Sacramento Regional
 

Hey everyone, just wanted to see who will be attending the Sacramento regional this week.

Perhaps we could have a CD get together at lunch or something?

Since there is no team party, maybe a bunch of people could get together and just go hangout somewhere Friday or Saturday.


Hope to see you all Thursday!

Cory

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

Bill, Dima, Mark, and I are going up. Some on Wednesday, some on Thursday.

None of us will be competing, but we're going to be volunteering, as usual. ;)

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

some of us from 254 are going up on wednesday, the rest on thurs. we're staying at the radisson...where are the rest of ya gonna be?

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

If all goes well, that's where we'll be staying, too. :)

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

Team 1097 will be there...if you have any questions about the area just ask.

Our team plans to have its half practice field available at the venue, but we did not build the small stairs leading up to the stationary goal platform yet. We plan to start construction of these tomorrow, but just in case, we would really appreciate it if any nearby team could bring theirs too.

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

You forgot to mention I going to be volunteering too. Who do you think I am, some outsider? ;-)

We are going to be stayin at the Radisson too, I believe (still waiting to hear confirmation in e-mail).

Bill Gold and I will be helping with setup on Wendesday. Hope to see everyone there!

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

Haha. *smacks forehead* I thought it was a given that you'd be there. I mean, you're Ken! :D

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

Wow... Sac regional this weekend already? Man... ... seemed so... long ago that Sac had it's FIRST regional. *thinks of fond memories* :) But I shall be there only on Saturday because, alas, I have icky icky finals on Thursday and Friday :mad: But yes... Good luck to all teams!!

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

Team 599 - RoboDox - will be there.

We are staying at the Best Western EXPO.

As for volunteers, we will have about 10 team members at any given time working in cueing, field reset, crowd control, etc. The remainder of the team get to get "The Dentist" working!

I'm going to be annoucing...

We will be running our "Robot First-Aid Station" like last year, and I know we are looking for some sort of "Team Gathering" event that we can help with for Friday evening.

It will be a blast!

See everyone on Thursday AM.

-Mr. Van
Coach, 599

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

For all thoes teams staying at the RADISSON, my team is bringing 2 XBOXES and will be having HALO lan battles in-between rooms, 4players per room, let the games begin. :cool:
:D P.S. if any other teem staying at the RADISSON, is willing to bring alother XBOX and HALO that would be great! :yikes:

My team is heading up there thursday morning

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

Team 1425 will be at the Sacremento Regional, we are leaving tomorrow!

We are one of three Oregon teams that are signed up to attend this weekend.

one question, does anyone know if it will be one of the webcasted events?

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

No, it will not be webcasted.

Sorry :(

Cory

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

In which case I will be calling Jim at random intervals for interesting updates.

Wetzel

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

Hey James,
I know that we will be staying at the Radisson. I might be able to bring my XBOX and Halo, but i might need other people to bring extra controllers. So, if you could bring some extra controllers, that would be great. LET THE LAN GAMES BEGIN!

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

I'll put in a controller, and possibly a second (if i can find it) :rolleyes:

do any sactown natives know of anything else fun to do in the area?

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

well, Cal Expo is located directly across from 2 movie theaters, a mall and other stereotypical complexes. There is an amusement center place in the Cal Expo complex, (they've been bought and sold dozens of times so idk what the name is currently) and i dont know if it'll be open. Water World won't be open which is also at Cal Expo w/ go karts, laser tag, miniture golf, arcade etc. If we are lucky a gun/doll show might be going on somewhere in Cal Expo at the same time..... yay :rolleyes:
Most things to do in Sac aren't really in Sacramento..... theres Golfland Sunsplash in roseville. There is multiple video game stores near where you guys seem to be staying/the mall. Theres a carousel in the mall. Doesn't seem like any major close/cheap attractions will be functioning though. Country Club Lanes (bowling) and Lazer tag at laser force and country club lanes both within about 10 - 15 minutes of Cal Expo. Leatherbys (home made style ice creamery which is open usually till about midnight is down the street from the mall/cal expo. We kinda just make our own fun.

