New Jersey Regional Status
 

To steal an idea from VCU, here's the thread for posting about the NJ Regional status. Try to keep all updates about the NJ Regional to this thread.

Re: New Jersey Regional Status
 

Wow, ok, interesting regional for a practice day. The practice field went very well, albeit it didnt use the same carpet as the real field.

I noticed with the carpet, the competition carpet was EXTREMELY slippery in comparision to any other carpet.

The field seemed put together somewhat shoddily, nothing lined up, distances were off, the center was messed up, etc.

The process for placing us into/out of Disable/Autonomous is horrible. Never again should they count on a man with an allen wrench. There has to be a better way, absolutely has to. In each of our rounds, we lost at least 5 seconds wating for the guy to: put us into auto, take us out, make sure we werent in disable when we shouldnt be, etc.

1 team happened to destroy a gear, shattering it accross the field. anyone want to elaborate? Also, anyone else notice the big 303 FRIDGE. That bot was the most amazing one out there, and from no on, i (un)officially nickname them the FIRST Fridge.



ETA: Does anyone else think that using the portable goals to block the ball corals for the other team is the absolute CHEAPEST and most rediculous tactic? I forgot which team did it during the practice rounds, im surprised they didnt get boo'ed.

Also, i think only like 3-4 teams made it on the bar successfully, and only like 2 teams did autonomous successfully.

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Hey guys,

Anyone knows how our Brazilian friends from 1156 and 1382 are doing? :D

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today was a very interesting day. in one match we (293) managed to grab 2 of the pvc pipes on the mobile goal and ended up pulling them out, one of them was securly in our gripper and we just took it with us as we preceded to drive up the 6" step. We then dropped the big ball which rolled into our frame and suddenly dissapered instantaniously. we then noticed the yellow blob on the carpet. then we flipped when we drove up the step, fell over frontwards, and ended up ballanced on top of a small ball. It was a quite funny site to see.

P.S.Who do u guys think was the most impressive bot there?

Ben Van Selous

Re: New Jersey Regional Status
 

Unless the regional is close and they go home each day like we do in LA.

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Ok a post of NJ.....so today I walked around for most of the day checking out the other robots and just getting a feel for the competition. Here are my thoughts for the practice rounds:

1) I can’t comment on the condition of the field because I was never on it but everything looked fine from the stands

2) Hanging- maybe 3 teams could hang every time but they were few and far between. I do remember specifically that team 716 could hang very well.

3) 2x ball....good luck, just like the hanging portion of the game very few teams could manipulate the balls. A few more teams could uncap the goals but in all the matches I watched I would say only 3 teams were successful in capping a goal.

4) Field reset- takes forever, much longer then any other game I have seen, most of this is because getting the balls in the drop bins is difficult because they have a tendency to bounce back out.

5) ball pushers - there were quite a few of these bots but today was pointless for them because during the practice rounds the "coach" from each team was on the field pushing balls to the human players. I am beginning to think that these bots will be the deciding factor of this year

6) Auto mode - ummmm non-existent a few teams tried and a few teams failed but the majority of the teams just sat there and blinked their team color light

7) Falling bots - it was very common to see teams topple over climbing the stairs and also getting hung up on balls

8) There was a very friendly atmosphere but way too quite to be a FIRST comp. maybe it was just practice day but not much cheering

Overall I am still very interested in seeing how this game will be played out tomorrow, I predict that most matches will be very low scoring and the team that hangs will win.

As for the Brazilian teams I saw them and the one with the little humanoid robot mascot's bot looks sweet and they seemed to perform well....

I will be around Delphi for a while so if anyone wants specifics on a team I will be glad to answer...

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Best sight: Wayne Cokeley (team 25) - we're all really glad you broke out of the hospital to join us!

Best autonomous: 1382 (Brazil) got the ball off the tee most of the time and theirs seemed to be the most reliable line-tracker.

Best ball gatherer/fridge: 303 was good at gathering and spewing 5 pointers, as well as un-capping and capping.

Best civic spirit: 1403 for collecting most of the 5 pt "cuddly land mines" as they dropped from the bin, saving the rest of us from having to wade through them.

Loudest noise: Tie between teams 25 and 102, when ramming the moveable goals into the opposing players station. It really was uncannily quiet most of the time, otherwise. Must be because they outlawed Moe-sticks! Or maybe because everyone was so deep in thought, trying to figure out how to make their robot work.

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I believe the Fridge will be the ultimate teammate this year. They, and the "net" team that captured the balls as they fell will be the first 1 or 2 choices for the playoffs. I would choose 303 only because they rocked the house with the 2x, and had the ability to store 2 2x balls at a time.

My team (219), had an interesting time trying to climb to the chinup bar. It was quite fun actually. Our main problem was that our driver was too busy complaining about my autonomous code (hey, it worked... in THEORY, as well as on the prac field).

My team is the one with the single thin tube car antenna extender, and the winch pull up. Out of the 4 times we tried to hang, 1 we didnt make it up the stairs due to a nut loose behind the wheel, once we didnt hang because our winch cable wasnt reset, and the other 2 we were successful.

May i mention, the Brazil teams were extremely nice and well designing, i believe they did VERY well in overall design, if not as in the practice (didnt see much)

I would like to pose this question: does anyone else think that team 25 and 102's moveable goal ramming would be considered ungracious/unprofessional?

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Yeah, we did that. To ourselves. Our driver was trying to knock the multiplier ball out of the mobile goal and accidentally blocked our own ball corral.

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We don't boo in FIRST.

