2015 Palmetto Regional
 

So I believe it's time, you know, for the best annual thread of the year. Welcoming and starting the conversation about the largest annual week 1 regional in the world, the Palmetto Regional! :D :D

Teams Attending:
http://www3.usfirst.org/whats-going-...sc&order=State

ICMI:
Frank Lanford's announcement at Kickoff was that there would be multiple practice fields at this year's event and with that info I'm even more pumped up!

I know 4901 is excited to be heading to our second Palmetto Regional after our successful season last year. With a larger team and even stronger robot we hope to help raise the competition level to even greater heights!

How is your team doing? Are you excited about this year's event? Let's hear it!

Re: 2015 Palmetto Regional
 

Team 1261 is pumped to return to Palmetto after such a great year last year! The robot is progressing really well and the business and scouting teams are working hard to get ready.

Super excited to go back to competition! Best of luck to all the teams there. Feel free to stop by our pit if you ever need anything! :)

______________
Mackenzie Glaser
Team 1261

Re: 2015 Palmetto Regional
 

Can anyone say definitively if there will be a team social Friday evening? There has been nothing in either of the "email blasts." Our Logistics gang is trying to finalize plans, and we always enjoy the team gatherings - so we don't want to miss out if there will be one.

Re: 2015 Palmetto Regional
 

Woo!! We'll be there. John, I'll have to meet up with all the old 1102 faces :D

Pretty excited for our team's first out-of-state regional, and with the craziness that was Palmetto last year, I hope it lives up to the hype;)

Re: 2015 Palmetto Regional
 

900 Will be there... hopefully with a robot too. ;-)

Re: 2015 Palmetto Regional
 

I've heard nothing on the social either...but everything else I've heard thus far (including some things I'm sworn to secrecy on) have been very promising. Hopefully we can keep the streak going of pulling off the first match in the world again this year!

Re: 2015 Palmetto Regional
 

422 signed up for a Week 1 event for the 4th time in 7 years because I am a glutton for punishment. See you cool cats in a couple weeks.

Re: 2015 Palmetto Regional
 

I probably wouldn't entertain Week 1 if it weren't Palmetto. The Palmetto crew has done a lot to wash the sour taste of also-Week-1 Bayou 2010 out of my mouth, but frankly a couple weekends off never hurt anybody either.

But it's the home event, and we're ready to get a USC-backed team into the Palmetto finals again. Time to get this thing! :)

Re: 2015 Palmetto Regional
 

3824 is pumped to be attending Palmetto again. This will be our third year in a row - the venue is great and we love the unknowns of a week 1 event!

Re: 2015 Palmetto Regional
 

Team 836, The RoboBees are thrilled to be coming back to Palmetto! We really enjoyed our trip there in 2013! We loved the people, the teams, the venue, and the weather was pretty nice, too!

See you all in 2 weeks!

Steve

Re: 2015 Palmetto Regional
 

I am the Game Announcer and asked the Regional Chairman.

There is not going to be a team social on Friday.
There may be some refreshments after the closing ceremonies on Friday, but no "social" (party) as we have had at other regionals.

Re: 2015 Palmetto Regional
 

I was reviewing the Palmetto teams for 2015 and see that all 3 teams from last year's winning alliance are returning to defend their title.

4935 T-Rex
1261 Robo Lions
and
3824 HVA RoHAWKtics Undefeated in 2014 and #1 seed.

Re: 2015 Palmetto Regional
 

Is it true that you were undefeated last year at Palmetto?

Re: 2015 Palmetto Regional
 

Billfred is modest.;) ;)
He will be doing tag-team announcing this year.
Can't wait to hear his voice raining down on the robots!!!!

Re: 2015 Palmetto Regional
 

Glad to see the champions return.
Hopefully I won't call you the Robo Loins again...

Re: 2015 Palmetto Regional
 

Yes! :) Palmetto 2014 was an awesome weekend for our team.

In 2013 we were finalists. We were on an alliance captained by Team 836, the RoboBees - and we are excited to see that they are coming back to Palmetto this year!

Re: 2015 Palmetto Regional
 

I pointed it out to John yesterday afternoon--undefeated should be pretty darn easy this year. Just go 2-0 in the finals!

As Barry mentioned, I'll be getting in the mix on game announcing while splitting some time with 4901. If you told that to 17-year-old me in the stands at the Colonial Center, he would never believe it. :)

(Okay, so that was the same 17-year-old me that thought window motor drive had a legitimate chance...)

