2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Well I looked and nobody has started one about West Michigan yet, so I decided to start it. There are 50 teams signed up for it. 33, 71, and 494 are all coming back this year. But lets not forget all of the great teams right here in West Michigan! I can't wait until we have completed BOB this year and start competing at the regionals!

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Depending on what the X-Cats do fundraising for a second regional I will either be going to Buckeye with them or going to this event if they don't make it.
It looks very IRI.

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

From the perspective of the planning committee, the planning of the regional is coming along great! It looks, to me, to be one of the top regionals as far as the entire experience goes. I may have more info after the next meeting to share with the community...

I hope to see everyone at the 2008 West Michigan Regional!

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional and easter
 

i see there is a team social this year. i would sure appreciate more info on it. how much? what food will be served? some of us will not be eating meat that weekend. easter.
so ,with easter brought up ,our team will be attending a church service on thursday night. if any other team shows any interest here i will post more info.

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

And more info you shall have!
http://westmichiganregional.com/inde...s/page0008.htm

The 2008 West Michigan Regional Team Social and School of Engineering Open House will take place Friday, March 21.
The social will be take place on the Grand Valley State University Pew Campus (where the kickoff is held), located in downtown Grand Rapids.
It will be held in the parking structure of the Days Hotel directly across the street from the Kennedy Engineering building.

You can get to the Pew Campus by the free RAPID bus service between the Allendale campus and Pew campus, or by other vehicles by taking M-45 and heading East towards Grand Rapids.
Map

There will be subs, pop, and hot chocolate. For those observing the religious holiday, there will be meatless subs. There will be games, some inflatable play structures, tours of the GVSU School of Engineering buildings and labs. Rooms will be made available within Kennedy Hall for Friday night team meetings.

Keep in mind the majority of the activities will be in a parking structure which will be the temperature of the air outside, plus the body heat of a few hundred people in attendance, plus area heaters if necessary. Dress appropriately!! Large tarps will be covering the open areas so as to keep in as much heat as possible.

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

The planning committee has made arrangements with some area hotels to provide special pricing for FRC team attending the event. Check out the website for more information. www.westmichiganregional.com

Also keep in mind that these prices are only good for a short time so do not wait.

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

sorry, a few more questions on team social.
1- what is cost? web page not real clear on this point.
2- do you have to pre-register for it?
3- will bus passes be given that night? my son attends gvsu and needs student id to use bus system i believe.
4- how late do buses run? might want to explore downtown area.
thank you.

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

1. I am 98% sure that the team social is no cost to teams.
2. I will check about the pre-registering, but I'm >50% sure that you do not need to.
3. The bus is free for GVSU students, but they do not check student IDs on the route, I, nor anyone I know has seen them check. Bus Schedule The buses run about every hour on Friday. We have discussed arranging a few extra buses for team transports to the social, but there have not been any plans made.
4. The bus runs until 2am on Fridays.

I will keep you up to date on any info from the planning committee as it finalized.

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Greetings from the West Michigan Regional Planning Committee!
Here are the official details for the Team Social!

Teams who are registered for the regional will have gotten this information in an email along with information needing to be sent back in to the Team Social organizer about how many people will be attending from each team.

As an additional note: There will be no more buses than on a normal Friday night. That means 1 every hour. I would recommend that teams use their own transportation to get to the Team Social.

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Team 288 the Robo Dawgs will Be there!!!!

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Hi all,
I am trying to organize a webcast of the regional, due to the demand for one, and I need help! The plan is to use the venue's wireless internet to stream the video to ustream.tv

I'm looking for someone coming to the event who has a just one component or the whole bit needed for the set up, the two being:
-A USB video capture device
-A laptop or desktop with wireless capability (802.11b or g)

If anyone is able to help out with this please reply or PM me.

Thanks!

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

2604 will be there


by the way grand valley state said not to expect wfi at the event, so we may have it or may not

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Hmm, it could be that they aren't opening it up to teams this year. I haven't heard either way. I have a student account to get onto it if that is the case, so that won't impact the ability to do the webcast.

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

sweet.

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

I would appreciate someone hooking us up with a webcast because I will be having back surgery on Wednesday and have to miss the regional (and the rest of the season for that matter). My old team 226 will be there and my new team 1504. Looking forward to watching the webcast if you can get it set up. Good luck.

