Las Vegas Update
 

Hey Everyone,
No one has posted one of these yet so I thought I would. I'll try and keep everyone up to date as best I can, but I will probably be at the event all day :D

Everything appears to be running smoothly, the volunteers/staff are doing a wonderful job, and I personally feel like this regional is more organized and smooth in its first year than some other regionals I have been to. Super special thanks to Andy Baker for informing us and helping us out with our cylinder issue. Real time scoring appears to be working for the most part. There has been a lot higher percentage of teams with working robots in practice matches than what I have seen and heard personally from a couple other regionals.

A couple of the 'bots I have seen that stood out to me are 60, 64, 1266, a Hawaiian team 368 I believe, 988, and I'm sure there are many more excellent competitors; I didn't get to witness much.

Any questions ask me :D If you'll be at the event stop by and say hi and pick up some dice beads, or any resources you might need.

Thanks,

Steve

Re: Las Vegas Update
 

Sounds like you guys are having a great time. I'll definitely be atttending in 2 years to hit up the Black Jack Tables. Good Luck to all the Teams.

Re: Las Vegas Update
 

OK,
After day one us and the Gila Monsters are tied for 1st place, very very tied. We are both 7-1-0 and have 17.83 RP's I believe, and we were both in the highest scoring match together so I don't know where it goes from there :D

Here's the awards I remember, I am very tired since we woke up at 3:00am to do a 5:00am video shoot for NBC news here in Las Vegas. I don't remember the exact name of the award (I know I could look it up but I want to go to bed :D) and I don't remember everyone's team number.

Imagery - Gila Monsters (64)
Entrepreneurship - Bionic Bulldogs (60)
I believe a team from Alaska won the Xerox Creativity Award, but I'm not sure on the name or number.
Bionic Battalion won the judges award I believe, and that's all I can remember for now, I will have a more detailed report ASAP, but my mind is mush right now as you can probably tell from my structuring and grammar.

Everything is going well: the matches are very exciting, almost every team has some sort of an autonomous mode. We were able to start out a couple of times today with a triple play (both magnetic tetras down and we cap the center). I was unable to attend the social but I'm sure it was fun. Tomorrow should be awesome :D

Re: Las Vegas Update
 

Congratulations !
You guys are awesome we really enjoyed Arizona next to you, we are in LA and doing our thing, too early to tell,Good luck tomorrow !!!

Re: Las Vegas Update
 

How's team #1505 doing?

Dave

Re: Las Vegas Update
 

Yeah, we've made some major improvements to our robot, and in the process lost about 6lbs (which is good). You guys were awesome too, good luck defending your title in LA :)

MrToast I'm not sure how 1505 is doing, but we will have wireless LAN today I believe so perhaps I'll be able to post from the pits/stands.

Now I'm off to the event. Good luck everyone!!

-Steve

Re: Las Vegas Update
 

1. 1425 / 9-2-0 / 17.81 *(1)
2. 987 / 9-2-0 / 16.27 *(2)
3. 368 / 9-2-0 / 16.18 *(3)
4. 1641 9-2-0 / 14.27 *(4)
5. 64 / 9-2-0 / 13.81 *(2)
6. 473 / 8-2-1 / 13.81 *(3)
7. 1324 / 8-3-0 / 15.63 *(5)
8. 359 / 8-3-0 / 13.54 *(1)
9. 60 / 7-3-1 / 17.72 *(6)
10. 1548 / 7-4-0 / 15.18 *(7)
11. 988 / 7-4-0 / 14 *(8)
12. 878 / 6-4-1 / 16.36 *(7)
13. 496 / 6-4-1 / 14.09 *(6)
14. 1505 / 6-4-1 / 13.36 *(8)
15. 1266 / 6-5-0 / 17.09 *(4)
16. 1101 / 6-5-0 / 14.72
17. 1572 / 6-5-0 / 12.27 *(7)
18. 1031 / 6-5-0 / 10.72 *(3)
19. 991 / 5-5-1 / 16.63 *(1)
20. 1110 / 5-5-1 / 9.54 *(8)
21. 1538 / 4-5-2 / 12.45 *(6)
22. 989 / 5-6-0 / 11.81
23. 1661 / 4-5-2 / 10
24. 1378 / 4-6-1 / 2.27 *(4)
25. 440 / 4-7-0 / 14.72
26. 585 / 4-7-0 / 12.72 *(5)
27. 1120 / 4-7-0 / 11.63
28. 1159 / 4-7-0 / 11.36
29. 1527 / 4-7-0 / 6.72 *(2)
30. 1703 / 3-7-1 / 14.27
31. 399 / 3-7-1 / 10.72 *(5)
32. 1544 / 3-7-1 / 10
33. 1457 / 3-7-1 / 9.9
34. 1556 / 3-7-1 / 7.9
35. 990 / 2-9-0 / 10
36. 961 / 2-9-0 / 8.72
37. 1613 / 1-9-1 / 5.81
38. 1631 / 0-11-0 / 11.18

Alliance Selection:

1. 1425 , 359 , 991
2. 987 , 64 , 1527
3. 368 , 473 , 1031
4. 1641 , 1266 , 1378
5. 1324 , 399 , 585
6. 60 , 496 , 1538
7. 1548, 1572 , 878
8. 988 , 1505 , 1110

Re: Las Vegas Update
 

I just noticed Andy Baker is a ref in Vegas, kinda cool to turn on Nasa TV and see Andy.

