Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

It’s about that time when we start talking about the Regionals in Minneapolis. North Star and 10K Lakes are sure to be exciting. So far 19 teams from North Star have previously competed, and 17 teams from 10K Lakes have competed. Amazingly, there won’t be a single wildcard brought into North Star, as NOT A SINGLE TEAM HAS PREVIOISULY QUALIFIED FOR CHAMPS!!! 10K Lakes is a different story with 4 wild card generating teams including: 525, 2052, 2502, and 3630. Infer what you will about the competitiveness of each event.

North Star:
[Scouting Link]

North Star, despite having no team pre-qualified for champs, doesn’t lack for high quality teams. There are seven quarter finalists, and four semifinalists competing including three alliance captains, three 1st round picks, and five 2nd round picks. Unlike in 2015 when there were two teams that were far superior to the rest of the competition (2826 and 3130), this year the top teams all seem to be of a similar quality. Last year’s winners, 3130 and 2826 will be two of the top teams again this year. Both have a lot of room for improvement after their last event. Another great team is 2169, they have a soft batter shot that was decently consistent at central Illinois, they can also breach with the best of them, very precise driving. 2574 reminds me a lot of 3102 who just won the Wisconsin Regional. They are a fast low goal scorer who can breach very quickly. 3042 is another team with a lot of potential, they have high goal potential (with better accuracy), but would be served very well by the low goal. I’ll also shamelessly plug 4607, fast breacher if they choose to do so, can’t hit the broad side of the tower when aiming for the high goal, but very fast and accurate when scoring in the low goal. Also one of the few teams that can climb at North Star. Of all the teams who have yet to compete, 4778 is my prediction to do the best, they are very practiced, and have a fast low goal scoring robot.

Given the parity of the top robots, and the lack of a truly dominate team, North Star looks to be wide open. I predict there will be very, very few captures during qualifications leaving the top seeds open to breacher robots. This can make things interesting because breaching doesn’t cut it in the playoffs. It will take captures to win in the playoffs. In my opinion, there are very, very few teams at North Star who are better served by the high goal, than the low goal. With that said, I think North Star will play out similarly to how Wisconsin did. 3102 won Wisconsin by being the best breacher, seeding high, selecting the best scoring robot followed by the best available defensive robot, and then consistently capturing in the playoffs. I believe this will be the winning formula at North Star as well.

10,000 Lakes
[Scouting Link]

10,000 Lakes has some elite teams, and is much more top heavy than North Star. 525, 2052, and 2502, are superior teams. One of them will probably seed 1st, and pick one of the others. This number 1 alliance will be very hard to beat. If a different team can sneak ahead of these three, it will make things much more interesting. Because of the lack of depth, I think capturing during quals will be rare, making breaching more valuable. This does open the door for another team to seed first. Interestingly, only 525 was in the position to be an alliance captain at their first regional.

Edit: I messed up! 2194 Fondy Fire is one of the top teams going to North Star and I completely forgot to mention them.

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

Teams 3275 and 3134 can't wait. Hopefully have a strong showing this year. Check out our YouTube https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCQUszqXL0Cr8I4wezAbMefA

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

I predict the 10,000 lakes regional will have a palindrome alliance- 2502, 525, 2052- after alliance selection.. :D

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

For that to happen someone has to sandbag hard and the rest of the regional has to have completely incompetent scouting.

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

Well one of those is inevitably going to be true... bad scouting is almost assured.

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

You seem to have beat me to the spreadsheets this year. 👀

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

The spreadsheets that I put out have an editable link and they could use a lot of work ;)

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

I have populated both of the database sheets with data from Iowa and Wisconsin. I will be publishing week 4 updates to the 4536 database in a day or two which will corroborate the values I have copied in.