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

234 will be there and is looking forward to an exciting competition.

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Why the USB cam? Can't use the video drop provided?

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Not a USB webcam.
Something like this device: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16815100112

And actually, I can probably get a laptop from the engineering department, I just haven't asked yet if I can get one for that purpose. So, all I really need to get this regional webcasted is the video capture device.

Do me a favor and ask people you know if they have what I need to get this event online!

If all else fails, I have a webcam I can use with my laptop that I'll set up at the scorers table pointed at the field.

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

OK, and a desktop computer with video-in and WiFi would be too hard to work with, maybe even not fit well in the limited space next to the video drop.

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

If that is all I can get, I'm sure we can make that work.

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Team 2171 is looking forward to competing with everyone this weekend. Please travel safely.

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Im considering driving up Friday, hopefully by about 2 or 3 Friday. I've never been to this regional before, what are the good things about this regional?

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

*looks at team list*

That's why I'm driving 10 hours from MN.

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

1. "Pound-per-pound the most competitive regional." - Dave Verbrugge (Backed up by numbers, every year he'll give a little speech about that.)
2. 53 Teams and holy cow, check out which ones: https://my.usfirst.org/myarea/index....I&sort=teamnum
3. The campus food. Widely acclaimed as the best you'll find, also I like it a lot as well. Try Fresh Food Company or River Landing in the basement of Kirchof Center.

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Just wondering what /size practice field you might have set-up this year? This is alittle late, but maybe block that set of doors by last years practice field and make a bigger one,but maybe fire marshall wouldn't like it.

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Warning about streaming video on the wireless, I occasionally stream stuff from Kettering on the wireless and the bandwidth is less than I would like. I would talk to the IT department and see if you could get them to run some cable for you. Also, I will look into getting a USB video capture device tonight, if I can come by 397's pits and I will hook you up with my Mac Book Pro. (assuming you don't mind using a mac and haven't already found a laptop)

Oh, I'm looking forward to this regional. I wanna see a match in which we beat Midwest's score so we can cross their score out on the bottom of the carpet :)

Stats and tidbits
 

This years WMR looks to be a little different than past years for lots of reasons:

No team 67!!!!! They've been there every year that we've been a regional, and attended the off season events before that. It will not be the same without you!

This should be a real demonstration of the Kettering event's results: All seven rookie teams attended the rookie only event. There are also 9 second year teams.

We have more untested machines (23) than ever before.

23 teams have one previous regional event this year with 6 regionals represented. Their results this year are impressive:
4 have seeded in the top 8, 13 seeded in the top half
3 Finalists, 4 Semifinalists, 8 Quarter finalists
12 teams brought home judged awards. These include:
2 Chairmans, 1 Rookie All-star, 3 Entrepreneur and 1 Judges. Others are Quality, Innov. in Controls, Creativity, Imagery, and Spirit.

Although this the eighth regional, there were 5 unofficial competitions before then. Some of us remember all of them. I've written before about why West Michigan is special, but it's home to me. Maybe the team to ask is 888 from Maryland who is making their third appearance here.

We've always been a week 5 regional so maybe GLR will have more exciting matches this year, but I doubt if it will be boring. I've seen 70, 288, and 494 and read the reports on many others, The competition for on the field results will be intense. The judges, who typically are an amazing group of people, will also have some tough calls for the other awards.

I'm looking forward to a great week. I hope everyone has safe travel. Let us know if we can do anything to help you.

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Just tossed this together for my team's trivia and thought some of you might find it interesting.

WMR 2008 features:
-participants with 40 combined regional wins
-participants with 38 combined regional finals appearances
-participants with 10 combined regional and championship Chairman's wins

Whew! Talk about a field! Looking forward to bringin' it!

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

I'm definitely looking forward to this competition. It'll be intense and I know it will be tough, but that's what makes it fun. Can't wait to compete with and against everyone. This will be the first official FIRST competition I'm driving in(I've only driven at off season events) , and I'm looking forward to it. I'm also looking forward to seeing how our robot will finally compete against some of the top dogs.

It'll be awesome. See you all there.

