Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

You know what,

We have been wondering the samething. :p

At least we have highest seated rookie without even trying. :D

How will we do? Completely amazing!!! (I hope!)

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

Haha, that's pretty sweet.

If we're in for the same Team Overdrive from my Vex Days, I know you'll earn those awards....

1 Day Left!

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

Highest Rookie Seed, Rookie All-Star, & Rookie Inspiration (maybe more??).
/me wonders who has your team for Fantasy FIRST NJ edition. :p

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

omg in 12 hours we will be anxiously waiting at SBA for the start of LUNACY!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:ahh: :ahh: :ahh: :ahh: :ahh:

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

It's almost time.

Best Of Luck to everyone competing with us this weekend. If anyone needs anything, feel free to stop by our pit and ask for Me and I'll be more than happy to help. (no, Stogi I will not help you)

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

Best of luck to everyone. Please remember to bring some warm clothing and try to wash your hands often. Germs manifest at the SBA and love to give everyone a cold or flu. It sucks so may want to bring cold/cough medicine with your school nurses. Advil and Tylenol are also recommended as cheering can make for killer headaches and dizzyness.

Hope everyone rests up for tomorrow. Practice day should be interesting. If anyone needs help in the pits just give anyone a call and we'll all work to solve your problems. :)

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

If any team needs Programming, Mechanical or Electrical assistance. Stop by 612's pit and we will send someone to assist you. It's not as fun if everyone isn't playing at top form.

Also for the practice field, our team has made 2 50ft tether cables. If you would like to borrow them when you are on the practice field just come by and ask.

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

This thread has the link to the webcast.

Don

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

I've had the privilege of MCing FTC events in the past and watching how amazing these guys (and gals) are. They have amazing students and amazing mentors and an amazing "fan" base. I expect nothing but amazingness from this team this year and MANY years after that. Look out NJ Regional... Overdrive is coming!!! Definately a team to look out for where ever they go with whatever kind of robot :]

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

Woot see everyone today. Good luck. Lets have some good practice and some great times.

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

Anyone know why there have only been 2 matches in the last 6 hours? Our robot has been sitting on the regolith for a total of 4 hours so far...

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

Because you're at a week one regional. :o

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

Yea, the field crews were trying everything they could. Just lighten up to those who got a bit edgy.

We got in a grand total of 2 practice matches! But at least they went amazingly!:D

Can't wait for the real start of competition tomorrow. Should be very interesting.

Teams to watch out for so far, 2344, 1923, 25, 103, 816,my favorite rookie 2753, and w/o any shame, 11. :o Of course these are the only teams I had to chance to watch in the span of like 6 hour practice sessions.... Cya tomorrow!

PS. : Note to anyone who doubted the driver skill of 25 b/c of their loss of their signature drivetrain....they are BEASTLY on the field. Scoring is awesome too. Insanely good drivers, I was thoroughly impressed.

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

I couldn't see the webcast today, what kind of bots are 2344 and 103?

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

Webcast will be up tomorrow...

www.robotics.nasa.gov
www.Team1676.com

follow links on either one

FYI, NJ wasn't the only Regional w/ delays.... From what I know things might and shall hopefully be alot smoother these next 2 days... The Field Team and FTA Crew have been working countless hours so far to do everything they can to get things to run smoothly.

I can honestly say those who didn't get on the field probably used the practice field to test everything out...

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

Elgin- week one or not these delays were ridiculously long. Perhaps the fields should have been put to bed running from Wednesday night instead of assuming things could be fixed in the morning. The teams needed the practice rounds especially on the special floor that many didnt have to play on. And the field tech crew were working like dogs all day to get this thing to work.


One thing all must realize is that we all paid $6000 to attend this initial regional. The less rounds you end up with the more the cost per round goes up. For many teams this is their ONLY regional and at $500-1000 per two minute trip to the floor it is pretty steep. I cant imagine putting out that kind of change for anything that doesn't work right.

Not to mention the hardware issues... (no I wont go there)

Lets hope things run smoothly tomorrow.

WC :cool: grrrrrr

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

Today was very interesting to say the least.