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

And I will - but I will not speak to 10,000 Lakes in this post. NS is stacked with great teams with robots that will be ready to compete come April 8 & 9. Here is what I see from the teams that have already competed and made it to Elims:

167 - Iowa Regional (Qual Rank 12, finished in QF in 3 matches)
2169 - Central Illinois (Rank 12, QF in 3)
2194 - Wisconsin (Rank 11, Semis in 3)
2574 - Wisconsin (Rank 33, QF in 3)
2826 - Wisconsin (Rank 25, Semis in 3)
3026 - Iowa (Rank 38, QF in 3)
3042 - Northern Lights (Rank 19, Semis in 2)
3130 - Iowa (Rank 9, QF in 3)
3277 - Lake Superior (Rank 5, Semis in 2)
3928 - Iowa (Rank 33, QF in 3)
4607 - Lake Superior (Rank 48, QF in 3)

So 12 of the teams that have competed prior have reached elims and all have either made it into the Semifinals or pushed the QF to 3 matches. This does say a lot about the strength of the field just based on these soft stats.

There are 8 others that have previously competed so they know what they are up against. I will say that teams such as 967, 2175, 2177, 2472, 2491, 5576 and others that have competed will have their 'A' game (and bots) ready to battle for NS.

And yes, seeing what 4778 can do, I would put them near the top after Quals end on Saturday.

This will be a fun Regional as the Central MN Robotics Hub has 4 of our teams competing at this event - 3023, 3026, 4607, and 4632.

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

I would be OK with this :D

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

I think this alliance would have a very realistic chance of setting the world high score, even in quals.

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

They would probably score 252 points.

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

I can do that.

Aside from the 3 powerhouses attending the 10,000 lakes regional here are some more notable teams that look competitive for this event:

2498- Wisconsin (ranked 7th, quarter-finalists)
2501- Northern Lights (ranked 2nd, semi-finalists)
2705- Iowa (ranked 13th, quarter-finalists)
2823- Lake Superior (ranked 16th, semi-finalists) 2823 has an effective robot that goes up against the opposing driver station wall and manages a high goal shot.
2846- Lake Superior (ranked 14th, quarter-finalists)
3184- Iowa (ranked 42nd, quarter-finalists)
4536- Iowa (ranked 10th, quarter-finalists) 4536 has an effective low goal bot and is capable of being an excellent alliance partner to breach and capture the tower.

Expect some of these bots to have improved for their second event

I predict 2181 and 3007 will have competitive bots as well. This should be a fun event.

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

Here are some bogus predictions because why not?

1 2194 3130 5541
2 3928 2826 4632
3 2169 3042 3023
4 167 4778 3134
5 2574 3026 2667
6 3277 2175 3206
7 967 4607 3883
8 3633 2472 2491

Quarters:
1 vs 8
2 vs 7
3 vs 6
4 vs 5

Semis:
1 vs 4
3 vs 7

Finals:
1 vs 3

Chairman's Award: 2169
Engineering Inspiration: 4607
Rookie All Star: 5826
Entrepreneurship Award: 2826
Team Spirit: 2177

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

SWEET the entrepreneurship award. We don't even show the judges a business plan. We got SKILLS!

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

I didn't know 2175 was two teams :P

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

Maybe he meant 2175's practice bot- 9001, #TeamGreg? ;)

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

Yep

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

My bogus predictions for 10k
1. 525, 2502, and 4207 (W)
2. 2501, 2052, and 3197 (F)
3. 2705, 3184, and 2513 (SF)
4. 4536, 2823, and 3100 (SF)
5. 3299, 3038, and 3081 (QF)
6. 2509, 3018, and 2518 (QF)
7. 2846, 2181, and 2498 (QF)
8. 2232, 3007, and 2529 (QF)

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

3026 is going to North Star this year, not 10k.

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

My bad

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

I'd be ok with this

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

That would make for a good regional for King Tec. It'll be tough to beat Wave for Chairman's Award. They have an awesome program, as does 2169. The competition on and off the field will be very competitive.