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

ok, cool. does anyone have anything planned for teams to get together somewhere? or are we just gonna rove the mall like last year and hope that we run into some other teams? :D

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

Anyone (or team) want to put arrange some team / FIRSTer get together on Thursday or Friday night? After the past few Cal Games' and SVRs we've taken 50+ FIRSTers to the local mall's food court. I think it'd be cool to do the same or somethign similar up there. I would help organize something, but I've only been to Sacramento once before (last year's regional). If someone wants to put this together we can spread the word Thursday morning at the event. Any takers for this?

<edit>
Darn. Adrian beat me to it... :P
</edit>

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

mvrt will be in the house;)

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

Team 1151, The Hitchhikers will be there.

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

Team 753 will also be there. Looking forward to a great competition (this is our first non-pacific northwest regional ever).

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

I haven't seen much of a formal plan, but it would be pretty cool to have a FIRST gathering, I think our best bets would be either Country Club Lanes (bowling, laser tag, and arcade) or one of the movie theaters close by...

...although I'm predicting that all I will want Friday night is a large glass of orange soda and 10 solid hours of sleep.

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

yeah! sounds like a good idea. where is country club lanes?

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

ok..... um... thinks of how to do a map eh i'll post one somewhere rather then try and make a text art one

Map

it'll be up in a few

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

CCL is at 2600 Watt Ave, Sacramento 95821, (916) 483-5105...they never close.

I guess you can take that and get a map from wherever your hotel is. I haven't been there in a long time, so I really don't know how crowded it'll be Thursday or Friday night.

I just called them and they told me to call back between 9AM and 5PM to speak with the people who handle reservations. I'm guessing it's too late to set aside lanes for a big group of people, but I'll check with them tomorrow.

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

ok the above map is up
i'm sure u coulda used mapquest or something, but here is a wonderful map, (i swear i did it quickly in photoshop not paint)

the watt/el camino section is not to scale with the arden area.... el camino doesn't run through to arden as it would be presumably by the map

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

ok...but what about a more informal meeting at the mall near expo (i'm not from around there - does anyone know the name of the mall?)...something like "if any first team wants to hang out after the pits close, just go to the food court at the mall" ?

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

Country Club Lanes... 99% sur would not give us reservations for a friday night... they get pretty busy and do fill up... its a good place to hang out, but with a large crowd... Country club lanes always has its own large crowd. We would have trouble procuring many lanes. The place gets packed. THey usually have a glow bowl session around 4:30 i believe, and then that goes for a couple hours, then regular bowling, and then at 1030 another glow bowl session starts and goes till about 12-1ish am..somewhere in there. Done it many times. There are definite problems with doing that, but all things are possible.

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

it's Arden Fair Mall, with a smaller section that is "under construction" but evertying inside is open. The smaller section is "Market Square." The food court, is on the sears end of the mall (farthest left if u r looking at it from the direction of Cal Expo and Arden Way. It's on the second floor.

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

Yeah we could hang at Arden Fair mall. I don't know what would be open though. Lemme check on that just to make sure. Okay umm the mall is open til 9 so i would suspect some people would be going back early. Most of the stores close around 8 I believe.

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

Ok guys, how about we make the food court at the Arden Fair Mall the FIRST "watering hole" - come and hang out, share info, tell war stories, etc...
Every day after pits close, teams can go there and hopefully meet up with others.

the mall closes at 9...doesnt really give everyone a lot of time...anyone else have any suggestions for an informal hangout spot?

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

on friday 1072 and 115 will be having a buffet at Red Lion Hotel, I think i might be able to opent hat up for more teams.

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

So the Radisson is packed. We're actually going to be staying at the Double Tree. :)

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

ok, we've formed an unofficial social event for the Sacramento Regional. (Flyers will be distributed at the Regional) If you'd like, please go to Arden Fair Mall (map etc above and will be in the flyer) and meet in the food court after the pits close on Friday. Plan on chilling, eating, talking, shopping and whatever else floats your boat. The food court is on the second floor of the mall, and more detailed info will be in the flyers. All are welcome!

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

Jim-Want to get me some nice warm Double Tree cookies? You would be the best ever ;)

We were almost going to stay at the Red Lion Inn, but we found a slightly nicer place for the same price a few weeks ago.

We're heading up in a few hours, seeya all tommorow!

