2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

The first weekend in April: Home of weird weather, a weathered game, and of course, the Virginia Regional!

Team 422 (NewMarket Corporation and Maggie L. Walker Governor's School/ Mech Tech Dragons), located just a few blocks from the event's location, the Siegel Center, is excited to see teams from 10 miles to 10 states to 10 countries away!

If we'll be seeing you and your team at one of the last events of LogoMotion, let us know!

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

Team 1058 from Londonderry, NH will be there. Looking forward to a great year!

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

Team 540 from Godwin HS will be there. It will be good to see you all again!

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

1610 is doing it again

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

Can't wait to cheer on Team #1058 at VCU as an Alumni of the PVC Pirates, student at VCU, and staff for VirginiaFIRST!

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

Probably no surprise but 1522 Defenders of The Multiverse will be there.

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

Team 1676, the Pascack Pi-oneers, can't wait! Maybe another year going undefeated in the regional? :ahh:
Just a few more weeks until we get to see all of you again! We're looking forward to it!

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

1086 will be there! lookin forward to seeing some new teams and old friends!!! :D

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

Sparky 384 will have fun there and will have a great time seeing familiar faces!

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

2068 is looking forward to coming back to VCU this year.

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

Team 401 will be returning there. This will be my first year attending the Virginia Regional.

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

1598 Team Talon will be back this year. I worked spare parts last year and we went to the NC Regional. Looking forward to being at VCU and the DC Regional also.

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

I was not even paying attention I did not know their was 4 NJ teams going.

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

Hey Virginia teams, don't let these carpet baggers steal our awards! ;)


Sadly, I'll be missing the Virginia regional for the 2nd time ever.

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

11, 25, 75, and 1676! Definitely good representation from the best state in the Union :D

Best of luck to you all! Bring home some blue banners and plenty of trophies!

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

Bring it, folks! VA teams won't go down without a fight :eek:

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

2363 will be there, and technically it is the second weekend of April.

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

Sure hope 1676 puts up some Trenton webcasts, but I imagine there will be a minor recording mishap whenever 25, 75, or 1676 are on the field.

If gas wasn't so expensive, I would try to round up two upperclassmen for a "scouting trip".

Also, kinda weird MORT isn't going to be at their home game this year in NJ. Isn't there testing that week?

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

Team 2386 from Burlington, Canada is coming down to heckle and add to the general debauchery, get stoked for some crazy canucks!

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

Testing is one of multiple reasons why 11 decided not to attend NJ this year. It has been an on going discussion on our team for the past few years. I am unsure if they plan to return next year. It is 11's first time since the team was founded not attending the NJ regional.

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

After seeing the results of the NJ regional, I am even more pumped to see how Virginia plays out. Pascack is a force to be reckoned with, and if 11's new minibot is any indication of 1676's minibot ( ;) ), we will have two very strong competitors coming down along with 25.

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

Team 122!! the NASA Knights will be there in our shining arumor

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

u also might wanna take a look at our video of 122 minibot
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8oyl...er_profilepage

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

That is the way its done. Nice!

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

For the first time in team history, team 612 will not be attending the VCU regional. Feels so weird

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

Looks like I'll be heading down to VA to watch 25 and the rest of the NJ teams along with Zara Simpson from 1676. Should be a great time!

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

TBA has the raw video that was webcast, it'll be posted as soon as it is parsed.We will miss you guys! VA won't be the same without you.

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

Decided to give the thread a little bump two days before practice matches.

The build room is locked today, but I'll see if I can get permission to record a video of our minibot that was built with help from GRR tomorrow.

We really appreciate the collaboration from 340 that lasted long after the Chesapeake Regional! The help you guys gave us allowed us to build our own Steves (We haven't named them yet; if you guys have an idea, let us know!).

The minibots are variants of the Steve we used in Baltimore; and their deployment+climb time clocks us in at around 2 seconds, which is quite marvelous.

Excited for the VA Regional in less than 2 days!

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

Is it me or has this waited seemed to have lasted forever? I was ready to compete three weeks ago.

