2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

So this year with so many regionals out there splitting up the FIRST talent pool, what do you think is the most competitive regional to this point? Do you think we've seen some of the better competition out of the regionals already or is the best yet to come?


( I wanted to do a poll for all the regionals but you can only 25 options :-D )

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

Great Lakes gets my vote, there were so many good teams there.

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

GTR and then a close second of FLR.

a little biased, of course not. :p

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

Heh I may be a little biased but the competition at florida was pretty stiff, midwest looked pretty amasing to.

But can't discount the 73 teams at the Greater Toronto Regional that has yet to come.

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

it's 74 now. i think 4 was added to the list just recently.

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

definitely not SVR this year. Defense was sorely lacking until the eliminations.

EDIT: Before anyone gets on my case about this, i do not mean to knock SVR in any way, shape or form. I personally love the regional, but (after comparing it to video of other regionals) I think that the teams this year could have used their time better. Obviously, there were some very notable teams out there, but I think the majority had a very hard time with in-game strategizing this year.

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

I am really excited for the Greater Toronto Regional. I think it will be one of (if not) the most competetive regional out there. It would be interesting to see how many 2006 Regional Champions will be attending GTR this year.

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

Week 5 will have the second highest average number of teams per event, the most 'experienced' teams (with one or more previous Aim High events behind them) and the largest single event (GTR). So the best is yet to come.

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

Everyone is wrong so far! The most competitive regional is going to be the Philadelphia Regional in the last week of March. There are a lot of competitive robots competing at the event and it going to be a hard competition. It is going to be eventful.

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

Any Midwest Regional. Great Lakes and Midwest i would have to say.

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

I must agree with freddy, philly will wthout a shadow of a doubt be the best regional, yes this is a totally biased opinion;). But the atmosphere at drexel is AMAZING such a small space with such great teams there like, 365,56,173,56,433, 84,103..and the list goes on, basically this is the powerhouse of east coast robotics

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

I think GLR was a little lackluster this year. I'd like to say Midwest was pretty much the best, but i think some fierce competition is still on its way.

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

The Peachtree Regional was very competitive. Almost every quarter final, semi final and finals went to 3 matches. The scores for the entire regional were relatively low because everyone was heavy on the defense. We never got all 6 robots on the ramps even with Dave Lavery offering 2 dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts to each of the 6 teams.

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

I am going to go with Buckeye. I know it may be biased but competion was very deep. The number 1 (135) and 2 (1024) seeds at Boilermaker were both there. Midwest runner up 141 was there. The number three seed in Detroit was there (703). Strong teams like 123, 494, 48, 461 were also there. It may not have had many teams but all the teams were strong.

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

OK I have a question.
Has anyone here been to every single regional so far this season?

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

I dare say no :-) but needless to say certain inferences can be made, and through the miracle of web cast up wards 15 of these regionals this year, and with so many teams competing at multiple regionals we know basically the level of play to expect. There is always a small debate about which regional tends to be more competitive different years. Throughout the years with the addition of many different regionals with close proximity to each other falling in the same time period ( site Midwest area this year 3 regionals all close, all on the same week ) it has spread out the powerhouse teams more and the competition has gotten smaller at these regionals.

I was just curious for others input realizing it might be a little biased, heck one of my top picks every year in the little debate is Florida, just because its in my back yard.

I can say that every regional in the world is represented by at least one person who frequents chiefdelphi. Harmless cheerful discussion not only allows for a little regional pride, but from it we can anticipate level of competition at nationals.

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

I don't know about the most competitve Regional. With only 46 teams, it is difficult to have the depth of a larger regional (like 74 teams at GLR) for 24 team elimination rounds. However, with the average quality of competitors at this regional, the Philly qualifying matches may be better than Championship qualifiing matches. I will be like 2 full days of Regional QuarterFinal matches :)

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

I would definitely agree with this. The Northeast has alot of old, experienced teams who have made a great name for themselves. Many of the teams there have been in the game for a long time, and over the years, have perfected themselves. Plus, the existence of the old teams has helped give many of the rookies there a good head start. I expect to see a great mix of heavily defensive teams there, along with a variety of strong shooters. Good luck everyone, and see you there!

-- Jaine

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

well i thikn there have been some pretty competitive regionals and that the rest of the regionals will stay about the same, but nationals is another thing

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

With the complexities of this years games strategy and robot wise, we have yet to see the best. With many teams competing in more than one regional this year we can only bet that these teams will get better and grow more competitive with time. While you may have a lot of veteran teams with good robots this year, we may see a rise in the amount of action in the game as new way to defeat these teams comes about.

My vote: The best is yet to come.

