Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

Mentor from Team 2108 here.

When looking from the stands, I knew that it was going to be a DQ instead of a 30 point penalty, but all it really meant is that we went 3-0 in the final round.

A funny thing happened at the team social, too, Team 2068 came to us asking to be their alliance member. It took them a minute to realize that we weren't Team 343. I said "no takebacks" but I guess they didn't take it seriously.

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

Congratz 540, 2108 and 843. First time I heard the Awkward Turtles being announced as rookies I put my full attention on them. That was an amazing Finals, just absolutly amazing, couldn't keep my eyes of my comp' sreen(watching all the way from Israel).
I'd like to say to you guys that you've been an inspiration to me and my team and we're hoping that we'll win the regionals just like you guys did.
Congratulations blue alliance and I hope to be seeing you in the Championships :D

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

I really thought that it was only going to be the Canadians robot to be DQed and they would just cancel their points. I would be fine with that. But making the whole alliance be DQed was not expected and I was very mad for about 6 minutes. The very last match was very close, because all of the same number of tubes were up for each alliance. Red alliance had 1 robot 1' off the ground (I think). Our alliance had 2 robots and from my view they looked like a foot off the ground but I was not too sure. Anyone remember which robots where 4" and which where 12? I was so happy that I barely looked.

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

big ups to 2108 for sweeping the tournament as a rookie ... you guys had some amazing ramps and i was definitely putting up the awkward turtle sign when the final buzzer went off :D 540 and 843 were both scoring machines and excellent drivers ... congrats to all of you and we'll definitely be seeing you in atlanta

wondering: does anyone have any idea where i can find some footage of the final rounds?? kinda interested in seeing how it actually looked, it was all a blur to me from behind that darned plexiglass :D

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

from what i hear, 540 had volunteered to record the matches for soap, but with the commotion of the finals i hope it got done. id like to see not only some vids but some nice still pics of the finals. the last match was incredible, it was truley how the game was meant to be played.

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

We recorded on Friday and Saturday. We had some issues at the beginning of Friday and missed matches between 11 and 1 (our tape popped out early). We got everything else including awards ceremonies. On Monday, a student is going to convert the footage from VHS to digital. We will then proceed to posting it. I hope it will be up soon.

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

Ya I want to see the footage too. Especially the second final match.

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

I think one of the reasons why we were able to take it to the win is because we had good team dynamics:

540: Excellent scoring
843: Average scoring, Average defense
2108: Excellent defense + ramps

I was worried in the semi-finals against the 2068 alliance, but after 540 pulled that awesome manoeuvre, I knew we were going to win. The problem with having only a ramp robot, is that if you deploy early in the game, you're pretty much unable to do anything else, so instead of having 3 robots on the field at once, you only have 2.

To be brutally honest, I think that this year's game is a disappointment. I think that during design, they didn't realize how difficult it would be to get ringers onto the rack. From day 1, I thought that going end-game for the 60 bonus points was the way to go, and our team tried to build ramps so that most robots could get onto them. I guess bonus points to us because we tried to design around other people's robots and that we "got" this year's message. Oh well, here's to next year hoping that we have flying game pieces again!

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

i hope you are kidding about the game being a disappointment sure the qualificatoin matches werent high scoring but in the tournament we lost to you (2108's alliance) by one ringer and we had an oppurtionity to put on those two but someone on ur alliance played intense defense that was an amazing game and in the finals we saw the best of both worlds ramps and rack

also we would have had a better chance in the 3rd match but our wheels broke in match 2 of the semis when the turtles pinned us to the side haha

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

I still think that the game is a disappointment not because of the lack of high scoring, but rather the lack of excitement. Sure the finals were exciting because it was the best of the best, but the qualifying matches were pretty tame and couldn't hold much attention in the crowd. Last year's game was immensely exciting because there was more emphasis on contact and scoring, but then again, I guess I have something for projectiles.

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

hay how "yall" doing just like to say hay and much much thanks to the akward turtles for choseing us for the finals and having the by far best lifting robot at VCU(just my opinion :P) but jut made it home couple of hours ago from VCU (15 hour drive to canda) o and another thanks to team 540 making my heart stop when they raced back to home base at the very last seconds to ensure our victory in i think the semi finals i could be wrong but yea cya you all later!