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

When you fixed the double Calculator computation, you seemed to have replaced it with an overabundant corn crop yield ;)

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

I'd like to say that I have a good reason for so many mistakes like I just got done with a test, or I haven't had enough sleep lately... nope. I'm just good at making mistakes!

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

One mistake made, I can excuse. But two?

YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE THE CHOSEN ONE!!!

I just think it is getting too close to North Star and the nerves are starting to kick in for you.

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

Just make sure you keep his allen wrench set to hand off to the next generation...

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

Jajabinx's Bogus Predictions for North Star:

1) 2826, 3130, 2472 W
2) 4778, 3026, 5541 F
3) 167, 2194, 4632 SF
4) 2169, 4607, 3275 SF
5) 5576, 2175, 3277 QF
6) 4215, 3883, 2129 QF
7) 2491, 3042, 3122 QF
8) 967, 2574, 3206 QF

I'll make the 10,000 lakes one sometime later this week maybe.

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

Even if it is in quals... Can we have the palindrome alliance? Pretty Please?

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

Only way to gauruntee it is go out on practice day together.

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

So excited to go to North Star! We've been working on auton, shooting, and vision tracking ever since we got back from the Iowa Regional, and personally I'm ready to show it off at North Star! :D

Good luck to all teams participating!

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

4536 is really excited to compete at 10K. I'm hoping that the competition won't be quite so fierce as that of Iowa, but it would still be fun if it is!

Our team would like to compare our 10K scouting data against other teams' scouting data after the competition to verify its accuracy and see how other teams scout. If your team is attending 10K, can export your scouting data to an excel or csv file, and would be willing to send it to us after the competition is over, please PM or email me. I would be happy to run the same analysis on your data if you are interested, which could give you some idea of how reliable your scouting data is. I will keep your data confidential. Let me know if you have any questions.

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

2169 is going to North Star? I'm glad I'm back announcing on my favorite field!

Looking forward to seeing the teams on Thursday.

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

Indeed they are!

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

“Midnight” is finally ready to get over his fear of heights at 10k :D

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

I see what you did there;)

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

Is 2175 planning on showing any of practice day on the webcast? The feed currently says "See you tomorrow". Obviously no one is going to be in the field now but later in the day would be nice to see the field.

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

We hope to have the stream up by noon today.

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

Well it was a fun and exciting day for teams 3275 and 3134, ending the day 1st and 29th. Best finishes for each team at day 1. Good luck to everyone tomorrow hopefully see you in the finals.

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

Anyone know why 2574 sat out the first quarterfinal match?

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

Their main breaker broke couldn't get it fixed. Should be back for next match.

2826 pressed the deploy hook button after we had climbed. Caused us to drop down.

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

2169 would love to thank 967 and 4239 for accepting to be in our alliance. We had a wonderful time competing. Soo close in match 2.

Pew pew to infinity and beyond

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

967 had a blast competing with you guys, thanks again to 2169 and 4239 for competing with us! Also huge thanks to Team Neutrino 3928 for all of the help and support at both Iowa and North Star!

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

Happy for 4607.

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

Team 2855 had a great time this weekend with us ending up rank 12 and making it to the quarterfinals. This was our best year so far, with us winning one of the quarterfinal matches forcing it to go to a tiebreaker that we lost by 8 points. Can't wait for next year.

Thank you to 4549 for picking us, 3244 for being a great part of our alliance, and 4207 for saving the day when 4549's robot broke.

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

4215 had a pretty crazy weekend. we were dead at some point in 3 of our 8 matches. Still somehow ended up in the top 20. We still can say that we scored 8 goals by ourselves in a match.

Thanks to all our quals alliance partners and thank you 5826 and 2239 for picking us and working on 5826's blocker. Huge thank you to whoever the inspector was that cleared the blocker before QF1!!!

Congrats to our friends 3130, 2175, and 3042 on your regional win. all of you will do extremely well at Champs. No hard feelings after QF :)

This was my last competition as a driver and it wasn't the way I wanted to go out but it still has been a great ride.

