Power Players at the Regionals
 

Out of curiosity.....

Who were the ones that dominated on the field at the regionals?
Who should we all watch out for at nationals?
Who has the best autonomous?
Who had the best strategy?
What were some cool plays that you have seen?

GO 1403!!!

Re: Power Players at the Regionals
 

hmm...in Manchester, 121, 126, and 501 dominated in my opinion. 121 and 126 had one of the best offences i saw at that regional, they also won the regional w/ another team. forgot the number. 501 won the chairmans award, but there bot, was by far the best in defence, flipping over Buzz a few times. 126, gaule force was able to stack tw tetras at once, and 121 had a pretty decent autonomouus, which allowed it to stack a tetra on the side goal. 121 and 126 are teams you should watch out for, 501 as well, and if my team 1568 makes it, we are another team :D

Re: Power Players at the Regionals
 

237/494/191
237/639/494/191
237

Re: Power Players at the Regionals
 

i think team 801 was an especially good team at the Peachtree Regionals. they were the number one seed throughout most of the competition. when allied with us, they did their job very well and used strategy effectively. their only loss came against us in the final match of the qualifying round but they managed to beat us in the semifinals.

CONGRATULATIONS TEAM 801... GOOD LUCK AT NATIONALS

Re: Power Players at the Regionals
 

Who were the ones that dominated on the field at the regionals?
217.237. 191. 494. 229 (it's not thier fault they had a target on their back)
Who should we all watch out for at nationals?
217. 237. 191. 494.378.1126 (who will be much better after they play at Buckeye)1511 (once they get more matches under their belt they will play even stronger)
Who has the best autonomous?
237. 1126. 494. 191.
Who had the best strategy?
494 was able to play effective offense and play smart defense which makes them effective.
What were some cool plays that you have seen?
I would say the Division by Chicken pissing contest and of course the last match which will proably go down as one of the greatest matches in the history of FIRST.

Re: Power Players at the Regionals
 

at the BAE regional, The teams I thought were very good were of course our alliance partners 121 and 350. The teams that we payed close attention to and considered them as good possible picks were teams: 1027 excellent caping ability, very quick and clean. I also enjoyed talking with your team. 133 caping the center goal in autonomous mode opens up so many strategies. 157 also a great quick capper. 549 good robust robot, great caping ability. 42 can stack and obtain tetras quickly.

I would pay close attention to all the teams I mentioned above. They all will not go down without a good fight, and we know that. I can't wait to see the teams atending UTC. Most of which are good veteran teams.

Re: Power Players at the Regionals
 

Team 401 (won VCU with 435 and 122) are fast cappers and have a great autonomous program but tip somewhat easily as 539 showed everyone. They also lose the tetras somewhat easily - I was able to stop them from scoring on the center goal by barely touching their red tetra with my blue tetra.

Re: Power Players at the Regionals
 

At Sacto, 245 was pretty scarry. They're quick, accurate, high-capping, and their arm won't break.

610 is quite the defensive robot since they're small and wedge shaped. You don't notice them until they're right on top of you. The only downside is they attract a lot of loading penalties.

56 has an awesome autonomous that never fails and can work with or without the starting tetra.

Re: Power Players at the Regionals
 

actually 610 was quite good about not drawing penalites when i saw them. They didnt keep a bot cornered for long periods of time and also backed away when people went into loading zones

Re: Power Players at the Regionals
 

639 unfortunately [edit]most likely[/edit] will not be there at the championships.

Re: Power Players at the Regionals
 

i feel we had the best robot a Sac regional because we could play both defense and offense. In most of our rounds we caped almost all the goals. scoring 70+. One time we did not have a 3rd bot because they were having drive train problems (100) and it was 2 against 3 and we placed tetras on almost every goal scored 78 but we don't get that much recognition, we did sweep the finals with our other teamates

Re: Power Players at the Regionals
 

Is there any chance you guys can raise the money to go. You truly deserve to go.

Re: Power Players at the Regionals
 

If we raise the money, we'll go to the Toronto Regional. That's been a team tradition since it started in 2002 and we wouldn't miss that for the world.

