Re: 2007 Boston Regional!
 

When 125 was still available for our 2nd pick, that gave me chills. We are next to each other year after year in the pits and having the chance to partner with them was very gratifying. I watched every one of their matches from the pit screen, and saw them getting stronger and stronger, especially on Saturday. Their radar blip apparently wasn't strong enough.

So....

Was high powered offense a key at Boston? Sure was. Without scoring, you don't win. Plus, the "wow factor" pumps up the teams and the entire arena. And raising the roof attracts more students, volunteers, and governors.

Was banging defense a key in Boston? Sure was. Offense often gets trumped by defense. Brawn must be mixed with strategy.

Was the Spoiler a key in Boston? Absolutely. Just one spoiler knocks down a 64 pt score to 12. Boom. Just like that. The decision to ramp for 30 or remove a spoiler to retake the 52 pts. is a tough one to make in the heat of the moment. And if you can't remove a Spoiler, then it becomes huge. 121 scored a Spoiler on us in FM-3 to take away a 10pt lead down to no lead in the final seconds.

Were ramps a key in Boston? Watch the final match. We were tube tied in the end. Had there been no penalty on the red alliance, the last second ramp was the whole ball (tube) game.

Was speed a key? Someone tell me how many seconds it took for 125 to go from mid-field to the top of the ramp. I really have no idea, but I thought it wasn't more than 7 seconds. edit: just checked the video. It was an amazing 3 seconds left from mid-field. Wow!

And finally, was scoring in Autonomous a key? Well... the one time our alliance partner scored in Autonomous (69, in F-2), we lost. FWIW.

Thanks Andy. You're the berries, kid. And if you ever decide to fly down to Atlanta, I'll make you a nice hot cup off cocoa so you can sleep on the plane.

Best,

Fred

Re: 2007 Boston Regional!
 

Fred,

Man doesn't need wings when he has a sleeper car on an Amtrak! ;)

See ya in Atlanta.

Re: 2007 Boston Regional!
 

im working on getting the vid i have up, its a perfect view of the last second ramp climb, we were at the bottom of the ramp with 1 second

Re: 2007 Boston Regional!
 

I've been holding off on this post to watch the reactions of everybody, but wow. I haven't had a chance to see the video that Kevin is talking about (need hosting space?), but those last seconds were amazing. Those videos give no indication of the crowd noise. The Agganis Arena was absolutely electric during those final few seconds, especially when 125 climbed onto 69's ramp as time expired (literally so, since we were still on our way up when time expired; our momentum carried us up the rest of the way).

With that said, I have to give huge thanks to 126 and 69 for picking us. Thank you for helping us to realize our potential. I was getting concerned when we fell down that far without getting picked. The NU-Hyper-Force (or as I called it, team lead screw) was certainly a force to be reckoned with.

Also, thanks to 1626, 121 and 1568 for putting up such a great fight. Those finals matches were amazingly intense. The use of spoilers made it all the better, in my opinion. They turned out to be key in all of the matches.

Re: 2007 Boston Regional!
 

Congrats to the winning alliance! You guys were amazing, I was shocked 125 went that late in the drafting. I had them rated as the 7th best robot there. That was an incredible alliance, their style will most likely be what Einstein will be comprised of.

A huge congratulations to 1626! I'm very proud of them. #1 seed, great alliance selections, only 1 loss throughout qualifications. They had some great luck with alliances, but their strategy was some of the best I've seen in a while.

Re: 2007 Boston Regional!
 

1626 pulled the "sneaky" strategy, ala HOT in 2005. They paired up with 121, who took all of the heat. 1626 was able to sneak around on their side of the field and put up tubes all over the place. 1626 was one of the best bots I've seen in a while, and hearing about their build conditions only bolsters my respect for their amazing team. Bravo, Falcons!

Re: 2007 Boston Regional!
 

It's going to bug me until I make a post in this thread. I have been thinking since yesterday after finals.

Those were some very exciting final matches I have seen in a while. The robots that were in the finals were quality bots. I love 1626's robot, 121 as always a very good scorer. On the other hand, I was very happy to see 126, 69, and 125 win the regional. Team 126 let me work on their robot at IRI 2006 without hesitating. That was very gracious of them and it still boggles my mind sometime when I think about it. You never know where you find a good friend. Thank you Tim. Also... i was speechless when they announced team 126 as the chairmans award winning team. I couldn't be more satisfied with the outcome of the regional.

Some other teams that caught my eyes were 1403, 97, 88, 173, and 1511. You guys did an amazing job. Here is my honest opinion about Boston regional, when I saw the teamlist, I was thinking how boring it will be with 20+ rookie teams at a regional. But the rookie teams proved me wrong big time. You all had a good robot that ran around the field, either scored points or pushed others around or deployed ramps. The teams at the regional proved me wrong and showed me how exciting it was at Boston Regional and made me think twice about why I changed my plan and didn't go there.