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

just a comment about the soap videos,

http://soap.circuitrunners.com/2007/movies/

thats the link to the videos. its interesting cause theres a folder 'va' thats empty and a folder 'va_ken' that has the VCU matches on it. some matches are missing (including my teams first match) and there isnt a nice GUI yet but the videos are there for download and thats what matters.

missing matches are 6,7,21-26,29-45,and if there wre matches past 61 they arent there either. there arent any tournament/awards vids yet either

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

hey great job everyone -- it was my first regional & i totally had a blast!

Thanks especially to team 346 for replacing the cylinder for our ramp release -- I built the ramp myself & it was really sad when the piston got bent. Ya'all totally saved us!

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

My thoughts about this year's VCU Regional:

The game wasn't nearly as excited as last year's game. This year's game was a lot less defensive and less brutal. I am a volunteer; and this year, I didn't pick up many broken pieces from robots. Last year, I couldn't even pick up the balls because I was so busy picking up pieces of pieces of robots that had been smashed off. I like seeing a less brutal game if it means less excitement. It would hurt to know that you work for so long, only to have your robot be destroyed by another robot playing defense. Last year, I felt like all of the teams were prepared and had very decent robots. This year, I felt like the teams weren't as prepared and the robots were not as impressive as last year's to me.

However, there were so many teams that shocked me. The rookies impressed me the most. 2108 and 2068 come to my mind when I think of the word "rookie". These teams did better than most of the teams at the regional. They did better than some of the teams that are veterans to the competition. They deserve a lot of credit.
There are some other teams that usually do not do so well in previous years that shocked me this year.

It was also nice to see different teams win the awards this year. I sort of felt like the same teams were winning the same awards over and over again so it was very nice to see different teams win for once.

I was more than happy to see that 612 won the Chairman's this year--they earned it.

To the three teams that won-2108, 540, and 843--these teams deserved to win. They were the true underdogs for nearly the entire event. They pulled together and worked with some intense teamwork shown by no other alliance. Not to mention the alliance was led by a rookie team.
In my eyes, any of those alliances could have won easily. It was all about collaboration and those three teams that won had it all.
The three teams that won were very diverse. We have the Canadian team, the veteran team/triplet, and last and certainly not least--the rookie team.
Diversity is a good thing. ;-)

Teams that stick out in my mind:
1033--I'd be afraid to compete against them.
343--very quick, great tube manipulator
612--after they took off the ramp, they became a threat.
1885--very impressive, the ramp along with the arm.
116--fast, quick, and precise. (I picked them to win as soon as I saw their robot on the field)
1610--one of the best autonomous programs, very fast and effective.

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

Sorry we are sticking to PA this year.

Going to Pittsburgh and Philadelphia

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

Congrats to 2068 for winning the Rookie All Star Award.

Prince William County now has one heck of a track record having 2 teams consecutively win their Regional Rookie All Star Awards. :cool:

Hopefully we can collaborate in the future and get all of the schools in our county involved in FIRST!

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

Thanks for the compliment! We hope to compete at Las Vegas so we will definitely go to the Championship Event.

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

does anyone happen to know why the feed turns upside-down and green during some parts of the videos? was that an error in the live webcast or in the upload?

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

Looks like an encoding error to me, especially with the audio still intact. Not the first time I've seen upsidedown and green with audio still there.

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

We ran 8 matches a team for a total of 88 matches. We ran 68 on Friday and 20 Saturday morning.

Wetzel

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

I will also post this link in this thread since it did happen at the VCU regional.

Final match 2: 843 gets DQed for tipping 1610.

http://kyle.fnsnet.net/07FRC/VCU/1610tipped.wmv

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

I agree completely! From the beginning I have thought that the ability to drive and work as one in the alliance would win!

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

I have to say that as a first year parent volunteer, I am totally pleased with the results of our team's efforts. They built a robot that could place ringers and that had a low angle ramp with room for 2 bots on the top at 14" (even when a wheel went over the edge and dropped, they still qualified for the full 30 points). I personally feel privileged to have been a part of it. The cooperation between the teams as they strategized before each match just got better as the days went along too.
In the end, the game was finally understood and the winning alliance knew that to win meant getting the longest line of consecutive ringers as well as 2 robots over 12" for the full 60 points. I think the next regionals and championship tournaments will show the full potential of the game and we will see the spoilers brought to bear too (something that really hadn't matured during this regional). The final winning alliance will have to master all of these skills and strategies to climb to the top...