Re: 2015 Palmetto Regional
 

It looks like a good group is going this year. I know 1261 can't wait to socialize with everyone in the stands and in the pits. It's going to be a great season!

Re: 2015 Palmetto Regional
 

Quick question: Does anyone know what the dimensions for the practice fields will be? Will they be full width? I am totally not asking for strategic reasons ;).

Re: 2015 Palmetto Regional
 

Team 343 Metal in Motion is excited about heading down to Myrtle Beach this weekend with our robot Arm-Strong v. 2.0. We're looking forward to seeing old friends and making new ones.

Re: 2015 Palmetto Regional
 

I am pretty sure that last year the practice field was full width - seems like I remember there being two of the top goals. So hopefully there is room for that.

If you totally were asking for strategic reasons, I would tell you how much I was looking forward to watching the 4 container grab ;)

Re: 2015 Palmetto Regional
 

I hope that the snow hitting most of the tri-state area doesn't cause too many travel problems for people come later in the week. Be safe folks.

Re: 2015 Palmetto Regional
 

Team 3489 "Category 5" is excited and (almost) ready to compete! Hopefully we'll miss most of the freezing weather.

Also - here's a link to the live video feed for those who can't be there:
http://robotics.nasa.gov/events/live...=pal_0226-2815

Re: 2015 Palmetto Regional
 

Has anyone heard when the match schedules are being released?

Re: 2015 Palmetto Regional
 

Good luck to all teams! I will definitely watch the livestreams since there are 6 teams playing in Palmetto who we will see in Virginia! And of course some old friends from the North Carolina regional! :)

Re: 2015 Palmetto Regional
 

2!

Re: 2015 Palmetto Regional
 

Super pumped to have been in the first match!

A bit disappointed that the schedule still has not been posted online.

Re: 2015 Palmetto Regional
 

3824 wants to thank Palmetto for an amazing event. All the teams were phenomenal and gracious. Lots of Southern hospitality! We had an elderly couple who were retired and living in the area just show up and adopt our team. We have great pictures of the grandpa cheering for the teams. The finals were wild, probably the most exciting match was the 150-133 finals. Many thanks to our alliance partners 4454 and 4073. 4454 was amazing under pressure and 4073 saved the alliance with stacks from the field and canisters from the step.

We also are always impressed with 1261 who put together an amazing alliance but was also very gracious and supportive of 3824 during the heat of competition. The mentors for 1261 should be very proud of their students!

Re: 2015 Palmetto Regional
 

Edit: the ROBOTZ Garage is team 4451.

Re: 2015 Palmetto Regional
 

What a great event! I want to thank all the Referees, Judges, Volunteers and staff for putting together a great regional event! That legendary "Southern Hospitality" was clearly shown during our time there!

A big shout out to Jack Moore and his team! Thank you for all your hard work!

To our very good friends - 3824 HVA RoHAWKtics and 4451 ROBOTZ GARAGE - You guys were amazing! We are witnessing the rise of two new powerhouse teams! Congratulations on your win! I can't wait to see you again in St. Louis!

Congratulations to 2655 Flying Platypi for your Engineering Inspiration award! You have a great program, and are a role model for all teams in FIRST! See you at Champs!

To our sister team 4514 Calvert STEAM works, I am so proud of what you have accomplished so far! To 4505 McDonogh Eagle Robotics, you make Maryland proud! We'll see you both at the Chesapeake Regional!

A very special thank you to 1102 M'Aiken Magic - we had struggled all weekend with one gremlin or another, yet you took a chance on us! It was a thrill and an honor to compete with you! I look forward to playing with you in the future! You will always hold a special place in our heart!

Lastly, to every member of my team who embodied the belief of - Never give up, never surrender! Go Bees!!!

I look forward to returning to Palmetto soon!

Steve

Re: 2015 Palmetto Regional
 

Wanted to take a moment to commend one of the FTAs at the regional, Jerry, who really took the time to explain everything that was going on and why. Additionally he understood that teams had taken the time over six weeks to build a robot and would not allow something small, such as a suddenly restarted laptop, to keep a team from playing a match. He even was ready to provide a Classmate for the team to use. Additionally he helped our team get past issues with network tables in smart dashboard and always stopped by before each match to ensure we were ready to go. Furthermore he even reached out to the FTAs at our next regional to ensure we would not face any problems there.

Hats off to Jerry for really understanding what FIRST is all about.