Cory

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

Posting this message directly from the Double Tree hotel in Sacramento ;-). Just want to let everyone knows everything went smoothly at the setup. We were done around 7pm, and the scoring system is going to work for tomorrow! Yay!

Had a great dinner, and a nice gathering with other FIRST staffs. I have a feeling its going to be a cool regional! Can't wait to see you all tomorrow!

Sacramento Regional Awards
 

Congratulations to the following winners of the Friday awards!

Imagery award: 869 Cordis Corporation/Independence Technologies & Middlesex High School

Leadership in Control: Team 945 Universial Studios Florida/Lockheed Martin & Colonial High School

Spirit Award: 833 W.M. Keck Observatory/Maxim Integrated Products/Starbucks & Hawaii Preparatory Academy

Xerox Creativity award: 1151 Contra Costa College/NASA/The Ed Fund/Tap Plastics/Honda of El Cerrito/TCI Aluminum North & Middle College High School

Delphi Driving Tomorrow's Technology Award: 254 NASA Ames Research Center/Laron Incorporated/Unity Care Group/Line-X of San Jose/PK Selective Metal Plating, Inc. & Bellarmine College Preparatory

Rookie Inspiration award: 1425 LEGO/Oregon NASA Space Grant Consortium/Mentor Graphics Corporation & Wilsonville High School

Judges Award for creative innovation: 114 Los Altos Rotary/Stanford Univ./Empirical Engineering & Los Altos HS

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

High score on Friday - 200 pts (Teams 254 and 945) Two hangers, 10 small balls in stationary goal - capped. Anyone know what the highest score has been so far nationwide?

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

Yours is the highest reported so far, but keep your eye on this thread: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...threadid=26431

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

I think that that is the highest score so far, what was the opponents score? that effects the total score and quallification tie breaker point things.

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

How did Saturday go? I haven't heard anything on Awards for Saturday can someone post those?

Nate

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

No need to wait any longer! Here are the award winners of the Sacramento Regional on Saturday:

Outstand Volunteer Award: Karen Macdonald from UC Davis, and Jerry Glasser from Team 1097

Regional Woody Flowers award: Steve Kyramarios from team 254

Website Design: Team 254, NASA Ames Research Center/Laron Incorporated/Unity Care Group/Line-X of San Jose/PK Selective Metal Plating, Inc. & Bellarmine College Preparatory, from San Jose, CA USA

http://team254.bcp.org/

Autodesk Visualization Award: Team 1097, BMB Corporation/Pac Machine Co., Inc./Jonsson Family Trust/Wells Fargo Bank/CyboSoft & Jesuit High School, from Carmichael, CA USA

General Motor Industrial Design Award: Team 753, Oregon Space Grant Consortium/Outback Manufacturing/NASA & Mountain View High School, from Bend, OR USA

Motorola Quality Award: Team 835, DENSO International America, Inc. & Detroit Country Day School, from Beverly Hills, MI USA

Johnson & Johnson Sportsmanship Award: Team 701, Martin's Metal Fabrication/Universal Propulsion Company & Vanden High School, from Fairfield, CA USA

KPCB Entrepreneurship Award: Team 1120, Integrated Device Technology (IDT)/TSMC/Wells Fargo/Bank of America/United Commercial Bank/Spin Pro/Fliptronics/Druai Consulting & MILPITAS HIGH SCHOOL/Milpitas Xtreme Robotics, from Milpitas, CA USA

Judges Award: Team 955, Hewlett-Packard Company/NASA/Oregon Space Grant Consortium & Crescent Valley High School, from Corvallis, OR USA

Rookie All Star Award: Team 1388, Arroyo Grande High School - KPC&B, from Arroyo Grande, CA USA

Sacramento Regional Finalist: Team 1120 from Milpitas, CA, 945 from Orlando, FL, & 481 Richmond, CA

Sacramento Regional Champion: Team 254 from San Jose, CA, 753 from Bend, OR, 955 from Corvallis, OR

Engineering Inspiration Award: Team 1097, BMB Corporation/Pac Machine Co., Inc./Jonsson Family Trust/Wells Fargo Bank/CyboSoft & Jesuit High School, from Carmichael, CA USA

Regional Chairmans Award: Team 481, Chevron Richmond Refinery/Ofoto/Mechanics Bank/De Anza PTSA & De Anza High School, from Richmond, CA USA


The Cheesy Poof #1 alliance scored a 210 points match in finals 1.1, and from what I heard, that tied Richmond's 210, the highest score of all the regionals!!!