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I'm going to have to go with the general consensus and say that Team 303 was most impressive. A teammate and I were taking notes on what to question other teams about (we're looking ahead to next year, when we'll be...erm...slightly...pressed...for mechanical experience, so we're trying to get a feel for basic concepts).

Team 303- everything. Great robot.

293- telescoping arm

219- loved the drive system

1382 had amazing autonomous

I also thought that 571 was very good with manipulating the multiplier balls and 1302 had a cool design for hanging (see, scissor lifts DO work!)

I also have to give my own team (30) some credit for going crazy in autonomous mode and attacking the ball rack. =)

Those were just my observations for the day.

-Laura
Team 30
HTHS's FURY

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Id have to say, for an absolute violation of GP, as well as fair sportsmanship, integrity, and fair play, we could make an exception. We dont boo because of performance or design, but we should boo for blatent disreguard for honor and integrity, the basis of the competition. I still would like to see a ruling put down on that one.

On another note:
Laura, i have to agree mostly with your picks, although i would put the CyberKnights for the best drive system. Their pivoting treads were an amazing idea IMHO. The only thing about 1302 i have to worry about, and FYI, this is mostly me being picky, not putting down the team (who btw, did an excelent job overall, esp for a rookie team), is the fact that it takes SO long to get up, and starting it early could disable your ability to get up the stairs. But a team that wants a mate for a free 50, you are the guys... er girls...

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Could somebody post a picture (or a few) of 303? I want to see this magical fridge creation.

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I dont think we have a picture, but we were in the pit next door to 303, and our first reaction was... where do the Coke's come out! They are an amazing bot, and i would easily pick them for #1 this regional, as they are bounds ahead of everyone else. If they dont end up making it high, i would bet to hell they are the 1st choice for teammates.

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My opinion on the entire blocking the ball chutes with the mobile goals matter is let them. I don't feel that it violates any rules, or is in bad taste. It is simply a strategy. Just like any other strategy, it has drawbacks, such as lowering opponents score, thereby reducing Ranking Points. Also, all a team must do to render this ineffective is have a goal grabber and remove the goals, or simply move balls to the other chute.

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Could someone please describe what 303's bot looks like.. how many small balls can it hold, etc- sounds amazing

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basically, its the sizing box, with channels for balls (Which will hopefully be the correct size tomorow) we had some trouble getting them out because the balls were not correctly inflated. 8-9 balls inside the bot. We can also piggy back a big ball while carrying another with our arms, two big balls. :D

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Thats insane.. how about your drivetrain? And can you guys hang? we're also a small ball bot, we can hold 9 but no large balls

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two drills, high speed, two wheel drive. No bar/platform. At this point im glad we deicided to abandon going up that huge step, i saw three teams in one match flip over. Its very unstable up there from what I saw.

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Blocking the goals is a legal and viable stratgey. I can see many cases where teams would use it (the 18 ball collectors-net-awesome robots for example) It has been legal from the beginning and a well designed robot should be able to account for that

Put me down on the list for a picture of 303's bot. Us Virginians need visual things ;)

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as per placing the goals to block a chute, I don't believe that's considered ungracious or unprofessional. I consider it a defensive strategy, which has all but been eliminated in this year's game. Team 25 has always tried to play a defensive game, and this is how they're doing it this year. Teams that have robots that can pull the mobile goals back away from their corral may be useful for solving this problem. We knew from day one that some teams would be attempting to do this in autonomous mode, and honestly, it's not a bad tactic.


As for our view of the competition, we're unfortunately having a lot of problems with the bot, so we've been a bit edgy. We unfortunately had to scrap our manipulator at virtually the last moment because of weight, and had to slap something together before ship date in under 3 days. Needless to say, it's not a beauty of engineering or anything like that -- in fact, we just hope it gets us up on the bar. Hopefully things will shape up tomorrow!

Re: New Jersey Regional Status
 

It is neither ungracious or unprofessional. The question was posed to the FIRST Q&A board and would have been addressed as ungracious if they saw it that way. This is just another strategy of the game that could have been planned for. It is obvious that if the goals are in the corner by the corrals they are hard to get out no matter who pushes them there. It you design to expect that to happen enough that you see it as a major problem you add a latch to pull the goal from the corner.

When competing weakness are attacked and that includes your ability to manipulate the mobile goal. If you left a weakness their it is not ungracious to expose this weakness. It kind of like hackers who tell the companies how they hacked them so they can fix it. The problem associated with it can be fixed. You have to put some time into it. Assess the cost ie time vs result and find out if the problem is big enough to put time to get the the result you want.

And no body deserved to be booed. That would be unGP. Think how you would feel if someone booed you when you were playing. Not good.

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Today I was very suprised when i actually heard a team booing in the stands. I will not say the team name or number, but everytime the Who Ce Tecks would hang they would boo. I find this very un GP and hopefully if your from this certain team, you will realize that it is just not right.

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team 237 TRIBE (aka Sie-h2o-bots) had a great hanging arm. It took a while to get up, but when on top they could move back and forth.

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I can't believe that I find myself saying this, honestly, but, "two wrongs do not make a right."

I am astonished that this conversation needs to take place at all. I don't think it's possible to give enough negative reputation to properly express how I feel about this mentality.

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Thanks for the shout out! Yes, we can "shimmy" as we like to call it.
Our shimmy is a roller mechanism built into our claw/fist that allows us to move horizontally while hanging on the bar, to block other teams from hanging, and to allow our partners up on the bar if they need the room.

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I hope that team doesn't boo on Friday or Saturday, because the Judges do take notes of the "booing" team number. So they are taking a chance themself with unGP!

:rolleyes:

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The booing conversation is ridiculous. This is FIRST. That sort of stuff doesn't happen here.