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

After attending Chesapeake with 836 (former team), I can't wait to travel with 401 (new team). Looking forward to a lot of new faces, and a new Regional for me.

As always, GO HOKIES!

PS - hope everyone has safe travels to and from the Regional!

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

Go 1058 PVC Pirates! :)

Hoping you get your arm working for VA and an even faster minibot would be ridiculous! Go rock the south like you did in Chesapeake last year!

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

Probably because VA Regional suddenly became a Week 6 Regional after floating as a Week 1-3 regional for as long as I can remember... Long time coming, especially for one-regional-only teams.

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

Imagine waiting 9 weeks for Championship! ;) I hate week 1 regionals!

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

team 1418 will be attending once a again, can't wait to see the week 6 bots out there playing logomotion the way it should! Hopefully we can pull a repeat performance of last year and win:D

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

Well, the van is packed up and ready to go, leaving just after breakfast to arrive at Siegel Center in time to grab a bite to eat & get over to load in some time after 6.

Really looking forward to seeing friends old and new.

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

^Our school wouldn't let us leave for NJR the past two years until the night before day one. I'm sure leaving in the morning results in less cranky van drivers and students.

Kinda excited for tomorrow: after school, 5 team members are driving over Geoffery from Afton Chemical/NewMarket Corporation to the Siegel Center, while the remainders get ready for what we hope is a special regional.

Can't wait to see new and old teams from in and out of state!

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

I'm told 11 is heading out tomorrow around noon!

The kids all sound very excited and focused for the weekend ahead.

Thursday Practice
 

I watched preliminary play with team 25 at about 4:40 PM today (Thursday). They look like they've made the necessary adjustments since NJ. From what I could see (angle of camera was poor), they put up a confident autonomous tube, plus 7 tubes and finished with a strong mini-bot. My guess is that the NJ contingency will be strong in Virginia.

Re: Thursday Practice
 

Is there a webcast?

Re: Thursday Practice
 

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

Also webcast at: http://robotics.nasa.gov/events/va_stream.php


http://robotics.nasa.gov/events/va_stream.php

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

Thanks guys, I usually give up looking for webcasts on Thursday after 1pm!

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

Our hotel is on fire. All kids are out and safe.

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

And its only a couple rooms. http://imgur.com/EOLRb

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

Glad everyone's okay!

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

Sorry to not be at Virginia Regional for the first time in history, hopefully we'll be back next year if NC and VA can get their weekends un-lined up.

Good luck to everybody!

Missing you,
Team 435!

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

You guys at an airport hotel? There's alot of fire/police activity out on the street. We're at the Holiday Inn Express.

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

Best of luck Jersey crew. MORT, give em hell! :)

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

For those interested, here's a video I filmed walking through the pits early in the day. I'll probably be doing more of this tomorrow and Saturday (I am one of the event photographers, after all...).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8tr6scT3Vk

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

Glad you guys are okay! Just carry that fire into tomorrow and you will be golden!

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

Pretty good regional this year. I had a lot of fun documenting it (although now the hard part begins - sorting through nearly 2,000 photos).

I'm currently working on getting some videos up on my YouTube account.

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

1418 had a great time, but I would be lying if I didn't say we were a little disappointed with the playoffs. Oh well, team 539 I'm sure learned a lot and kept spirits up as our alliance captain, team 1086 did their best to get their robot working (which was absolutely stunning when running at full capacity), and team 1793 subbed in a pinch.

I'm sure if 1086 and 539 weren't experiencing comm issues, our matches would have been a lot more interesting.

Congrats to the winners teams 25, 1676, and 1522, you did an amazing job!

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

congrats to all the teams out there. I have heard great things about this event.

Even bigger shoutouts to our jersey mates 1676 for winning another regional, (and 303 took philly), 25 bounced back just as expected.

congrats to 1086 on chairmans and 1885 our partners from DC for a SECOND EI award, they won EI in DC as well!!!

Good to see all the jersey teams making VCU like a second home..heh.

Hope to see you all in St.louis.