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

910 FOLEY FREEZE will be there and cant wait. Its agony waiting until the forth week to compete while watching three weeks of exciting regional action.So we are definately ready ,hopefully the robot didnt forget anything .It will be weird with out our friends the HOT TEAM not being at WMR.

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Hopefully you can get that USB device; the best I can do is a(n) Ubuntu desktop with a video capture card and an RCA-mic adapter. It should work, but I haven't actually put a source to it yet to make sure of that, and my WiFi card might not work.

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Thanks for all of the offers of equipment for the webcast, but I will not be needing them as GVSU has contracted a professional to take care of it. Ken will be posting the link when we get it.

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Wow, thank you GVSU!

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

did anyone else use their safety glasses as snow goggles tonight? They surprisingly work very well.

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Haha, totally did. I ended up stopping at a hotel, I didn't think I was going to make it all the way back to East Lansing!

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Hopefully it lets up so things can get cleaned up in time for my trek home to MN tomorrow. I think it is supposed to wear itself out tonight so I should be okay.

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Yea, I am not really looking forward to the drive back to Indiana.

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

What a great day of matches!

Just wanted to give a shot out from Team 85 to the beautiful voice who led us in the anthem this morning. Thank you to team 537 who provided the amazing talent.

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

I and the rest of Enigma Team 2075 would like to thank all of those who helped us with our issues on thursday and friday we wouldn't have been able to run without you.

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

I know those winds and snows in Western Michigan and though I love it for a little while it's getting a bit long this winter. Seems every time we turn around we get more. Thank God I'm back home in Indiana for this little storm, though I am sad I can't work WMR and watch from the floor like I did last year... Best of luck to all of you traveling tomorrow. Stay safe!

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

OK, so just wondering, did it seem like the refs were getting a little crazy with the interference with a hurdling robot and contact outside the bumper zone? Cmon, this game, everyone's moving, and arms getting tangled is part of it. It doesn't need a penalty everytime a robot's arm touches another robot. Still, outside of this, the refs have done a pretty good job this weekend.
Malhon

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Yes, I wish everyone a safe trip home tomorrow. But first I wish everyone a safe trip back to the competition. I think its going to let up tonight and be better tomorrow night, but getting there might be hard.

I looks like its going to be a good day tomorrow, I only wish I didn't have a class and have to miss at least the morning. I might be able to make it there before the eliminations start, but I would need to do the work at home instead of at school. Thats not going to be too hard though. I just can't wait for tomorrow, there are some good teams in the field. Good luck to everyone!

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

I did notice a lot of interfering with a hurdler calls, but the refs are definitely doing a great job. IMO the "judgment" calls like G42 and G37 will be called slightly differently at every regional no matter what and as long as the refs keep it consistent (and they have been) then that is perfectly fine. I also saw a couple hurdles not properly counted in the Real Time Scoring, but the refs were definitely on top of things and they were always corrected in the final score.

Hats off to the teams, refs and all the other volunteers for a great first day of qualifiers.

I'm really looking forward to elims tommorrow. There are quite a few good hurdlers here so there should be some exciting matches between good alliances.

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

So who broke the field this time?

As far as I know, Swando's not within 100 miles. That leaves us with two choices - Beth, or Team 397. Chris, was it you? :rolleyes:

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Hey, we're innocent this time, I think:D

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

A tie for 7th and 8th seed!

Does anyone know if the results screen on usfirst.org has already done the "electronic coin flip", or are the teams listed in numerical order?

Edit: Well, since 1000 is listed above 2337 on the screen for alliance picking, I guess that's the order of the "flip".

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Can somebody post the alliances for elims? I can't see them on the webcast.

And high score breaks the tie.

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Here are the alliances:

#1 2171, 2604, 71
#2 141, 302, 33
#3 1504, 2337, 910
#4 494, 537, 70
#5 397, 888, 1000
#6 85, 234, 2054
#7 288, 2405, 1243
#8 2617, 1783, 903

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Hey guys,
Am I the only one here getting the scoring screen and not the live feed? I've tried two computers now and reloading!

Andrea

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

I just get a computer screen too.

Josh Murphy said he got the same.

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

That was tie too!

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Hopefully someone will notice sometime soon here... I kinda here them talking about it in the background.... maybe?