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

2175 had a really fun time this weekend! Huge shout out to our alliance partners 3130 and 3042!

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

I'm speechless and amazed as I'm on my way back to Fargo from the FIRST Robotics Minnesota North Star Regional. CIS 4607, the Becker Robotics team has been honored with the most prestigious award in competitive robotics, the Chairman's Award.

CIS has been striving to achieve the culture change outlined by FIRST since our inception in 2012. The Chairman's Award is so much more than just another award. It is a validation for the countless hours of work done by a special collection of people in an effort to change the world. I think I speak for everybody on the team when I say that we're humbled to have been honored with the Chairman's Award.

There are so many people deserving of thanks, and so many people who deserve recognition for this achievement. I'll leave all of that for a different form of communication. There is, however, somebody that needs to be recognized here.

Alex Jurek (Chief Hedgehog), you won the Woodie Flowers award. There isn't anything I can say that isn't summarized by that award. I will say simply this, I wouldn't be interested in STEM education, or robotics if it weren't for you. Any/all of the successes that I have had and will hopefully have in the future can be attributed to your success as a mentor, a teacher, and a friend. 4607 doesn't have a FRC team without you, we certainly don't win any awards. Many people have put in many hours, but you've been the guiding force. Without your vision for the future, 4607 is nothing, and all of the work we do doesn't get done. This award should serve as a validation for all the time you've given up with your family. It should serve as validation for the sleepless nights, worrying about one thing or another for the team. It should certainly validate the blood sweat and tears you have put into this program.

I'd also love to thank Laurie Shimizu, Jon Stratis, Mark Lawrence, and Ken Rosen. They're all incredible people who have helped show 4607 how to become the team that we are today.

Interestingly, I was told today at the event that 4607 has a reputation. At the time I wasn't sure what this meant, was it good? I suppose after this, I can believe that we have a good reputation.

4607 knows that the work doesn't stop here. CIS isn't going to sit back and relax knowing that we've accomplished what we've always dreamed of accomplishing. The work is just beginning. We won't ever stop trying to improve our community, spread STEM education, and change the world.

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

Congrats to 4607 for the Chairman's Award(beautiful video) and the #1 alliance on winning the regional!!

We, on the other hand, received the very short straw.

On average we scored:

11.25 Auto points per match

53.3875% of the our alliance's points

We are quite proud of those statistics until we see that we ranked 60/60 teams. It was devasting to our team spirit to do so well for us but be ranked the lowest team there.

We submitted Chairman's for the first time and it was a great experience. We were pretty sure we wouldn't win, but the judges and volunteers helped encourage us to do our best!

Good luck to those teams going onto State and Worlds! Hopefully we can draw a longer straw next time!

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

Congratulations to CIS. You folks have done an amazing job to growing your team and STEM in your area. You have inspired me with what you have accomplished in such as short amount of time.

A thank you and congratulations to the students and mentors of 2715 & 3130. I was very impressed by the way the teams handled the adversity of robots loosing functionality and finding ways to get the robots back on the field and develop strategies to get past three outstanding alliances (5826, 2239, 4215) (2225, 3928, 3026 missing 4778) & (2826, 2194, 2574).

Safe travel to those of you headed to St. Louis and good luck.

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

Fondy Fire really enjoyed coming to the North Star Regional. We would like to thank Mark Lawrence, Jon Stratis, the rest of the Regional Planning Committee, and the all of the volunteers who make this such a great event.

We would also like to give a huge shout-out to 2826 Wave Robotics, who always helps and keeps pushing us to improve. Thanks for picking us for eliminations. Also thanks to our other alliance partner 2574, who was also great to play with.

Congratulations to 4607 for winning RCA. Their video is worth checking out. Also, check out their unique pit banners at the Championship.

Congratulations also to the Regional Champions, 2175, 3130 and 3042. We fought you as hard as we could!