As for the strategy: C'mon. It's a good defensive strategy, and if it weren't, we wouldn't be having this discussion. You need to make the game interesting, and everyone has their own way of doing so. This is ours. Build your robot to pull them out, and you'd probably be a great asset to an alliance.

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Actually, it still happened even though it was FIRST...some teams just dont got any GP or if any, very little. Booing was heard in the stands yesterday, and every one was surprised. And the reason this thread turned into this is, the competition hasnt start yet....

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Well if this happens during a qualifying or elimination, I'll be shocked and dismayed.

BTW: I love your handouts. Good stuff ;)

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Can you let me know how team #195 (Southington Cyber Knights) are doing. We're their major sponsor. We're watching the site from up here in CT. but don't have feedback yet. Good luck to your team and everyone else!

Steve Hall
Staff Engineer
Medex, Inc.

Re: New Jersey Regional Status
 

wow. rookie right over here. yesterday was crazy. 1257 rep.. grr. i wish i was there now, but im in skool b/c tonight i was hired for a DJ gig and we got home yesterday at 9. and well, i need 2 be readyat 6. sooo. yea. oh well. ill be back 2morrow. good luck 2 my team obviously, but props n luck 2 my buddies in Femme Tech Fatale, my hometown Rahway and Holtons crew. see everyone 2morrow. peace

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It's great to hear good things about the brazilian teams and about the whole competition! [off-topic] Does anybody know if the match results will be updated all day long or if they're going to update the results only at the end of the day? (at the FIRST website) :rolleyes:

Re: New Jersey Regional Status
 

Usually it's an end of the day thing.

All I know is that match #5, with 237 & 1366, against 571 & 709 was won by 237 & 1366, with a QP of 20.

I'll be updating every so often...sorry, I wont have any other matches other than the ones 237 is in :-D

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Another update!

Match 17: 237 w/ 219 won over 1302 & 1366 with 55QP.

Apparently they're not posting rankings yet...so once I know, I'll let you know ;)

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Here is an awards update from Trenton:
Leadership in Control: Team 25
Imagery: Team 869
Creativity: Team 303
Driving Tomorrow's Technology: Team 716
Spirit: Team 1257
Judges Award: Team 1156 (Brazil)
Rookie Award: Team 1279
Woody Flowers Award: Dave Beck, Team 103

Re: New Jersey Regional Status
 

Really, after seeing the competition today, the goal blocking was not an issue at all since most teams realized there are better things to do with their time. I really got into it and realized that it became a nonissue.

I DID have someone come up to my team to tell me that they "perfectly inflated" the balls to my request, which i think was from this thread.

The competition today went very well, and all those little querks in the system were taken out yesterday. Few teams had a successful auto mode, and perhaps a dozen teams hung well. The 2x ball seemed to have a very small group that could do it successfully every time. I think tomorrow is going to show quite a lot!

PS-who is doing a scoring/record update? Where would i get that, and also, where did you find out about all of the awards?

Re: New Jersey Regional Status
 

Good day for matches for our team (56)... we are 5-1 at the moment. The most interesting was between us and a partner vs 25 and 175(or whichever one RAGE is) amazingly won by us. We had to cap the goal with about 5 balls in it and hang on the bar and the final score was 115-75 because RAGE couldnt get the hang or it would have been a close loss... The most # of balls i saw drop into the goal was in our last match we got 8 balls into the goal which is 50% of the ball coral and thats it and we won the match just with that. Actually that was also the first time that our autonomous worked well. Cant wait to see rankings.. Hope everyone does well and enjoys.

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that round was team 56 & 768 vs 25 & 173

great match....almost 3 hangers that round..

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thank u i had forgotten the #.

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Things have gone pretty well for us so far, we completely changed our strategy from hanging to capping. Our telescoping arm is working really well, any of the other teams can tell you that. Ww have been unlucky in matches though, our standings do not reflect what our robot can do. We have had several alliance mates flip, and get disabled so we had to do everything alone. I have noticed that a lot of teams are having problems, the challenge is much more difficult then many of us thought.
Here is a pic of the fridge, its not the best, but its all I have for now.

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Does neone know if we can find out standings newhere or other team records.... cause i really wanna see where we are located.. I know we should be in top ten undoubtedly.

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i think i saw you guy in the top 7 (56)

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hey did you see us? We can wait until tomorrow if needed, but I'm very curious.

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Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me, that last year, FIRST used to keep thematch results at the regional events page updated ( http://www.usfirst.org/robotics/2004/rgevents.htm ), not even the Friday awards are there, am I out of my mind or last year it was the same thing? :)

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I would also like to see any standings that you guys have, esp where my team sits. Do any teams have unofficial standings/point markers from all their scouts they could post?

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Whatever scoring system they are using is having a lot of problems, the real time scoring was not up until the afternoon. I guess a lot of teams will have to scurry to get their alliances set up for finals:( :ahh:

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You are correct, they were slow last year at posting the results on usfirst.org.
It takes a while to double check the regional results, combine it with the Saturday results & awards, send it the their webmaster, gather results from other regionals and post them. (so expect the same this year)
:ahh:

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I hope they get their system working by tommorow morning it seems they didnt get much done yesterday regarding to setting up and dealing with technical problems.... But hey atleast they are doing this for us its all good and fun.

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Absolutely a great strategy. We considered robot designs that would be totally defensive - move goals away from the shooter, block ball chutes, move 5 and 10 pointers out of the way, de-score 2x's. We chose not to take that approach but it sounds like some teams are doing it.

This strategy is no different that previous years of knocking down stacks (03) or capturing all three moveable goals (02).