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

NYC is gonna b the best team 1660 is gonna b there

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

I believe there was a thread last year by Dr.Joe that showed that the west Michigan regional was toughest.I believe he is correct, mainly because it is one of the last regionals in very competitive area.
While I am writing about WMR ,I think I will throw in a quick prediction or two.My first prediction;that WMR will have the highest point average per match of all the regionals. And here is my homer prediction;that a west Michigan team will be in the winning alliance either team 141 ,85,74or 107 this is no disrespect to other west Michigan teams but I not seen them play.

Jim schadddelee

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

I'm a believer that due to the number of 10+ year teams that are located in there local areas that GLR, BAE, and UTC have to be considered some of the most competitive. They routinely have high numbers of veteran teams. I'm not sure what the west coast equivalent of these is but I'd complete the list with that one.

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

Being non bias ( ;) ) I will state the obvious:

GTR :
74 teams
4 2006 Aim High Regional Champions
2 2006 Aim High Regional Finalists

and there is still 1 more weekend before GTR :eek:

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

I have to go with Detroit Hands Down :cool:

Tomasz Bania

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

To tell you the truth I have been to two regionals and I was dissappointed. Buckeye was not at competitive as I had expected due to the fact that many teams did not attend because many other regionals around the area were hosting regionals the same weekend. Going up to Michigan where the teams are most competitive I feel, it did not impress me one bit. There were a hand full of good teams. Some to mention were 469 who might I add went 12-0 and won the regional without one loss the whole competition including q-f, s-f and finals. 703 and 123 were in Cleveland and also in detroit and 217 were just some of the good teams. I feel that Detroit had beat Cleveland but Detroit was not what I had expected seeing that we were the only team not from Michigan. I hope that Philly will beat those two regionals because I don't want the only decent competition this year to be nationals.

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

Sadly, I think your right and wrong.
Beyond the top 6 teams (818,703,1602,469,217,1503?), It sadly wasn't that competitive. I have a lot of opinions about this regional, but a few of them would negatively impact my reputation, so I will not post them. Wierdly enough, the alliance selection went a little differently than normal. 1 did not pick 2 (even though I know they thought about it) and 2 tryed many times to have a top 8 partner, and the invite was accepted by the team in the 8th seed. We would have seeded higher, but when I was the driver for part of Friday, I "Broke" the Laws Of Physics, but thats another story....

Good luck and See you at the competition!

Tomasz Bania

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

I agree, but concede that all of the final week regionals will be tough. This seems to be the case every year. That being said. WMR again has an incredible lineup of winning teams this year. I see no reason we would break a tradition started in 2001 that the West Michigan Regional has an abundance of the highest scores, closest matches, and pure excitement.

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

I would have to say what do you grade a regional on?

Defense?
Offense?
How many teams?
Automodes?

Their are so many things you have to look for at a regional. And to say that one is the best. Come on. just take a look at some of the regionals and some of the teams competing.

Boston:
40
69
121
157
233
571
1403

GTR
45
48
217
229
1006
1114
1503
1680

NJ
25
48
56

GLR
65
66
67
279
469
1114
1503
1680

UTC
20
173
177
230
236
237
571


Okay so here are some regionals that have already and will be taking place and some teams that came to mind when i thought of them. If you look at each one they have and will each be played differently. Each week the strategy you have to use to win changes, what worked the 1st week may not have worked the 2nd week. One regional stresses Defense, another one stresses Offense. How can you really judge which one is the most competitive?

But I do know that at each regional you are bound to have a great time. You are bound to have fun, and compete. And for those that aren't in FIRST it is just as amazing as other regionals.

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

Most competitive, I don't know. Most interesting competition, VCU. Large, first week regional, so everybody is trying to figure out what works and what doesn't as well as getting a feel for this year's refereeing.

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

I suppose VCU was OK if you weren't able to make it Portland the first weekend.

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

With all that's been learned during the first 4 weeks I expect the fifth week to be the most exciting. It's hard to say which will be the most exciting/competitive. But take a look at the teams that are attending the Palmetto. It's a pretty impressive list. 3 Reginal champions, 3 Regional Finalists and 14 teams with elimination experience.

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

BAE lost alot of its older teams this year, The new New England regional in Boston however looks amazing.

40, 69, 88, 121, 126, 157, 213 Those 7 teams are basically a Who's who of FIRST in New England ( Ok so were missing a few i.e. 190, 131 ...)

Then throw in 233 coming up after seeding 1st and winning chairmans at the Florida Regional.

383 is coming all the way from Brazil.

75 will be up from NJ

That gives Boston a great group of teams for this year and it will only get better With 14 (yes 14) rookies and another 6 second year teams (Including 1511 the championship Rookie all stars last year) This regional will only get better.