Team 1151
 

Congratulations Hitchikers...team 1151 for winning the Xerox award two years in a row at Sacramento...AND for the Engineering Inspiration award in Portland. This is stellar for any team, but especially for a second year team.

Thanks to 945 and 1120 for bringing us into their alliance. Y'all fought a good fight. Congrats to the poofs and their alliance for yet another outstanding victory.

Also, thank you to 1097 and 'Mr G' (Mr. G...Mr. G...Mr. G) for making the whole event a success.

Eric & team 481

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

Thank you everyone for making the Sacramento Regional Competition a real success. This year had even more energy in the crowds than last year. All of us here in Sacramento hope that every team that competed will return and maybe even add some new teams in the process.

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

Amazingly enough, there was a tie for the #1 seed between 254 and 753. The tiebreaker after that was a coin toss, and the Cheesy Poofs got the number 1 seed.

Sacramento was a very fun regional, and I am glad I was a part of it.

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

I think but I'm not sure that we took first seed based off of our highest one match score (200). We were planning on choosing each other since the day before anyway, so it was no worries =).

Re: Team 1151
 

Congratulations to team 481 for a well-deserved Regional Chairman's Award win, and many thanks for hosting laser tag friday night. Quack!

Thank you to our alliance partners 1425 and 833. We tried our best, and it was a lot of fun.

And, thank you to all the teams, volunteers, crew, planning committees, referees, and judges for making Sacto a great second year event!

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

Hey all, does anyone recall if any of the Reno, NV area teams showed up in Sacto this year? Most likely teams 950-Reed Raider Robotics and 953-Reno High School Robotics.

I was a member of 950 last year (moved cross-country) and almost all of our team graduated. Sadly, I've lost touch with the other members. Just checking to see if Nevada was represented.

P.S. - Hey Adrian, Tony from 950. We hung out at Arden Fair last year, good times. And I still feel like crap about what we did to 254 in that match, we hope you don't hold it against us...

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

Sacramento Alliances (seed rank after qualifying)

1 254(1) 753(2) 955(29) (champions)
2 1120(3) 945(5) 481(24) (finalists)
3 835(4) 869(6) 1072(12)
4 961(7) 1097(18) 981(22)
5 841(8) 599(16) 701(30)
6 1151(9) 1425(17) 833(14)
7 1427(10) 114(17) 692(28)
8 1147(11) 1388(19) 1458(26)


Lucky I copied this on the notepad - I just typed in all the seeds and the BB crashed on me when I hit post!

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

Some amazing things happened at Sacramento. For example: 1427, leaders of the 7th seeded alliance, did not have a robot on Thursday. Their team didn't know about the time limit and cobbled together a drivetrain with about 1 wk to ship, and sent it off. Thanks to a lot of effort from team 376 (I think...the guys helping them had 376's sewed on their shirts) and the 254 mobile machine shop they were able to get the drivetrain working, programmed, and running, and took 10th seed. Wow.

955, our second alliance choice, built their hanging assembly in one day at the regional. They were much better than anyone, including their seed ranking, gave them credit for, but thank goodness our scounting team liked them! They were amazing in the elimination rounds.

Awesome regional guys.

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

Awesome job Steve!!!!!!!!

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

16 and 1405 also scored a 210 at Annapolis in the semifinals.

Wetzel

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

Will someone who saw it first hand give a thumbnail sketch of how the Elimination Rounds went in Sacramento?

On the surface, the story is simple: Cheesy Poofs win ANOTHER regional.

But, I suppose that it was more complicated than that.

Anybody willing to fill us in?

Joe J.

P.S. By the way, how many regionals have Cheesy Poofs won now 8, 9, more? Do tell...

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

Hmmm... Sounds like a "throw-down in the making" between 254 and 47! Or, for one of the most amazing pairings ever, imagine 254 and 47 on the same alliance! The San Jose Regional should be quite an event!!!

-dave

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

I know...I wish I could go again, but the whole quitting-your-job-to-go-to-a-bunch-of-regionals-thing ended up being a bad idea...