Don't boo them - find a way to beat their strategy!

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Not if you have been scouting religiously all weekend and have some choices made already.

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Score and rankings could matter less. Compatability, if you like the people, if they're reliable matter more. If they met this criteria and they were ranked last I would still pick them because not only is that my best chance to win but also my best chance to have a lot of fun. Our first alliance partner last year met all this criteria last year but they happened to be a top eight seed too.

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I know a few people wanted pictures of our robot. Now named "The Fridge". We are even printing out Fridge buttons for the regional in Annapolis lol. Thanks for the nickname :p
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...threadid=26425

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There used to be a lineman for the Chicago Bears nicknamed the "Refrigerator". (back in the 80's I think) Maybe you can get him as a sponsor!

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Hey 303 just wondering how much is the capacity to # of small balls u can hold in ur robot. i havent seen our scouting sheet yet thats tmrw morning from 9-11 since we only have 2 matches tmrw.

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To all who are pointing out the many problems on the field and the events, please be patient!!!!

Remember, this is the first weekend of regionals, and the fields have not been field tested to this extent. So if there are issues, be aware that the volunteers and the FIRST staff know about them, and they ARE working almost 24/7 trying to fix them.

I know that in NJ at least, some staff were there till 3 AM in the morning on Friday working out these bugs.

BE PATIENT!!!!!


To all those who are interested in the status of NJ here is a run down that I know of.

We have ~50 teams here in Trenton NJ with 2 teams joining us from Brazil.
The people who sang the National anthems here did a phenomenal job for both anthems. I believe they were FIRST team members from teams from the US and Brazil.

Practice went well minus the bugs, and I believe all teams had one less practice match than planned but most teams were doing well by the end of the day.
Inspection took a long time (~50 teams here) At one time in Thursday afternoon there were still 34 teams that had not been inpsected yet.
I believe 1 team left after Thursday's practice round and did not return on Friday because of major difficulties in their drive train and I wish them the best of luck in the future!

There is a practice half-field for testing and that has been used non-stop during these two days so far. It was a mock-up full scale field just made from pvc, nothing fancy but it was full scale and did work for autonomous, and goal testing. No chin up bar though! But oh well!

Friday went well, all teams were scouting like crazy (again), and the usual general madness ensued at the venue. I believe all teams had a chance to play 6 or 7 matches today and will finish up the rest tomorrow.

The awards ceremony was good, and had a lot of fans cheering from one particular "Everything I need to know I learned in FIRST" poem donated to be read here by RAGE 173 from CT.
The regional Woodie Flowers award was awarded to a team mentor from the Cyber Sonics team 103. (Sorry, I don't remember his name off hand.)

Scores were finally able to be displayed on the big screens at about 3:00pm but I don't believe it is the "actual" screen they will be using this year.
Just something for the time being.

On multiple occasions I saw goals blocking coralls, robots tipping over and a few matches even 3 robots were able to hang and score.

I want to wish everyone good luck tomorrow who is here, and if you're not here, you are missing one heck of a competition!!!

Just wait till you compete, you will love it!! They don't call this year's game FIRST Frenzy for nothing!!

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Looks like someone has been busy behind the camera here in NJ!!

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...threadid=26405

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Heh - The Fridge. While not exactly fear inspiring - it does fit rather well.

I've been seeing a lot of robots tipping, often on the bottom 6" step - robots can caught on the step, and then back up into a purple ball when they try and disengage.

Personally, I like 1403 a lot. They are a rookie team, and can get more balls in autonomous than most teams can get in an entire match. They have a large net, and they sit under the ball release in autonamous. I've seem them get 14 balls at once. They feed them into the goal corral at about the rate a person can throw - so they can more or less start feeding players balls within 30 seconds of the start of the match.

AND they can do large ball. And they don't tip over.

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I'm here onsite in Trenton scouting.. 1382 is playing as I speak, they are the onlly team all day to successfuly hit the 10 pt ball in auto mode, and now they just hung all the way up to the top- they won big time, 140-20, the highest so far

the other team- 1156 just went and had soome kind of mechanism to hook from the side.. they they successfully hooked but it looks like they were illegaly touching the bar or something..


I'll keep a eye on those two teams all day long, the competition has been interesting sofar, almost no big ball capping and small ball manipulation/pushing..

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if you don't mind, could you guys come to the tigerbolt chat room if you're at the regional.
http://www.rit.edu/~us1stwww/chatindex.html
there's always someone in there watching the regionals.

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Unfortunately, I can't chat as I am on my pager- the competition seems to be much better..

update on the two brazilian teams- 1156 has a very nice and fast drivetrain, they unfortunately lost again, and the other
team (1382?) again went up the steps with no trouble and hooked.. After the power was cut, they rolled all the way down but the judges appeared to score their bot.. both have very nice robots compared to the rest of the field.

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can anyone post the alliance selections:
who is with who?

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Thanks a lot for the updates! I've talked to the guys on skype last night and I've heard that 1156 had a lot of problems with the drivetrain, 3 or 4 broken drills or something, I'm glad to hear that even "not winning" the bot seems to be doing well and mostly, I'm glad for I can see how better we're doing this year, since last year everything was new for us, and also I'm happy for our buddies from 1382, since they are rookies it is awesome that they could get the autonomous mode to work so well! Thanks for all the support and keep us updated :D :D

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They never posted the alliance selections, so - will post them as I see the bots come on

1 seed : 56, 237, 303

8 seed: 25, 103, 365

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1 seed : 56, 237, 303

8 seed: 25, 103, 365

1st round: 25 and 103 rush to the bar and sandwich 237, preventing 56 from hanging.. 8 seed beats 1 seed

Round 2: 365 and 103 vs 303 and 237:
365 goes up platform fast and appears to tangle drivetrain, 103 and 237 battle on the platform until 237 flips on 103, but 103 stil manages to hang.. 303 runs around sucking balls and caps goal after shooting all of them in..
Turns out 303 got enough balls, as the #1 alliance evens out the series


Round 3: 25 and 103 vs 237 and 303
What a thriller... 25 speeds forward and slams 237, disabling them.. 303 uncaps their mobile goal and drags it under the ball chute, then caps it after the balls fall.. they then proceed to cap the large goal as 25 and 103 go up the platform.. however, 25 flips over a big ball, as the #1 seed perseveres..




