Re: Great Lakes Regional 08
 

Well sometimes you look for the robots that have been progressive been getting better as the weekend has gone on.. like us (326) and 503 were doing (Nicely selected by the number 7 seeded HOT (67) team). Then you might look to a team that has expirence in the elimations rounds and can come up with good defense (like we did) or can just paly smart and advoid tons of peneltys.

Advice also would to have a group of people in the stands lookng a robots and seeing if they are getting better or if its just luck that they are that high in the standings..

Re: Great Lakes Regional 08
 

You're correct on that. Just to clear up my points a bit, with a reference to my past post on the issue:

I think there was a bit of overexaggeration on the part of my friend there... there was no spying at all. It is as it is stated above by Paul and everybody else before this. We asked, both within the pits and on the field 67 and etc. whether or not they would join so we could keep a super alliance from forming. Contrary to how Mike explained it, there was no guesswork after asking around a bit.

My apologies for any confusion or misunderstanding due to my bad recollection of the entire event. :confused:
I'm just glad we have kept this decently under control... I knew someone would pop the question as to the level of GP in this and I am glad we have been able to handle it well. Optimally this would not have been brought up, but it never goes that way due to Moore's Law and other principles (Whatever can go wrong, will.... Reactions lean towards a greater state of entropy... etc etc)/

Re: Great Lakes Regional 08
 

Every year this sort of "blocking" strategy occurs and every year people get upset about it. No matter what anyone thinks, the #1 seed has the right to select whomever they want, even if they have no interest in pairing up with them. As the #1 seed, they've earned the right to try and block other alliances from forming. 1114 fell victim to this strategy on the Curie field last year. Many people came up to us talking about how 1732 "screwed" us and 330 over. My response to them was very simple, "we screwed ourselves by not seeding #1".

The serpentine draft already penalizes the #1 seed enough, there's no need to jump on them for executing a savvy strategy.

Re: Great Lakes Regional 08
 

Totally agree, I see it as strategy.

Re: Great Lakes Regional 08
 

Joe,
In response to your comment "Contrary to how Mike explained it, there was no guesswork after asking around a bit."
I think I explained it very accurately and I even left wiggle room with a (?) after the word "guessing".
I appreciate that you are confirming that you had already asked and recieved a response from each team involved (27, 33, and 67) so the "guesswork" was eliminated.
I also had discussions with all 3 teams (in addition to 217) in order to determine if they would accept an offer from us in the #2 spot. Not knowing which way your team would go, we needed multiple alternative plans ready. It was very important for us to also have confidence in our 3rd thru 7th choices - not knowing how many teams you would chance forcing a decline from.
2 of the 3 said that they would accept if offered, 1 respectfully declined.
My motivation in asking them the question was solely to eliminate an embarrassing situation - as I stated earlier, I don't like putting teams in that situation under any circumstances.
Unfortunately for us, by these teams saying no to your team, they were also saying no to us.
I totally understand the rationale used and don't find it objectionable at all.
The number of really good teams were abundent at Great Lakes, and we chose 494 without any regrets at all.
We had a great time playing with them - even though things didn't quite work out so well for us.
Against the eventual champions, we won the first match pretty handily, but had some bad luck in the 2nd and 3rd matches. That also shows how deep of a field of robots attended the regional - all 8 of the alliances were very, very, competitive - without any being totally dominating.

Mike

Re: Great Lakes Regional 08
 

I'm glad this issue over the alliance selections has been clarified. I don't believe there was any foul play last Saturday; it was an excellent strategy. I'm grateful that there were no "super-alliances" this year. It was probably the best and most competitive regional I've seen as a student in FIRST.

Now, I'd like to thank and congratulate a few teams.

33- First of all, congrats to Jim for winning the regional Woodie Flowers Award. I was surprised that you hadn't won it earlier, and I wouldn't be shocked in the slightest to see you win the national Woodie Flowers award. Anyway, thank you very much for picking us. We had fun being your alliance partner, and if it weren't for some technical problems, I really think we could have challenged the #1 alliance for a spot in the finals. This is the second time in three years that we have had the privilege of being your alliance partner. You guys are an awesome team and I wish the best of luck to you in Atlanta!

107- Thank you for being an awesome alliance partner. You and 33 were great in the quarterfinals, hurdling like crazy while we played defense. It was unfortunate to lose the way we did, but it was a great time all the same. I hope to see you soon in Atlanta.

67, 503, 326- Congrats to the winners of one of the toughest regionals in all of FIRST. Your hybrid mode impressed me and your teamwork was flawless. For 67 and 503, this is another victory in a long list of accomplishments. For 326, I applaud your AWESOME robot. Your hurdler impressed me all weekend! Good luck to all three of you at the Championship!

