Best Alliance in the Alliance Era of FIRST
 

I was having a discussion with Tom today and we started talking about former alliances in FIRST competitions. We talked about alliances from regional events and of course, Nationals/Championships. We discussed how certain alliances completely dominated the competition by the skill they had working together, there pure brute strength, the strategy, and of course, a complete offensive overload. We thought of many combinations that we have seen in the years we have participated in FIRST. However, we wanted to know what you think first.

You can discuss regional alliances, Championship alliances, and Offseason alliances too. Make sure to give your reasoning and of course, if you have video..please do post.

Re: Best Alliance in the Alliance Era of FIRST
 

I'd have to put both of the alliances in this match at IRI 2006 somewhere near the top.

Re: Best Alliance in the Alliance Era of FIRST
 

Well I have to say that I think our alliance in philliadelphia was one of the best. Team 291 CIA, Team 177 The BobCats, And Team 306 CRT. Our team was picked for our brute Force. We worked well with the other to teams, we would dump any load of balls we had then go off on defence. We took out at least one bot in each match we played. But when we got into trouble the other robots were there to help, like in the semi finals we flipped going after Moe, and 177 was right there to stop moe. they also played defence in other matches along with shooting 3 pointers. In the finals we were blocking chuck and 291 came in beside us and helpped keep them in. CIA also scored like mad, during matches, especally when 177 shooter broke. They also had a very concistant Auto mode.
I believe that we all worked very well together, and in the end it turned out right. We could not have won with any other alliance and I am glad that we were choosen to jion that alliance in the end.

Here are some of the matches.
http://soap.circuitrunners.com/2006/...y/pa_qf4m1.wmv
http://soap.circuitrunners.com/2006/...y/pa_qf4m2.wmv
http://soap.circuitrunners.com/2006/...y/pa_sf2m1.wmv
http://soap.circuitrunners.com/2006/...lly/pa_fm1.wmv
http://soap.circuitrunners.com/2006/...lly/pa_fm3.wmv

Re: Best Alliance in the Alliance Era of FIRST
 

This goes back to 2004 and 2005

237
56
303

we almost had back to back regional wins

i am going to miss those times. at this time i want to thank 237 and 56 for some great times.

Re: Best Alliance in the Alliance Era of FIRST
 

71 and company, 2001. How can you possibly argue with 710 points? (I'm going regular season only, a 3 hundred something which had the same function as 71 managed to beat them out at IRI, I think... Correct me if I'm wrong Karthik/JVN/Baker/However was around back then.)


For a very close second, team 47 and 111 with the TKats in 2000 at Midwest. Judging by what I've heard of that era, it must have been quite a sight.

Re: Best Alliance in the Alliance Era of FIRST
 

I'm guessing a lot of threads by either Corey or Tom will be started this way seeing as they are room mates now..

Brandon.. I think we need another sub forum.
Car Talk on NPR has Click and Clack, we have Cor Cor and Tom Tom. :p

Re: Best Alliance in the Alliance Era of FIRST
 

Okay so i have a few good alliances to point out.

The 2003 Galileo Division Champions: Teams 341, 236, and 175.

The 2004 Newton Division Champions: Teams 1126, 67, and 340 (They also won Buckeye that year)

The 2002 National Champions: Teams 173, 71, and 66

These would be the best alliances I have ever seen for numerous reasons.

Yup who would think of 2001 and not think of team 71.

Re: Best Alliance in the Alliance Era of FIRST
 

Yup, it was 308.


Don't forget the 3rd team on that alliance, Team 45.

Some other alliances of note who haven't been mentioned:
1999 - Teams 27 & 71 -- They won two regionals together and were semifinalists (equivalent to a division winner) at the championship.
2001 - Teams 33, 254, 111, 349(who grew into Team 469) & 144 (who grew into Team 1038) -- A real who's who of FIRST history, were only be defeated by the mighty Team 71 at the Championship
2003 - Teams 111, 469, 65 -- Championship event winners in dominant fashion

Re: Best Alliance in the Alliance Era of FIRST
 

I think you missed the "TKats" that was kinda snuck in after 47 and 111.

Re: Best Alliance in the Alliance Era of FIRST
 

OK here is my top 10 that I can think of,

1. Winning Alliance 2003 Championship-OK this is going to sound weird but I think this was the greatest assembly of teams ever in one alliance. It had two of the top five teams in FIRST history (469 and 111) and another great team (65).
2. Finalist alliance WMR 2005-This is more obscure but look at how silly this alliance is, number 3 seed on Archimedes (27), the number 2nd pick on Curie (33), and the number 1 seed on Archimedes (245).
3. Any Triplet alliance 2006-Some very good alliances, especially the GLR one with 67. That is a pretty cool alliance. Really what else is there to say.
4. Winning Alliance WIS 2006-111 and 1625 were a dominating combo. They steamrolled everyone in their path. 1816 did an excellent defensive job.
5. Winning Alliance WMR 2006- Another one of those super alliances, all three teams (70,451,503) in this alliance finished in the top 8 on Curie this year.
6.Finalist Alliance 2003 Championship 343,25,494 another great collection of teams
7.Winning Alliance 2005 Championship 330,67,503-Scored most points that season.
8.Tie Every alliance at 2006 IRI, Winning Alliance 2006 Championship,Finalist Alliance 2006 Championship-All the IRI alliances would have had a shot to have won the championship, Those other two are both great as well.
Honorable Mention-1999 MWR Champions(Excluded because of being too good), #4 Newton alliance 2006 (71,254, and 753) (Another unbelievable collection of teams), Walled Lake Monster 2001 IRI Winning Alliance (308, 111 and others Karthik help please :o )

Re: Best Alliance in the Alliance Era of FIRST
 

Like you pointed out in other alliances, this alliance did extremely well at the Championship. 1625 was the #1 seed in Galileo, 111 was the #8 seed and number one pick in Newton, and we were the #6 seed in Archimedes.