:(


Wetzel

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

Hey guys - all hope is not lost - the video of the finals is in much better shape then I thought originally, and I may get an archive of it up later today.

To summarize the Poof robot - it is extremely fast and manuverable. It was 8 and 1 in the qualifiers - the one match it lost was when it's ally fell over unassisted in front of one of the ball corrals. they scored about 80 ball points
(capped the goal) but lost to 2 hangers (one of them I think that was the only match they were successful hanging.) During their first qualifier, they were up againt a basket bot that was a very effective small ball handler - it's strategy was to wait under the ball drop. The Poofs usually trigger both ball drops, but didn't go for that on this match - they grabbed a big ball and put it right in their opponent's net - entirely shutting them down from scoring. Everyone just laughed and shook their heads. They have one technical problem to solve their hanging cable snapped several times during hoisting - the plan is to replace the 1200 lb test braided steel with kevlar or spiderwire. Up against a very capable alliance anchored by 945 (The Hulk) they just were faster, more manuverable, a better small ball handler about equal in big ball handling and less consistent as a hanger. Their autonomous mode worked about 75% of the time. I don't think they were ever penalized.

The robot is just a wonderful all-round competitor - I was worried about durablilty but it took a number of hard knocks with out any problem. They tend to avoid pushing and shoving matches with other robots. If one side of the bar is blocked they'll just circle to the other side - If both sides of the bar are blocked, they'll uncap the opponents goal.

For the record, I think the Poofs have won every regional they ever competed in except the 2003 Sacramento where they ended up as the finalists.

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

It is actually quite simple really. The Poofs have a bot that can get the 2 10pts balls in less than 8 seconds in autonomous mode, will not get stuck on small balls at all when they herd at least 8 of them to the human player each match, grab the big ball with 1 minute remaining in the match and cap it within 15 seconds, and drive by the side of the bar and hang in 20 more seconds. Imagine their bot from 2001 and you will have a good idea how speedy they accomplish each task.

Their alliance partners were bots that consistantly hang in each match giving them 50 points, plus 50 more pts when they hang their robot, and 5-11 balls with cap that give them 50-110 more points.

Their opponents are usually busy moving small balls and big balls when the poof's partners hang, and by the time the 254 bot finish capping the goal, you either try to block them from hanging (and not get the 50 pts yourself), or you both hang and get out-scored by their capped goal and 2 robot hanging.

The only times when the Poofs didn't hang in a match was when their cable snapped after getting pushed really hard while winching up, but I am sure they came up with a way to fix that problem by now.

Oh, by the way, Jay has been driving for the Poofs since their winning streaks at 2001. Try training your driver with 3 years of competition experience, and you may have a chance to beat them.

Either that or come up with a robot that can decap the big ball and block them from hanging from the steps. ;-) It is too bad the robot call "tiny tank" at the Sacramento regional didn't have a big ball poker, I thought they had a chance in stopping the Poofs when they kept driving on the Poof's bot from the first step with their wedge shape bot.

I think we need to see some serious defensive strategy in SVR or there is no stopping 254.

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

Well I can give you the elim rounds from a Cheesy Poof perspective, but I don't have the full story, down near the robot as I was (I didn't watch all the matches).

We started out winning the QF pretty easily against the 8th seeded alliance, with 955 showing that they were a whole lot better than their 29th seed said they were. The higher seed won every other QF pairing. After fixing a broken chain and rerouting a relay connection that had been cut, we stepped out for semis and faced alliance 4, but their lack of a good hanger or herder hurt them badly, and we moved on again. In the other semifinal round, 835 (nice autonomous), 869 (ball catcher) and 1072 squared off against Florida's 945, 1120 and 481. Thankfully for us, they put up a hell of a fight, and a tie breaker match gave us Poofs some more time to fix our robot. Eventually, 945's alliance prevailed and the final round was set up.

