Re: 2010 Milwaukee Wisconsin Regional
 

does anyone know where you can find either the webcast as a video or some pictures?

Re: 2010 Milwaukee Wisconsin Regional
 

Congrats to the winners of this regional, and even those who did not win, for their tremendous victories and great matches that were truly a joy to watch. Extra congratulations to team 1306 for the chairman's award, and to the rookies who truly showed their stuff. 'twas an exciting few days, to say the least.

And technical difficulties combined with bad luck knocked out some good bots this year, a true shame. I saw several teams underperform on a regular basis, and some really great bots wound up flopping around the field for a few matches where they should have been really cranking things up. Just wish we at 2039 had another shot this year, but it looks like it just isnt going to fit in the budget (hopefully we can find another regional, but I am not holding my breath).

There were several teams that would be an absolute joy to see go to nationals this year, that failed to do so this time around (a notable mention is 706, one of the most impressive bots at the regional, if my opinion is warranted), and it is my fervent hope that they meet with the best of luck elsewhere. There is much more to say, but I feel that already I may have droned on above my meagre qualification to do so. This challenge makes me feel more confident with my generation; everybody should be exceedingly proud of themselves for their amazing accomplishments here.

edit: I have yet to find any feed from these matches online, though I expect that the blue alliance site will have some videos after a couple of weeks.

Re: 2010 Milwaukee Wisconsin Regional
 

Congrats to the winners and thanks to our alliance partners 1091 and 2826. It was a great honor to be part of your team. The bugs, and some unfortunate accidents, bit us all too but overall it was an exciting and fun time.

It's a shame that 706 will not be competing again this year, they had a totally killer robot that got bit (comm problems?) at the end. I'm hoping that Hilltoppers 1732 will be happy enough with just one regional win and be willing to take it easy at Midwest, because they're outright deadly! I'm sure 111 will show up at Midwest with a vengeance, as well!

Looking forward to Midwest...!!!

Re: 2010 Milwaukee Wisconsin Regional
 

Bad news. Yesterday some of our students were already talking about what we can do better for Midwest. Couldn't they just enjoy the victory for one night?

I have to give a ton of thanks to our alliance partners. After the alliance selection, I didn't think we really had much of a chance of getting past the 111/1714 alliance, let alone win the entire thing. But each team raised up and really worked through some adversity include 4 matches where one of us didn't work (all our fault, no connection errors) and in semifinal 3 where we had a 6-5 victory erased by a human player penalty.

2574: Thanks for selecting us. I really thought our downfall of our alliance would be a lack of scoring, but you guys were awesome. In one match, we weren't doing our job by clearing balls (that dangerous 1714 kept needed our attention), and you quietly went to zone 2 to advance your balls to score.

171: Some of the smartest drivers I've seen. Blocking the tunnel to trap 706 in the middle zone in the finals was brilliant. As was playing defense on 1736's hang in the quarterfinals. Oh, and playing some strong defense on 111 was ok too.:D

2481/706/3362: You were one strong alliance. It is a shame that the finals matches did not have all 6 robots moving. We had 706 as the best zone 1 robot on our picking list and 2481 also very high. While 2062 seems to get most of the attention 2481 was equally as impressive at hanging, while scoring a few from the middle zone. 3362 was actually #4 on our picking list on Friday night as a close zone scorer (some connection issues in their Saturday morning matches dropped them down our list, though). We quickly learned that they were equally effective at playing defense. You cannot imagine the relief we felt when a backup bot was called in for their team in the finals.

111/1714/2077: I still find it hard to believe that we beat such a strong alliance. 111 is deadly from anywhere with their line-drive goals. 1714 probably had the best drivers for any zone 1 robot and had an exceptional suction ball magnet. As the 23rd pick, 2077 could kick like the 3rd, making them a perfect compliment to the other two. I'm willing to bet a lot 1714 wins Minnesota for the second straight year. I also hope we get paired up with 111 in Midwest, because I don't think I could take the stress of figuring out a strategy to beat them again.

Also congrats to 1306, The Badger Bots, for their regional chairman's award and all the other award winners.

Re: 2010 Milwaukee Wisconsin Regional
 

I ditto that, especially with many veteran teams going for it this year.

Thanks to 1714 and 537 for being there when we needed it!

Re: 2010 Milwaukee Wisconsin Regional
 

Your drivers are outstanding at defense. Since I started playing in the offensive zone, you guys were the only ones to stop me from scoring at least 5 balls. I would get away from your robot, but it would only buy me about 3 seconds until it was back again. I knew after the first match that you would not be leaving the defensive zone again.

Someone else must have been playing some solid D on Wildstang too, because in the last match when your robot died I didnt have any balls in the front zone.

Hopefully you are right about MN, I certainly got enough practice driving this weekend with the 4 matches in the quarterfinals and semifinals.

Re: 2010 Milwaukee Wisconsin Regional
 

The regional was a lot of fun and we had a blast. A big thanks to all the volunteers that made it possible.

As for the comm problems that was a little disappointing. From what I am aware of this same thing happened at the Peachtree regional. A robot looses comms and the field personal can not determine why. If they can not provide explanations with out phrases such as "Your radio was in a tizzy" (the explanation they gave us one time). then the match should be replayed.

In the semi finals we lost comms at the exact same time 706 lost video feed. No one knows why but as sure as night is from day it was not a field problem. I fail to see how that is not a network error.

In the second final round we lost comms a couple seconds after switching from autonomous to teleop mode.