The rookie teams there were all really good! Congrats to 5194 for winning Rookie All Star, and to 5826 for winning Rookie Inspiration and being the 8th Alliance Captain.

Good luck to all the teams going to the FIRST Championship and to the teams going to the Minnesota State Championship.

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

Was a lot of fun We thank 4549 and 2855 for selecting 3244 to come defend the stronghold along side you. We couldn't sleep all night reflecting on what could have been a great first round upset. With no code change our Autonomous failed to execute the last round. would a been a different result even with a defense breach. Our week started with failed autonomousCommand.start() and seemed to end there too. We battled together and fought every challenge together. Thank to 4207 for helping an ally stand up to he supper powers and show we will not fall over easily.

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

I'll like to extend a big thanks from 3042 to our alliance partners 2175 and 3130. Thanks for the opportunity join your alliance at the North Star Regional. We especially appreciate your confidence in us as we worked to repair the broken driven train chain as as the timeout ticked down to the start of the finals. When the ref asks if you are going to be able to take the field, that is not a good thing. Your trust in us means a great deal. You were a pleasure to work with and an all around class act.

As a parent of a Trinity alum (4215) it was bittersweet to have to compete against your fine alliance (5826, 2239, 4215) in the quarters. Best of luck to those Trinity seniors.

Hats off to 3928, 2225, 3026, and 4778 for a bruising semifinal. While we somehow squeaked through with a 1 point win, you fought hard and fair, leaving us with many battle scars (such as a non working intake/shooter).

What a thrilling final. Teams 2926. 2194, and 2574 you made an outstanding alliance and it was a pleasure competing against you.

Also it was wonderful to see CIS (4607) win Chairman's. I'm especially pleased to see how many females you are pulling into robotics. Way to go!

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

4536 had a ton of fun at 10K. I'll probably post more soon, but I thought I would just leave this video here. It is a double autonomous tortuga by our alliance in qual 58.

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

So glad to here you guys earned it after all your hard work! All of us on 2052 are amazed and thrilled, as well, that we were honored with the Chairman's Award at 10,000 Lakes. It looks like both of us had a great time at competitions :D As you can hear, our team completely erupted when we won!

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

North Star's playoffs may have been one for the record books. 5 of a possible 7 tiebreaker matches were played. 4 timeout (5 were presented) coupons were used and 2 substitute robots were pulled in.

That was quite a production.

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

A huge shout out to our alliance partners 3042 and 2175, our teams worked amazingly well together and I know my team had a great time. 2175 and my team share a shop at East Ridge High School and have always had grand dreams of winning a regional together. I'm ecstatic that we have finally pulled it off, especially since I am a graduating senior on 3130 and my brother is a freshmen on 2175, the timing couldn't have been better. 3042 played amazing defense and was a joy to work with, thank you guys so much.

We share a practice field with 4215 so playing with them in quarters was a lot of fun, I'm sorry we won't see you at worlds but I hope you'll be in the field soon!

Semifinals were terrifying. 2225, 3928, and 2226 played a terrific game, and with the final tie breaker coming down to one point, it couldn't have been a better show.

Our intake died in the first match, leaving 2175 to put in all the boulders. Luckily our robots performed well in the last two finals matches. But it was a bittersweet victory, knowing that 2826 had not yet qualified for champs. The opposing alliance, 2826, 2194, and 2574 played a great game, and as always it was a lot of fun to compete with you guys.

Thank you so much again to our alliance, and the rest of my drive team as well as Bradley Cho, our Deans List Finalist.

...still shaking from the last match.

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

Thanks for the opportunity to join you! As you said, it was a great time.
Indeed! I saw this and couldn't help but laugh:)

Re: Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016
 

On behalf of team 5172, congrats to both winning alliances! We had the chance to work with 525, 3130, and 2175 at Iowa and we hope to have the chance to work with 2052 at state! Good luck at champs!