We're in for one heck of a time.

See you on the field tomorrow.

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

I was rather disappointed in only going on the field twice because we didn't get a chance to test out different coaches. But w/e, just another challenge.

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

Once again, as part of the Field Assy. crew, we powered up around 5 or 6 ish last nite. We followed the step by step directions and went over our work at least 30 times. Between the current stresses of not knowing whats going on and being constantly reminded that SBA wanted to close up didn't help. We stayed as late as we could to get things going. There were many contacts made to try and help get this solved. It's not like we were just sitting around and saying tomorrow is another day the teams will understand. We were working our rears off to get things going. We all realize that teams paid good money to participate and so they shall, but the one thing teams MUST do is excersize patience and understanding. We're not playing with IFI controls anymore here, we're dealing with new stuff and while we all expect perfection we all have to realize that perfection doesn't come easy. Fri and Sat should be better days or at least I'm crossing my fingers and praying that it will be, we just ask that everyone be calm and bear with us. Angry Teams will not get the field going any quicker trust me on that!

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

The last few practice rounds looked great, i think most of the bugs are gone (knock wood), the field crew DID work their tails off to make it work, and we all just wished we could help. (I did by encouraging the field crew!).

Yes, 3 hours on regolith with only a 45 minute air supply was taxing. But for the first time in years, we left the pits before they closed...

Don

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

im curious

did FIRST hire the same DJ as last time... if so, i got some quite...colorful... music to listen to tomorrow

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

So, I slept horribly last night. But I'm super Pumped to get out on the field today!!! Watch out, 816's running up on yo' trailer!

And also, give the Field Resent Crew and Field Management a break. They were having random issues throughout most of the afternoon yesterday where robots would randomly die or no communicate with the field but at the end of the evening Pete K. allowed any team that had communication issues take their bot out to the field and run a mock match as far as the control system (while still on the cart of course).

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

Webcast is very choppy.

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

Yes, it is choppy....although it has great resolution....maybe resolution should be sacrificed for continuity?

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

better now!

thanks

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

Who's the guy announcing the team info before the match?
His voice reminds me of one of the guys from South Park - Either Matt Stone or Trey Parker, not sure exactly. lol

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

My guess is George Ackley, a team 11 alum...he has been doing it for several years at NJ as well as NY

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

Indeed it is the voice of NJ once again. George is the announcer

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

Yeah, I know George. lol I never knew his voice to sound like that before though. Hmm...
How many different colors is his hair today Mike just out of curiosity? :yikes:

I should be in NJ by noon tommorrow to check out the competition btw.
Should be fun!

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

Just one this time!

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

Nice.
As another side note, I believe the DJ at the NJ Regional deserves a raise! :cool: lol
I'm loving the remixes & transitions between songs today during the webcast!

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

Looks like there's a party goin' on over in Jerseyland. :)

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

816 gets two super cells? Discuss please.

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

Seriously,

The NJ regional was on the news.

I got interviewed.

Sweeeeeetttttttt!

http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/090226_Robotics_Contest

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

Sweet! Think you can do it again when I am actually in NJ watching tomorrow? lol

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

Maybe.

Depends on what HP we send out.

Also, we got in trouble for that. Our coach wasn't a big fan of it....

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

Did you lose a Super Cell in the next round from that?
Are they enforcing that rule?
I think I saw a Ref. walk off with one before the start of one match while watching the webcast.

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

Our HP played at the corner the next match. The ref walked over to his Super Cells and pulled them off the wall. Apparently they take the Empty/Super Cells from where the offending teams HP is.

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

We somehow managed to get the worst record ever. Our bot stopped working and we were in the first match so we had to rush and fix that, then we lost three and won one. Now listen to this: The people who do scoring entered it into the computer wrong, putting blue teams score for reds. So its entered into the computer as we are 0 and 4 when were 1 and 3. We talked to everyone and they said they can't change it. When it comes down to final selections and everything, do they go by whats on the PC or whats in writing?

And they did admit that we won and they messed up.

