Re: Great Lakes Regional 08
 

All you can say is WHAT A BLAST !!!!!!!! The Great Lakes Regional is so competitive it makes you step it up a notch and gets your team ready for championships .The finals could easily be the Currie or Newton division playoffs,as Dave said THE PERFECT STORM! THANK YOU to team 66 The Flyers and 217 The Thunderchickens for picking us and seeing we were a diamond in the rough. We have had a great alliance with team 66 through the years and always enjoy teaming up with them. Not many teams can build a robot in two weeks .and in there first regional (the toughest one)finish first in qualfying.then go all the way to the finals,awsome team!!!! Speaking of awsome teams The Thunderchickens are the team to beat. It was such a pleasure working with this team for a change instead of on the other side of the field .Watching Paul masterminding our stragity was something to watch and be a part of . The drive team in a league of there owne,and the (HAND OFF)was really cool to watch !!!!!!!!!!.This team will have something to say on Einstien(knock on wood)barring any electrical problems like the finals!!! THANK YOU again to great alliance partners we almost had it ,but enough for the would of, could of,should ofs, GOOD LUCK IN ATLANTA!!!!!!!! Congratulations to the champs 67,326,503 great job!!!!! To the Hot team ,why is it always HOT VS. FREEZE? Your a tough team and even a tougher alliance. You know its going to be a tough match when after hybrid mode your behind 60 to 24!!!!!!!!Great job guys!! Good luck to all teams from GLR in Atlanta .do our area proud. Sadly we will not be joining you as we had to win to go. Maybe we will see you at IRI or one of the off season events.

Re: Great Lakes Regional 08
 

Does anyone have any videos of the 33 107 201 alliance from the quater and semi finals? I wanted to show some of my non-robotics friends some of our matches.

Re: Great Lakes Regional 08
 

Thanks to Michigan 17th District Senator Randy Richardville who has attended GLR the past 2 years to support teams in his district!

Re: Great Lakes Regional 08
 

Thank you to the HOT team (67) for selecting us on the winning alliance and for everything else that you have done with and for us throughout the years. Without your start, we would not even have a team. This has been one of the greatest partnerships within FIRST.

I want to commend the Soaring Eagles (326) on their brilliant play and congratulate them on their first medals. You truly are a class act and we look forward to seeing you in Atlanta.

I also want to say that the Thunder Chickens (217) created an awesome machine this year. I am sorry about the breakdown at the end and wish that you would have been able to compete in that final round. It would have made our victory (or loss) that much more satisfying. I am, however, tired of competing against you, year after year (2005 Einstein/2006 Einstein/2008 GLR Finals), and would like to one day be on an alliance with you. You are one of my favorite teams.

Finally, I want to thank the MechWarriors (573) for the awesome favorite team award. Our victory together last year at GLR has helped to forge a great relationship between our teams. One that I hope will last for years to come. Keep up the good work. We love you guys.

Re: Great Lakes Regional 08
 

Trust me, sitting on the feild with my compainion from 217 we were extremly glad that 910 wasnt picked. so like you said your team was a diamond in the ruff and i would also like to give a great big thanks to team 217. you guys were great to team up with and i dont think we would have got as far as we did without you or team 910. thanks and we hope that you are in our division in Atl.

Re: Great Lakes Regional 08
 

Sir you know as well as i do that most the people in the stands started to catch on when the second team name was said. or atleast everyone knew what happend by the begining of finals.

Re: Great Lakes Regional 08
 

Thank You. More than just competitively, you guys encompass what we are aiming to be as a team. A group that proudly represents what FIRST is all about on all fronts and embodies the spirit of what this program is truly about. So we hope you appreciated the award (tell us if we should stick with that design) and we hope that you guys continue to do what you do and represent what FIRST is all about.

Re: Great Lakes Regional 08
 

Mr. Aubry, I must protest.
These behind-the-scenes arrangements, in ANY national sport or even in the Olympics, would be considered Game-fixing, and all of you would have gone the way of the Black Sox and Pete Rose. It also denied almost any chance teams outside the top 16 had to make it into the final rounds.
So, with respect, shame on you all. This should be reported to FIRST.

Re: Great Lakes Regional 08
 

Respectfully shaming? How does that work?

This is a valid strategy and has been a part of FIRST for quite some time now. It's a great move too. If anything, it prevents 'super alliances' from forming and makes the elimination rounds more competitive. Just because it was discussed before hand between the teams doesn't matter because it's a valid strategy.

This is FIRST. This isn't baseball or the Olympics. Reporting this to FIRST would be a stupid move as it's not even a bad thing, it's not even uncommon actually. This occurs every year and is really a non-issue.

Really, I think this happening made GLR even better. The eliminations were the most exciting I've seen all year.

Re: Great Lakes Regional 08
 

Dear MishraArtificer,
First of all I resent being made out to be the bad guy in this. I was simply telling CoolBreeze what occurred.
Secondly, Ryan is correct in what he stated in his post after yours.

And, the reality is that every team has the exact same chance of being in the final rounds.
The first step is to play well enough and have some luck on your side to get in the top 8 spots.
After that it boils down to whom those teams believe will make the best alliance partners - period.

I don't know if this will help you understand that nothing that transpired is 1) against any rules written or unwritten in FIRST and 2) nothing that transpired was even remotely ungracious or unfair to any other team that participated.

