Re: Power Players at the Regionals
 

I don't think anyone has mentioned Team 435 as yet from the VCU regional. They would easily be on a very short list of best/highest cappers. Our reasoning behind picking them (along with 122 by alot of luck that they were still around for our second pick) was to go for the Colts offense, try to put up more points than anyone can possibly match. As it turns out we had to play a little bit of defense sometimes at least, when other teams tried to play defense against us. 435 had a well-designed gripper though that kept tetras from swinging too much even when they turned fast. Late in the seeding matches it looked like our team (401) would be ranked pretty high and end up picking, so i was quite torn of who the best pick would be. 435 made themselves clearly our number one choice in this one round where there was one of those little ankle-biter robots on the other team assigned to just mess with them. 435 did a move that reminded me of Michael Jordan before he retired for the first time, when he faked the guy out of his shoes and then hit the shot to win that championship game. 435 loaded up a tetra from the human player, the little ankle biter waited for them to try to go score that tetra. 435 first made a little fake like they were going to score on the Goal nearest the human players, ankle biter went for a block, 435 then rolled around it to the left, spun right around like someone rolling off a pick in basketball and shot over to the goal between the drivers and autoloader, and scored before the ankle biter could even catch up to it. Closest thing I've ever seen to a move from athletics being replicated in FIRST robotics.

Re: Power Players at the Regionals
 

I am really surprised that no one has mentioned Rage, #173. Their robot is unbelievable. The very first day of practice at Chesapeake Bay it was easy to tell that their robot was going to be a top contender! 126 is also an awesome robot, I was sad that I missed seeing those two play against each other at UTC Hartford

Some other great robots at the Chesapeake regional were:
1507- They are a really amazing team. Their robot is not only one of the best robots built by a rookie team, it is one of the best robots.
836- They are really good at capping and they did very well in the quarter finals. They were a really high scoring robot.
1027- This robot has already been mentioned, but it bears mentioning again. They are quite fast and they cap really well.
007- These guys were our alliance partners, so I can't help feeling that they are awesome. They cap really well, and they have a really great autonomous mode. (They score with the free tetra)
122- our other alliance parters, they also have a great robot and score really well.
88- I have to mention 88, they have been seated near us at both regionals and they are a lot of fun. (especially when we are seated right next to each other and are on the same alliance so we can cheer together) There robot is very good, it caps really well. I am pretty sure that they also score in autonomous mode a lot of the time.

As far as defensive robots go:
190- 190 is an unbelievable defensive robot. Our team was actually a bit scared of them
501- 501 managed to tip us 1 or 2 times at BAE but not at Chesapeake. The 501 robot is really good at defense.

Can't help tooting my own horn, now that I have tooted other people's. Our robot has come in second place at both of our regionals and, despite having some tipping problems at BAE, did not tip at all at Chesapeake. Buzz is also able to self-right. We also have an autonomous mode that knocks down the hanging tetra every time unless we disable autonomous. So come visit us in the stands, we would love to talk to you about our robot and we love to talk about ours. I will always be up there doing scouting and taking notes.

Alright, mandatory plug over.

But Seriously, as the scouting captain for our team I love to know what is going on with other teams, especially teams that we won't see until nationals.

Good luck to everyone at all of your competitions and remember,
:) Need help? give us a buzz! :)

Re: Power Players at the Regionals
 

I am still amazed by team 179, Children of the Swamp. They realized that stacking fast is more rewarding than stacking high, and built a robot that impliments this strategy flawlessly. They stack the opponents home row consistently and quickly. Props to all you guys for creating such an effective and impressive robot. I also want to give well deserved credit to Team Pink for making a powerhouse bot that's to be reckoned with. You guys got me watching archived video of your playoff matches for at least half an hour.

Re: Power Players at the Regionals
 

71 was a pretty large powerplayer at the Midwest Regional. They kicked butt in style ^^