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

You mean Ackley lol

He is here you know :P

As far as webcast, yea T1676 was broadcasting near HD Quality but there was too much lag so they dropped the quality down quite a bit for better consistency.

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

I hope people are scouting well. Our last match we sent in a new human player and ....well let's just say he's not going in again....>.>

I have to say, the improved pairing algorithm is great! We haven't had to play 25 or 103 yet! lol

Bittersweet losing a match to our rookie team but w/e, they deserve the top seed.

See you all tomorrow. I'm not too excited for some reason =(

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

We are ranked first(Rookie FRC team)
612 is ranked second
Both of us are 5 an 0

You can see a video of our team at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dl56hXSs9gE

See you tomorrow.

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

you are doing great!!

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

We miss you- mwah...

WC:cool:

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

Mike- I (we) truly appreciate all the efforts that the field crew have had to go through to get the event working. This is not a slam against you or anyone working your butts off to get that thankless job done.

My objection is that this whole system never should have gone out until it was FOOLPROOF. Working from the team end this season has been pure Hell- complex configurations, failing equipment, constantly changing updates and such. Wasnt this system supposed to be a huge improvement on the IFI system and able to do more faster? i'M NOT SEEING IT. Yes- change is sometimeS hard and people don't like stepping out of their comfort zones but this whole situation was a total mess.
Through it all the NI tech support guys have been great. But at times even they were overwhelmed. We never started competition day with 7 teams unable to get their robots onto the field due to programming. Josh in our pits today was running himself ragged trying to help teams that were at their wits' end.

The parent company never should have put their teams of diligent volunteers in the situation in the first place. This was their doing- not the regional field crew's. The field crews should be sainted for the effort above and beyond all expectations that you put out.

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

Seeing the game played out (even with good teams out on the field) it seems too boring and anticlimactic. To teams who's robots aren't working in time for a match and you are aware of this, TELL YOUR ALLIANCE PARTNER! Do not just not show up on the field and leave a trailer unattended. Not only does it hurt your team it hurts the alliance.

As Wayne said, the veterans were running around helping as many people as possible and it was kinda chaotic. The NI guys were great! Very helpful.


Hate to sound mean, and this is totally not what my team felt, but does anyone else see the big gap between good robots and not so good ones? Its a huge gap and its so frustrating having 1 or 2 weak links in our alliances. So frustrating. rawr. Totally not happy about this year so far. I love our robot but I still hate the game. No excitement in it.

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

Unless someone gets two super cells. The place went pretty crazy when that happened. But yeah I do agree with what you said Stogi. But I didn't get to match many matches so I don't know if there were a lot of blow outs. I know we only had like one really big blowout. So I think tomorrow morning and afternoon will be pretty interesting.

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

No excitement? I doubt anyone really has a good idea of what is going to happen during eliminations. Personally I think that is going to make this year more exciting than ever. Compared to last year major upsets will be common, and who makes it to the finals should be (somewhat) a toss up.

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

No offense but have we been watching the same matches? There's clearly a set of "dominant" robots and a set of the middle performers and lower performers. There's a point at which they merge for a bit but there is a definite transition.

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

Well, that depends. If you mean what does FIRST do, they go by rankings. But in this case, you are not a contender for top 8 seeds, so I think your question is "what do the teams picking their alliances go by...".

The naswer is their scouting. Rankings are mostly irrelevant and useless. The 11th ranked team might have gotten there by being incredibly lucky in alliance matchups, rather than actually being a good robot/driver/human/team. Similarly, the 57th ranked team might be very good but unlucky with alliances

So, experienced teams scout every other team. By that I mean they watch every match and see what each robot actually does. It does not matter what that team says they can do, either...they just observe actual results.

Come by 1676 pits Saturday and i'll explain in more detail.

Note that we have 12 people scounting every match (one for each robot, one for each human) and we compile all this data into a database...which is available to ANYone who wants it, all the time. Again, just ask. We also have little cards at the pit that explains how to access the database (it's on a wireless LAN connection - and yes, we have special permission)

Don

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

The finals will be different this year. This is being said because of a few things. 1 is Robot's with the same design are totally different because of the drivers, 2 is the accuracy and arm on the HP and 3 ya never know what will happen.