Next up: 233, 219, 1089 vs 869, 1382, 375

Round 1: 1382 gets up to the platform fast, falls, and apparently messes up drivetrain. 869 catches all of the balls and gets around 15 in the big goal, while 219 hangs. exciting shooting by 869 as their alliance wins

Round 2: 869 and 375 vs 219 and 1089
869 catches all of the balls again and delivers them.. 375 dies 15 secs in the match, while 219 gets atop the platform but can't hang, and 108 hassles 869 as they deliver the balls- 869's alliance finishes off their opponent.

Next:

195, 11, and 173 vs 571, 181, and 102

571 and 181 collect a whole bunch of big balls but 181's cap attempt fails.. 195 caps a goal filled with maybe 9 balls then caps, then 571 tries to uncap that goal, but comes just a bit short.. 11 hangs throughout this cap war

2nd round: 173 and 195 vs 102 and 181

173 trips their ball, 181 rushes to their side and brings back five balls, while 102 herds balls to their side and 195 picks up a 2x.. after some herding 173 hangs, 102 prevents 195 from hetting a big ball, and 181 delivers about 10 more balls.. both ball coralls are fat with 173 hanging. the 173, 11, and 195 alliance advances.


Next: 716, 87, and 613 vs 403, 75, and 224

87 trips both of the balls, and 403 is in place to catch all of the balls.. they deliver, but their human player only hits half of his shots. 403 then caps their now-full goal as 716 hangs and 87 fights with 75 on the ramp.. 87 hangs finally, and wins thanks to only around 9 balls in the goal

2nd round: 613 and 716 vs 403 and 224

403 positions themselves under the ball chute, but nobody trips any balls.. 716 rams them into a corner as 224 tries to help, but 716 flips 224... the balls fall, and 613 is already hanging. 716 goes to the ramp and lifts themselves, and with 40 seconds this match is done with both opposing alliance partners dead. The second ball-catcher is eliminated, as 613, 716, and 87 sweep their opponents

Next: 237, 56, and 303 vs 195, 11, and 173

Round 1: 237 and 56 vs 195 and 11
237 gets up to the platform and hangs with ease, using their amazing mechanism to move back and forth on the bar.. 11 fights up but is unable to hang thanks to 237's phenomenal mover.. 195 caps a goal with several balls as 56 hangs on the other side of the platform... however, 11 hooks onto 237's bar clamp. wow.
the refs have a fun time discussing this one over. It is impossible not to be a 237 fan, man, just so pretty watching them slide over.. after maybe five minutes the refs trot over to the admin table and check out the official handbook..
They must've decided that 11 was illegaly hooked on 237, as the # 1 seed wins the first round.

Round 2: 173 and 195 vs 237 and 303

173 again knocks down their ball, but thanks to a malufunction their chute doesn't fall.. 237 hangs and slides as usual while 303 pushes balls around and 175 grabs a large ball.. 173 raises their arm in front of a defending 273, then turns and tries to hang on the other side.. 273 slides over and forces their arm under the bar, almost tipping 173.. both 195 and 303 cap their goals, with the 195 team having significantly more balls. In the end, my new favorite robot's alliance advances, as 273, 303, and 56 make it to the finals.

Next: 716, 87, and 613 vs 375, 1382, and 869

Round 1: 1382 trips their ball with their traditionally great autonomous mode, and 1382, 87, and 716 fight their way up to the platform.. 87 is the first to hang, with 716 foloowing, until 1382 jams themselves up 87 and pushes 87 off the bar.. 87 flips onto 1382, disabling both. Throughout all of this 375 herds balls and dills up the goal, but thanks to a hanging 716 and several balls their alliance drops the first match.

2nd round: 716 and 613 vs 869 and 375
869 positions themselves under the chute, but 716 rams them as the balls fall, and only half the balls fall in their net. 613 immediately hangs, and 716 joins them soon after. 869 seems to be having some drivetrain difficulties, and the 716, 613, 87 alliance advances to the finals

Finals: 237, 56, 303 vs 716, 87, and 613

Round 1: 87 and 716 vs 237 and 56
716 rams 237 in autonomous mode, but goes out of bounds and loses power. 237 hangs effortlessly as usual, and 56 and 87 both climb the steps. 87 is the first to attempt to hook, but loses their balance and tips. Asboth blue robots are dead, the 237, 56, and 303 alliance move within one match to winning this regional

Round 2: 237 hangs within 15 seconds, and both 716 and 613 rush up to the bar. After some scuffling all three are hooked. 303 had puled their goal under the chute, and capped both goals with the field to themselves. The # 1 alliance, 237, 56, and 303 wins the regional. Awesome.

(excuse me for typos, I'm doing this on a small handheld pager)

Re: New Jersey Regional Status
 

congrats to teams 303, 237, and 56 for winning the Trenton regional

Re: New Jersey Regional Status
 

Awesome job with the updates man. Sounds like a great alliance partnership with 237, 56, and 303. Congratulations to all.