Re: 2015 Palmetto Regional
 

I'd like to echo Jay's comments in that Jim and Juan (FTA) supported us on Friday with network tables issues from Smartdashboard writes. We finally had to remove that bit to resolve the issues because of other problems with the robot. Both were willing to go the extra distance to help.

Jay, was there a single "ah ha" item that helped you resolve your problems? We would like to come to grips with the problem.

Thanks,

Walter Everett
Mentor
FIRST Robotics Team 1758

Re: 2015 Palmetto Regional
 

The Palmetto Regional was great, thank you to Coastal Carolina University for making two practice fields possible this year. Team 343 would also like to thank team 4451, Robotz Garage, for giving us their "Best Pit" award it was quite an honor coming from an great team with an amazing pit.

Re: 2015 Palmetto Regional
 

I suppose it's time for me to chime in a little bit as well. Good thing I can type it!

First, because it's how I spent the bulk of my time in Myrtle Beach, I have to thank the Palmetto Regional planning committee for entrusting me with the mic as a game announcer. I first tried my hand at it during a few matches at the 2005 Capitol Clash. Then it was Cal Games in 2006, working alongside David Black under the master that is Mark Leon. After that, I'd actually done the training to announce at the 2007 Florida Regional...but a scheduling snafu derailed that, and life and teams kept me away from the role until I dusted off the Hawaiian shirt for the first SCRIW tournament in 2011. Four of those and the past two FTC state tournaments were a lot of fun, but both of them are still relatively small affairs. Announcing those two thrilling finals matches in front of a white-hot crowd was a treat I couldn't begin to describe to that rookie kid on 1293 that sat in the Colonial Center twelve seasons ago. I can't thank you all enough for the kind words.

While I'm at it, I also have to thank the rest of the crew. Mark Kruea and Crystal Costa are great dancing partners, and it was very rare for us to run over one another (always a thing that bugs the heck out of me, because I know it bugs the heck out of the audience). I also have to thank Barry Hudson for eleven years of service to the Palmetto Regional as the lead game announcer. He's indicated that he plans for this year's event to be his last, but I hope he isn't a stranger. And I hope I have anywhere near that much longevity.

With me behind the scoring table for much of the event, that meant I was also largely away from my Garnet Squadron teammates. Sandstorm II left a lot to be desired on the field, though I was thrilled to see the team get through inspection so quickly (often a challenge for us due to the desire to get that one more tweak done). Through it all, the kids kept working to improve the performance with what was available to us and making plans for a host of improvements in Orlando. That they kept the good work up could be a sign that I'm replaceable, or it could be a sign that I've helped instill the right values in our kids. I'm hoping for the latter. ;)

It was great talking to FRC Chief Referee Dr. Aiden Browne on Saturday. Some on the game, some on the growth of the program in the area (he's based in Charlotte), and a few other topics I'm sure I've forgotten because I was running on my third Red Bull of the regional that morning.

I have to bow down to the greatness that is HVA RoHAWKtics for a minute. Only one team had ever won Palmetto back-to-back before, and that was my old team--the team then known as Los Pollos Locos did it in 2011 as the last pick of the draft, then as a backup robot in 2012. These guys have easily surpassed what we were able to stitch together--they not only won them both, they dominated. In two years, they've lost exactly one match (Semifinal 1-2 in 2014) and were in no real danger of missing the cut even during their semifinal jitters this year. You guys are an inspiration and show just what can be done in this program.

It's been no secret that I've been on the ROBOTZ Garage bandwagon since pretty much the beginning. And yes, they're a Bosch team like Garnet Squadron and we've had a fair bit of mentor overlap*. But here's the thing: they have built an incredible program in Fountain Inn. I made a run up to their facility during the last weekend of build to pick up some vinyl graphics for 4901's robot. The Bosch plant up there was full of kids grinding away on their robot, the practice robot, the things to make both better, drive practice, Chairman's video editing, the works. Mike Bryan had expressed worries to me that this was going to be a rough year for the Garage, but they clearly had one of the two or three best machines in Myrtle Beach. It's a shame he was sick during the regional--I couldn't get an answer on where he plans to hang that banner in the garage!

*Speaking of which, you guys have your ticket punched to St. Louis--can we borrow Casey back for Orlando?

I don't have a long history with the Robo Kats out of Myrtle Beach, but they definitely showed up with a gorgeous machine--easily the most dapper on the field. When I went to the blue alliance station to congratulate the drive teams, I asked their mentor if it was their first blue banner. He responded he'd been at it ten years across a few teams and only now reached the top. It took me eight to do it, so I know just what it feels like to finally have your faith rewarded. Hang that banner high, guys.

