Well the nature of the game this year is quite different from the past. Someone mentioned before that this game favors rookies but I'm not too sure on that. Some of the most impressive bots I have seen this year, are from teams that no one expected anyone spectacular out of this year (basing their judgements off of previous years) but they pulled through this year with some amazing bots.

This is my forth year of doing this program, and I will admit I was horrible when it came to judging other teams/knowing what other teams were REALLY capable of. Someone mentioned the 'big boys' of FIRST, and those bots are going to go very far. I have no doubts that those teams will do very well in their divisions.

However, scouting will also be a very integral part of this year's game. Those who do not do scouting well, will suffer if the time for them to pick an alliance comes. In fact, I think that scouting this year will play an even bigger role than in previous years, but thats my own 2 cents.

However, following the ideal of FIRST and gracious professionalism, everyone will win at this competition. As a personal note, this is by far the most fun I've had working with this program. It made me feel like a rookie again and I can honestly say I haven't enjoyed a FIRST competition this much since my rookie year on 250 in 2000.

I merely hope that everyone will enjoy nationals and that the winners will put on an exciting show in the finals.

P.S. I may know who the 'big boys' are, but I'm still not placing any bets yet :D

Im willing to bet that at least one of the winners of the championship event this year participated last weekend at the Midwest Regional.

I'm predicting a rookie, cause some of them have been extremely impressive, even besting teams who helped create the team.

I know we've all said stacking isn't important; but no one has done it as well as we thought possible yet. If there is an excellent stacker (i.e. consistently 6+ in a minute or less) then that will be part of the winning alliance, this could also possibly be or include a stack stealer.

And one of the winners will be a massively powerful KOH bot, that cannot be pushed around anywhere on the field and can block the whole ramp or let a partner/opponents on.

I have to agree with Gope and several other posters of this thread. It will be won by two strong veteran teams and a good rookie/second year team. I consider 111 very strong contenders.

THE DEVIL BUG WILL WIN!!!

Did anyone see the Devil Bug? We were pushing it around the Midwest pits on our cart :) (it's only about a foot cubed in size)

From the Rutgers Regional?---YES

From NJ? ----I DON'T THINK SO....

Whomever shows up...

Re: alliance like ours
 

Personally, I wouldnt brag about flipping over another robot, that is very unfair to do it intentionally. Plus, garunteed that Beatty is 3 time nationals winners, DOESNT MEANT THAT THEY HAVE A HUGE BULLSEYE PAINTED ON THEIR ROBOT!!!! I have a friend on 71 and she was telling me how irritated they were that 1 team whenever they were against them all the other team did was to bash them. if that was so, then i would qualify that as being ungracious and not being professioal.

Bad

Well, I say this thread is really for nothing. FIRST is mostly about the spirit. NO WAY ONE PERSON CAN SEE 100% OF THE TEAMS! I just say we all enjoy what we can. Sure, winning is a nice bonus, but comon, too many people are saying who is going to win...

posted by badjokeguy:
"Personally, I wouldnt brag about flipping over another robot, that is very unfair to do it intentionally. Plus, garunteed that Beatty is 3 time nationals winners, DOESNT MEANT THAT THEY HAVE A HUGE BULLSEYE PAINTED ON THEIR ROBOT!!!! I have a friend on 71 and she was telling me how irritated they were that 1 team whenever they were against them all the other team did was to bash them. if that was so, then i would qualify that as being ungracious and not being professioal."



Did you see the matches for yourself?

I think you should inform yourself before suggesting that 71 was intentionally knocked over. If you go to SOAP and watch the QF4 matches you’ll see that when 71 got knocked over the first time it was during autonomous mode (impossible for that to be intentional) and when they got knocked over the second time they were pointed downhill with their heavy side down and got bumped – not very hard – by another robot (imho not intentional).

If you watch Match 20 where we did a fair amount of “bashing” their robot – which was intentionally blocking the ramp using their immobilizer pad, thus making themselves a target – we were only trying to score ourselves to win the match. We stopped bashing once they were out of the way, and we didn’t fight them after we got on top. We were playing offense the whole time, and the score reflects it.

I would be surprised if there are any hard feelings about any of these matches from the Beatty coaches & drivers.

Ken

OK, all of you who are tired of hearing the politically correct answer of "EVERYONE" raise your hand... good. You are the ones I am talking to. Everyone knows that only a few teams will win, but each of you is totally psyched-up for going to Houston. So the answer is win or lose, early or late, by a little or a lot, everyone who attends the event is definitely a winner in a big way, because you could have been sitting home playing one more hour of D2 or Game Cube or watching TV. Instead, you chose to step out and be part of something bigger.

I salute all the teams and team members in FIRST this year! You guys are great, even if your 'bot never made it up the ramp.

On the topic of stacker 'bots being critical - I don't think the statistics support the assertion that they are critical to win. In the last few weeks I have seen maybe ten anecdotes about how the stacker 'bot made a stack to win the match - I even saw one myself. But let's look at the numbers. To date there have been 1927 matches. I have heard of 10 which were turned by a stacker 'bot. Even if there were 5 times as many matches where the stacker 'bot turned the tide, it still amounts to less than 3 percent of all matches.
Let me say this clearly... in competition, more than 97% of all matches were decided by something other than a stacking robot. That is by the numbers.
No I know I will get PMed and yelled at on the thread, but I am just doing the math.

In my opinion, the stacker 'bot is the pinnacle of design this year. If you made a robot that could stack even a few bins in competition then I salute you for a great design achievement. Even more so if you are one of the few that can pick up a stack and carry it to your side.

Unfortunately, this year's game does not really allow stackers to be the deciding factor [the way I would like them to be].

Back to the issue on flipping beatty. That wasnt intentional and i wasnt bragging about flipping them. Their robot had a high center of gravity and was just asking to be tipped. Secondly, tipping is a large part of this years game and a robot needs to be built in a manner that it survives the match. If the decided an arm was more important than a bot that had a low enough cg to not tip, that was their own mistake.

Knowing Beatty and thier long legacy of winning like I do, it wouldn't suprise me at all if they did something to make them extremely tough to flip. That's the kind of team Beatty is. They are a veteran. An Elite. They not only know what FIRST is about, but they know what the compitition is about. They know what's going down and what's about to go down. Veteran teams have such a huge grasp on how to approach the competition. I'm talking about scouting and strategy. I think that it's something some rookie and second-year teams don't realize is that when a team with 2 or 3 low digits come to your pit to talk to you about strategy, and already have all your opponents and you scouted that thier is something they are doing right. I think the next time one of these teams who has their stuff together you might just consider their strategy a little further. They most likely know how to win and how to win well. That's not to say that just because a 71 comes walking into your pit you should treat them like gods, they need to prove themselves. And as the day goes on at most regionals I think the good teams do that and most teams realize this. And most teams are really good at respecting the vets. Just consider it. I'll stop babbling now. As far as who will win, i think 111 is an extremely strong contender, they have hardcore awesome drivers, great strategy, and the know how. I was also really impressed with team 292 who won the last regional we were just at. Strong, tough drive system, can take one heck of a hit, and a consistent auto mode. Congratz on winning the Midwest Regional guys.

...the silicon valley regional very much reminded me of the stock market...

- if one stock goes down, it takes a complimentary stock down with it (alliances)
- the demand of stocks goes uP with its performance (choosing alliance partners)