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

They know, I heard them say they were not getting a web connection/feed or something like that and that was at 12:55.:) :)

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

whats going on with the webcast?

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

I had left to eat my lunch at that point... hmmm just timed out.... maybe we're getting it back?

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Looks like they're trying to do something.

OK, pictures, no sound. That's better anyway.

You might have to reload WMP.

And now there's sound - thanks to whoever fixed it!

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

It's back.

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

YAY!

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

The audio is cutting out every second or two. No problems with the video but does anyone have any ideas how to alleviate this problem?

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

OK, I take it back, that has definitely been one of the most exciting first round of quarterfinals I've seen in ten years of doing this.

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Is having 2 pbp announcers as annoying in person as it is on the webcast?

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Yes, they keep cutting each other off.

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Ok this field is cursed.

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Same field from the Rookie Event at Kettering and Detriot?

-Sam

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Yes and it will be at EMU next week.

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Wow more problems with the field. Hopefully they get it all worked out for the end of this regional and then have it running good for the Great Lakes Regional.

Very exciting final matches though.

-Sam

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

This is getting a little nuts.... A redo and then a tie! can it be anymore dramatic?!

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

This is simply insane!

For those of you that don't know:

1677 steps in for 302 as a backup.

Finals match 1st attempt (2171 71 2604 vs. 33 141 302 1677)
Due to field/scoring problems the match is going to be replayed (it seemed to me that red took that one fairly easily due to the -30 point net penalty score for blue)

Finals match 2nd attempt
They went to manual scoring. Blue was winning by 10 points, but due to a penalty (<G37>: contact outside the bumper zone) it was declared a tie.

Finals match 3rd attempt
red won: 96 to 52! Blue received 2 <G42> penalties (interfering with a hurdler). Red received 1 <G42>. Great match!

Finals match 4th attempt
Blue exited hybrid with a 24 to 16 lead. Then in teleop mode due to a traffic jam in the blue home stretch blue only got 3 hurdles. Meanwhile red got 10 hurdles! There was only one penalty: <G22> on the red alliance by 141. Final score: 118 to 66!


Congrats 2171, 71 and 2604!! Good job to 33 141 302 1677, it was a great effort.

I wish I would have went there to see this in person :(

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

I know EXACTLY what you mean! This is a very exciting round of finals!!
=]
Good luck to both alliances. Wish I was there!

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

I can't here what's happening?

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Can anyone determine what's going on with 1677? They look like they're trying to hold their bumpers on with zipties...?

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Durring the one of the previous matches there bumper got pulled of of there robot, probably ruining the mounts that they were using. It was probably their idea of a quick fix.

-Sam

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Congrats to teams 71, 2171, and 2604, Regional Winners
Congrats to teams 33, 141, 302, and 1677 Regional Finalists

-Sam

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Ahhh thanks, somehow I missed that happening. Not sure how though.:rolleyes:

Ditto from me as well! Man those were awesome matches! I'm sad I missed it.

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Wow! What a great regional!! There was so much drama at the end :) i just wish my team would have done better.

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

i really like the killer bees and the wo-bots

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

It was crazy...
302 had some problem with their drivetrain, and we ended up running a match with only us and the killer bees. Then during the match, a weld on 33 arm was snapped, so they couldn't pick up balls. Amazingly enough, we ended up win the match. Congratulations all teams in the finals, the eliminations and the regional. It was a blast!

~fluffy

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Yes, thanks to all the teams that were on our alliance at some point (go 33 - Killer Bees). That was completely intense. What a fine regional!

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

which one was the one that was a lapper, and it had a red car cover? i really like the design and how it just zipped around.

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Congratulations 2171! You guys were an amazing alliance partner at BMR and I'm very happy that you went on to win the regional this weekend. Watch out for the Crown Point team, at this rate they'll be up with the veteran teams in no time.

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Was that what happened? We were sitting in the stands wondering what could have possibly happened to their grabber, it flapped just a little too much to hold the ball, saddest thing I've ever seen, and I have to admit it lost me 5 bucks to Grant.

Grats to 71, 2171 and 2604... you guys totally deserved it.