It's hard for me to say what the best alliance ever was, since I've only been around FIRST for less than a year, but both alliances from that unbelievable IRI match were great, and the 2006 winner of Newton was probably the most balanced alliance I've ever seen.

Re: Best Alliance in the Alliance Era of FIRST
 

You can't really rank alliances from year to year (cus of different games), so here's a bunch of amazing alliances that I know of.
2000, MWR. 111, 47, 45

2001, Nats 71, 294, 125, 365, 279
While I didn't see most of that alliance in person, I did see 365 win Philly that year. And to think that a bot that good could be the 4th team on that alliance....

2003, CMP. 111, 469, 65

2006, CMP. 25, 968, 195
Even though they didn't win the Championship, through-out the event they functioned better than any alliance I have witnessed. Between the "A-Bomb", 968 standing 195 back up, 25 preventing 968 from tipping over, sacrificing autonomous to beat the Galileo alliance, and all the other amazing strategies/plays, they impressed me a way no other alliance ever had....until IRI

2006, IRI. 71, 1625, 910
Teams they beat to win IRI included, 494, 25, 1114, 33, 217, and 233 (8 Regional Champs in 2006 between those 6 teams). 137-133. They executed well, and they adapted even better.

2004, VCU. 33, 977, 388
They pushed the limits of their machines so far it was amazing. In F3, 33, which wasn't meant to climb up the stairs, did so, to help secure the bar for 977, giving their alliance the Regional Championship.

Re: Best Alliance in the Alliance Era of FIRST
 

They didn't even make it out of the QF's at nationals in 2004 due to freakishly horrible luck, but 60, 33, and 1241 was one scary alliance. As soon as alliance pairings were announced, most people practically expected them to win it all.

Re: Best Alliance in the Alliance Era of FIRST
 

After seeing 33 in person (and losing to them, do to our own bit of bad luck :( ) in VCU, I always wondered what happened to them at Championship, and why they didn't even make Einstein. Anyone care to explain what happened?

Re: Best Alliance in the Alliance Era of FIRST
 

Or even better than explain what happened. Post a video.

Re: Best Alliance in the Alliance Era of FIRST
 

Team 33, 233, and 1902 lost to 296, 217, and 522 in the finals of Archimedes. Not bad to lost to the national champions, I guess.. :cool:

Re: Best Alliance in the Alliance Era of FIRST
 

I was talking about in 2004... :rolleyes:
Although 33 did make another great bot in '06

Re: Best Alliance in the Alliance Era of FIRST
 

60 popped two big balls in one match, IIRC. They had the match in the bag, however 1241 was protecting their capped stationary goal from being decapped, but didn't lift their arm up at the end of the match--they were then touching the ball, and lost the match since they lost the 2x multiplier.

60 had a whole string of horrible luck in 2004, with that, and what they claimed to be radio problems at regionals.

Re: Best Alliance in the Alliance Era of FIRST
 

What about 79, 469, and 222 from Curie in 2006?

As far as I know, they hold this year's highest score.

Re: Best Alliance in the Alliance Era of FIRST
 

25, 1114, and 33 should have broken that record in QF1-1 at IRI, but due to a field malfunction, the match was ended early. The SimRaiderBees put up something like 81 points in autonomous that match, and had scored around 150 by the time the match was ended. If it allowed to continue, they would have certainly been at or above 200 points.

Re: Best Alliance in the Alliance Era of FIRST
 

Here's one no one has mentioned yet.

2001:
71, 111, 234, 269, 112. They had the record high that year of 710 points. Each robot on that alliance had a specific purpose, which all of them did amazingly well. There's a video of the 710 match floating around somewhere. I believe it was at the Midwest regional.

EDIT: see Billfred's post for the link to video

Re: Best Alliance in the Alliance Era of FIRST
 

I would actually call it RaiderSimBees. ;)

Re: Best Alliance in the Alliance Era of FIRST
 

Hooray for the Google Video!

Re: Best Alliance in the Alliance Era of FIRST
 

Eh, either way it's better than the "New CaMichigan-er" or whatever Big Mike came up with... ;)

Re: Best Alliance in the Alliance Era of FIRST
 

Yes that was one very scary alliance... we *237, 121, and 386 (voltage)* we had some amazing matches that were 3 hard fought battles where we acutally twisted our hook 90* when 33 came up on the ramp on the last minute but couldnt get up...

In all 3 matches that 1 hanging robot on each side made a diffrence... And we almost made it to the finals but we had some robot problems against the eventuall 2004 champs 71, 494, and 495???

Re: Best Alliance in the Alliance Era of FIRST
 

The third team on the alliance was 435, the RoboDawgs

Re: Best Alliance in the Alliance Era of FIRST
 

From what I remember they were nudged into touching it at the end, but that was awhile ago. Either way they were ridiculously close to taking it.

Re: Best Alliance in the Alliance Era of FIRST
 

And 2005 when they actually did make it to Einstein.

Re: Best Alliance in the Alliance Era of FIRST
 

yes... at the last 5 seconds they were pushed back towards the steps and one of thier arms came on top of the ball and it didnt count since it was touch or something to that extent... that was QF1-2 on ARCH in 04 if anyone can find it on soap =P