Re: 2007 Boston Regional!
 

The vid is on the way, tom will be posting it soon, When i watched the playback on my camera it worked fine, and it also worked fine in Mplayer, for some reason the Audio was like 15 seconds fast when i looked at it in WMP, so just let me know if you have any problems.

Kev

Re: 2007 Boston Regional!
 

THE VIDEO HAS ARRIVED

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...84098205386354

i apologize for the horrible quality, but the video was taken from within the crowd...however watch until then where you get a plain view of us going from midfield to the top of 69 in the last 3 seconds of the match.

Re: 2007 Boston Regional!
 

Pretty cool to see that from a different point of view. Thanks for posting it, Conry.

Re: 2007 Boston Regional!
 

does anyone know where can I get some of those wicked cool IED displays? :)

Re: 2007 Boston Regional!
 

I know I for one was speechless for at least 10 seconds after it happened. I was standing in the second row, right in line with the blue home zone, so I had a perfect view. That play will go down in history. Congratulations again.

Re: 2007 Boston Regional!
 

We just got home from Boston (Not bad we left at 8:15, home by 1, not bad for Jersey.. on a bus).

Anyway that regional was phenomenal, watching the matches and standing around the field talking to people I was constantly hearing the same reaction:

This regional showed the game being played the way it was meant to be played.

Rack robots out numbered Ramp robots 5:1 in competition. Defense, as always made a difference, but strategy is what won this regional. If you plan on going to Boston next year, make sure you have an offensive robot, this was my second year there and again they have shown that offense is what wins matches.

Thanks for all the comments on 1403, we had a ton of fun and we are really happy how the tournament turned out. Great job to all the volunteers, especially the Boston Regional Planning Committee, lots of innovation in running the competition and was very efficient too, everything from Pit Announcements to Match Queuing was great. On a side note, Color Kinetics did a great job with the curtain, that was pretty wild.

People can say what they can about the match making algorithum, yes we did get matched up with 125 quite a few times, but I would say it works right now. If it became more 'random' than you would be sacrificing pit time between matches, and there was one point on Friday where we had 3 matches in exactly 1 hour. The schedule had more of a variety of teams but it was tough on the drive team and scouting team. I expect though at much larger competitions, particularly Atlanta, there should be no repeats at all since they have a large enough team pool to select from.

There were several teams that stood out:
2079: our 2nd Seeded alliance partner, highest rookie seed, and rookie all-star. Their robot Jaws, is awesome, they use 7 4" IFI traction wheels to pick up tubes and manipulate them to get them on the rack. This team had it together, by the end of Saturday they were able to strategize like Veterans and had a Robot to back it up. Watch them in Atlanta, now that they have a competition's worth of experince they can prove to be a vital alliance member.

1626: The other Jersey team, this was their own competition this year, but once they got on the field Friday they started winning well. They got a nice smooth quick way of picking up tubes, and getting them on the rack in a very quick way, making them one of the major stand outs at competition.

121: After they opened their robot on Thursday morning they found out that people really did watch American Robot and were the team to watch all 3 days of the competition. Like many of the high performance teams on this list will be one of the ones to watch in Atlanta.

126: My little brother is 8 and was watching the webcast from home yesterday, he can't get over how the wheels at the end of their manipulator pick up tubes on to the rack so well. It's fast and as results show very effective. I think it's too early to make predictions about Einstein.

69: Ramps that get you points, a manipulator that can make a difference when needed, plus one of the only scoring autonomous programs makes this one scary robot. Strategically this robot was a very strong pick.

173: I don't know why they fell to the 7th seeded pick, its probably because the RC they fried due to 'static'. When the RC was working this robot couldn't be stopped easily. Their defense was also some of the best I've ever seen, but they needed more offense on their alliance to win.

Re: 2007 Boston Regional!
 

Big congrats to Team 125, the NU-TRONS. I'm proud of you guys :)

Re: 2007 Boston Regional!
 

Believe me when I say, this team 2079 will be a future superstar. The robot was built like a tank, the grip was effective, and they played smart all weekend long. I think if the same team came into the competition with 3 or 4 years of experience behind them, they would be Boston Regional champs right now. For now, however, they'll do just fine as a rookie. They certainly stand a chance at championships, and they have a great foundation to work off of. Congrats on an amazing first showing to team ALARM. Get used to hearing that name...they will be the future powerhouse of New England along with the Uberbots. You heard it here first.

About RAGE slipping to 7th selection...

WOW. Nothing against any of the teams picked before them...but they were a top 3 pick to me. Maybe even a number 1 depending on the robot who was picking them. I know they had control issues on friday and missed a few matches, but you would figure putting 260 points up in the first match that they returned would silence the critics. I guess not.

Oh...and one last thing, 260, 285, 290, the three highest scores of the weekend. Yet another powerful offensive showing by the region known for heavy defense. Can you say "We score wicked haaahd!"

Watch out Atlanta, New England is comming...

;)