Re: New Jersey Regional Status
 

Congratulations 303, 56, 237!


... sounds like it was an amazing time.... first year not at MidAtlantics and I deffinately missed it :(

Re: New Jersey Regional Status
 

:) It was a very good day for us.... I missed the alliance selection had gone out for lunch. But we were afraid against 103 and 25 and 365, a very good combo but thanx to 303 all the way to win that one for us... We had problem with our gripper the motor failed on us and we couldnt uncap the goal under the ball chute and also unable to hang.... but we got it fixed within the 2 rnds that 237 and 303 played. After that it was just great job by 303 with the balls and capping and stuff. Amazing robot they have very reliable. Thanx guys for all the congrats. we will hopefully c some of u in Philly and in the nationals. Also Thanx to our partners 303 and 237 for an absolutely amazing day and alliance.

Re: New Jersey Regional Status
 

Yay. The fridge dispenses sodas of victory with the assitance of 237 and 56. Thanks a lot for picking us 237. Hopefully we can pair up in Atlanta sometime. I think it was an awesome alliance. Thanks guys.

Re: New Jersey Regional Status
 

Yup! 237 and 303 and 56 made a great team . The last match in more detail :
237 Get's up the bar within the first 15 secs ... 716 tries to stop them and they almost succeded but 237 got up that bar eventually and started sliding on it : OH BOY ! and then 716 and 613 showed amazing team work and helped each other get up that bar , good job teams.... Meanwhile team 303 was collecting small balls and had a very good amount inside that stationary goal but it was seeming that 716 and 613 would win but then .... 303 caps ,with the multiplier ball, their goal and thas all folks!

Re: New Jersey Regional Status
 

yea 237 lost one match the whole competition the Quarterfianl 1.1 Very nice bot they have a very simple sliding mechanism tooo. All it is is 2 rollers and a motor. very good job on that one by them. Btw 1403 was very good rookie all star and best performance. 2 of our former team members are on it and i believe they started the idea of it in the skool so a very good robot. The other team to hit ball in autonomous was 87 it was successful almost every time in getting that 10 pt ball of.

Re: New Jersey Regional Status
 

Hey, driver from 219 here.

We performed much above expectation, taking the #2 seed. Last year, the team was 43rd. We picked a very good alliance, including 1089 and 223, each to work well against 237. Unfortunately, one round of amazing shooting by the other team, and a string of bad luck in the 2nd, got us out real quick.

I was really impressed with how things worked out, and my whole team is really impressed with EVERYTHING!! Thanks once more to 1089 and 223, without who we would not be even close to our seed.

Good luck 1089 in Anapolis, and a few of us will try to make it to your bowling fundraiser, pending info!

Re: New Jersey Regional Status
 

Wow... awesome day today. Congratulations to 237, 56 and 303. Esp. 237 for going 14-1 total (and sliding across the bar), and for 303 for double-capping in two rounds... incredible. Also, i dont know who it was, but congrats to that one HP who put 17 balls in the goal, missing only one and having two fall out.

Re: New Jersey Regional Status
 

I have to say that I was originally disappointed with the game design and everything as a whole. But then, as I saw the elimination rounds, the game got a LOT more exciting, and I came to realize that there is so much more that can be done in this game than in stack attack, and I'm starting to think I actually like it more!

The thing I didn't like is that a lot of teams (including ours) had a lot of difficulties getting their robot up and running correctly. This impeded them in making the qualification rounds interesting, and what it basically boiled down to is he who hangs wins. There WERE rounds, however, that it was the small and 2x balls that ultimately decided the outcome. Team 869 has an AMAZING shooter (whose name is apparently Justin :) ), and with their ball corraller, they were able to fill up the tall bin on multiple occasions. It was no surprise that they did so well.

The elims were SO much more interesting to watch. I wish I caught them all, but I was glad to see the game played as it should be.

We walked away with nothing but smiles on our faces, and an excitement toward the Chesapeake Regional. A HUGE thanks to team 219 for choosing in their alliance. Sorry about our pulley, but you guys rock!

On the organizational side of things, I give an enormous amount of respect toward the crew and volunteers, they were amazing in making everything so smooth.

HOWEVER, I felt that the Sovereign Bank Arena, beloved stadium around the corner from my house, was not laid out in a way that was efficient for us to do what we needed to do. I was constantly on my cell phone communicating with teammates in the stands because I couldn't leave the pit for too long, but needed to get to my personal belongings, scouting sheets, etc. Being that it took 5 minutes to walk from pit to stands, we had a difficult time keeping track of who was where when we needed something from a specific teammate. Having only one entrance to and from the pit made this tough, especially because our stands section was 2/3 of the way around. I think that if they chose the SBA next year, they should try to open the pit on both sides, making it a complete half-circle, which would be easier for everyone.

Other than that, I was really pleased with how it went! I know they had problems with the scoring system, but just like with our robots, it takes testing, work, and revamping to get it right. I'm really glad to have been at the regional this year, and good luck to everyone else in their future events!

Hope to see you in Annapolis!

Re: New Jersey Regional Status
 

This competition was one of the quietest I've ever been too! The MC had to constantly keep nudging people to make any sort of noise. Although, finally, towards the end there was some mad cheering going on...I was disappointed by the lack of it in general. I think the biggest problem is that there weren't any MOESticks around. I'm very unhappy about the rule forbidding noise makers like that. I'm sorry but you need to have noise to have a competition like that. This is my second year on the team and I must say...I must prefered my first year's competitions. I mean...come on...I almost fell asleep! That might have been because I was running around all weekend though too but...sheesh. Anyone else unhappy about the lack of cheering?