I've been doing FIRST for 12 years now, I've witnessed alot of alliance selections over those years - and I've never witnessed a single time that could be considered the way you described it.

I am also going to ask that others DO NOT pile on and flame MishraArtificer.
That is not necessary and we don't need this thread hijacked - the Great Lakes Regional event was awesome and hopefully we'll continue to post positive comments about it.

Mike Aubry

Re: Great Lakes Regional 08
 

Unfortunatly you have this in reverse. by doing this we are eleminating a so called super alliance and giving more teams outside the top 16 a chance to get into the finals. this is not a bad move on anyones behalf. think of it this way. we are not the best robot out there so this can be put into 2 different perspectives. we as the #1 seeded team we wanted a good seeded team to join us and by declining
1. we lost a good team
2. we have also ensured that no one else can pick that team
3. we force there hand to pick outside the top 8 as there own captain.

so we as the #1 seeded team have just fallen into a win-win situation.

Put on the other hand we were a divete team who conspired to make sure that the finals were rigged. which most of the teams have notified that this is not what happend. so we are not the "Black sox" at all. we are just a team that had a good stratigy that FAILED in the end if you didnt know because we lost.

Re: Great Lakes Regional 08
 

Are you insinuating skulduggery? Certainly there was intelligence gathering, but not any payoffs for sweetheart deals.

66 took a calculated risk. If their first pick had said yes, the whole strategy would have folded. (Although as pointed out, they would have had an excellent first choice partner; they just wouldn't have had the benefit of spreading out the rest of the seeds.) A part of 66's strategy would also have to be to know who NOT to pick, and I'm sure they considered that carefully. You will notice they had 3 declines - not all 7 - before they went outside the top 8 for a choice.

Each team that declined also took a risk - the first one most of all. If they said no, and then 66 picked a team that said yes, the other teams would still be free to pick amongst themselves.

66 may have even inquired whether any of these teams would consider an alliance pairing. There's nothing wrong with that. In fact, it gives those other teams a bit of intelligence of their own. They now have a concrete decision to make, evaluating the risks, making backup plans.

In short, a brilliant bit of strategy on everyone's part.

Re: Great Lakes Regional 08
 

Yet you forget, this is the Superbowl of Smarts. While these sports you refer to use strategy, FIRST encourages the smartest minds out there to use their minds to the max. This means using strategy to the most that the rules allow. I am sure that 66 would have been thrilled to have been teamed with any of their selected teams. However the other teams fought hard for where they seeded, they deserved the right to their spot. Top 8 deserve where they are, and they have won their right to pick whom they please and to decline if they so desire.

Gracious professionalism has been, since I entered 6 years ago at least, acting in a way that would make your grandmother proud. I know that my grandmother would not be proud unless I competed to the best of my ability. She would also be proud if I helped out others. To my interpretation, GP is competing like crazy while helping like crazy. In the same regard, there is nothing anti-GP about being competitive (though if it reaches an overly competitive level, it reaches anti-GP). Selecting teams who may turn you down is not anti-GP. Turning down another team in preference of your own best strategy is also not anti-GP. I have often said that it is not what you do, it's how you do it. There are some things that no matter how you do them are wrong. This action, if tactically done, is not bad.

Now onto the regional comments.

I was incredibly impressed with what I saw at GLR. I was in pit admin for Friday and Saturday and got to bounce out to the field from time to time. The level of competition was out of this world. The preparedness of the teams was great. But what I was most impressed with was something that I have been frustrated with for a couple of years. This weekend, I can only recall 1 instance of someone being absolutely rude. Most of the people that I saw were not only polite, but overly so. In past years, I have heard/seen a bit of disrespect and overall inappropriate behavior at this competition. People being overly competitive, people just not... getting the whole GP thing. This year, I did not see that.

This was most prevalent with the overwhelming support for the rookies, particularly the Chilean team. People, particularly veterans, even some who haven't been traditionally well known for being the go to teams for help, were really going out of their way to be a huge help. I was more than thrilled.

Thank you teams at GLR, this weekend really was a huge reassurance that FIRST is turning back to the direction I like to see it in. Thank you to all of the teams who came and talked to us in pit admin and shared your stories. I loved hearing from members from teams 1941 & 2576.

Para el equipo de Chile, muchas gracias para la oportunidad a practicar hablando espanol. !Los miembros del equipo 2576 iba asi social con toda la gente al concurso, iban como los estudiantes estadounidenses! !!!Buena suerte a todo en el futuro, fue un placer para encontrar todos de ustedes!!!

Re: Great Lakes Regional 08
 

I knew this was going to happen the minute they got 1st seed.
This was a strategic move.
The only flaw in it that i seen was when they picked HOT.
Because, HOT in my mind had a 50% chance of saying yes.
66 messed up many peoples 1st picks when they did it
But i am very aware that defensive picking is allowed.
So i salute them for doing this.
(However, if HOT had said yes, then 47,217 woulda been insane :P )

Re: Great Lakes Regional 08
 

66 came to us prior to alliance selection and asked us if we would accept their invitation. We informed them that would have to decline their offer, because we felt it was a better option to pick our own alliance.

So, they really weren't taking any risk...other than if we did something other than what we told them.

In my opinion, there is no way we would have been as dominate for the #1 alliance as 217 was, they were incredible.