Well thats my $.02 (ok maybe it was more than 2 cents)

James.

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

I am very suprised and disappointed only three 'great' teams were listed for the NJ regional. It seems to be overlooked. This year was not as competitive as others, but the NJ regional is ALWAYS one of the top two most competitive. I guess a lot of you don't know anything about 2003. The top two robots in the nation were there. Team 102 and Team 25. Team 25 got second at nationals and had awful alliances - they would have won with better people in their division. Team 102 had to fight the parents and didn't have the money to attend nationals, but if you guys want to see pictures, I will try to get the reposted on our team site. This year, although it was not the most competitive year, veteran teams: 25, 11, 102, 103, 56, 87, 75 all attend the NJ regional. Plus, the team 25 and 103 tandem in the finals along with 1279 (my same-town catholic team rivals) were able to post over 80 pts. every finals match. The qualifying rounds were all high scoring, with a dozen over 50 pts. for each team with only a couple points difference. With 60 some teams, close matches like this proves it was a very good regional.

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

GTR is going to be the best regional of 2006, IMO..

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

I'll agree...Buckeye's seeding matches were very tough. Finals were very close and very exciteing, but the seeding matches were difficult to get though.

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

I'm not sure which regional is the most competitive but looking over week 5 it is obviously the most competitive week!

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

Competitive is a relative term. There is no way to compare week one to week five and say that week five is more competitive just because the teams have their stuff together by then. It would be like saying that pro baseball’s World Series is more competitive than the Little League World Series because the pros play at a much higher level, which is true, but that doesn’t make the competition any more intense.

With that, I say look at the 12 teams in Championship final rounds in recent years and count up the regionals they attended. You will find that GLR wins by a landslide.

I’ll go on record as saying that the same will be true this year. More yet, I’ll say that at least one of the champs will have come out of GLR – same as they have for years.

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

That's because in the past years there has always been one champ comming from Michigan.

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

Ed rests my case. ;) ;) Michigan Rocks!

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

Actually West Michigan might be a better regional than GLR but yeah Michigan rules FIRST.

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

If by most competitive, you mean having to play a 3 on 2 match in qualifiers on Friday and a 3 on 1 match in qualifiers on Saturday, then Southern California would be it. :mad: The amount of teams who missed their matches was just appalling. :(

If you mean competitive as in even the Innovation in Control award winners did not get picked for finals even when seeded in the top 24, Southern California is it. :( The lack of in depth scouting by teams and the lack of preparedness by some alliance captains and their first pick representatives was just appalling. In a few cases, it seems like teams just took a roll of the dice in determining who to pick. :(

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

While Davis/Sacramento Regional has never been a "power team" regional, ours was competitive, especially in the final rounds. Both final teams were evenly matched with 1 excellent defensive bot, 1 excellent shooter and 1 excellent corner dumper (consistently 10 or more). It went back and forth for 3 matches and was very well played. Even with some technical difficulties with some bots, all robots played in the championship rounds.

I remember an excellent play by the winning alliance when one of their partners died, another teammate came up behind, pushed them up the ramp and then finished the game with 3 robots up on the ramp. It was truly an amazing spectacle. People were out of their seats cheering and screaming. That's probably one of the nice things about having a regional where one team isn't dominating the scoring. Everyone gets an equal chance of winning and playing and the crowd loves it. They can cheer for pretty much anyone and there was a lot of cheering at Davis, along with 245's balsa wood airplanes that flooded the field after the final rounds. ;)

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

I think a regional depends on teh year, but NE and the midwest are supossed to be really competitive.

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

In the Wisconsin Regional, the last final rounds looked like it was going to be a battle to the finish. Also, a couple of the final alliances did a lot better than anyone thought. I'd say Wisconisn was a tough regional.

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

This may be a little biased because these are the ones we go to but i think that BAE systems and the new Boston the are the most competitive regionals.

Also a note to everyone the Boston regional OWNED it was awesome Woody and Dean were there plus the panel of judges included 2 MIT profs. The co-founder of Apple. Inventor if the Ethernet. Chairman and co-founder of IROBOT.

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

NJ was intense, but, i think philly i think will win hands down as most competitive. 56 was good at nj, even better at annapolis so who knows what will happen next weekend. many other teams will by now have improved the strategy and watched others and prepared for whats to come. so who knows what will happen, but be prepared for great things to happen.

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

GTR, hands down. Take a look at this roster.