As far as the robots go, oh my gosh...there were some really awesome robots out there!

Re: New Jersey Regional Status
 

Agreed on the part with the dead competition. Must commend 195 and 88 and 869(Cordis) for that one they were the 3 teams up the whole time..... Agreed on the part with not the rite place it needs to go back to Rutgers. Yea this was a very very quiet compeition overall. I have had a 100 times more noise at Rutgers and stuff.. but yea the guy that got the 17 balls in the semi's was from Middlesex Cordis.... amazing shooter he shot 2 in the goal but PVC pipes were to wide so they fell out. hey basically won both rnds due to him. Very nice shooting. Our HP was 24/25 mobile goal and 20/29 on the stationary....

Re: New Jersey Regional Status
 

Representing team 219 i would like to comment on our own performance in the trenton regional. On behalf of my entire team we are overjoyed at were we got in this competition. Last year we finished 43. This year we went into the finals in the 2nd seed. Our goal was to win 50% of our matches and we would have been more than overjoyed. Our team differs much from oter teams. On our team we have no engineers no mentors and no large sponsors. The robot was mainly designed and built by three very didicated seniors including my self. I would in the most polite way like to brag that a team designed, fabricated, built, and driven by 3 18 yr olds, was able to make the 2nd seed in entering the finals.
I would also like to extend a very sincere and courtious thank to teams 223, and 1089. We have no regrets what so ever about the two of you and regardless of our unfortunate mechanical problems in the quaterfinal, i feel all 3 of us did extremly well.

Fell free to email at billbartell@comcast.net
---please use gracious professionalism with the email---

Re: New Jersey Regional Status
 

One more thing i missed was the friday nite team gathering which was a lot of fun at Rutgers in Smithers Hall..... They sooo need to move it back to Rutgers Rutgers just had its own excitement level. And all the teams did very well at Rutgers there were very few that disappointed. Almost every team had its good rounds and bad rounds.

Re: New Jersey Regional Status
 

I would like to double all of those comments. Our string of bad luck in our 1/4 final match was that both our robots lost their ability to hang, and we lost by 15 points or so. I really loved havin both teams with us, and if we had to make the choice again, we would make it with no reservations, between the class and the overall atmosphere you two brought to our (tho short lived) alliance, it was the best experience i could have thought!

Erich.keane(the funny little character that looks like an A with a circle around it.... sometimes means at)verzion.net is my email.

Little story about the amazingness of 223 in our final qualifiers. This team, mathematically eliminated from the score, and with us ranked about 3-4, facing perhaps the stiffest competition of the day (571's amazing ball collection/shooting style/2x), put it all on the line.

Instead of playing it safe, 223 decided that they would do WHATEVER it takes, to win for US. Easily the best GP and Class i have ever thought of. They put their bot in one of the most dangerous position we could imagine, and did it amazingly. They did a full contact blocking session against the other 2 teams, winning us our final victory, securing 2nd place. Even though they wanted more than anything to hang, to test if they could, they put it all on the line for us. For that we extend our greatest thanks, and wish both allies luck whereever you end up next!

Re: New Jersey Regional Status
 

The competition was quiet at first but as it moved on during the day the voices have begun to get louder as the robots began to hang or attempt to hang 3 at a time. As well as the playing of all the dance and party music by the MC. Espicially the YMCA and the CHA CHA SLIDE , ELECTRIC SLIDE.

I will be posting some pics in the white papers section under compressed files b/c I had taken quite a few b4 my batteries ran dead. ( Mind you I had a Rechargeable and a Regular Battery )


Edit:/ Ok I uploaded the White Papers There are 3 of them all labled NJ Regional Pics X (x=a number between 1 - 3.)

These Files have been zipped so make sure you have a WinZip Program on handy

Each file contains different images you may post the pictures in the gallery if you want I just don't have time to post one by one by one. etc.......

Re: New Jersey Regional Status
 

Ahh. We were this close. If the winds were blowing in a slightly different direction and it were a full moon, we could have won.

It was that close.

In our first loss in the finals, we would have won if 87 managed to grab the bar and not topple.

In the second round, if there were slightly less balls in other alliance's goal or if they didn't cap the goal, we would have won.

It was that close. Heck, our alliance partner 716 barely got up on the bar. We were wondering if they were touching the platform. Fortunately, we didn't have to fight very hard for the bar since we could drive sideways much faster than 237 could move sideways hanging on the bar.

Even though we didn't win the last match, I loved it. It was close, three bots got onto the bar, a goal got capped, our alliance partner barely got onto the bar - it was intense. I gotta get a video of it.

Funny how we were surprised to even get into the elimination rounds. We had a 4 match winning streak, and then a 4 match losing streak in the seeding rounds. The last loss in the seeding rounds was disappointing, since it was a rematch and we won the first time. :mad: Oh well. I bet the referree was hoping that we'd win so nobody would yell at him.

Then on our way back from lunch @ McDonalds, one of our team members still at the arena called us and told us we were picked.

Considering that this was the first year that we've been picked to play in the elimination rounds, I'd say we did pretty good.

Re: New Jersey Regional Status
 

It was a full moon, and I think that's what did us in ;)

Re: New Jersey Regional Status
 

Bah-- our team was easily this close || from going on. That silly set screw/ stuck telescope arm combo musta been caused by the rotation of venus on the competition... Cause you know how much venus hates mercury.... oh wait, you are named after the metal, hehe.

Perhaps it was Vanadium then?

Re: New Jersey Regional Status
 

We are actually all three: The planet, the Metal and the God. We were thinking of making our team chant "metals and planets and gods, oh my!"