Or the championship event.

edit:

To answer the thread question:

217, 229, 191, 494, 639
Everyone - it's too early to tell
237, 494, 1559, 1126
...
217/229 stacking contest

Re: Power Players at the Regionals
 

VCU Regional:
401 has a great autonomous mode
1095 is a great capper, and fun to work with
384 is a fast capper as well, and fun to work with
447 has a very good design, and can carry three tetras at a time

Those are just the ones off the top of my head.

Re: Power Players at the Regionals
 

At the VCU Regionals, #3 seeded (seeded 3rd because they were 7-0-1 and the #1 seeded team was 8-1 and the #2 seeded team had more QPs) 401 is consistent in autonomous mode with their starting tetra, capping the side goal and knocking the hanging tetra down, and is a fast and pretty consistent capper.

Re: Power Players at the Regionals
 

Most people overlooked 122 at the VCU regional. My team, Team 401, #3 seeded alliance captain was able to select them during the second round of selections. 122 doesn't have an auto mode and can't pick tetras up off of the ground, but they consistently stacked tetras every round. They also have excellent drivers and a drive train that no one noticed.

My team, team 401, has an automode that works every time in which we stack a tetra on a back corner goal, knocking down the hanging tetra. We also have a turret design which allows us to pick up tetras and stack them on goals when our robot isn't perfectly aligned. A previous post said we drop tetras and flip easily, but I was shocked by this post. We dropped a couple throughout the competition, but we're able to right our mistakes in a matter of seconds. We flipped once, but the ref's disabled 539's robot so they must've seen some malicious intent. We don't flip easily, and we are able to play great defense as shown in the one round where our chain fell off our arm's sprocket. We drive with 2 4 inch treaded wheels at a possible 14 fps. We pushed one robot sideways away from a goal to prevent them from ruining our middle row. I can't wait till national's to see how we compare with robots from around the nation.

I was also surprised by 1610's automode in which they came the closest to picking up a green tetra and stacking on the center goal. I never expected a rookie team to come that close.

Thanks to teams 435 and 122 for helping us win the VCU Regional... never could have done it without you guys.

Re: Power Players at the Regionals
 

As usual I heard that 254 did a magnificent job. Great job guys, when I saw your robot I had some flash backs to 2004.

GO 1403!!!

Re: Power Players at the Regionals
 

Team 126 is a force to reckon with. They have an extremely good robot.

Thanks for the kind words. The only damage our robot suffered the whole weekend was a spring clip on the master link snapping (we were still able to drive) and after being hit from the side by team 58, the hub on our wheel snapped, but that problem was fixed within 30 minutes.

Re: Power Players at the Regionals
 

I helped man the practice field at Peachtree, and I think the best robot out there was team 832, Roswell High School, who unfortunately did not win the event. But my personal favorite robot was the Raminator from Jackson Mississippi. I forget what team number it was though.

Re: Power Players at the Regionals
 

i agree... team 832 was awesome. we had the opportunity to play on the same team with them. 832 also had a pneumatic drive train system. i also liked the rams. i think they were team 462. they had a great design. i liked the flipping mechanism and their ability to stack high. i wish we would have had the chance to play with them. fortunately, the only time we had to play against them, we pulled off a win.

Re: Power Players at the Regionals
 

I went to Sacramento just to see what was happening as we are going to San Jose in a couple of weeks.
After your first semi final match against the "Beach Bots" I knew you would go on to win the Final, you guys wrer so consistent throughout the whole week end.
Congatulations to 245 and 1072 also !

We are so much looking forward to San Jose, of the 6 teams in the final we will get to participate with all but 245.
See you there.

Re: Power Players at the Regionals
 

Up at BAE...

In my opinion 126 (Gale Force) was the strongest bot there, followed by a number of strong teams. 1027 was VERY fast and VERY efficient, and 121 was also great offensively. Congrats to everyone who was there, and good luck over the rest of the season!

- Toby, and the overly ecstatic Team 246 (who placed 18th, which is more than good enough for our 19 person engineer-less team.)