The first round of finals was an amazing show, with all four robots hanging at the end, and our goal capped with 11 balls! 254 and 753 won 210-125, and the entire place went crazy (lots of people running around and jumping on each other on our side of the field...). Our cable was fraying, though, and we had to replace it, but some snags meant we weren't going to make it on time. 753 and 955 stepped out to play, but as we were finishing repairs, the field coordinator gave us one last chance to call timeout...so we did and got our robot out on the field. One of 481's coaches came over to our side and amazingly told us that if we needed it, their alliance would call timeout to make sure we played in this round. The last round of finals was a nailbiter, as 955 defended 945 from the top platform and our hanging cable snapped (didn't we just replace it? :)), and our last second decapping effort failed. 945, however, wasn't able to get on the platform fast enough, and couldn't get themselves in the air as the buzzer rang. 254, 753 and 955 took that final match 95 to 70. An amazing end to an amazing regional :cool:.

Complete Match List

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

Well I suppose that was not my most subtle posting...

...while I wouldn't say there is a rivalry as such, I AM dying to play with (or against) the famed Cheesy Poofs.


By the way, I did a little digging on "The Regional Race":
Team #47 -- 8

1. Great Lakes Regional 1998
2. Southwest Regional 1998
3. New England Regional 1998
4. Great Lakes Regional 2000
5. Motorola Midwest Regional 2000
6. New York City FIRST! Regional 2001
7. Western Michigan Regional 2002
8. Detroit Regional 2004

Team #254 -- 8

1. NASA Ames Regional 1999
2. Lone Star Regional 2000
3. NASA Ames Regional 2000
4. Silicon Valley Regional 2001
5. Southern California Regional 2001
6. Silicon Valley Regional 2002
7. Silicon Valley Regional 2003
8. Sacramento Regional 2004

If you count "Division Champs" at the Nationals as a regional, 254 is ahead, but if you think that that was the year that the Cheesy Poofs were a National Finalist and that the Chief Delphi Team was a National Finalist in 1997 (before divisions existed at the Nationals), I suppose that things are still pretty much a tie.

As Dave Lavery said, "The San Jose Regionals should be quite an event!!!"

Joe J.

P.S. Has anyone kept up and/or improved the attached file (which was the source for the data above -- though it had a mistake in it for our team -- it did not have the New England Regional win in 1998)?

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

It appears that 254 has a pretty good robot this year.....lets hear a little about the Detroit Regional playoffs....Joe, can you or someone fill us in? :D

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

If we had managed to hang in that round we would have won by five points...oh well.
Actually our autonomous didn't work b/c the field was angled wrong...we tried to hit the balls and instead tapped something that was jutting into the field and bounced off at a bad angle. It all worked out for the best though :).
Our autonomous stopped working well on Saturday because we replaced a sheared transmission on one of our chip motors, and it had more friction than the previous one--messed up our timing =\...hopefully we'll get that worked out.

I thought you came by and said that we were penalized in the last qualifying match for goaltending on mobile goal when we put it under the ball drop (thought we had *our* goal! whoops)...20 points there I think.
The powdercoat was a little bruised but we're still just fine...hopefully we'll get that cable problem fixed for SVR and be ready for some tough competition.

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

Life was pretty tough in Detroit... ...especially for the Chief Delphi team.

The Killer Bees, Team 33, were the class of the competition, which you can read about elsewhere. They were basically everyone's first draft choice -- look for them to win Toronto (really).

For our part we had a so-so Thursday practice, chasing a software bug that turned out to be a simple mis-wiring. Friday, we had a pretty good run. We won every round except a tie where another robot got entangled in us an then fell over, another round where a very agressive robot and driver jitters ended up in our robot tipped sideways, and a hard fought battle with the Killer Bees (their shooter probably hit 10 shots in the last 15 seconds -- no kidding). Saturday, the wheels sort of fell off as we lost two more: one through driver panic failing to hang, the other was 2 on 1 affair.

Bottom line, I didn't think we had showed very well and was not even certain of a first round draft. As it turns out, the number 2 seed, Team 5, graciously picked us.

I am not sure what happened to our drivers but all of a sudden, they were on fire. They fought and won 6 straight battles for the bar -- sometimes climbing over a robot to get there, sometimes lifting other robots on top of us.

I doubt that it will be enough to win in San Jose, but together with some good partners (The Bionic Zebras #313 and The RoboCards #5), it was enough for Detroit.

As to our robot's capabilities, it can hang of course. It can also suck up balls and deliver them pretty effectively. In addition, it was among the better big ball handlers at Detroit, though it was a small regional so that is not a huge plug for our team.