Hopefully next year we will have a bigger spirit team.

Re: New Jersey Regional Status
 

Team 195 won the sportsmanship award...and came in third with the assistince of RAGE and MORT. The thing that suprised our team was, we lost our first two matches, but then, we started winning and won every single one from the first two on. The only other two matches we lost, where the ones against 303's alliance. See you at UTC !

Re: New Jersey Regional Status
 

My prediction was that it was a conspiricy. That darn planet Venus teamed up with Vanadium (just cause it sounds cool), and that weird guy from under the sea in the little mermaid, to trick our robots into not working.

Either that, or physics just started working again, but who knows?

Edit: obviously i used some strong language... sorry :)

Re: New Jersey Regional Status
 

NJ was fun, despite our overabundance of DUMB MISTAKES that make us lose
matches (repeat to self: I will MAKE SURE that all radios and pwm cables are plugged in BEFORE a match, not after).

yeah, so i was actually quite impressed with our ability to function in the finals, scooping up a load or two of small balls and almost decapping a big goal even though all the motors on the right side of the drive train were cooked into oblivion. thanks a bunch to 181 for picking us (seed number 42 getting 4th pick? who woulda thunk it?), sorry that we couldn't have been more of a help.

and for 219 and 223, about that match we had to replay? yeah. at first we were a little mad, but the more i think about the more i see how it was fair. great job.

we'll be seeing a lot of you folks again at UTC, and good luck to everyone in the meantime

Re: New Jersey Regional Status
 

I was the co-pilot for 303 and who knew a freshman could cap and uncap so well. i am still shocked about how our team along with are allies could do so good and win the regional. and i could not have better pilot along side of me then my good friend Mike8519. congats to 237, and 56 great job. also to all the other teams that played in this regional you all did great and hope you had fun like I did.

Re: New Jersey Regional Status
 

Just because some ill-prepared teams got totally owned doesn't mean that shoving a goal into your opponent's chute is against the rules or runs counter to everybody's favorite concept, "gracious professionalism". FIRST has evaded the question in the Q&A section, saying only that "it is the human player's responsibility to avoid contact with any goal pushed past the plane of the player station". Booya.

Re: New Jersey Regional Status
 

Thanks for all the great comments about our "Fridge." Also, congrats to all the teams that participated, the matches were really really heated, especially towards the end; I had a great time!

Re: New Jersey Regional Status
 

i still have to see the qualifying match 56 had against 303 i was late i arrived rite when teh scores for that match were posted. i heard it was a very good match. hopefully i will get the tape in my hands soon enuf.

Re: New Jersey Regional Status
 

I just got home from what was an awesome regional!!
Team 237 would like to thank our strong alliance partners 303 and 56!!!
Look us up in Atlana if you make it down there! We just made a few more friends in FIRST!!

I would also like to thank everyone who was cheering in our favor.

Thanks to David Kelly who was the first one to post about our position entering the finals - even though he wasn't even in the same time zone!!

I also want to send a special thank you and job well done for all the judges at NJ. There were many tough calls I saw in the finals, our situation just maybe being the hardest to judge. The judges inspected the field and consulted the rules for 10 minutes before they came up with a very difficult ruling regarding our most unique "Shimmy" feature and it's use in one of the finals matches.
(I'll post pics of our Shimmy feature later tonight if I get a chance!)

Thank you to all who participated!

Oh, and two more personal thanks. Thank you to MOE for giving us the Gracious Professionalism MOE team award, and also a big thanks to our 10th year pal's at RAGE Robotics for their Team award for Most Unique Design Feature!

See you at UTC in two weeks!!

Re: New Jersey Regional Status
 

What was the ruling?

Re: New Jersey Regional Status
 

Another robot was hanging off of our shimmy device and the decision was that they didnt count because they werent on the bar, they were actually on our robot and not in fact hanging.

Re: New Jersey Regional Status
 

Mort (#11) was hanging off of a wire on 237's Roller arm on top of the bar. Since it was just wire and not the bar they were deemed as not hanging. The entire situation was rather tense. 56 might have been on, part of their arm was on the pulley on the side of the bar and we didnt know if 237 would count because of mort. It was very close. Luckily for us, however, the judges ruled 56 and 237 as hanging, and 11 as not.

Re: New Jersey Regional Status
 

I would like to thank team 303 and 56 for being our alliance partners!!! Great teamwork!!!! We were tense in the beginning of the finals but then we just seemed to ease up. Hope to see you all down in Atlanta!!

Re: New Jersey Regional Status
 

I think it was fear inspiring... It double capped goals in the finals more than once and was a definate force to be rekoned with! I'm glad they accepted to join Team 237 and 56 as an alliance partner!!

Re: New Jersey Regional Status
 

O Yeah...
Thank you to all that have congratulated team 237's robot. Also a huge thanks has to go out to our allience partners, team numbers 56 and 303. Without them, we would not be were we are now. When the shimmy was first used in the practice round on Thursday, everyone watching basicly stopped and pointed at it due to its uniqueness that was unmatched. Some of the matches with the shimmy going against anothers hook were very intense. The match when the robot hooked onto the wire of the shimmy was one of the hardest matches we had. In the final quilification round we flipped the robot while climbing the last set of six inch steps, but through the efforts of our primary driver (Scott Shaw) and me, we were able to right the robot, climb the steps, and hang. This left us undefeated in the qualification rounds. The second time we flipped it was basicly due to a the arm being extended (since we were going to hang) ,we fell and were not able to get up. Our team will be working very hard to avoid that last mistake and other mistakes from happening to give everyone a run for their money at UTC.