I also have to say that 2604 has completely turned me on my head. Every post that I have made saying defense in this game is a waste of time is now obsolete. They played the BEST defense I have seen in... well, forever pretty much, the other teams could not even get to the ball. All I have to say is, I would not like to face them, it would be infuriating. :eek:

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

I agree, 2604 was one of the best defense bots i seen this year. though i must say 1000 wasn't that bad themselves (not just saying because we were allianced with them in the elims.)

congrats to all teams and I must say I am proud how much those rookie teams improved since the kettering kickoff (2337, 2604, I can't remember the other team numbers so sorry if I forgot your team.) I was the one that went around at kettering offering help with scouting and I must say, they caught on quick. I am proud that this state can put together so many awesome rookie teams.

congrats to 2604 71 and 2171, 33, 302, 141, and 1677 for a very attention grabbing (I'll put it) finals match, and fyi, the next place that this field goes is ypsi and then to nationals, hopefully it gets fixed by then. That redo must have sucked for you guys especially.

I do have one question though for 2604, how the heck did one of your keychains end up in my posession? I don't remember you guys ever giving me one or even talking to you guys in the pits (except at the practice field)

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Congrats to 71, 2171, and 2604. One of the best alliances I've seen so far, and you certainly deserved the win. Also congrats to 33, 141, 302, and 1677. You guys did great as well and you put up a tenacious fight.

Also, thank you to 1504 and 2337 for being such great alliance partners. We may not have won but I think we put up a good fight and it was a pleasure driving with you guys. I think we did a fine job of working together and I'm glad we got the chance to be a part of the alliance.

And thank you to Jim Zondag for helping us get our autonomous switch box working. It really had us perplexed for awhile, but we finally managed to get our hybrid mode to run fairly reliably.

Thank you to anyone else I may I have missed. I know a number of teams and people helped us with a number of things all weekend and I couldn't possibly list every name. All the teams were extremely helpful, and so were the pit and field personnel.

Finally, 2604, wow. You guys played amazing defense. We tried to do the same as you in the semi-finals, playing defense on the Bees and Wobots but we just couldn't quite pull it off, more practice needed I suppose. But you guys showed what defense is all about in this game, and I would hope because of some of the defense I saw played today that other teams will realize that the GDC has at no time said you can't defend, other than in the opponents home zone. You can still push balls around, and yes, you can even still push other robots around.

Great job everyone, I'd say it was an awesome regional and I'm glad I had the chance to be a part of it. It was a crazy weekend, it was an awesome weekend, it was a crazy awesome weekend. Now I can't wait for Great Lakes this coming weekend, should make for some intense competition.

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Thanks for the compliment. We got hit with a bit of bad luck there in the Quarters...a broken wheel and then a motor malfunction. It was a good time, though. Thanks to 397 and 888 for being our alliance partners!

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

thanks for being ours, and thanks to 888 also

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

so after the second match where we ended in a tie, a member from team 2604 came to our main mentor and me and said that they had on film that at the end of match before the penalties that where given (1 to each team) that our alliance, blue, was ahead 94 - 70, so was the score board really off that bad?.....im fine with it cuz i mean we didnt lose that round, but i would have liked to see what it was actually right or not...

-----but anyways..good job teams 2604,71, and 2171....and good job 33, 302, and 1677...you guys did good....

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

and ya i got to agree, the finals were crazy, first round totally messed up, second round tie, i havnt seen that happen before hah....cant wait for nationals, theres going to be some good matches going on...

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Thanks so much to 141, 302, and 1677 for being such great alliance partners. I'm not sure how we pulled through some of those matches, but you all did great work and got the job done. And thanks to 2171, 71, and 2604 for the great finals rounds, but next time lets try to play at least 7 matches ; )

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Yeah this was kinda annoying but I really liked how they were announcing what the penalties were for and from what robot.

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Absolutely. That was the best penalty announcing I heard this season.

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

They also came up to me and I told them to go to the head ref but I said don't expect much because:

• Everything is recorded already and they can review the whole match through the official video
• The head ref already called it and officially that means the match never happened
• The scores on the screen are approximate and always adjusted after the match
• The last thing they are going to do is take a video shot by the "winning" team for proof that they won

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Oh man those welds. The best part about that whole situation was that 302 broke their drivetrain at the same time... So I was trying to help 302 get their robot working and I look up to see the score of the match and our claw is snapped down the middle. That was the worst feeling ever.