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

Surely that was you guys bringing down the house, like we did today.
Seriously, safe was the best word we could hear.
Thanks!

We had a lot of fun, even with a disappointing call in our last Q match. Great people, great venue. More tomorrow after some sleep - 371 miles in 6:15 and now off to bed.

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

After we get all of the gremlins out of the robot in Baltimore, the field gremlins reared their ugly head.

A 6-3-0 record that I considered to be a 7-2-0 because the minibot poles were calibrated incorrectly, but the team update saying the refs can't judge by sight didn't account for the FMS being itself.

It seemed as if Blue 2 and Blue 3 liked to die in the middle of every match during elims. The 8, 5, and 7 seeds always had them go down in the middle of the match.

In our eliminations match, the 2 seed team had a human player knocking a tube out of 75s grip with another tube. The head referee said at the beginning that a move like that will be considered a penalty plus a yellow card, since it isn't very GP.

However, there was no penalty since the referee said it was "a one time thing," "can't be considered a strategy," and "she didn't see it," even with corroboration from 25's coach (Shawn?).

Then, 612 got a red card for doing a one time thing that you can't consider a strategy by shoving 1895 off of them and into our zone. That was in TU 16, but with all of the pin and lane violations 1895 was racking up against 612 on the field, it's hard to argue that aggressive play begets aggressive play.

I'm not trying to shift blame on to the referees or the opposition, it's just apparent our luck in 2010 ran out with nothing left for this year.

We'll be back, VCU. We'll be back.

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

We had a great time over the past three days. This is the first time we have had a robot that consistently preformed to our design criteria. I have to give my team high marks their performance. We didn't place as high as we would have liked, but ehhh... who really cares? :)

On a slightly different note: my team was thoroughly impressed with 1676. They are truly a class act. Congrats to 1086 for yet another Chairman's win. You all are one of the elite teams in FIRST. Watch out for them in St. Louis!

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

I'd like to give a shout out to team 2363, triple helix, that program sure has developed fast since 2008. They've had some rough years, especially in 2009, at both of your regional events, you had the most underrated robot, you all should have been picked at both of your events. But now in 2011, they have come full circle. Congrats on your Palmetto win and finalists appearance at VCU. If it wasn't for those New Jersey teams you would have two blue banners going into the championship :rolleyes: . 2363 is the best robot coming out of Virginia this year, look out for them at championships.

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

There was an interesting pool of robots left to pick from when the alliance selections came back up to the #1 seed! Basically we chose a strategy to beat the 25/1676 alliance, which could have made it had the 3rd robot worked properly in the second Finals match. Any one of 3 things could have swung that match our way. No, we didn't know that we were being 'starved' of squares -- we still had 2 (3?) full logos, heh. Ah well. It was quite a fun time. I'm certain that same exact strategy will work well for us in St. Louis given the caliber of teams that will be there.

Congrats to 25/1676/1522. It was a well-deserved win.

MANY thanks to our alliance partners 2363 and 540. The tenacity of 2363's pit crew can't be emphasized enough; their whole team is a well-oiled machine and is a force to be reckoned with at champs.

Major congrats to 1086 on CA -- you guys definitely deserve it!

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

Wow, what an incredible competition. This may have been one of the greatest competitions we have been to, we certainly had a lot of fun. We were constantly on the edge of our seats watching our team, because we knew we were going up against an alliance that had incredible skill, and we were nervous about what the outcome would be. ALL of you preformed phenomenally and you should be proud of yourselves for what happened. :)

25 and 1522- We greatly appreciate you both for helping/leading us to victory. This was without a doubt a group effort, and we could not have done it without you two.

2363- Once I discovered you won the Palmetto regional, I started to worry. I always remember your team, and how much far you guys appear to have come. You make yourselves noticable, both on the field with your robot and off the field, in the stands, cheering and spinning your cloth. Your team never ceases to amaze me, and I am looking forward to seeing you all in St. Louis.

1086- Congratulations on winning RCA. From my knowledge and seeing your Chairmans video, you guys definitely deserve it. I am excited to see 1086 coming to St. Louis.

