Re: St Louis Regional Status
 

967, 16 and who?


Who were runners up?

Re: St Louis Regional Status
 

How did Pike end up doing? Silly Ben Lauer won't answer his cell!

Re: St Louis Regional Status
 

I'd like to thank our alliances: team 967 and 537 for awesome final matches at the St. Louis regional. 967: Your bot was incredibly reliable and I never doubted that you would be hanging at the end of the matches. 537: You guys were great at handling the 2x ball and getting it on the stationary goal quickly. Great job everyone! And, of course, to our superhuman players.

Also, great job to alliance #1. You guys were tough competitors and battled it out to the end. I was very impressed with your matches. The hanging bots got up to the bar quickly and without any trouble, and 1272 dominated the mobile goals. Is 1272 a rookie team? Unbelievable!

Also congratulations to all the drivers out there today. I know this was team 967 drivers' senior year, way to go on an awesome last St. Louis regional. Good luck to all the St. Louis regional teams in their upcoming regionals...hope to see a lot of you at nationals!!

Re: St Louis Regional Status
 

Oh man it was completly nuts during our quarter-finals......

We (1098) were ranked 8th place after the qualifications, we ended up selecting 6th and invited 1018 and 535 to join our allience. The first semi-final round, we put 1018 and 535 out. 1018 did a great job collecting balls and getting it into the movable goal, and 535 was able to cap, and we won that round. Second game, it was 535 and 1098. Our automode got us close to team 931's bot, and 931, who had their arm up, purposely swung the arm around and pushed us over while I was trying to back it up, and we were out for "half" the match, I say half because 931 later accidently got hooked on our hook which was on the ground. And while 931 was going for 535 to try and block them from capping the goal, we started to winch ourselves in. So 931 was pretty much dragging us along. We ended up losing that match because the other team managed to hang.

1098 wasn't able to run in the 3rd match because our hook was bent, our string broke, our LED light shattered, and a couple wires were cut. While we frantically tried to fix all of that in the waiting area, 1018 and 535 went out against 931 and 1331. This is where it got nuts. The match went as normal and nothing big happend, but we ended up tying, 50-50 I think :ahh:

So, we obviously decide to have a tiebreaker, once again we put out 1018 and 535 because we were still trying to fix things. Then the game went like normal. But we ended up TYING AGAIN, this time it was 30-30 :ahh:

I seriously can't remeber much, so much was going on for me down on the floor (i am 1098's driver). But we ended up wining the tiebreaker for the tiebreaker for the tie, i think the score was 30-20. We ended up losing in 3 games as i recall for the semi-finals, but man, it was a great match. We ended up having to fix our robot 3 times down on the floor. But I am happy to say that our team (1098 in case u forgot) did win the sportsmanship award, we were actually suprised.

But a great time at STL, and I can't wait for next year!

Re: St Louis Regional Status
 

On behalf of Team 535 (G-force) we'd like to thank you for picking us as your alliance. This match above was soo exciting. Somewhere in all that action was a DO OVER match too... I was coaching 535 but I can't remember too much either. I know I thought our poor bot was getting killed for running 5 matches in a row, but it survived ok.

Team 1098 RULEZ!!!!! You guys are super nice!

Re: St Louis Regional Status
 

well this happened twice in automode...so how could they purposely push u over? o well that was a mess :) (i was on losing team) esp. with the position switching deal..that is still a mystery to me :confused: . for those not there, during one of the tie breaking the tie matches, the field got screwed up so we had to restart and the red team switched postions..so we changed in responses (one of the bots was trying to prevent them from getting the movable goal) and a giant mess followed. anyways great job by the blue team of 1098, 1018, and 535.

Re: St Louis Regional Status
 

Yea, flipping over occured twice in auto, but one time didn't affect us because of the problem with getting the drivers to go. But one other time, we were close to the bot and they ended up raising the arm and pushing us over, needless to say we weren't to happy. But it was still fun and TOO exciting, I think everyone in the arena during those matches was just like :ahh: and :yikes:

But great matches between 931, 1331, and 1024. And a cheer for our alliences 535 and 1018 for performing so well.

Re: St Louis Regional Status
 

geez caleb... sorry.

we were watching THE RING, on the coach. We ended up losing to 16, 967, and 537. They didn't have a hopper like us, but there hooks and drivers were excellent.

I want to shout out to our alliance partners, 1098 and 535. We had a great time.

I also want to congraulate the bloomington teams...GREAT showing for the rookie teams.

Re: St Louis Regional Status
 

Team 967 thanks our alliances 537 and 16 for a job well done. BBS, that grab for the bar in the final game was clutch and was incredible. 537, the win in the second game of the round was absolutely vital. Thanks for helpin us out...........Congrats to all teams at stl regional, as we showed nelly the midwest swing...holla


Keep feeding the balls
"air ric"

Re: St Louis Regional Status
 

First I wanted to thank everyone for a GREAT time in St. Louis. Of course we were disappointed to lose but our Alliance Partners (1098 and 535) were fantastic to work with and it was amazing how 1098 got their robot working again after being damaged in the quarter finals. This competition was VERY physical... everyone needs to think about that and be prepared. Our quarter finals were very exciting with a restart and 2 ties our robot (1018) was on the field for 4 consecutive matches and performed admirably.