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Great Job to everyone at West Michigan. As someone who had to watch via the Webcast, a big thank you to the Webcast People and the announcers. I especially liked the reading of the penalty calls. As Team33 had more than 4 matches decided by minor penalties (:( booo), the announcing made it easier to understand why:confused: . This should be an example followed by all regionals. Refs in football do the same for a reason. It helps the spectator experience a ton. The footage was really solid too. I got to watch Woody working on the robot during a time out. Stop slacking PUNK!

Also, the rookies at this regional looked great. 2 out of 7 Rookies in the elims and they were very strong leaders and/or assets to their teams. 2337 has the most visually exciting launcher (kicker?). I hope someone helps them submit a great package for the book submission. 2604 not only had a visually solid robot but showed outstanding D. I am not a big fan of Defense, but I have to admit nice driving/strategy when I see it.

Again nice job to all teams. Almost every team was scoring auto points, There were only 17 out of 170 scores under 20 points (huge achievement considering penalties), and only 2 winning scores under 30. I heard from a lot of people that WMR might be softer this year, but after watches the footage, I think this has been one of the strongest regionals so far.

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

So, here's the lowdown on what happened with the field to the best of my knowledge being the scorekeeper and not having a great deal of insight on the intricacies of the event management software.
Going into the finals, the software did not advance the 2604, 71, and 2171 alliance into the finals and even the FTA and FIRST homebase couldn't figure out how to get that problem fixed. According to the software, all of the prior matches had been completed, and it moved into the finals like it should, yet no alliance was moved into the red alliance position.
Because of this, the red team numbers were all '0'; we tried to manually put in the correct numbers, but there was no way to do that within the software. The FTA (Derek) and the head ref (Larry Lowell) came to the conclusion that we could run the matches, but the team numbers for the red alliance just wouldn't be showing.
So that was the huge delay before the finals.

We then ran the first match of the finals, everything went great until we posted the match results...
The moment we put up the match results, the software decided to erase all of the scoring data for the match that was just played and displayed the score as 0 to 0. Since we had no other official record of the scores, the head ref ruled that we had to replay the match, but not until us at the scoring table had worked out what was wrong.
*Another long delay*
After again conversing with FIRST HQ, our FTA could not figure out why this occurred, but figured it probably had something to do with the red alliance problem. We had observed that the scoring had worked perfectly in the previous match until we committed the score and displayed it to the audience. Larry Lowell and Derek decided to hand score the match, using the software before we committed the scores as a confirmation of what the refs had for the rest of the event. From there, the matches ran without a hitch.

Ironically, the scores for all of the finals matches other than the first one, were recorded by the software. However, we did not input bonuses or penalties into the system, nor did we have it switch to display match results mode.

I am confident that they will have weeded out the bugs in the system by next weekend when that field is at GLR.

Also, for the record, the delay on Friday night was unrelated to the problems on Saturday. The problem Friday was a malfunctioning arena controller, not scoring software related.

*Edit* Wooo, post #500!

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Don't forget about 2405, they were in the eliminations too. So there were 3 out of 7.

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

I agree. After making it to the finals, and having two of our three robots down was a nightmare. It was just a horrible feeling. I really think that cost us the win, because from what I saw- 33, 141, & 302 would have taken it all the way.

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Another great WMR COMPETITION! Thank you to people who put this event on and to Mike and crew for having a awsome team social. Its not your fault the weather didnt cooperate but a good time anyways. The competition on the field was fast and furious. as usual at WMR. Congratulations to teams ( 33,141, 302,1677) for some great matches and going on to the finals to give us all some great matches to watch!!! Congrations to our 2006 IRI partners team 71 for your WMR win and also to 2171 and 2604 with the great D. Thank you to team 1504 for picking us,you guys rock and good luck in Atlanta. To 2337 what can you say but ROOKIE SENSATION and a powerhouse in the making!!!!!!!! You also will represent our area well in Atlanta and odds on favorite to bring home the ROOKIE ALLSTAR AWARD there also .But the best part of the weekend was when our leader John Crombie won the Woody Flowers Award .CONGRATS !!!!!! ps : Mike, it was my pleasure to weld the field for you and the competitors and would be glad to do this any time its needed.