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

Hey, sorry for the subject change, but I'm writing an article on this year's VCU regional for my Journalism 1 class (arrgh, worst class ever) and I need some quotes. (btw, the article won't be read by very many people)

So just tell me, preferably in under 35 words, what you thought of the regional (if you attended), and give me your team's number and name. If you would give me your first and last name too that would be nice.

p.s. This is my senior year in high school and my first year on Team 116, so the regional in Richmond was the first competition I've been to. But yeah, it ain't gonna be my last. Epsilon Delta for lyfe.

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

i think that for the ringers to really be useful we're going to have to see alot more of what 116 was putting up ... 7 ringers in a row is nothing to laugh at.

but with the heavy defence that was played ever since that match, 116 didn't have a chance to put up those kinds of numbers no matter how hard they tried. 116 was paired with 122 in every match, and 122 was an aggressive, motivated defensive team. they pushed the envelope quite a bit (they were the only team i saw with a yellow flag) but they sure kept 116 from putting up those rings. if a team can accomplish more with defence than they can with spoilers, even against the most versatile and highest scoring robot in the competition (besides maybe 1610 and 540), then i don't see any reason why spoilers will be used at all in atlanta.

the match where epsilon delta put up those 7 ringers was really a turning point in the game. after that match everyone's mindset did a 180 from offence, and putting up rings, to defence and ramping up. 116 was seeded first up until that match, but afterwards they quickly dropped, and our friends from 620 went straight to the top. the other ramp teams also did astronomically better after this match, 2108 went straight to the finals as did 623. admittedly we also saw 540 and 1610 at the finals but they never would have made it without the aggressive counter defence and awesome ramping capabilities of the ohmies and awkward turtle.

i think this game is going to be even more defensive in georgia, and that ramp bots are going to be dominating the qualifiers from now on. awkward turtle's ramps are definitely going to be doing virginia proud in atlanta.

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

414 also received a yellow flag. They were the short 6 wheel drive bot with a wide wheelbase that played nothing but hard defense.

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

Awkward Turtle is from North Carolina...;)

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

I just finished loading all my pictures from VCU:
http://kyle.fnsnet.net/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=95
If you want any of the full size images, just PM or email me the image number.

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

lol ... go me :D at least 540's from virginia though ... and they are technically from the virginia regional area, since there's not really a regional closer to them :)

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

yeah i remember them ... i don't see why they built that thing if all they were going to do was hit people with it. not exactly the spirit of FIRST imho

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

That's one of the realizations one must come to in FIRST. There are some teams that build their robots strictly for defense. Last year, there was a team that only had a suction cup and they would attatch themselves to the opposing alliance and pull of pieces of their robot. (if possible)

The refs did not like this and the suction cup had to be taken off.

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

There are also plenty of teams whose robots either don't work quite how they intended, or who find that they're much more valuable as defense (eg. 1281 at Waterloo last year).

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

414 from what I can remember was built to be a scoring robot but because of weight they cut out these systems and so they were left with the strong defensive bot that they had at VCU.

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

900 did the same thing. they were playing with ramps and a scoring mechanism thursday but they ended up having to pull everything off to fit in under weight. this is much more understandable than building a purely defensive/potentially damaging robot. i don't understand how that is educational, rewarding or even enjoyable. you don't build anything that complicated, you don't score points and you don't really even have a chance to succeed. maybe they have fun ripping apart other people's hard work?

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

team 422 noticed that they were a defensive bot, as we were paired against them EVERY SINGLE MATCH. we were the target of their defense every single match as well, and since we were never paired with another strong offensive robot our alliances never got any rigners placed. i dont think 414 went too far though, they wre just playing the game. they were next to us in the pit, loaning us stuff and we them. they apologized for constantly smashing our robot, and we admited we would do the same thing in their position. after they got their yellow flag, we scored a few ringers the next match but had no ramps to climb up so we lost, and from them on we got smashed by different teams in our 7th and 8th matches.

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

So just tell me, preferably in under 35 words, what you thought of the regional (if you attended), and give me your team's number and name. If you would give me your first and last name too that would be nice.
"I thought that at the VCU Regional that the level of competition wasnt as high as I thought it would be, until the elimination rounds. Then those teams showed how it was supposed to be played."

btw, can anyone tell me how to start a thread? thanks!