All in all, it was a thrilling Palmetto Regional and a great early specimen of how fun Recycle Rush can be. On to Orlando!

Re: 2015 Palmetto Regional
 

I'm not going to waste my digital breath expanding on issues like Chairman's judges not allowing us a mentor in the interview room, a strong team at the event violating Admin Manual Section 4.13 while being passive aggressive in trying to swipe seats from our students who showed up to the venue an hour before opening to get the best seats, or a mentor on another strong team calling our can grabber a bad design right before it pulled two cans into the auto zone for more auto points than they scored all event, safety advisors and judges telling teams to shout "robot", and other thrilling moments at the events.

The FTA was great and the field was running ahead of scheduling at a Week 1! The Game Announcing was some of the best I have heard in FIRST, especially considering the play of this game was best described to me by a student as "being forced to watch a building burn down while not being able to do anything about it."

We got to spend some time at Palmetto building in some infrastructure on the machine and practicing in preparations for the big changes we want to make before we play at home. I'm really thankful the students stayed in high spirits despite all the issues we ran into both in and out of our control within and outside the venue.

Have fun at Week 1s next year, everybody.

Re: 2015 Palmetto Regional
 

Figured I would post on what a happy accident it was to end up staying in the same hotel as my high school team, 1102 M'Aiken Magic. Catching up with my old mentors, seeing that the student who was my captain back in the day is now the head mentor(!), and seeing that the team was as strong as ever was a great addition to the weekend. You guys did great!

Re: 2015 Palmetto Regional
 

With an hour to go before being kicked out on Thursday...Juan "crouched down" with our two programmers to help solve the problem that cost us the entire practice day. At 8:00, code was not yet deployed, but just about ready, and we felt much better about Friday. Fortunately for us, he's reasonably local to our team, and we've got his contact info!

Two slight disappointments, though...(1) I was eager to take advantage of the rule change allowing me to observe our Chairman's Presentation - but the judge would not allow me to stay without sacrificing one of our presenters. Ironically, the survey afterward asked if we made use of this change. I really wish the judges would have been current with that rule - we were hoping to use that observation to help hone our presentation for our other regional. (2) There were a couple matches where a team's opposing alliance arranged to work on the coopertition but then made no effort to do so. We got burned significantly once, spending considerable time on a futile effort...don't get me wrong - we should have been watching and noticing the other side wasn't doing their share. I didn't think much of it at the time, until another team's mentor told me we were "set up", having also had a similar experience. I didn't take note of the teams involved, and wouldn't have held on to that info even if I had - every team has their own strategic methods, just want to point out to "Trust...but verify!" when it comes to something as time consuming as the coopertition stack - especially later in the competition where a team may have ulterior motives.

In spite of our abysmal performance, it was a great experience and we had a very good time...though I hope to never do a "week one" again! We'll be in a district next year, so I hope to be able to build a later-season pair of events.

Re: 2015 Palmetto Regional
 

Walter,

Temporary fix was not plugging into FMS until Driver Station was open. Then plug it in. Sometimes it still did not work then we just logged out with FMS plugged in and logged back in. Waited about 45-60 seconds and the network tables would appear. Also if you have a camera on the dashboard wait 15-30 seconds after it appears and the network tables should appear. Fortunately Jerry didn't rush the process and was patient with us when waiting. We were told that the issue is being looked into and a more permanent fix should be out soon.

Re: 2015 Palmetto Regional
 

Thank you, but we certainly could not have done it either year without our alliance members ( Robotz Garage and RoboKats this year, RoboLions and Team T-Rex last year). Speaking of the RoboLions, they put up an amazing match in the finals and can't wait to see how they do at Peachtree. I'm glad we have been inspiration and hope we can continue to be.

Re: 2015 Palmetto Regional
 

These finals sound intense. Anyone have any videos?

- Sunny G.

Re: 2015 Palmetto Regional
 

Hey Terry! I just wanted to say thank you to you and your team. That hub you loaned us (and I do mean loaned because I've got a replacement to give you in Raleigh) allowed us to get through the event with a functional arm. We couldn't have done it without you!

The Zebracorns enjoyed the event and we're excited to see what happens next year with NC switching to a district model. We might yet be back but we'll have to wait and see.

And a big thank you to the announcers and refs and the FTAs! You guys were all on top of it! It was a fun event for us if not a bit stressful for the team but we made it through and learned a lot in the process. We also brought home the creativity award, which was also a welcome surprise!