1885- I am glad to hear you are going to St. Louis. You guys deserve to have a spot on a Championship field. Best of luck to you all during St. louis.

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

My annual "X minutes of FIRST...in X/5 minutes" video can be found here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtkcBNu3YCs

I'm still working on getting photos up; I'm uploading Day 1's HUGE photo collection to my Flickr right now.

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

Im the coach from Team 11. It was our human player that knocked the tube out of 75's claw. It really was unintentional and they were also in the middle of the field. We would never condone what we consider such an ungracious strategy. We apologized to 75 after the match. I felt bad the quarter finals ended the way it did, personally I wanted to play you guys in another match. The calabrations on the poles came back to bite us in the semifinals in the third match. We were up the poll first but it did not lit up. So we did not recieve the points. If it had lit up we would have won the semifinals 92-91 and moved unto the finals. It definently hurt quite a few teams out there this week.

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

I'm not trying to take anything away from any of the other teams, especially MORT, who got shut out of semifinals in both of their regionals because of the field and its rules. That has to really drag your team down.

I can only hope now that my team can grow out its operations, compete well in offseason competitions (maybe we'll go to IRI and see some great teams!), and hope FIRST cuts down on the red tape for next year's game. I think everyone would rather see the teams play the games out, with less possibilities for red cards, yellow cards, and other penalties.

Good luck to the teams going to nationals: 25, 1086, 1522, 1885, especially 1676. In two years, I think their team is going to be holding up the Chairman's Award in St. Louis. Model team, very well run.

422 is going to nationals next year, but we hope to take up a spot or two with some blue banners.

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

The field did some strange things. For example, we noticed that certain minibot poles reacted differently from others, and avoided them when possible. But compared to a week 1 event, all went smoothly.
Thank you for the kind words. The City of Richmond and the Virginia Regional are extraordinarily gracious hosts, and we tried to repay the support we experienced last year. Including bringing more of NJ with us!

The good:
2363: You guys are a class act. Your help to rookie team 3625 did not go unnoticed. A small part of their RAS award is due to you.
1885 & 540: What an alliance, we were truly worried and somehow managed to get lucky. Thank you for the most exciting competition ever. That EI isn't for nuthin'
3709: My adopted team. They fielded a solid robot, learned a lot, and went from a bunch of kids to a TEAM. Next year they will be awesome.

>> A special THANK YOU to all the teams who helped get them through inspection an onto the field for their first match. I simply cannot remember all of the teams who sent people and supplies over to help the rookies, but the kindness and GP you all showed made a huge positive impression on this team. They literally couldn't believe that so many different folks would want to help them, and were grateful beyond words for your help.

1522: A great team to work with, thank you for the very capable performance.
25: Do you guys realize that half your regional wins in the past 2 years were with us? We're gettin' tired of carrying y'all :p
1086: Winner last year, RCA this year, a great bunch of folks.
The event volunteers: A better-than-average team, very professional and caring.
VCU: Cleanest facility ever. Friendly, helpful staff who works with you and not against you.
Jamaica House (across the street): Best jerk chicken anywhere - and this from a guy who lives next to NY City...
(Note to other teams: This regional has a tremendous selection of food for lunch within a very short walk. Plus a Lowe's, Starbucks, parking, etc next door. If you're tired of arena food, come to this regional next year.)

The Bad:
The Ramp where we loaded in the pits. But only the uphill part :rolleyes:

The Ugly:
<null>

Observations:
The referees made a call that cost us #1 seed, and I truly believe that an experienced referee standing and intently watching from less than four feet away can see things better than ANYone in the stands. It may have been an unpleasant call, but not a bad one. Thank you to our head referee and the entire referee team for taking the time to review this call in detail with us afterward.

I saw several teams that consistently provided help to other teams, but more than I expected who didn't. Experienced, low-number teams whose students didn't go out of their way to assist teams in need. Just surprised me I guess, not what I usually see.