9 Regional Wins (4, 217, 229, 1006, 1114 x 2, 1281, 1503 x 2)
5 Finalists (188, 610, 703, 771, 1241)

Plus, there are all sorts of other strong teams.
45
48
65 -- They will be a force this weekend, especially after their Saturday performance at GLR
296 -- From what I've been told they're one of the elite teams this year
378
1305 -- A mean drivetrain, and a crazy fast ball pickup
1547
1680 -- The last triplet, who looked 10 times better in Waterloo than they did at GLR

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

I watched the SoCal matches on Saturday morning (something I didn't get to do much of at PNW, except when Maverick nee Top Gun was either staged or on the field), and I think David is right -- the scouting at SoCal was not so good overall. I didn't see many surprising picks of good robots with mediocre records, and I saw a lot of picking which looked like it was based purely on the rankings. It's not necessarily really a bad thing -- but it does result in some pretty iffy robots getting into the finals. It makes a few disappointed good teams who don't get picked wonder if anyone was doing any scouting.

Anyway, I am pleased to report that Sanddrag doesn't look anything like his avatar.

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

The finals at Wisconsin were crazy. It was one regional winner(111) and another regional winner(494) with robots of similar talent on each alliance. It was awesome to just watch autonomous mode because those scores alone were pretty high. The competition all around was very tough.

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

I think it will only get better. i know we are bringin our best to Houston and the time that we have had to watch matches has helped us immensly with strategy and figuring out little tweaks we have to do to our robot.

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

I don't know of the two I've been to (NJ and NYC) so far, NJ has definately been the most competitive. Granted, I have heard that Philly is a sight to behold, so I'll wait to unveil my final verdict until next week.

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

I would like to add that the final pairing at SoCal was really impressive. The first match took about 10 minutes to score and resulted in a tie, with 968 laying on its side. The other two matches were exciting all the way. Both finals alliances at SoCal would have been competitive anywhere, and they duked it out with enthusiasm and grace.

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

The SoCal finals were definately the best regional finals I have seen since the 2003 SoCal finals

Still not as good as last year's championship rounds though... those were absolutely intense.

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

I think <insert Local regional here> is the best

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

thank you! in the post-phili world, i gotta say, phili was amazing! the finals had teams who weren't even involved (including us) up on our feet and screaming ourselves hoarse! DUDE! it was wicked awesome.

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

I've watched the video's and was at Phila. this weekend. I believe the last week regionals are the toughest. Allot of team have already played at other regionals. They know what works and what doesn't. The drivers have developed their skills. The robot systems have been worked on and debugged. The scouting is much more focused and thorough. I was impressed with the alliance strategies that were discussed before matches. If you have a weak team, go to a first week regional. If you think your good and want to play hard go to a last week regional. I'll make one more comment and may get flamed. East coast and in particular Northeast teams are not afraid to bash their robot. Much more physical.

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

Flamed, Heck No! The dents and gashes in the frame just make it look like we had more fun! Chicks dig scars...:D

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

The finals in Philadelphia were really weird. After seeing some of the best shooters at the event knocked out in the quarters and semis, the finals had an alliance with one shooter bot vs. an alliance with two shooter bots. The bot that we were most afraid of was team 84, who could score about 25 low balls at the same time. I think the last game of the finals happened without a single high shot at all. It was an entirely different game than I have seen anywhere else the last few weeks.

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

Okay now even if i wasn't on a team that went to GTR, I must say that truely i believe that GTR was by far the most competitve.

Just look at one of the semi finals matches.

1114, 1503, 865 v. 229, 217, 4

You have here some of the best teams in FIRST. Now this isn't a regional where all of the best teams are but look at this.

1114 previously went to 2 regionals and won them both.
1503 previously went to 2 regionals and won them both.
229 previously went to a regional and won it
217 previously went to a regional and won it
4 previously went to a regional and won it

What other regionals had an elimination match that featured teams that were this strong?

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

This year I was only at GLR and West MI and they are both traditionally really hard regionals.
In another thread somewhere someone posted a really great observation about how GLR is really hard but West MI is harder because all the teams there are really good. (link)
So I have to say West MI

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

Boston was a VERY COMPETITIVE regional, especially eliminations, the best bots of the NE were all there: 121,40,69,126...the list goes on

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

GTR, hands down.

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

It is officially a tie between WMR and GLR. Six of the teams that played in the divisional finals this year played in these two regionals (Five of them the same in both). GTR had Five and WIS and NE are tied with three. So that would put this as a down year for WMR after last year Where there were 8. If you look by average 1 in every eight teams played in Divisional finals for WMR, 1 in every 10.5 for GLR, 1 in every 14.8 for GTR, 1 in every 11.3 for WIS and 1 in every 13.3 for NE. So i think WMR is Number 1 for dificulty.

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

i dont know, boston was pretty crazy......

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

It should be pointed out that all three champions came from GTR.

Re: 2006 Most Competitive Regional
 

Can't remember where i posted it but yeah Ed i posted that either the day of or a few days after The Championship.