Hope thats good enough!
cyall at Palmetto!
(thanks 2068 and 612, it was a good run)

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

Thanks for the quote. Some quotes from other people would be nice. (^_^)

I totally agree with you. My team, along with 1885 and 435, lost in the quarter-finals to 343's alliance. At the end of Friday 116 was ranked #1, and if we had stayed in the top we would've chosen 343 for our first round pick. As it was we got 1885, a team we liked and worked well with.

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

Hi,

Does anyone have any video's of the matches at VCU?

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

Incorrect, the suction cup was 100% as by refs, inspectors and GDC, it was not removed. Secondly it was not designed to pull of pieces of robots nor did it ever do that. I don't mean to hijack this topic but I had to correct your post. For more info try:
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...224#post466224

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

Sorry, someone must have told me wrong info. I thought they refs had told the team to take it off but I guess not?

I actually thought I remembered seeing the robot without the suction cup. Maybe not?

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

You may have done at ramp riot or the state fair scrimmages, we made some changes to experiment new ideas.. however at VCU regional it was on for the entirety. Our robot also had several other features but it seems this is the one that caught everyones eye. :cool:

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

Looks like we had one serious spoiler attempt during the playoffs. I just found this picture which shows 612 defending a spoiler attempt from 435 in the quarterfinals.

http://kyle.fnsnet.net/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=778

That was the match we ended up scoring 100 points :D

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

Our alliances each had one win, and it was the tiebreaker match... In my opinion, that was possibly the most exciting match at VCU. Even though we lost, we still put up a good fight.

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

I totally agree with you. My team, along with 1885 and 435, lost in the quarter-finals to 343's alliance. At the end of Friday 116 was ranked #1, and if we had stayed in the top we would've chosen 343 for our first round pick. As it was we got 1885, a team we liked and worked well with.


yeah, i am pretty much the master student scouter for team 343, and we were hoping yall would win ur last match so yall would pick us. we knew that could b a kick butt combination. but, and we thought our alliance would b kick butt. but there's still nationals! hope to see yall there.

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

uggh.. we took our arm off for some repair and the team that was going to pick us thought that our robot was broken, so they picked someone else. I dunno exactly what happened.. but I wish there was better communication, because I think that we had a chance to go to nationals for the first time

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

That is exactly why we tried to pick something simple for our rookie year. We wanted defense and ramps that any team could get on.

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

The only thing I DON'T like about that, is it's not ambitious. An ambitious rookie team (as far as what I know and have heard says) can make an excellent impression on judges. Our team worked a high-goal shooter last year that was quite complex. It was a turret with vertical and horizontal motion, such that the camera could determine where it needed to be from any given spot on the field (if we could make the shot). Suffice to say the entire robot was slow and didn't work extremely well, but we did two things:

1- Learned a LOT. We learned the mad pace, among so much technologically, that you're going to need next year to keep your track record of success. I was ready for a horrible last week, and spent 74 amazing hours working at Robotics in the last 7 days. We had learned all sorts of ways to use and manipulate the camera, which we applied this year to autonomous (even though we never turned it on at competition), and expanded upon with other sensors. Learning a lot is important, cause you're not able to get the rookie awards anymore. You're now in the full running with the rest of us -- and oh boy will you have catching up to do.

2- Impressed the judges. Now of course, I can't speak for the judges all by myself, but we did win the Rookie All-Star award at the World Championships....

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

i think this years competition was a lot more complicated than last years as far as building a bot that could do everything (which is what we did) ... we barely fit our building into the 6 weeks and we didn't have as much time as we would've liked as far as actual driving practice. in retrospect i think that keeping it simple, like awkward turtle did by just building that ramp bot, allows a team to score a lot better if they're teamed with alliance members who specialize in other areas. however, there are way to many variables as far as ramp-only robots go. how do you know that the teams you're allied with have planned to be able to climb ramps at all?

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

yeah, in 2000 (which seems like a lifetime ago) was our rookie year. we were ambitious and wanted to do everything. we did and succeded pretty well. we apparently impressed the judges b/c we won the rookie all-star award (i remember this even though i was seven, isnt that amazing?). but if the resources are there, be ambitious, even if it is your first year.