I can't say what 1676 will be doing next year, but there is a definite reason we returned to Virgina this year, and it isn't because we won last year. See you in St. Louis.

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

The best part is the "fight" between team mascots which starts at about 1:16, great capture!

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

I know when this segment was: Friday around lunch time. My teams pits are second from the right in the front row. We were in inspection for TWO HOURS!

Silly bumpers...

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

Thanks! When I saw that starting I just had to get pictures of it too, it was absolutely hilarious and fun to watch. One of the things I love about these regionals is seeing how the teams interact, and the "battle of the mascots" was just too good. I saw them talking afterward, they both looked like they had fun with it. :P

Actually, this was on Thursday, but it was around lunch time...could definitely tell the inspection line was really long by then.

On an unrelated note, my Thursday pictures can be found on my Flickr gallery. If anyone wants to use them, let me know and I can set you up with versions that don't have my watermark on them, free of charge.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/coredes...7626469274022/

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

Team 2068 had a great time at the Virginia regional despite having a larger than usual number of "challenges" to overcome this year. A huge thank you to the NASA Knights (122) and Powerhawks (1111) for selecting us to join your alliance! It was an honor to play with you and hopefully we didn't let you down. It is a very pleasant surprise being picked when you are ranked so far down the list that you don't even show up on the alliance selection box. Honestly I didn't think anyone would take a chance on us.

Thanks to the Mech Tech Dragons (422) for lending us your mini-bot; we were very pleased to see you win the Coopertition award! Also a very special thanks to MORT (11) for lending us SuperShifter parts to repair one of our transmissions; iLITE Robotics (1885) for lending us tools to tap out the dog shaft coupler to repair the other SuperShifter; Norview Pilots (1793) for the loan of the Jaguar; and the RoboRaiders (75) for coming by and offering a hand. All the help sure made us feel like y'all had our backs.

Congratulations to Blue Cheese (1086) on another well deserved RCA! And while we were sorry to see our friends on the top seeded alliance lose in the finals, the winning alliance of Raider Robotics (25), The Pascack PI-oneers (1676), and the Defenders of the Multiverse (1522) certainly earned the hard fought victory. We wish you the best of luck in St. Louis!

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

Yeah It was Thursday. Darn it if the days don't run together! :)

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

Thanks for the kind words! Our team has worked really hard to pull ourselves up the learning curve as quickly as possible. While we still have a way to go, it's been nice to be recognized as much as we have been the last few weeks. We seriously felt like rock stars at Palmetto, and we made so many new friends. It all still seems like a dream in so many ways. Our tally over the last two weeks:

Palmetto Regional Winners
Palmetto Regional Engineering Excellence Award
Virginia Regional Finalists
Virginia Regional Woodie Flowers Award
Virginia Regional Industrial Design Award
Virginia Regional Dean's List Award (Michael Snider)

Not a bad couple of weeks and our first trip to the Championship awaits! What more could we ask for??

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

We'd like to post a word of thanks to team 1885 and team 540 for the great effort in the elimination matches. We are particularly grateful to 1885 for sticking with us when it looked like our robot was suddenly down for the count following the quarterfinal matches. I was absolutely amazed that we were able to get it repaired as quickly as we did. Talk about willing something back together!! It was fun playing with you guys. Maybe we can catch up at the Championship.

To teams 25, 1676, and 1522 -- you guys were great together. The comebacks in the quarterfinals and the semifinals seemed to give you a level of confidence that couldn't be undone, and our alliance just didn't play our best at the most critical of times. You guys definitely deserved the win. Best of luck to you guys in St. Louis!

Team 3625 -- We are so excited for you that you won the Rookie All-Star Award! It was fun working with you guys and we hope you're able to make it to the Championship!

To team 11, MORT -- we really have enjoyed interacting with you both at Palmetto and at Virginia, and we can't thank you enough for scooping up all of our pit equipment and carrying it to our pit for us! Sorry that it didn't work out that we could team up in the elimination matches. That would have really been fun. We look forward to seeing you guys again in St. Louis. And congratulations on the Engineering Excellence Award. It is much deserved!