I do want to clarify something about the semi-final matches. This is where it became very physical... 1098 was again damaged and couldn't compete... and in the very final match after withstanding a pounding by Team 16 ...even our beloved Luci robot couldn't get the grippers to work because the contact had bent the rod on our pneumatic actuator. I guess this is a viable strategy as it wasn't flagged. We were on the verge of capping a small goal with 12 balls and couldn't open our grippers...so we didn't go on to the finals.

I just am sending out a warning to all teams who use grippers and collect balls and perform these tasks.... the big hangers will just pound you into submission... you may not be able to do what you are designed to do because of the physical damage you may have done to you. It is not just pushing around... it is IN YOUR FACE, hammering and slamming with whatever they have to do it with... reminiscent of battle bots rather than the FIRST competition we all enjoy.

My personal thoughts are that this is a dangerous trend... but it is within the rules and I cannot fault teams for using the strategy as long as it is legal.
More power to them...

All three of our alliance's robots were damaged in the semi at St. Louis.
I am sure many others were too...

Anyway, that's my two cents... It was a wonderful competition and we accomplished our goal of making it to the semi finals...

Cleveland is our next step and we will bring raw materials and a new pneumatic cylinder to that event and armor our robot for what is sure to happen again...

thanks again 1098 ... I cannot think of a better Alliance captain that we could have had, nor could I think of a better partner than G-Force.
Best of luck in all you guys do!!!

Bob Steele
Team Leader - Pike RoboDevils 1018

Re: St Louis Regional Status
 

ugg again? we watched that last year too...good thing i didnt ride the bus or id have to see that "scary" movie again :)

Re: St Louis Regional Status
 

I was absolutely THRILLED with this year's STL, and can't wait for next year.

On Thursday, the walk through the pits was a blast. Everyone was eager to see teams like 16, 93, 135, 269, 967, 1018, 1024, and MANY more compete that they had to make an announcement several times about clearing the walkways. As the teams were being queued for practice matches, everyone was buzzing with excitement with talk of other teams and robots. By the end of Thursday, I began losing my voice from talking with so many great teams.

Friday brought the first qualifications, which were played very well. The teams were excited, the matches were played well, and all students seemed to be having a lot of fun. I lost my voice for good in the middle of the day, and after I got it back, I sounded very loud and very hoarse. Dean even stopped by for a surprise visit, and it seemed as though the day went very smoothly.

Saturday was an entirely different story. I woke up in the morning unable to speak, and I had to work out arrangements with my team by whispering to a student. By the time I got to the regional, I got my voice back enough to talk a bit, but it still went out periodically. The qualifications had us all on the edge of our seats... very exciting and well played!

Overall, I had a blast! The volunteers did a GREAT job, the students were friendly and gracious, and there was a very professional atmosphere. Many times, I witnessed teams shaking hands and chatting before matches or congratulating each other on a job well done. Between the kids from 535 picking on me, telling people how to pronounce 'Oconomowoc', becoming a great traffic controller with my pen, or even helping cheer teams on, I had a wonderful time and can't wait until next year! :)

Re: St Louis Regional Status
 

One day people across the US will all know how to pronounce Oconomowoc, but until then we can all laugh at announcers that try.

STL was a fun time, despite some venue problems, we had a good showing and ended up beating ourselves more than anything in the end. We shall be ready for Midwest.

Congrats to 16, 967, and 537 for winning and to everyone else for making it a blast, see some of you all in 2 weeks at the Midwest Regional!

And good job to Amanda M. and all the volunteers for making it run as smooth as it did, even if we couldn't hear you :p

Re: St Louis Regional Status
 

Thanks to our alliance partners! 16 and 537 you guys were awsome! Great competition, alot of friendly people, and cool robots. Note to those that have not competed: YOU CAN'T WIN BY YOURSELF. Team work this year is huge. Good luck 16 in MA and good luck 537 in Chicago! To 650, 1272, and Hipphopanoumous (sorry I don't remember your #.) great job! That was the hardest matchup I have ever been in for the 3 years I have driven. Good luck at other regionals/championship!

Pictures will be sure to follow! 16 and 537, I will post our alliance photo that we took outside.

Side note: I think teams have underestimated the amount of contact this year. Is it more than last year? No. But when teams skimp on protection to have a certain part or feature, expect to get banged up.

Re: St Louis Regional Status
 

I went to SLR with a small group of students from my team to scout out the game for this year. We went to several different teams in the pit and recorded what they thought about different parts of this years competition. I was the one using the railerobotics rambo/hippie hair. We saw lots of interesting things, very cool pit 1024, awesome spirit nyack and 547, wear your safety glasses dean, lots of cool robot features, and several ideas to better prepare ourselves for Houston and Atlanta.

First, whoever mentioned them being strict about plugging things in, we got yelled at for charging our camera out of one of the arena outlets. The arena people also caught us for setting on the tops of the chairs during the finals.

As for finals, we weren't just on the edge of the seat, we were sitting on the tops of the chairs. They were more exciting this year by far. I can't wait for nationals.

5 matches were unbelievable. You felt bad to have a winner. I did see how important hanging and a good HP, 1024's was awesome. And saw some great robots despite all outcomes, 93's was amazing and fun to watch.

The Judges were great. Especially the two that helped the MC. The audience was excited between matches and I still can't get ja own it (sp?) out of my head. And the volunteers made it awesome. One of the volunteers took the time to explain the safety captain to our camera.

And best of all is the St. Louis Blues Towelman. Who is that guy and how does he have that much energy? He was insane but fun too.