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

the huge amount of experience that my team had in the first year was really helpful to me when i joined up with the program this year. they were also a really ambitious rookie team and learned everything about programming the camera's, building an effective drive-train ... using a band saw :) i was really glad that i we didn't have to start with a completely blank slate, and we did manage to equal the school record this year making the semi-finals, thanks largely to the things the team learned and was able to build upon.

in other news i hear that we might be riding the same bus down to atlanta with you guys from 1885 ... all i can say is be prepared :D

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

I completely agree, we battled that round out to the end. :D

Do you know if there's video for that match posted yet? I'd really like to watch the three quarterfinals again.

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

Whoa whoa whao dude YOU'VE GOT FREAKING PMs

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

If anyone took a very close look at our robot you might have noticed the 30X30 extruded aluminium frame...in the corners there had been posts which we cut off. these were to be for our ramps...which due to time and weight we
did'nt do this year...but almost did.

Our first year (2005 triple play)we tried to use and do everything...
not only were we the top rookies, but also rookie allstars...which got us
to Atlanta.

During the alliance selections...we had been approched by 116, but when we were selected by 928 we went with them. And the rest is now FIRST VCU
history...In a way we were kinda glad we did'nt go to Atlanta..(not that, thats a bad thing)...its just that..ok we had been twice in two years and have never been able to have more time to build the team...so hopefully not going will make us a stronger team next year. Lord knows we came close though.

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

VCU was fun and Metalinmotion - Team 343 - was very honored to recieve the GM Quality Award. Unfortunately, we lost a laptop computer during the competition. If anyone found a laptop computer in a case and is unsure who it belongs to, we sure would like to hear from you. My boss is not happy....... Anyway, any leads would be appreciated. Use the contact information on our webpage at www.metalinmotion.com. :rolleyes:

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

yeah gil, i heard a couple of people wern't happy about that.

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

does anyone know how many people were able to actually throw ringers on during the matches? our team is trying to work strategy for Las Vegas and Atlanta and we would really like to know if it is even possible to get a technique down like we had for scoring with the balls from last year competition.

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

That's one thing I didn't keep accurate count of when I took stats for VCU (it was kind of hard to tell by the webcam), but I think the number was around 6 or 7 if I had to guess. It's a whole lot of luck, but if you've got an excellent thrower I suppose you could make it worth your while.

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

i'd say it was even fewer than that ... though i was in the pits or queing up alot and didn't see some of the matches ... definitely don't count on it. people were getting better at it near the end which resulted in maybe one ringer every few matches, which definitely doesn't make up for the huge amount of clutter you have to deal with.

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

Not to mention the potential for ringing a robot, rendering it incapable of picking up another tube unless it can get that one off itself. I'd imagine that could be highly annoying, and potentially a strategy-killer.

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

The Ref's at VCU stated that any team that landed a ringer on one of the green lights would be DQ'd for obstructing the target. Make sure your human players understand the risks!

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

1610 was capped by a ringer thrown by a HP in one of their practice matches, and the refs were slow to notice, and to tell the drivers. Their drivers were able to hang 2 ringers while capped, which ended up not counting.

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

yah we had one guy throw one on in the our last match with 116 and 435 in the quaretr finals and he will def. be throwing them in las vegas and atlanta i was just wondering: do you think it is illegal to throw them on a robot to not let them score i dont know how they could catch you as cheating but i never heard a rule for it

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

do you think that would be illegal to do on purpose

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

If it was done intentionally and repeatedly, I'm fairly sure this would count as unsportsmanlike conduct; in other words, a great case for a yellow card.

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

VIDEO!!

One of our team members taped all of alliance 2's matches during the playoffs and I just finished editing them together into one video.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...032&pr=goog-sl

Gogo Teams 2068, 343 and 612!! :D


EDIT: You can also see the exact moment our wheel broke in the semis, at 8:45 into the video, the turtles pushed us sideways, bending the side of our wheel inwards towards the motor.

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

sweet! ive been looking for those. thanks a lot.

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

Hey Frinkahedron - Any way you can put that video someplace from which I can download it? Or maybe mail a CD/DVD to me? I'll distribute it to 1885, 623, 2068, and 1895. - PM me - Blake

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

sorry bout that breaking man ... they were playing mad defense for us

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

The video file is on a school computer at the moment, so if you can wait until tomorrow, I can upload it and PM you with a link (don't want to kill my bandwith now :D)

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

Like someone said before, 414 was originally built as a scoring robot. In fact, I believe they even brought the arm with them to the regionals. And every robot is potentially damaging. You ram a wooden boxbot against any robot many times in the correct place, it will damage it.