To teams 122, 384, and 2068, thanks for cheering for us. It's great to have you guys as our friends.

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

As happy as I was to see Jersey come home with a blue banner, I can't help but feel bad for 11. 2nd seed alliance yet again, and yet again bad luck.

Keep your heads up guys.

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

I just got done uploading 184 more photos from the VA regional. This time it's Friday's photos.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/coredes...141770/detail/

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

A couple more acknowledgments from 2363:

Team 75: Our partners in the effort to get a minibot working for 3625. We supplied the minibot and "launchpad". 75 did a ton of the work on the swingarm deployment mechanism. Our whole team was cheering when 3625 came out for their final qualifier carrying the minibot.We were rooting for them to score, but, alas, 'twas not to be.

Team 3168: Our only qualifying match loss happened when our minibot, Gamma Ray, was struck by something during the match hard enough to bend the probe on the travel limit switch, and deactivate the minibot. 3168 provided us with lexan, which we used to construct a "Gamma Ray Shield" protecting Gamma Ray during day two. (Also thanks to Will Weaver, whose great photos allowed me to determine which team deserved credit.)

Team 1676: During the major repair work mentioned by Matt, above, we were unable to locate some critical #10-32 nuts in our pit, due to a mislabled parts box. Our pit neighbors, team 1676, generously supplied us with those parts, which enabled us to finish our repairs and go on to compete against them in the finals. This is the very definition of gracious professionalism. 1676, you are a class act and great ambassadors for your state.

Todd Ferrante
mentor, FIRST team 2363, Triple Helix

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

Team 11 had a great time at the Virginia regional but most likely won't return next year. There were too many disappointments regarding the minibot tower sensors and the referees.

However, it was a great run with 1895 and 339 advancing into the semi-finals.

Hopefully our bad luck runs out in time for St. Louis.

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

Keep your head up man, 11's got an awesome machine this year.

IT'S LIKE A DINOSAUR RIDING A ROCKET SHIP.

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

Agreed. MORT played like champs and have a great robot. We have great respect for them and they were at the top of our pick list. This year more than ever before one little thing going wrong in a match cankill the whole tournament. Such is the luck of First teams

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

Thanks for taking all these videos and photos.
I can prove to my wife that I spent the weekend there. :)

Congratulations to Blue Cheese for a well deserved Chairman's award, and special thanks for all the support they provided Team 2402 throughout this season. Mentors and students made an hour and a half round-trip drive to Fredericksburg throughout the build to help with design/build as well as the team Chairman's presentation.

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

Sorry that you are letting some unfortunate events keep you from enjoying such a great weekend. There was so much more going on during those three days than the 30 minutes or so your robot was on the field.

Good luck to you in St. Louis.

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

Having attended many many events with Lisa as a head ref, she is one of the better refs I have witnessed. She's generally fair and consistent with her rulings. I find it a little distressing to see so much discussion of referee decisions, in generally what seems to be a negative light, in this thread. Even so far as one team declaring they won't be returning because of it.

Please, try and be objective. One side or the other is always going to be upset about a referee's decision. Don't make rash decisions and posts based out of emotion.

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

pssst, GSR! ;)

Congrats to 1058 on getting everything working for Virginia! I really hope you guys can make it to St. Louis somehow! Getting calls while in Boston for scores/results/strategy was fun and at least you guys didn't go down without a fight. Hopefully next time you can keep everything working for elims! ;)

Congrats to 25, 1676, and 1522 for taking it all in such a tough event!

Even bigger congrats to team 1086 on their Chairmans win! :)

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

Agreed. I had the pleasure of meeting Lisa over the weekend and she was incredibly fair.

There were some issues with the sensors on the minibot towers, but referees and scorekeepers are not allowed to give points for those simply because they saw a minibot go up. I, along with others, were talking to Lisa about this after the competition and she, too, agreed that it was incredibly unfortunate and somewhat frustrating that field issues were keeping teams from being awarded the points. Again, however, that falls outside of the referees' jurisdiction/purview and they really can't do anything about. I really hope people will take notice of that before pointing a finger at those staffing the competition. If it really is an issue, perhaps talking to the FTA about it would be more effective, since they are in charge of the functioning of the actual field, though I'm not sure how much they'd be able to fix it, either. It seems that some fields certainly work better than others this year, though.