Re: Power Players at the Regionals
 

I thought our entire alliance of 245, 766 and 1072, were all superb robots. We were strong at capping and defense. 245 was a capping machine. When a team worried about 245, 766 would score points and vice versa. Also when 245 or 766 were being blocked from capping, 1072 would bolt in and make the cap, while the other alliance member found another goal. All the robots were mechanically strong, had good drivers and outstanding teamwork. There could not be one robot to try to take out. Because the other two filled in the gaps. Its a shame 245 is not coming the silicon valley, our alliance got along so well. At least 766 and 1072 will be there. :D

Re: Power Players at the Regionals
 

I thought our entire alliance of 245, 766 and 1072, were all superb robots. We were strong at capping and defense. 245 was a capping machine. When a team worried about 245, 766 would score points and vice versa. Also when 245 or 766 were being blocked from capping, 1072 would bolt in and make the cap, while the other alliance member found another goal. All the robots were mechanically strong, had good drivers and outstanding teamwork. There could not be one robot to try to take out. Because the other two filled in the gaps. Its a shame 245 is not coming the silicon valley, our alliance got along so well. At least 766 and 1072 will be there. :D

Re: Power Players at the Regionals
 

I haven't heard any 1279's... are we overlooking this #1 seed at the VCU regional? (yes we did have one more match than most other teams with an 8-1 record but still). The misfortune of being shoved into a tetra and a goal in the corner of the field led to our demise, but we will be back at the Trenton regional and we are also looking into open spots for nationals. Although this is my team, I really must toot our own horn, capable of holding 2 tetras while driving without tipping and capping an easy 9 feet.

BTW...Hows our buddy team 1403 holding up this year aroon? Let me know and I will see you at Trenton.
All I'm saying is watch out for the robot confucious from team 1279.

Re: Power Players at the Regionals
 

Congratulations at the VCU regional guys, you rocked!!! You are certainly one force that we will all be watching out for. At Brunswick Eruption and Frenze Finale we picked you, but at Trenton hopefully you will consider picking us when you become the #1 seed again. I am happy with the way our robot turned out and I can't wait for our first competition at NJ. Congratulations again 1279!!!

GO 1403!!!

Re: Power Players at the Regionals
 

I would just like to say that I was really impressed by team 56. Their capping system was easy and effeciant......props to them

Re: Power Players at the Regionals
 

From BAE I'm surprised that no one mentioned 88 yet. They had a strong bot and a good alliance, they just met up with the 121, 126 alliance in the semis rather than the final do to seeding.

Re: Power Players at the Regionals
 

I was impressed with the capping system of 122. They were our alliance partners, and our 2nd pick at VCU. While they could not stack on the center goal, they could stack extremely well on the other goals on the field. They were extremely efficent at taking tetras that were loaded onto them at the human tetral loading station, turning around, and putting the tetra on a goal. They were a team that had some bad pairings at the regionals, and were ranked low, allowing us to pick them in the second round. We could not have won without them.

Re: Power Players at the Regionals
 

I would like to begin by thanking team 401 for picking us to join them in the finals at VCU. Team 401 and team 435 were awesome partners in the finals, and it was only because of their skill that we were able to win the regional.

Team 401's antonomous was able to cap the corner tetra every single time which saved us in 1 or 2 of the rounds. Their robot and especially their arm were very well built to do their task efficently.

Team 435's control team were very skilled and amiable during the competition. Their tactics in the game were great and they were able to pull off some gutsy moves.

Both teams robots were capable of picking of tetras quickly and together were able to hold the middle row against the offensive opposing robots. One time (I believe it was 405) we were capable of capping a corner tetra of the opposing team which gave us the 2nd highest score of the regional.

We had some intense rounds in the finals, but with teamwork and great strategy we were able to pull off a win. So congrats to 401 and 435, we hope to see you at nationals.

P.S. In response to Squeaky, we did seem to be alittle overlooked at the regional. We have a smaller team than some of the other veterans. We only had around 15 people this regional and will only have around 8 I believe at Annapolis and Nationals. Also, whenever we played our team was right behind us and not in the stands so they wern't cheering as loudly as some of the other teams. I guess you can say that Team 122 speaks softly and carries a big stick ;)

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 ^^