Seeing as how you're not on their team, nor do I believe you understand the structure of their team, I wouldn't expect you to understand why anyone would find it a rewarding experience.

Many, if not most, who join 414's team are rookies in their junior year. If the rookies weren't familiar with FIRST robotics before, and was never presented with a chance to participate in a team, then being there during the building process is a very rewarding experience. So someone new to FIRST actually participating in the creation of a functional robot... how is that not educational, rewarding, or enjoyable?

And why should everyone build something complicated? Isn't the infamous motto of FIRST "Keep it simple [stupid]"?

Success isn't about winning.

Or maybe that some teams think it's better to execute a defensive strategy than an offensive strategy?

Disclaimer: The statement above expresses my opinion, and my opinion only. It does not, in any way, shape, or form, reflect the views or opinions of team 510 or 414.

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

owned?

i was only expressing my frustration at the fact that they were beating the crap out of something that i'd spent several grueling days working on, even though it's perfectly legal and i'm just grumpy :D they make bumpers for a reason, it's easy to put them on and it makes a robot much less likely to take a chunk off someone elses hard work. if winning isn't everything, then deliberately trying to disable someone's robot isn't the way to go.

and i definitely wasn't saying that this was 414's strategy at all. i was over in their pit many times, and i saw that they had definitely planned on scoring ringers ... as you say i have no idea what they were planning on doing before the competition or how much they got out of it. i was just saying that if someone had a strategy like that (purely defensive, potentially damaging robot. ive heard stories.) i consider that to be at the very least inconsiderate of other teams.

again, just my opinion ...

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

yep ... we had that exact thing happen to one of our alliance mates (1086) in the semi-finals ... i'd say it was definitely one of the biggest reasons we didn't make it to the finals ... imo, tossing rings out there quickly and haphazardly isn't the way to go

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

there is a rule against doing this, although there's no penalty mentioned for the offending team, it makes it basically a useless move. RTFM ya'll XD

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

In answer to this (we got asked about this a couple times) in the begining of the tryouts we cam across a unexpected flaw in our design. We used a release system so that the front panel controlled all the side ones on our robot to save weight as aposed to pneumatics which we saw a bit. While this was a huge help on cutting weight. But we found, while testing our robot in defence, that if someone pushed our front panel forward they could force a release and dangerously so since the dampening pneumatics wouldn't deploy. We adopted a "just deploy" strategy rather then risk discualification or a unsafe situation. We also had a arm for innertubes that didn't get as much action as we wanted.

It probabely hurt is in a couple cases but it also made it very hard for other robots to prevent ramp deployment by filling our area with innertubes to block ramps. It was a strategy choice that was a two sided sword for us in the end and probabely cost us in the finals. But yeah we kind of wish we could have had more in game time though. :( All in all we were happy with the year as I think this was without a doubt our best if only because how much the kids loved working with it and even now have plans to turn it into a skate park.

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

Thanks for clearing that up. Your strategy made sense considering the circumstances.

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

Hi everyone,

I have finally gotten around to posting pictures of the various robots from the NASA/VCU regional in March. Check them out at www.CrestOak.com. As a mentor, I got a chance to visit all the robots in the pits and take snapshots. Lot of photos organized by team number. I also have photos of Vex robots from a local scrimmage game which allow you to see the robots from all angles. Really cool. Feel free to browse the rest of the site and check out all the stuff I started to put up.

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

Great photos! thanks for putting all those together for us. It must have been alot of work. But i have a question for ya... Why did ya have to post the pic of 2106 with a nice shot of my butt? ;-)

http://www.crestoak.com/robotics/nas...s/S7001292.jpg

Maybe I can post this as my "who am I" photo...
Great job! :-)

Re: 2007 VCU Regional
 

Hi wilsonmw04. Glad you enjoyed the photos. Now that you pointed it out, I have now noticed you bent over in the background. That's funny! :) When taking the photos, I was too focused on the robots and not what was going on in the background. I bet you don't have many photos of yourself like that! Next time, I'll have to try harder to get a shot of your "other" cheeks.