Re: 2015 Midwest Regional
 

On behalf of team 2630, we want to thank the entire planning committee as well as the judges, volunteers and staff that made this a really fun event! This was our 2nd Regional outside of Israel (the other being the DC Regional in 2013), and it was a blast!

Much congratulations are in order - first, to team 2338 on their Chairman's Award! Well done!! Secondly to the winning alliance - 4143, 2062, and 2830 - you guys played fantastic during the entire playoffs! A special kudos to 4143's HP, who was AMAZING! The guy is responsible for at least 200 points during the playoffs, I think!

The finalist alliance - 2338, 1756 and 171 - also played extermely well! The finals were absolutely nail-biting, and we are happy to know that the entire alliance will be making it to Champs!! Congratulations!

Wanted to mention 2451 - their withdrawal was a display of true GP, and not something easy to do. The guy on the field looked bummed-out, and I was really glad that the entire stadium rose to their feet to appreicate them. Glad to know they will be competing in STL as well.

As for us - first of all we want to thank our alliance partners - 3067 and 1675. Never easy being the #8 alliance, and we were just half a point from the semi-finals! We hoped to go further than that, but we bowed out respectfully :)

We are very excited to win the EI! It's a very meaningful award that serves as another milestone and a sign for us that we are on the right path! It is a great honor for us. We wish to thank and send our appreciation to our amazing community and all those involved with our team that support us through every step of the way!

Re: 2015 Midwest Regional
 

Team 16, The Bomb Squad, is happy to say that we had a great time at Midwest this year! Thank you 2194 for picking us for eliminations and for 2358 for rounding out our awesome 3rd seed alliance. We made a great run at it and had a LOT of fun in the pits during eliminations. Probably one of the most memorable eliminations we've had.

All of the videos from Friday and some from Saturday (we had some camera issues) have been posted to our YouTube account, Baxter BombSquad https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGH...0jzhVO17r29Btg

The videos have been sent to the Blue Alliance.

Thanks again to everyone for a great experience!

Re: 2015 Midwest Regional
 

Some thoughts from a 4143 mentor who couldn't be there with his team:

The video feed commercials could not have worse timing. It is possible I used inappropriate language around my children when this happened. Every time I thought about trying the "commercial free" link it seemed that you were about to come on, or a commercial came on. No more traveling during regionals.

During Finals auto I was shouting "Why are we still moving?!?!" at the screen. A question my laptop did nothing to answer, but which this thread has covered.

2338/Gear, 1756/Argos, 171/Herd: tremendous job all of you. Not only during Finals, but throughout the entire event. As it happens, I sit 3 desks away from a 1756 mentor at work, so we'll have some new stories when I get back in town.

2062/C.O.R.E and 2030/RoboTigers: With 4143 you created an exemplar of what three well-matched alliance partners can do in this game (even when cheesecake is not on the menu). You not only meshed well, but you built a great plan and executed nearly flawlessly (not complaining - I would have loved to see where we were supporting that stack in F-2). Also a huge dose of congratulations and praise to the scouting leads and scouts that created this alliance.

As Matt pointed out in his list of ironies, our seeding surely benefitted from alliances with 2338 and 1756 late in Quals.

Although the video feed, at least for me, makes it near impossible to follow litter action during the matches it was easy to tell how we did from the scores. Love the litter or hate it, life and engineering can be messy. We all have to roll with litter. Great job HP(s).

I may still be holding my breath after the can-grab in F-3. I was more than worried when I saw that. It was a great move.

Finally, to all of MARS/WARS, congratulations on our first regional win. I wish I could have been there with you. In our fourth year as a team I want to also mention how happy I am for, and proud of, the seniors that have been on the team since day 1. You, and all of the veteran members of the team, have set a high bar and I am both confident in and looking forward to seeing the younger members of the team meet and raise that standard.

Now, no more of that sappy stuff before St. Louis.

Re: 2015 Midwest Regional
 

I've been wanting to say something along these lines. I was truly blown away by the effectiveness of Mars Wars alliance strategy. You guys had cooperated in such a perfect way with each other and it showed in your scores. In my eyes that is what a perfect alliance is. Instead of 1 or 2 bots that are all working on their own, instead working together to complete each other's stacks. Congrats! and shout out to 4143's AMAZING human player.

Re: 2015 Midwest Regional
 

New update clarifies what happens when a team declines during aliance selection. This update would have had a great effect had Team 2451 - PWNAGE been brought in as a replacement. If I'm interpreting the update correctly, 2451 could not be first alternate after declining because their robot was not functional. FYI, we were told that they had fixed their bot and was indeed the first alternate.

5.4 Playoff MATCHES
At the end of the Qualification MATCHES, the top eight (8) seeded Teams become the ALLIANCE Leads. The top seeded ALLIANCES are designated, in order, ALLIANCE
One, ALLIANCE Two, etc., down to ALLIANCE Eight. Using the ALLIANCE selection process described below, each ALLIANCE Lead chooses two (2) other Teams to join their ALLIANCE. If a team declines the ALLIANCE Lead position or doesn’t send a representative for ALLIANCE selection, they are ineligible to participate in the rest of the Tournament. If the declining/absent team would have been an ALLIANCE Lead, all lower ranked ALLIANCE Leads are promoted one spot. The next highest-seeded team moves up to become the ALLIANCE Eight Lead.

5.4.1 ALLIANCE Selection Process
If the Team declines, that Team is not eligible to be picked again or to be a BACKUP TEAM, and the ALLIANCE CAPTAIN extends another invitation to a different Team. If an invitation from a top eight ALLIANCE to another ALLIANCE Lead is declined, the declining Team may still invite Teams to join their ALLIANCE; however, it cannot accept invitations from other ALLIANCES.

Re: 2015 Midwest Regional
 

I'd like to thank 2194 for selecting us. Y'all were one of the most consistent robots in the field. We were stoked to get with y'all.

I'd also like to throw major props out to Team 2358. These guys were extremely gracious when, as an alliance, we decided to go for the win. We couldn't out-stack the top-tier teams, but we could get those bins from the step to give us a chance. 2358 volunteered to lose serious weight (~40 lbs) to take on our ramp so that we could run our new canburgler.
What really blew me away, though, was when Brandon picked up our previous canburger and started hauling it over to 2358's pit. And I was astonished when they not only got it mounted and running, but took cans from the step during two of the semifinals matches. We hadn't kept the old system in hopes of cheesecaking it, (that's a word now, right?) but they had lost so much weight we were able to make it work.

If we had made stacks like we know we can, we would have had a fighting chance.

Re: 2015 Midwest Regional
 

Thanks to our alliance partners, teams 16 and 2358. I've always wanted to play in eliminations with the Bomb Squad. I can check that off of my FIRST bucket list now.

I was amazed at the accessories that the Bomb Squad had for their robot. They certainly are one of the fastest stacking teams at a feeder station, and Alliance captains at the Championship should take note of all the special options this team has to offer.

A special thanks to Bearbotics. They were able to strip down their robot and adapt it into a canburgler with Bomb Squad parts between eliminations matches. Parts were literally flying off the robot.

Our alliance certainly didn't hold anything back. It was a lot of fun!

Re: 2015 Midwest Regional
 

Yes, this rule update was the result of events that unfolded at Midwest. Under prior rules, we were still eligible to be a backup robot and were first in line due to being ranked so high. There was a worry once we got our robot working (around the end of Quarterfinal matches) that someone would call for a backup and it would put us in an awkward situation.

Hopefully this rule will stay for future FRC seasons to come so that no other teams run into this situation.