In the third final round we lost comms a couple seconds after coming out of autonomous mode. The indicator light showed it as going back into autonomous mode and then being completely disabled. One of the students driving was quick on his feet to think and proceeded to log out of the Driver account on the classmate and log in to the Developer account. Seeing as how this did not work in previous matches when we lost comms I was under the impression that this was prevented. After getting logged into developer the driver opened up the command prompt and issued arp -d. He logged back out and in to the Driver account and the robot worked for a few more seconds. If I understand the system correctly the only way that the logout should have been able to happen is if classmate lost connection from the field. On top of that I was under an impression that once a robot lost comms they were not suppose to be able to come back in without a field reset. I will also add aside from one very high impact hit the only time our robot ever lost comms it was on the red alliance. You can see why we feel it was a problem with the field and not the robot.


We were also confused by the refs ruling on one rule in particular.

<G34> FINALE PERIOD ROBOT Protection - During the FINALE, ROBOTS in contact with their TOWER or in contact with an ELEVATED ALLIANCE partner may not be contacted by an opponent. Violation: PENALTY for inadvertent contact; plus a RED CARD for obviously intentional contact.

The intent of the rule is to encourage robots to ELEVATE and SUSPEND themselves. Seeing as how we had a robot that was able to climb teams countered it with defense and tried to push us off the bump. There were two times this happened. The first the refs ruled it as not being contact with the tower. We would argue against that we were not touching the tower but that is how the refs ruled it and we respect the ruling. The second time we were in contact with the tower and they issued a penalty. The rule clearly states that it is a RED CARD for intentional contact. There is no way you can argue that it wasn't intentional. It is not that big of deal because we won anyways but I fail to see why the refs did not assess the correct penalty.

Re: 2010 Milwaukee Wisconsin Regional
 

1 Additional complaint after reading the rules a little bit more.

<T21> In the elimination matches, each ALLIANCE will be allotted one TIMEOUT of up to 6 minutes. If an ALLIANCE wishes to call for a TIMEOUT, they must submit their TIMEOUT coupon to the Head Referee within two minutes of the Head Referee issuing the arena reset signal preceding their MATCH. When this occurs, the Time-out Clock will count down the six minutes starting with the expiration of the arena reset period. Both ALLIANCES will enjoy the complete 6-minute window. In the interest of tournament schedule, if an ALLIANCE completes their repairs before the Time-out Clock expires, the ALLIANCE CAPTAIN is encouraged to inform the Head Referee that they are ready to play and remit any time remaining in the TIMEOUT. If ALLIANCES are ready before the 6-minute window, the next MATCH will start. There are no cascading time-outs. An opposing ALLIANCE may not offer their unused TIMEOUT to their opponent.

According to rule T21 my team and I were under the impression that the time out coupon we received served a purpose.....and was redeemable for a 6 minute timeout. After Finals match 2, when there was a comm problem, we tried to call a time out when the head referee ordered the reset so that we could look into the problem. The head ref told us no and told us to get back out on to the field.

Re: 2010 Milwaukee Wisconsin Regional
 

From what I've seen on the webcast and heard from talking to people, it seems Wisconsin referees weren't interpreting a lot of rules very correctly.

You're allowed to call a timeout for any reason as long as you turn in the ticket promptly. I was unaware of any clause where a ref could just tell you "no" unless you didn't turn it in promptly.

Re: 2010 Milwaukee Wisconsin Regional
 

To all interested in reviewing the matches, once the matches are pulled apart, the matches will be sent to the Blue Alliance for viewing on the web.

Thanks for your patience.

Re: 2010 Milwaukee Wisconsin Regional
 

Thank you everyone for the kind words about our team.

Thank all the teams at the Wisconsin regional for helping us have our BEST EVER season. Our team was more professional and "in the spirit of FIRST" than it ever has been before. Even if we stopped now, I am very proud of the entire team!

The disconnect problems are unfortunate, but in the last match we did not disconnect, our main breaker blew! Has that ever happened to you? Even so, we probably would not have won.

But!

I am not sure about the politics or logistics involved, but I got an exciting email about 20 minutes ago... Something about our robot going to Atlanta...

Re: 2010 Milwaukee Wisconsin Regional
 

It's true, we are going to Atlanta :)

Also, the video of our final rounds is uploading, but its really only us playing, not much of other teams.

Re: 2010 Milwaukee Wisconsin Regional
 

@706

Did FIRST do something to reconcile the situation or you are going to Atlanta on your own accord?

I must say you guys did awesome. We saw a vid of your bot before the competition and were worried that we would have to play against it. We never even dreamed of being able to be on the same alliance as your team with such a great bot.

Re: 2010 Milwaukee Wisconsin Regional
 

Our team has never been to Atlanta so we were eligible this year to go, regardless of how well we did. Thanks for the kind words but you guys really held your own. You got so many balls up for us to score and your hanger was really consistent. 3362 also did a great job defending, and they were ROOKIES!!! We had one heck of an alliance there, too bad the FMS gods were not rooting in our favor.

Re: 2010 Milwaukee Wisconsin Regional
 

Awesome job all FRC teams at the Milwaukee Regional! Every team there was so nice to our team, especially when we needed a few things :] ! Thanks to our alliance members in the quarterfinals, you guys rocked!

Congratulations to the winning alliance, those last finals matches were incredibly fun and exciting. All six of the teams out there totally deserved to win! It was awesome to watch! Good luck at nationals! Though my team will not be attending, I'm going down to Atlanta and I plan to cheer for all of you guys from our regional!!!

Awesome competition guys!