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

Yup, but not talking about eliminations yet. Still referring to qualifying alliances in my previous posts.

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

Well it was a great match.

So far things have been great for us, and the bot is performing awesomely.

Everyone else ready for tomorrow?

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

On the rankings page:http://www2.usfirst.org/2009comp/eve.../rankings.html

What does the RS stand for/refer to? Thanks. Ours seems to be decently high....whatever it is.

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

Yeah me and two others from 1989 were down in Trenton today. I do know what you are saying. There are absolutely some great robots and there are less able robots, but the difference between both alliances (besides penalties which is an entirely different issue) in qualifications is consistently only a handful of moon rocks which could have gone either way by the slightest difference in the throw or position of the robots. I really do think that most elimination matches will come down to the wire and end with last second dumps/shots/throws that will decide the match.

Another thing I noticed was that a single team can't really carry an alliance to a win anymore. Sure some help more than others, but it almost seems that alliances are only as strong as their weakest link. Watching a non-functioning robot's trailer just get destroyed by the payload specialists was particularly painful, and there really isn't much a "powerhouse" can do to compensate for that disabled bot anymore.

IMO anyway

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

Lol yes all things I referred to in previous posts. Again, im not referring to elim matches yet. Just nvm.


Btw I <3 qualification match 13. Best alliance ever.

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

RS is ranking score. It is the first tiebreaker for official rankings.

Winning alliance receives RS equal to the unpenalized score of the losing alliance. Losing alliance receives their score with penalties.

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

Which is the second reason why you want to only win by 1 point... Everyone knows the other reason. (at least this year, it's new)

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

Ranking points are very important, but there nothing worth losing a match over.

Just wondering,

How does everyone feel about supercells and how they are being used during the matches here?

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

It was fun watching all of you today. I tuned into this regional a whole lot longer than the Midwest.. ;)
After flipping through regionals all day, I must say, this flooring has really evened the field of teams somewhat.
I saw great teams get stunned when rookies played lots of defense on them.

The bots that scored were the ones left unattended while picking up rocks from the ground, making them lethal when on the attack.

Clearly, even though our team chose a shooter, dumpers that unload all at once were highly effective.

In summary, I saw no high-level strategies being employed other than staying away from HP, PS, and high-scoring opponents, and chasing opponents to dump your rocks in.
In the midwest, I saw a few more strategies involved, limiting high scoring machines and some losing also. 2 on 1 strategies can limit your opponent a lot, based on my observations today thanks to that flooring.

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

Well by the looks of it...no-one wants any supercells. Teams started using them in the last couple of qualification matches of the day, but honestly I don't think it's worth it. There are so many chances to get scored on, and sometimes, the supercell might end up in your own trailer, if thrown by mistake.

Also, I don't think anyone really designed a unique handler for empty cells, so looks like most teams are not concerned with it.

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

It's all about how you play the match. We've been averaging 1-2 Empty Cells Delivered to our HP's. The Issue is that we never had a good enough HP to make the shot because we were playing ours at the outpost. Once we put him down in the end he sank 12 moon rocks and 2 Super Cells.

As for Us we've practiced handling Empty Cells as much as we've practiced Dumping. You don't need a separate mechanism you just need to be able to stop and reverse your intake system to deliver the Empty Cell.

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

Good luck everyone today!
I can't wait to see how the competition is going by the time I get down there this morning. (10am-noon(ish))

Oh, and btw, if anyone is reading this & wants to trade team shirts, come find me in NJ today sometime!
I'll have a bunch of team 237 shirts to trade today!
I'll take an XL or L.

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

If you ask Akash the Supercell is being used to cause havoc by having been scored on your own trailer and inducing 3 penalties in the same match :) jk jk I was watching that and it was a complete dumb luck scenario - dont be too hard on that human player :)

Seriously though, if have a robot that can get the supercell and quickly dispense it within 20 seconds i've seen a ton of games that could have been won by a 15 point last second swing so its worth it if you got the right scenario otherwise teams seem to be fumbling with it a bit.

