Yeah, I do agree with Chris, Stacks DO matter, it's whether or not you can defend them and keep them up throughout the match that matters. From what I've seen, it was very difficult for ANYONE to even TRY and protect their stacks, because if it wasn't the opposing robot that knocked down the stack, it would've been the defending robot's mistake, or by flying and tossed boxes that may knock over the stacks. A lot of the caster bots completely kicked butt at the VCU Regional, and a lot of the teams had some ingenious ideas for their robots. Good Job everyone, and good luck to everyone going to Annapolis.
~Chris Poon

Stacks matter, but actually stacking boxes using your bot is impractical.

Yeah, you're right, I remember how the Springer's robot had wings so that they could grasp the towers, but it really didn't help them in the long run, because it didn't move up or down, so they had to just drop the tower, and in the end, the tower would just fall to pieces in all the commotion anyway.
~Chris Poon

Reply about Alliance Rules
 

To ChrisH:
We know about that rule, but since Madison was in the top 8 already they were still able to form an alliance. I think that might have been the key ambiguity - by being able to form an alliance, we took it to mean they could still join another team, but supposedly they could only pick teams to join them, not join any other team.

Either way, a judge told them later that they could have accepted the offer from our team.

I would also like to say about stacks - they do matter. But not in the context of forming them. Almost no teams formed any stacks successfully. Most that tried ended up not getting it because their system failed, or they knocked dow the very stack they were trying to build. In all honesty, it just takes too long in a hectic match to sit there and get a well defined stack. I think what might still be viable is to have your robot be able to pick up a box one high so that if you find that you don't have a stack, it can just drop it on top of a box on your side.

Hey guys it's Ives again. I would like to say that the regionals for me held more than just a fun time, some other things developed from them, hehehe. JosephM, and others from my team know what I mean. But thanks to all of those who cheered for Sparky, and in my opinion all those who cheered for Sparky won right along with us, without the cheering our driver would have never been as good as he was. Hearing somebody cheer you on has a profound effect on a person, and Scott did over a 100% better at the controls with all of ya'lls support. Also everyone that competed with a good attitude was a winner in my opinion. I would just like to offer my thanks as a member of Team 384 to all of those who joined in and gave a shout for SPAR - KEY!!!

I would like to take a moment and say that Brandon Smith will be remembered for his dedacation to Team 384.

Mr. Ivey

I think we all at Team 384 owe a big thanks to Mr. David Cook, for helping us with all the code. THANKS MR.COOK!!
And of course, Mr. Clarke. :rolleyes: :D

You are forgetting Igor. Joe, Igor, and I were there every Saturday at before 10 AM to code the bot. So we can not forget Igor. Nor the other mentors, such as Mr. Matt and Mr. Griffith, and all the others that helped us so much.
Mr. Ivey

Calm down guys. Take it off CD and into e-mail or PM.

lol.. its ok.. theyre just happy!! :-) yea i posted some pictures... but will show sometime soon...

...one thing i remember about this weekend.. was the guy saying something about sparky like "can it do the macarena?" and sparky started dancing and stuff....hehe.. it was my little highlight of this weekend....

There were a few times where the judges' calls were kind of iffy.... one of the times including our team, but I'm not going to go into it, because overall, the regional was great!

And hey to all those people who met/took pictures of "The guy with really tall spiked blue hair" aka Sam on team 234. What'd ya think? I think he has a fan club now since so many people have taken pictures of him.. lol.:D

I think the the regional overall was great but I wish that the officials would would take the time to know and understand the rules. And that they would get rid of there sarcastic remark "it's too late" whenever they decide not to redo a match or alliance partner ect.

by the way i really wish that i would have gotten another chance to have oakton as an alliance partner, your robot was great and it really did complement ours. (i was the driver for madison) i hope next year we can we can work together again. ps we may set up are ramp again this year so as to give a chance to those who weren't able to go to Richmound a chance to see what we were able to do this year with are robot.

I would also like to make an apologize to any team the while in competition that we inadvertently damaged, i took a few rounds till i realized are robot could do serious damage.

:) team 620 620 620

Is the rumor true he used SUPERGLUE!?!?!

hahahaha so there are rumors now?!? LoL this is hillarious. No, according to Sam, he does not use superglue at all. It's a process that takes an hour, and involves hair spray and hair gel...

But a superglue rumor.. I could see that happening, it was the first question off of everyone's mind lol. So remember, if you would like to join the Sam fan club, head on over to www.cyberblue234.com !

And for those of you who have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about, I'll try to get a picture posted within the next few days...

Heey . . . Do you mind telling him that the girls of team 435 (All 5 of us!) though his hair was really cool? Actually, when him and some other members came to our pit to talk strategy with our operators, one of the girls actually ran to the pit just to see him 'cause she thought he was very sexy! Hehehe, Jessica is craaazy! :D

I will definately pass that message along :) LOL I feel so special, I was one of those other members to go up to you robodogs to discuss strategy lol

I think I'm going to go on the Cyber Blue forums and make a thread about Sam "The Guy with really tall spikey blue hair", so check it out if you want to.

Look for Sam( ha and me :p and the rest of Cyber Blue) at Arizona and possibly the Midwest Regional!