Re: Las Vegas Update
 

Agreed. :)

Re: Las Vegas Update
 

Hey! What happened to the webcast? :mad:

Re: Las Vegas Update
 

I lost it too :ahh:

Re: Las Vegas Update
 

It's gone apparently, some random kids TV show just cut in... hopefully it'll come back.. they were just about to go into the Finals too :(

Re: Las Vegas Update
 

It's 6 PM Eastern, which means the webcast is being replaced by "STS-114 Crew interviews - HQ (Mission Coverage)" according to the NASA TV schedule...bummer. :(

Re: Las Vegas Update
 

Now theres some NASA lady talking.....I WANT WEBCAST

Re: Las Vegas Update
 

Looks like we missed it - I hope someone from the regional lets us know what happened.

Re: Las Vegas Update
 

This really sucks.

What a crappy place to cut the feed.

Re: Las Vegas Update
 

Well, looks like the red alliance came back to win the tie-breaker match in SF 2.3
http://www2.usfirst.org/2005comp/Events/NV/matches.html ...still, it's not the same..

Re: Las Vegas Update
 

Congratulations to teams 987, 64, and 1527 for winning the 2005 Las Vegas regional.

Re: Las Vegas Update
 

Thanks. We had tons of fun. We always tend to get the harder brackets of the elimination rounds, but we still prevailed. The competition was great and we got a run for our money. Hope to see some of you all at the Nats. :)

Re: Las Vegas Update
 

Thank you! We never really had time to get online at all today so I will post the final awards and whatnot.

1425 was ranked number 1, in front of us and 368.
987 (us), 64 and 1527 won the regional, with finalists 1425, 359 and 991.
The awards went like this:
Chairmans - 60
Engineering Inspiration - 1266
Imagery - 64
Innovation in Control - 1120
Creativity - 878
Delphi Tomorrow's Technology - 368
Entrepreneurship - 60
Judge's Awards - 1159, 1661
Website - 1527
Autodesk Visualization - 1110
WFA - Pattie Adkins (1505)
GM Industrial Design - us (987)
Motorola Quality - 64
Sportsmanship - 1120
Spirit - 473
Safety - 64
Rookie Inspiration - 1527
Rookie Highest Seed and All Star - 1641

And I'm pretty sure thats all. Everything is on the FIRST site, if anyone has questions post or PM me. Thanks and Congrats to all! :D

-Steve

Re: Las Vegas Update
 

I have to say the Las Vegas Regional was the best event I have ever been to, it was awesome. And being from Pattie Adkins' old team, I can testify that she truly deserved this Woodie Flowers Award.

Re: Las Vegas Update
 

It looked like a good regional from the broadcast, I just want to congratulate team 60 for winning the Chairmans Award. You guys definately deserve it, and congrats to the winning alliance. Hopefully someone can get those final matches uploaded on the internet soon, I would've liked to have seen them.

Re: Las Vegas Update
 

Congrats teams 987, 64, and 1527 from team 1425. I wish we would have put up a little more of a fight there in the finals....but oh well :D. That defensive robot really gave us some problems there..along with some mechanical problems with our alliance. Great matches, and a great alliance - you deserved it.

It was an extremely fun regional...extremely exciting also. Seeding for a lot of the top 10 teams came down to the last 2 qualifying matches. Thanks to all who participated.

Re: Las Vegas Update
 

Congrats to 60 on the Chairman's Award! I'm happy to see you all get some well earned recognition.

Congrats also to 987, 64, and 1527, as well as to the finalists 1425, 359, and 991. High rollers and Dukes: How'd you guys end up on opposite sides of the field in finals so soon after being partners in the AZ finals?

Re: Las Vegas Update
 

The Dukes were ranked 19th going into alliance selection (the sad part was that we were running better than we ever have, we just had some alliances that didn't work out). We were the third pick of the first seed alliance (987 was second). I would have loved to played with 987 again, but the alliance we ended up on was solid and it was a thrill to play with 1452 and 359.

987 deserved that win. I had no problem losing to them. They had a great robot and a great team and I hope they dominate at nationals along with 359 and 1452.

Re: Las Vegas Update
 

The Las Vegas Regional was great. It had a good mix of veteran teams and rookie teams, with many rookie teams looking like veterans.

This regional is fortunate to have great event sponsors, including UNLV. The Thomas & Mack arena is the nicest FIRST Regional site I have ever been to (with a close second being the Peterson Center in Pittsburgh). The field was set down on the floor level while the spectators seats started at about 10 feet above the arena floor. This was similar to a colesium setup where robots and drive teams took the place of gladiators.