EDIT: CONGRATULATIONS Team 2753 on your AMAZING performance at Trenton during the Qualifications

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

i am sitting in the stands waiting for the finals to commence. never seen this competition before. simply amazing - so many different ways to approach the same engineering problem. you are all AWESOME!

that said team 2753 overdrive just rocks! rookies at that! Wow!

i wish they had this when i was young. i hope all of you go to CMU and MIT and make an incredible difference in our world!

PittCaleb

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

let me be the first to say congrats team overdrive 2753! you guys are awesome - esp u Scalzo girls! thx for inviting us! the boys had a blast!

PittCaleb

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

Congratulations Team 2753 (rookies!), 1923, and 2344 on your win in Trenton :) incredible job!

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

I watched a large number of matches today and some yesterday and let me say-2753, you guys are the real deal. Amazing stuff, love the drive train and ball manipulator. Ours is very similar, hopefully we can do as well as you guys! Congratulations to all the Finalists!

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

Great job 2753, 1923, 2344 and what a steal in the third round! ;)

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

Congrats to 2753 2344 and of course 1923!! You know I love you.

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

Anyone know when the vids will be up on the blue alliance?

And our last match of the day, qual 65 is something I will never forget!!! Go wall-e 1228!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

So does anyone know what was up with the match reset with with 1923 and 2753 all I heard was that they were losing and the field stopped working.

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

If you noticed when they started the match on the screen there was no score HUD so I'm guessing whatever system they use wasn't even on.

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

I was right behind their stations and in the final half minute two of the stations simply failed. The two teams were jumping all over trying to get the ref attention and eventually did.

Resetting was the right thing to do.:cool:


Our congratulations to our friends on the winning alliance. You really gave us all a fight and that's what makes it fun. And big congrats to 1089 Team Mercury for winning the Chairman's after years of doing the right thing for the best reasons. I am proud of all of you.



WC

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

Not only just rookies, but UNDEFEATED rookies so far.

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

We archived most, if not all matches. They will be available within a week or so.

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

1089 Congrats! Glad to see that the old veterans are still breeding outstanding teams. Winners and Finalists as well, congrats!

Match reset was.....w/e. (I could put many statements here of how I really feel, if you care, feel free to PM me).

Good luck in your next competitions everyone. We'll be seeing most of you in Philly and perhaps not back in Trenton for next year (we wanna go to DC). Peace.

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

LOL. Don't be mad cuz you lost. Jk.

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

What a Year....


A Rookie Team went undefeated to show put the veterans back in their place,
A Team that 4 years ago was struggling to exist became one of the fiercest competitors at one of the oldest regionals
and a stellar team took home chairmans


Congratulations to the champions, and to 1089 for taking stage and winning the RCA.



Thanks to our Alliance partners for picking us, it was a blast working with you guys.

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

On behalf of team 103, i would like to congratulate every team who participated in this years New Jersey Regional, but a big congrats to 1923, 2573, and 2344! What an amazing team you guys make. And an even bigger congrats to team 1089. What a good thing it is to see a team who always does the best things for the team win. Good luck in nationals!

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

15.26GB if my total for day 2

I might try and convert it down though and see if it'll clear up a few gigs for you

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

our pleasure working with you guys!

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

I have no idea what you actually mean by this, but since I just spent my last three days watching several webcasts simultaneously, I can tell you that field reset in NJ was faster than some of the other regionals I was watching. The sound quality on the webcast, however, was another story.

To all the teams at the NJ Regional, great work! It was exciting to watch, and I was pleased to see such a young alliance prove themselves and win it. 1089, congrats on the RCA. It was definitely well-deserved. (:

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

My bad, meant match reset. The field crew was excellent as were the judges and refs/volunteers.

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

On behalf of Team 2344 I would like to personally thank team 1923 and team 2753 for an awesome alliance. Team 2753, we look forward to working with you again in NYC. To all teams who cheered for us, thanks, and finally thanks to all 61 teams who competed in the regional, it was an amazing 3 days!!!!





GO DROIDS!!!!