27- Your robot is perhaps the most innovative machine I've seen all year. Your hurdler was incredible and I was as surprised as anyone when you lost in the semifinals. You will be a force to be reckoned with Atlanta; I just hope we don't have to come up against you like we did two years ago.

217- One of my favorite teams to watch all weekend. Your robot is incredibly simple, and yet so effective. Your drive team is incredible too. It was unfortunate that you were unable to win your third straight regional, but don't lose too much sleep over it; you'll come out strong in Atlanta. Also, I want to thank you for your respect and humility toward our drive team. I wish you nothing but the best in Atlanta!:D

Phew! Two weeks off, then the real competition begins. Hope to see you all there!:cool:

Re: Great Lakes Regional 08
 

I wouldn't be suprised if every alliance that made it to einstein had at least one GLR team, thats how impressed I was with the robots at this competition. With a few tweaks to the autonomous (I'll give you a hint, we plan on rocking a ghettoblaster.) our team would love to be one of them but we shall see.

Re: Great Lakes Regional 08
 

You couldn't have put my thoughts into one statement better Jacob. I just couldn't muster up the time to put them all down.

Re: Great Lakes Regional 08
 

I would also like to congratulate team 245 on the best website award. As a website designer I understand how complicated it is to write something like that and wish that I could. I am also amazed that it was all done by an 8th grader (not that age matters though), he must have tons of experience to be able to write something like that. You guys were also an amazing team who should made it higher than the QF's and we only wished here at Rochester that we could have versed you in the finals (any of them). Good luck next year (or at any events sooner)! :D

Re: Great Lakes Regional 08
 

I am sorry if i mislead anyone in my previous post but all this was, was a blocking strategy that was told to us by Paul(Thank you very much Paul you had a awesome plan and i thank you for coming to us) he knew we would pick them and he told us what to do. I tried to Leave Paul out of this so this would not happen but unfortunatly it still did. It was a great strategic plan that is not against the rules by any means. He helped us get all the way to the finals with 910 and we appreciate him and his team. So let there be no more confusion he told us, we accepted, and then Finals went on with great competition. that is what happend now lets leave it at that. We had a great time with our alliance teams and i hear you all did the same with your teams. Congrats to the winning teams because you won in the end and i salute you for it. see you all in Atl. and good luck.

Re: Great Lakes Regional 08
 

Thanks, Jane! The Great Lakes Regional was an incredible experience for Team 1732 - students, mentors, and parents alike. As we expected, just being in the same place with all of those teams with so much experience and history was truly inspiring for all of us. It may sound strange, but you could just feel the respect everywhere. We feel lucky just to have been a part of the Perfect Storm.

Since getting back to Wisconsin, I haven't yet connected with our team parents who were on their fact-finding mission about team organization, policies, sustainability, etc, but I would like to thank everyone who took the time to share their passion for FIRST and their teams with Yen and Karan. So to Beth Sweet and Mark Johnson (who came looking for us!), and to team 573, 469, 280, 1701 (a fellow Jesuit team!) and everyone else who I am missing -thank you for sharing your wisdom, your successes, and your challenges. I do know that Karan and Yen were overwhelmed by the kindness and openness of everyone they spoke with and took away a much better understanding of the true meaning of FIRST.

Hopefully, we can take turn the ideas you shared into a plan for Team 1732's future. Thanks again, everyone!

Re: Great Lakes Regional 08
 

In my opinion, if you're going to try to block a team, it is not ethical to give that team the impression you want to play with them to learn for certain if they'll decline your pick or not.

I guess we'll have to chalk this one up to a lesson learned. In the future anyone asking if we'll accept an alliance pick with them will be better scrutinized to learn the intent of their question.

Re: Great Lakes Regional 08
 

That pretty much sums it up, now can we all stop talking about 66/217's alliance selection methods? It seams that we all know what they did and at this point are just repeating what has already been said.

On a side note does anyone know if they have the match videos up yet?

Re: Great Lakes Regional 08
 

I agree. would anyone happen to know where i could watch Dave's epic speech he gave on friday morning at? that was a great opening and i would love ot see it again.

Re: Great Lakes Regional 08
 

So I just talked to Dave Verbrugge trying to get a copy of "The Perfect Storm" and he said that he did not ever actually write it down, just had it in his head. As such, I was wondering if any team got it on video. He is also interested in seeing how it came out v. how it sounded in his head!

Thanks in advance!