Re: 2010 Washington DC Regional
 

REX 1727 wants to thank Teams 3123 and 176 for a wonderful Alliance, as well as all the volunteers, judges, referees, and attendees! Thanks to them, DC was a high energy event that we hope to attend for years to come.

Re: 2010 Washington DC Regional
 

Congratulations (again) on your win, Rex. You have an excellent bot and team. :D

-----------

A few things I observed in the regional:

• The rumors I heard of people at FIRST painting the soccer balls to make any ball finding algorithms fail is untrue, from what I saw. All balls used were pearl white.
• The supplied target-finding algorithm wasn't the best that could be used. It picked up the target often, but there were times where it got locked on to an arbitrary object. Putting a threshold at the end helped a bit in recognition. (see: If target.score <= 1000, discard it.) [[Note: This should be done *after* the concentric ellipse testing, as it is impossible to get 1000+ for a single ellipse.]]
• Kicking, unless you have a really soft (8- ft) kicker, in the offensive zone didn't work well; we- and many others- ended up ramming the goal to push the ball in.
• Midfield shots were not too uncommon.
• The camera stream was either REALLY laggy or nonexistent for quite a few matches
• If you lose ANYTHING during a competition (see: an omni-wheel :o ), you will be penalized one point unless your robot is disabled immediately after for "intentional detachment of parts".
• Autonomous: We had our balls set up like:
  G
  
  XXO
  XOX
  OXX
  
  R
  
  R: Robot
  X: Spot
  O: Ball
  G: Goal
  
  and turning tapped a few out of the way. In addition, if we set up our balls in the same column, the one that we kicked first was liable to hit the second/third ones. So, for midfield/defensive autonomouses, consider your ball placements.
• A solid near-field/offensive field autonomous with a kick in it can be used for all three fields easily, and is really helpful in most cases.
• Connecting with the field this year is *extremely* easy and quick.
• The max score of the day, I was told, was 9-0.
• The autonomous of "go forward for one second, kick", when used in the offensive zone, gave us a quick point.
• Kicking from midfield sometimes resulted in hitting the small bump that leads up to the goal, and the chain above the goal. Both prevented the ball from going in to said goal.

Thanks for the excellent competition, everyone. It was definitely the most fun I've had in a long time. :D

Sadly, our FRC team won't be attending worlds this year. So, I wish you all the best of luck in getting to- and in winning- the championship. :)

~Buddy

Re: 2010 Washington DC Regional
 

Team 176 Aces High would like to give a huge thanks to our alliance. You guys were amazing to play with throughout the elims, and it was a pleasure working with you guys. Our strategy seemed to work flawlessly all the way through. Hopefully we'll see both 1727 and 3123 in Atlanta :cool:

Re: 2010 Washington DC Regional - Thanks
 

Team 1370 wants to thank the 2-3 teams that applauded us on the way out of the convention center. It made the extreme effort at helping as many teams as possible worthwhile, and reminded us that a piece of hardware is nice, but the true reward for gracious professionalism is appreciation from other teams, and lasting friendships. We weren't sure if our efforts were noticed and appreciated.

It really helped remind us of the core value of first!

Thanks so much! It really hit home. ::safety::

Pat Daley
Mentor Team 1370

Congratulations Kil-a-Bytes
 

Congratulations to the Kil-a-Bytes #1024 for winning the Imagery Award.

Re: 2010 Washington DC Regional
 

Many thanks to all the volunteers and teams for making the second DC regional another fantastic experience! I was once again impressed by the display of GP throughout the pits in getting robots built and on the field. I think collectively we represented FIRST well in the nation's capital! It was great to see our old friends and make new ones. Congratulations to Chantilly Robotics (612) on winning Chairman's award! You are both an inspiration and a role model for 2068 as well as good friends. Congratulations REX (1727), Wildcogs (3123), and Aces High (176); way to play Breakaway!

Thanks to the Phelps Robotics Panthers (2912) for inviting us to join your alliance and to the Blair Robot Project (449) for being great partners! We made a strong alliance that continued to improve throughout the elimination round. It is always nice making new friends and we hope to see you both at future competitions. For the second year in a row we faced off against the Technokats (45) in the elims, win or lose it is always a great honor to compete against Andy and team. Thanks to Delphi Elite (48), Chantilly Robotics (612), and the Lightning Bots (2010) for loaning our team batteries during the elims. We really appreciated the help and we wish you the best of luck in the rest of your season. Also, thanks to Josh from National Instruments for helping us negotiate a dead CRIO.

Finally thanks to Harry Reid (Senate Majority Leader) for taking time out of his schedule to drop by the competition and show his support. I hope he is able to deliver on his promise to have half the senate turn out next year.

Re: 2010 Washington DC Regional
 

To every student, mentor volunteer who was at DC - I had the privilege of escorting a few important guests and of staying in touch with another one - If I can presume to read their minds a bit, all left with the realization that they had just been someplace very unusual, and that they had seen a program worth their attention and investment, and worth expanding as fast as possible.

As I walked through pits or sat and chatted with them I was never at a loss for words because I have so many great stories to tell about years gone by and about events as fresh as Thursday. When I did have the presence of mind :) to be quiet and just let the guests sit and soak in the experience, you guys were making things happen just as they should.

Congratulate yourselves for doing exactly what will carry you and FIRST successfully into the next 20 years.

Blake
PS: After pausing to congratulate yourselves - Go back to having "The hardest fun you will ever have". The season isn't over yet and we aren't finished changing the culture yet - There is plenty more fun ahead.

Re: 2010 Washington DC Regional
 

Blake,
It was great seeing you, too. You always do a fabulous job ensuring important guests at events "get it" and this year was certainly no exception.

All,
It was a very memorable event because if the people, as always. So many teams and people helping out those in need of supplies, tools, expertise. With the weather the way it was this year in the DC area, there were more than 20 teams not fully inspected at the close of Thursday despite furious efforts by volunteers and teams. Before Friday was out though, ALL teams had completed inspection and had made it to the field of play - including one team that was nearly totally, entire rebuilt on Friday.

In addition to the robots, of course there are all those teams, mentors, and students changing their communities and the culture for the better who are willing share so we all grow.

Personally, I need to thank all involved with 1712's efforts this weekend. Mentors Paul Gehman and Bob Bellini, staff member Kim Arleth and Sean Lavery from Drexel/NavSea for all you do and have done ... but especially to Delia, Dena, Ana, Murph, Dan, Stan, Jonah, Kris, Alex, Neil, Rachel, and Rowan - you 12 we exemplary all weekend - with each other and others. You make it worthwhile to spend the time on this endeavor and I'm looking forward to the full team being at Philly.

As usual, I'm tired and fulfilled.

Re: 2010 Washington DC Regional
 

One of the benefits of attending a regional in Washington, DC is the opportunity to meet with your Congressman at the U.S. Capitol.

Here's a portion of our visit with U.S. Representative Tim Ryan (D-17) at the start of our capitol tour. I've also attached a picture of the team with Mr. Ryan on the Capitol steps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSE6cAhAQ8o

Re: 2010 Washington DC Regional
 

team 2377 had a lot of fun. almost all of our matches (missing match #1) are up on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/view_play_lis...65B171A32F0A54

we got the arm fixed (hopefully) so it should now be reliable, and will fix our wheel for the baltimore competition this week!