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

Congratulations to 1923, 2753, and 2344 on your regional win!
And congratulations to everyone else who competed this weekend, through all the hard times with the field. Can't wait to see the rest of you at Philly, NYC, Atlanta, and off-season!

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

And thus, NJ 2009 is in the Record Books.

Congrats to 1089 for the RCA. Sick.

Congrats to 2753, I don't think you should be considered a rookie... You've already won a world championship right? In FTC that is =P. Also 1923, Sick performance out there, it was a pleasure to watch. And 2344, sick bot, I was impressed.

And thanks to 1228 and 75 for some awesome matches out there, Some times winning's just not in the cards though.

And a final note, did any other team manage to score 2 Super Cells with the same HP? I think we were the only team to do it so far.

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

On behalf of 1089, I want to express a huge thank you for all of your congratulations and well-wishes for the RCA. I am so proud of and thankful for the students and mentors that we have on the team. The students worked (and played hard, we've got some good laser tag players) all year, and in preparing for the presentation, it was clear that they really knew their stuff. I was so nervous for our presenters, but they did an outstanding job. I'm sure that many of you probably even saw them practicing for it in the concourse.

Congratulations to 2753, 1923, and 2344 (I really liked you guys at NY last year!) on your regional win!!!! You guys did a heck of a job!

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

Kudos to 2344, 2753 and 1923 for winning and congrats team 1089 on the RCA.

And good job 816 and 75, thanks for the support and the awesome matches, hope to see you guys next year.

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

Dude you know how bad we felt having to play against you guys for the second year in a row. =(

75, if you guys didn't notice, our team rep was surprised because our selection was taken when 816 picked you guys. Incredible robot this year! (not really shiny enough though ;D)

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

Well, we just call it research :P

But anyway, many thanks. We're still kinda in shock. And thanks for all you experienced teams that helped us. We really can't explain in words how grateful we are. Like, really, really, really. Thanks so very much. Couldn't have done any of this without you.

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

Also I'd like to give two quick recognitions to two people,

First is Pete K. the FTA for helping us with our Comm issues throughout the weekend. He really made it so that we and quite a few other teams could compete.

Second is George A., the Announcer. Major Props for proposing in front of like 5,000 people. Seriously, I wouldn't have had the courage to do it.

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

Woot for George. Adding another member to the MORT family are we? ^_^

Shout out to team 1403. In short, we love you guys. Thanks for showing us support when we really needed it, it really meant a lot. New bonds and new friends was my only benefit from this year's NJ regional and you guys are a part of that.

Keep your heads high and stand proud. RCA is easily within your reach, but just please be creative. Employ new ideas year after year and stay consistent and you will pull through. For advice or help don't hesitate to ask the past winners such as 25, 75, 1676, 11, and of course 1089. Find out what you did wrong or need to improve on. While talking to you guys I heard about hackneyed presentation styles and that simply will not do in Trenton.

*inside joke* 1403+11=1114 good luck in Florida guys and rep NJ along with 25 for us all. Be patient with RCA and just remember to ask for help/criticism from any previous winners.

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

So I have a question about the grounding strips that they recommended to be put on at Trenton. I came to watch Trenton, and I was told multiple teams had serious trouble with shocking their c-Rios. The competition recommended some grounding strip thing, but I do not know the details. Can someone clue me in? I would like to have this bought and easy to put on right when we get to our first regional. Where does one get it, how is it used?

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

Wow...

So I've finally calmed down, and I want to thank EVERYONE in that arena this weekend for making it such a great NJ Regional- definitely the best I've ever been to (and I've been going for ten years!).

2753 and 2344- Thank you, thank you, thank you, for being such wonderful alliance partners. The level of intensity we had during those matches was so fantastic. I'm so happy we made it all the way, and I hope you guys have success in the rest of your season.

1089- Congratulations on the RCA. You totally deserved it. I can't imagine it with anyone else.