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Wow, amazing competition, I always love West Michigan and this year was no exception. The quality of teams is second to none, and the classiness is even better.

Congratulations to 2171, 71, and 2604 you guys played excellent. We almost had you but those darn penalties lost game two for us. You guys proved that you were the best alliance there.

Also, way to go 141, 33, 302, and 1677 you guys played great together. Awesome job 141 for both the Finalist and Engineering Inspiration award, you guys are an amazing team.

Team 33 I was rooting for you, wearing my Killer Bee hat all weekend, you guys are one of the best examples for a team in FIRST.

Thanks to team 537 for being such great partners, you guys are an excellent team and should be very proud of the way you played. Maybe next time when the three of us play together we will make it to the finals.

Way to go to team 494's Animation team, back to back victories, you guys do a great job. Also way to go to everyone in team 70's pit. You guys helped keep the robot running all weekend.

Finally thanks to the referees and all of the people who helped run the competition. This was very smooth and a nice competition. Those that organized the Team Social in the parking garage in the snow storm, thank you for making one of the most memorable and fun socials I have ever attended. To the refs, even though I disagreed with some of your calls (mainly the ones against my team;) ) you guys did a great job. All the penalties in this game are judgment calls, and you were able to stay consistent and fair with all of them. Everything you called you explained to the teams and told us your reasoning. Mr. Lowell is one of the best head refs in FIRST and I wish every regional got to have him.

So thanks again to everyone who made this competition so great, I look forward to it every year, and once again you guys hit it out of the park.

Re: 2008 West Michigan Regional
 

Hmm...i have mixed feelings here...

First i would like to say thank you to Teams 70 and 494...you guys were great partners again. I was the driver from 537 who controlled the arm and i have to say we did make a good alliance.

It is a sad thing that with all of the excitement over the messed up finals matches the fact that we actually did beat the beatty alliance is so often overlooked. We won the first match fair and square and the second was taken away from us due to penalties, the third we lost with and without penalties.

I respect the refs very much and am glad they do what they do but at the same time i feel that the way these matches are being officiated is sometimes sadly mistaken. We lost to beatty because the martians committed a G22 (broke the plane) and a G42 (interrupting a hurdler).

It has always been said that when reffing the "intent of the rule" must be considered. The intent of this rule seems to be to prevent robots from moving in a clockwise direction throughout the track, not to take 10 points from them for crossing back over with the tip of their bumper when attempting to avoid a traffic jam. Even so i am ok with the way that the game was officiated if it was equally called for all...if we are going to be such sticklers then a ref needs to be watching those lines at all times because there was at least one occasion where i saw Beatty cross back over with no repercussions.

Secondly, looking at the G42 rule...the intent of this rule is to streamline hurdling, protect arm bots from tipping, and help the game to flow better overall. The martians were called for this while stuck in a traffic jam with about 4 of the robots in the back corner (an area not even beatty can score from) I saw one instance where a bot...i believe it was firebots...they backed up into beatty to get away from the wall when beatty was about to shoot and they were called. That small bump did not affect beatty's ability to hurdle the ball and move on, but it did affect the blue alliances chance to win that match.

Also, i noticed that many rules were being overlooked and only a select few were called. I was informed by my coach that at the drivers meeting it was said any robot ramming a robot who has fallen over would be administered a 10 point penalty, and if they broke the robot on the floor there should be a disqualification. Well, we (537) tipped over in the second match and were rammed repeatedly by 2171 to no repercussion. Our robot was also mildly broken in that fall by that robot and there was no penalty. Our robot was not blocking traffic and 2171 clearly had a lane to get by.

Lastly, 2604 clearly had the strategy of keeping our balls away from us which they were very effective at doing. I was extremely annoyed by their defense which was completely legal, to bad no one else figured out how to do it so well.

Again, I respect the refs and their decisions but I think there is a problem with the way they are being taught or their judgment in calls. I would think that it would be advantageous to keep the number of matches decided by penalties low, especially in finals, unless the penalties were obviously affecting the outcome of the match.

I'm not looking for an argument here i've just been thinking about this for the past day and im interested to see if anyone else has any of the same feelings.