On Thursday and Friday, the arena's seats were too comfortable and the teams seemed just happy to be there, as everyone was fairly reserved. Somehow, everything changed on Saturday and the excitement of a FIRST competition was pumping through the air. It was a combination of Morrella's scripted tunes (at one point they played Motley Crue and Abba back to back), Blair's energetic introductions, and a greatly heightened level of play by the competing teams. Veteran volunteers were scratching our heads on Friday but raising our eyebrows on Saturday, that is for sure.

It was neat to get to know all of the teams. That is the benefit of being a robot inspector. I definitely enjoyed getting to know Josh and "Garth" on 1110 along with the "High Rollers" of 987 with Marc Rogers and SteveO (pssst... they will make a splash in Atlanta), and many other people on great teams.

I was just one of many volunteers who had the pleasure of working with these teams. While many of the volunteers were FIRST veterans who flew in to help, other volunteers were new to FIRST but will be valuable to the growth in the Vegas area. It's pretty cool to see the director of engineering at UNLV as an inspector. That level of commitment is inspiring.

It was good to see team 60 win Chairman's Award and 64 qualify for the Championships with a win. Also, the GP of the attending Hawaiian teams was on display for all to see. While things didn't always go their way, they set an example in class and dignity.

This regional, even with many rookie teams attending, had a good number of strong robots that could compete at any regional across the nation. At the same time, some other teams didn't get their capping mechanisms to work. The most impressive thing to me was the determination of some teams to stick with their strategy and get their robot to work. There were a few inspriational teams who finally got their arms to operate on Saturday after de-bugging their robots all weekend.

The Las Vegas Regional has a great future. The site is great, the city is fun, the teams are gracious, and the competition level, while good now, will only get better.

Andy B.

Re: Las Vegas Update
 

Thanks Andy for all the wonderful comments about the LV Regional and our team. I'm glad you had a good time in our hometown. I am especially glad that being my 4th and final year as a student in FIRST, i was able to be a part of the first ever Las Vegas Regional. It was really awesome being able to show FIRST to my friends and family. Videos of the competition don't do justice to what it is really like. Also, there is no better way to win a regional for the first time than to win it in your hometown's innagural regional event.

Again, thank you Andy for your time volunteering. You are a role model for all people in the FIRST Competition. Goodluck at Nationals!!!

Dave Rhoads
Team 987 Driver

Re: Las Vegas Update
 

i would like to say congrats to the high rollers and bionic bulldogs and... oh the gila monzters. it was a good match, i would also like to thank are alliance partners the DUKES and the HAWAIIAN KIDS we had a good match... cya next year! ;)

Re: Las Vegas Update
 

Oh behalf of the Gila Monster's we had a great time in Las Vegas. We would like to thank everyone who made it all possible--too many to list. We appreiciate everyone who volunteered/worked to put this event on for us all to participate in. Without you none of this would be possible- so thank you all very much!

The competition was very nicely done, organized nicely and held in a great place. GREAT JOB!

The competition itself was a nail biter at the end but all worked out awesome. We are very glad to have participated in the 1st Las Vegas Regional and excited to have been one of the winning teams.
Thanks and great job to our alliance partners!!!! :D

Diane- Gila Monster's Web Mentor

Re: Las Vegas Update
 

1425, 991, and 359.... GREAT JOB as finalists. Also, i want to mention that team 987 would like to let team 473 from Corvalis, MT, know that we think their team and robot are both a class act.

BTW, team 987 has had alot of local publicity in the Las Vegas area during and after the regional, hopefully soon we will have video clips of our interview on our website.

I hope to see you all at nationals.

Re: Las Vegas Update
 

Hmm.. I've been meaning to post something on the Vegas regional but haven't had a chance.. sort of sidetracked.

Simply said, it was amazing. I had a lot of fun and I'd definitely say that this is the best regional I've been to.. then again, that's not much considering I've only been to one other regional (2004 SoCal), but let's not think about that :P

I loved this regional. Maybe it's because my team (1159) made it to #3 in the seeding rankings in the first few hours of the regional, maybe it's because we won a completely unexpected award on Thursday... maybe it's because our robot worked pretty well when it wasn't being shoved across the field because of lack of traction (yay zip ties!)... either way, this regional was .. exciting :D

Congrats to the teams on the winning alliance and congrats to everyone who won an award.. congrats to those who didn't win because you had the chance to participate in the FIRST ever Las Vegas regional ;D You guys worked for this, and .. yeah.. the results were terrific :)

Thanks to everyone for making the Vegas regional as great as it was :) I think I overheard something about our team going again next year (rather than the SoCal regional, which would be closer to us..) because everyone enjoyed it so much.. haha, I hope we do because I'm intent on following my team around :D

Re: Las Vegas Update
 

^ ooh, is that who I think it is?? Haha :p . And I know shoulda posted earlier, but didn't get a chance. I had alot of fun at the Las Vegas regional too. It really wasn't bad for being the first competition held there. Alot of good memories. There was one match, where the blue alliance managed to cap all 9 goals for a short while, and the score was like, 102 :yikes: . That was great. So good job everyone, and hopefully I'll be going back there with the team next year.