1923 would like to take this chance to thank all the teams that helped us, with anything we've needed this season.
----------
25- When we needed our missing bits of KOP transmission (and FIRST wouldn't replace them), you were there for us. You've supported us since our rookie year. You're great friends to have in the area.
40/intelitek- Thanks for machining what we needed- we don't have that opportunity here at home, and Wayne coming down with new (lightened) sprockets was such a great help.
375- especially Mr. Mike Seigel- the advice we have shared has brought us both to better machines. Good luck at NYC, we'll be crossing our fingers for you.
395- When we needed to lighten our robot you sent us more than enough #25 chain. Thanks. :)

& last, but quite the opposite from least--- Team 103
Cybersonics, you let us come out to your facility every weekend to practice- sometimes even Saturday and Sunday. Without you, our drivers wouldn't have had the opportunity we did this weekend. You let us take parts & use your shop when we needed it...we owe you, big time. See you in Philly.


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This was my last NJ Regional as a student. I'm so proud of my team. I'm sad to see this part of my competition season go, and it's really upsetting to think about the fact that I'm not guaranteed to be able to go next year. I'll miss this regional. What a great event...

My team has already gotten 4 newspaper/online articles with our name & win mentioned- and it's not even 12 hours past the event. I'm hoping this will give the younger teams that made up our alliance some good exposure and give them a good base in the community for their future.

We had fun, & that's all I can ever ask for.
Thank you all for making my weekend so great.

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

Great regional guys! Your all like family which is why our students, majority freshmen then, want to come back in '10, their senior year.

Exciting as ever to spend a weekend watching NJ on my large LCD screen!
Our drive team (HP included) practiced with our proto bot in between matches and sat down to rest while watching elimination matches on the webcast.

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

To: Team 2753

Ditch the "rookie" title. That wasn't a rookie team playing, it was a veteran team. If you guys were rookies at the beginning of the event, you aren't now. I watched the finals via the web, and I was quite impressed.

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

2753, 1923, and 2344. It was a great time working with and against you guys this weekend. Wayne it was great to get to talk to you and I see the cause of the drastic change on 1923. You clearly merit that WFFA.

I'm so glad that so many of these NJ teams are going to Philly. ^_^.

It wasn't so much of a surprise to us for being picked up, but we wanted to drift into the second round of selections and make it back up to join our rookie friends 2753. All in all this regional has been bittersweet in many ways.

and Lol, anyone know how EWCP translates into Team Spirit Award? Idk who explained the program to the judges but they kinda gave us the wrong award haha. No complaints though ^_^.

1403, 1089, 816, 1923, 11 and many more.

I can picture our alliance now...1923, 816, 11. Oh man.:yikes:

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

First off congratulations to teams 2753, 1923, 2344 for taking home the gold in New Jersey and team 1089 for winning the Chairmans Award.

On behalf of team 612 we would like to thank our amazing alliance partners, team 25 and team 834. We made a great run until the finals when our robot decided not to work anymore. In the first match the potentiometer on our steering system wasn't properly tightened after the semifinals and messed up our drive train in the first match of the finals. Then in the second our competition cable fell out, leaving us disabled before it decided to turn back on. But things like this happens without our control, we will continue to improve on our robot and learn from this. It was a privilege working with Shaun McNulty from 25 during the playoffs, as a coach I learned a lot from his vast experience and our sophomore drivers did as well.

Note: to teams 2753, 1923, and 2344. We want a rematch in Atlanta, this time we will make sure everything is plugged in.

Also we would like to thank all of our amazing alliance partners during the qualification rounds, our 7-0 record was due to your hard work and perfect execution of our match strategies.

Re: 2009 New Jersey Regional
 

You're on.

612, 25, 834: Y'all did a fantastic job- You are well respected veterans, and I have always looked up to you guys (since I was a little kid). You played well. Good luck wherever your season takes you.

A special note to team 25: You guys supported us all the way back, when nobody believed in us. We seemed to be a "lost cause". Without your RINOS program, we wouldn't have gotten as far as we did back then. When the team started to come apart last year, your team helped ground us and keep us calm. This year, when we needed parts, you helped us out. We owe a lot of our success to you. It was truly an honor to play you guys at this regional. You are, and have always been a top-notch team. Good luck in Florida and at the Championship- we'll see you there!