Also, if you were working the field and saw our awesome glowing flag with LEDs then you weren't seeing things... it really does light up! We got more than a few folks by surprise with that one!

Re: 2015 Palmetto Regional
 

I recently found that one of our mentors made a playlist that includes all of 3824's matches:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...DqD6i7g9Uo92jp

Re: 2015 Palmetto Regional
 

Thanks to the Palmetto Planning Committee and the team of volunteers that put on another smooth running event. The staff was helpful and very responsive to my team’s requests.

Palmetto 2015 will be another memorable event in our three year history thanks to our alliance captain 3824 HVA RoHAWKtics and partner 4073 Robo Kats. It was an honor working with both of you. Special thanks to 3824 in having faith in our team.

I knew the number four alliance – 1261 Robo Lions, 1533 Triple Strange, and 2059 The Hitchhikers – would put up a serious fight. The finals were hotly contested.

Congratulations to 836 The RoboBees on their 4th Regional Chairman’s award! They definitely have a rich FIRST heritage that shows through their actions. 836 also won Chairman’s the last time they attended were in Palmetto in 2013. Hope to see you back next year!

2655 The Flying Platypi also picked up their second Engineering Inspiration award from Palmetto. Well done.

Orlando is next… then on to St. Louis.

You mean the Casey that was Finalist and Winner at Orlando the past two seasons? Hmmm… maybe – maybe not.

David
Mentor 4451, ROBOTZ Garage

Re: 2015 Palmetto Regional
 

It's all good...we'll need something soon enough. I was about to ask you for a left Denso window motor (gave out our spare in Palmetto, then forgot to take them off for the practice bot before we bagged) but we found one being used as a door-stop, or a paperweight or something!

Re: 2015 Palmetto Regional
 

A friend of our team happened to be in the Myrtle Beach area and saw our team on the front page of the local newspaper...recognized the bright pink shirts. The paper's site has lots of good pictures from the event:

http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/201...tics.html?rh=1

Re: 2015 Palmetto Regional
 

Hey Sunny,

I think the most exciting finals match was the first one. Final score was 148-138. Here is a link to that match:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3Pyxj6RpRk

Steve

Re: 2015 Palmetto Regional
 

Just now getting a chance to post my thoughts from the regional, but what an event. We started Thursday with a robot that was almost completely disassembled, and then 8lbs overweight. Finally got everything working and through inspection, only to not be able to run auto on the practice field Thursday (still confused on that one). Friday we did absolutely terribly. At one point we were ranked down at 65 of 66 teams -- and only because team 66 hadn't arrived yet.

Saturday was a different story with RoboLions (1261) and Triple Strange (1533) picking us on the #4 alliance. We knew we had a strong robot, but hadn't yet been able to dial in our strategy. Eliminations were crazy, and going up against the powerhouse alliance of the #1 and #3 seeded teams was impressive. We came within 10 points both Finals matches, but in the end did lose.

Congratulations go out to 3824 HVA RoHAWKtics, 4451 Robotz Garage, and 4073 RoboKats -- y'all were an amazing alliance and a fantastic group of teams to go up against. Hopefully we'll make it to St. Louis to see y'all again!

A big THANK YOU to 1261 and 1533 for picking us -- I hope we came through and did our job there in eliminations. I know I would have struggled to decide to pick us given our performance all Friday, but I'm so grateful that you saw our potential.

Big congrats also to all the other winners of awards: 836 RoboBees with Chairmans and 2655 The Flying Platypi with Engineering Inspiration.

I think it's safe to say that the way the Palmetto Regional was run this year, we'll be back again soon.

Re: 2015 Palmetto Regional
 

Does anyone have pictures from the Palmetto Regional? I am specifically looking for robot pictures (4505 in particular). (I have a grainy screenshot and I am looking for a better quality picture.)

Re: 2015 Palmetto Regional
 

Finals 1 definitely had plenty of drama after Alliance 1 had so many miscues during semifinals (enough to knock them down to second place on the leaderboard, hence they played on the blue alliance in finals). But both were thrilling to watch and showed just how good this game can be!

Re: 2015 Palmetto Regional
 

Many teams, students, mascots and judges have been asking us when the finished video our students shot at the 2015 Palmetto Regional would be available. Happy to say it has finally been edited and posted to YouTube!

Hope you enjoy all the news from the Hive Nation!

http://youtu.be/Nrdlag58NKw

Steve