That is about it.

We'll see how things turn out against the West Coast teams.

Joe J.

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

The plot thickens...

I was there in Cleveland 2002 to see the mighty 47, 254, 229 alliance go down to the almost unstoppable 469 robot. This was the only poof-chief partnership that has occurred in FIRST, and the first time 254 has ever lost a regional.

Let's just say that all of 229 will be watching SJ waiting to see how this plays out, and who comes out on top. ;)

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

I will admit, the Sacramento Regional was a ton of fun for us Floridians, and we did have a great time with all the teams we met (yea, the guys on our team love you fembots.) We ended up meeting the Poofs at the mall on Wednesday night (Adrian and Justin, and I forget who else) and all we did was talk bots for an hour int he massage chairs, suprising each other with how much we knew about each others bots. The whole event though was really fun for us, especially the guy in charge we kept "bringing up points to." Our auto was a little shakey there though, cause at first the lines were off, then they had gaps in them, but hey, what ya gonna do.

* I must say, I was impressed with 955 and their overnight arm building, congrats to Will, Sean and the rest of the team on that.
* We do thank 254 for all the parts that we were given and the help (Adrian, Justin, and the Machine shop.)
* 1097, we still want those 4 zip ties back, but we forgive you and nice job fixing the hanging mechanism for the finals, good driving Mark.
* 692, thanks for the cheering section, We love you fembots


As for those facing the poofs at San Jose, have fun with their drive system, 15ft/sec in high and 8ft/sec in low, that is a nice switch. Have fun, we sure did!

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

254 did not win Sacramento regional last year, they were finalist though.

- as for SVR this year, if our upgrade goes as planned how bout a Poof-MVRT-Chief partnership;)

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

Just to sum things up, the Cheesy Poofs are 8/10 in regional competitions. Their only losses occured as follows.

2002 Buckeye Regional -- The alliance of 229, 47 & 254 loses in the semifinals to the eventual champions, teams 859, 469 & 201, two matches to none.

2003 Sacramento Regional -- The alliance of 599, 254 & 256 loses in the finals to teams 692, 662 & 1147.

This 8/10 record, is by far the most dominant regional record of any team in FIRST. Chief Delphi is probably the next best, although I would want to go back and look at the records of teams 16, 71 and 111 before I confirm that.

Despite all these victories between the 47 and 254, neither team has ever won a national championship. The drought ended for Wildstang last year. Will this be the year for 47 or 254? (or even both...)

Things are heating up in the kitchen, it should be a fun ride...

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

We had a great time at the Sacramento regional, despite some minor bot troubles. We lost two rounds simply due to drivetrain power wires falling loose, and then we lost our autonomous testing time due to a transmission problem. We lost another round to my error - I hit the hang switch too soon and we missed the bar :(

A somewhat mediocre regional, but our bot was solid and now that we have the bugs worked out expect us to be a force to be reckoned with at San Jose!

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

Yeah I forgot about that - You were trying to uncap the goal under the ball drop so balls could get into it - if you hadn't touched it your opponent would of got nothing - but because you won the match and the 20 extras points you gave your opponent actually helped your score - so hard to count that as a penalty agains you. Which one of you is color blind? Freaky - I think that was the only goal tending I've seen called all year.

I don't think you got any 10 pointers against for penetrating into the ball corral.

Got that cable fixed yet?

Re: Sacramento Regional Wecast archive going up^^^
 

http://robotics.nasa.gov/first/2004/sacramento.htm

So far Fianls and quarter finals - get to the semi's Weds.

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

Just to prove that they are indeed that fast, here is a video provided by Travis Covington:

http://www.hostdub.com/albums/Sivart321/DSCN1531.mov

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

Oooh... they were very fast indeed... ;)

Re: Sacramento Regional
 

Thank you from bo for such an awesome regional even though we didn't do as good as we had prayed for, this happened from being to cocky. All teams there were excellent. We hope to see you all at Nationals. If you would like to contact me my s/n for aim is "sumpunkskaterguy" also my email is "hummer02@bikerider.com". I am willing to except information on your team robot, or just talk in general. Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read this statement. Sincerely, Bo