nice to see some out of country teams coming.

Re: 2015 Queen City Regional (QCR)
 

It would be close. To fit all the teams we have to use an Auxiliary gym for an Auxiliary Pit area and the full size practice field. The doorway to exit this area is ~93" so worse case scenario is tipping your robot a bit to get through.

Re: 2015 Queen City Regional (QCR)
 

what about door heights during load in?

Re: 2015 Queen City Regional (QCR)
 

Load in occurs at the loading dock with a +15 ft garage door. Those whose pits are in the Auxiliary Pit will be going through the ~93" door opening.

Re: 2015 Queen City Regional (QCR)
 

thank you

Re: 2015 Queen City Regional (QCR)
 

where will teams be allowed to park their tow vehicle and trailers? Is it near the venue? Is it secure?
Thanks

Re: 2015 Queen City Regional (QCR)
 

I emailed all the TIMS Main Contact for all registered teams the Event Handbook a couple weeks ago. In that Handbook is a map of the venue that shows the parking for team trailers. It is an "unsecured" parking lot as it is not gated but it is on campus which is patrolled by campus police. We have not had any issues in the past that I know of.

Re: 2015 Queen City Regional (QCR)
 

ok I am secondary contact so I will contact main and get a copy
Thanks

Re: 2015 Queen City Regional (QCR)
 

I only had the main contact emails to send to.

Re: 2015 Queen City Regional (QCR)
 

I talked to the main contact Anthony Christian and he has not received it.
I will PM you will details.

Re: 2015 Queen City Regional (QCR)
 

is there a map of the PIT assignments available?

Re: 2015 Queen City Regional (QCR)
 

It was available until we had another team add late last week. I have not received the updated map and likely won't in time to send out to the teams.

Re: 2015 Queen City Regional (QCR)
 

Bump. Who's ready for Queen City?

This guy is!

It will be nice playing stress-free having qualified for the Championship at Buckeye. That being said, Team 48 is hungry for a gold having secured two silvers at Pittsburgh and Cleveland.

Someone took this spy video of a post-Buckeye practice. Our drive team will be pushing hard. https://youtu.be/KdmfyuHuaMs

We're Looking Forward to seeing 1986, 233, some familiar Wisconsin teams, our Ohio friends, and everyone else competing this weekend. Good luck to all!

A general request to have the webcast link posted here and shared with TBA once it is known.

Re: 2015 Queen City Regional (QCR)
 

Very Nice. 4028 is also looking forward to competing at QCR ... also hungry even though we were invited off the wait list.

See you all in the morning, sleep well.

Re: 2015 Queen City Regional (QCR)
 

Re: 2015 Queen City Regional (QCR)
 

i've heard that a robot was on fire on the field... anyone knows what's up with that?

Re: 2015 Queen City Regional (QCR)
 

Team 3692 had a PDP malfunction. Magic smoke escaped and a fire extinguisher was deployed. They replaced it quickly, and repaired all of the toasted wires. They came back to score a bunch in their next match. Pics are circulating on FB - I'll try to track one down.

Re: 2015 Queen City Regional (QCR)
 

I've attached a picture of the PDP.

Re: 2015 Queen City Regional (QCR)
 

Woah...

The esteemed Head Ref Tim Burkett quickly responded with the fire extinguisher and unplugged the battery. He now has a fireman's helmet with a rubber ducky on top to wear at the event. We made him the Captain of the Queen City Regional Fire Brigade.

Re: 2015 Queen City Regional (QCR)
 

It was not magic smoke. There were actual flames - look just to the right of the battery.

btw, this was at a low - smoke period of the incident. But of the pics I have it's got the clearest view of the flames.

Re: 2015 Queen City Regional (QCR)
 

Yeah, and Tim made a terrible mess on the field with that extinguisher, too. :)

Re: 2015 Queen City Regional (QCR)
 

I can't tell if he's cringing or smiling....

Re: 2015 Queen City Regional (QCR)
 

I would like to extend my personal thanks, and that of team 1014, to team 1038 for coming over to our hotel to talk scouting, picking and strategy on Friday night. Our team thought it was a valuable exercise to hear how another team approaches this process. So to Anthony, Ryan and the rest of 1038, thanks very much.

Also our thanks to 1985 for picking us and 4930 for being excellent teammates.

Re: 2015 Queen City Regional (QCR)
 

Congratulations to all the teams! It was another great event from my perspective and I hope everyone had a great time. I will be sending out surveys to the team main contacts. So keep an eye out and feel free to forward to other folks.

Thanks!!

Re: 2015 Queen City Regional (QCR)
 

And yet no one picked them for an alliance partner... those can burglers were just too tempting and too few to choose from... Great games by all, and Team 3692 had a great time.... Thanks to all the teams offering to help out after the fire... we are SOOO very proud and amazed the kids repaired everything so quickly.

If interested we are sending the PDB to crosstheroads so they can do a root cause analysis. It appears the fire started from inside the PDB. We had nothing near the connections or anything, hadn't done any work that would cause particulate concerns... so we are pretty confident something internally failed. Will keep you all posted as we learn more.

Re: 2015 Queen City Regional (QCR)
 

Can you send additional pics to dcreed2@wisc.edu?

Thanks,
Dan

Re: 2015 Queen City Regional (QCR)
 

Cincinnati is a fantastic town with a tremendous tournament. Thank you to all the staff and volunteers that made the Queen City Regional a great event. The venue is one of my favorites. Great sight lines, good webcast, and dedicated volunteers. Having half the pits split away from the field was a bit of a nuisance, but thankfully a few other teams closer to the field helped keep our laptop battery charged as we made abundant use of the practice day. Everyone was extremely welcoming and it was nice to venture a little farther east than our normal haunts.

We had a definite strategy going into alliance selection and were ecstatic with the picks we were able to get in the draft. 233, The Pink Team knows how to live every moment as a celebration. Taking the only other 20 point auto and getting a team that can handle the tipped over can gave us a tremendous amount of flexibility. This team gets better every event and I can't wait to see what champs brings for them. 4575, The Tin Mints were a steal for our alliance with the 24th pick. They put up base stacks faster than we could cap them. The only reason I can fathom they were still available to us is that the other alliances couldn't spare a human station with their last selection. For us they were perfect. We 1986, Team Titanium finally got to put our can stealers through an extended test. 7 consecutive matches, 100% can recovery. Showing off our versatility at the slot was also a nice bonus for our drive team.

To the finalists... Well played. 120 was the model of consistency, putting up 2 stacks more often than not. It is great to see the hall of fame teams continuing to produce quality machines. 144 and 533 were great compliments to the alliance and a pleasure to work with all weekend.

To those who wonder how a qualification match schedule can influence your seeding... We played on the same alliance with only 1 (#6 - 4213) out of the next 10 most highly ranked robots in the tournament. Only one other robot on our entire qualification schedule got selected in the top half of the draft. One of our matches even featured a partner literally on fire. :eek: More than one local team commented to us on the tough draw. Huge shout out to the scouts and strategists on the team who found a way to make every partner an important part of the alliance plan. It was fun helping every robot find some success.