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

Meh, there seemed to be a problem with Red's Right minibot tower. Something about it was out of whack -- we could deploy our primary minibot on the other 3 towers fine (once we figured out a bad limit switch issue), but the 3 times we were on that tower (including the 2nd Finals match), the minibot didn't quite stick, or make it far enough, or ... something. Alignment was fine due to a nice 'V', and distance bot-to-base was verified ok too. 2363's minibot had a couple of issues with it too.

Ref calls with Lisa have always been fair to the letter of the rule in the 6 years we've played on her fields, and 1885 has been on both sides of them too. She even invoked rule <T06> for "egregious [unsportsmanlike] behavior" at the elims driver meeting to prevent human players from 'sniping' tubes off of opponents' robots. We asked her about her decision since "Unsportsmanlike" is subjective in any case and there's a Q&A post on that specific issue stating it's not prohibited under the game rules (and tube-sniping isn't unsportsmanlike in some opinions so long as the robot isn't damaged). However, it's still a fair ruling under her wording since <T06> is the Head Ref's discretion.

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

On slightly different note:

I know I passed many of you CD'ers in the pits, stands and/or Queuing and I had no idea who you were. Maybe next year we all need to where "AKA" badges or something so I can start putting faces/people with these handles.

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

That's a good idea. I think I'll do that next year. I'm also thinking about going to more than just the VCU Regional; if I can get more time off maybe I'll go to the Chesapeake Regional too (probably can't go to the DC one).

Also, on another note, I'll end my recent rash of picture gallery spam and announce that my photos from Saturday are now up on my Flickr page. There's not as many because I wasn't there for nearly as long (too much pain from Friday!), but what's there is still pretty good.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/coredes...453593/detail/

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

Perhaps I'm stretching this a bit, but couldn't The Head Ref chose to overrule Team Update #18 under Tournament Rule <T04>?

Again, I may be stretching <T04> a bit, so please correct me if I am wrong.

I believe the Disappointment Coming From the 11 Crowd Stems from the fact that they triggered the tower successfully numerous other times, but somehow in the final match the tower did not Trigger. Based on 11's previous Deployments and Ascents, assuming that nothing on their minibot was changed, the Tower "Should Have" Triggered since they've done it so many times before - leading them to believe that there was some sort of issue with the tower or field system.

Their Disappointment is completely understandable, though bashing refs isn't the best way to work things out.

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

I looked for you a few times, but you weren't in the pit when I went by.
I think your team may have been sitting in the stands behind us during opening ceremonies on Friday.

The lead inspector for Long Island and I actually found it quite refreshing to be unknown in Richmond. At home people are usually looking for us for one reason or another, but neither of us know many people down here, other than the NJ teams.

Kate the FTA recognized me when my team had a problem on the field, but she had to ask why she knew me, because I was so out of place-400 miles from home and wearing a different team shirt threw her off. She knows me as a team leader from Hauppauge. I only had to say "Hauppauge" (pronouncing it correctly) and she made the connection. I need a haircut too... :)

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

Did the tower not trigger at all or was it disabled by the referee? The field crew tested the towers multiple times each day, directly after matches in which the tower did not trigger, and before scores for the match were displayed. The emcee even announced the tower tests to the audience a few times.

This is more than likely the same problem as other regionals where the tiny minibot contacts the bolt, but not the lexan, and therefore doesn't trigger the tower.

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

If you go bald, we may not recognize you for a few months... :p

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

It has to be a problem with the smaller minibots. My team's 7 lbs minibot went up both red polls and triggered them each time. in match 3 we triggered the same poll that didn't trigger the match before.

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

The earlier response from 11 was a poor choice of wording. The refs followed the rules to the letter, and did nothing wrong. I personally didn't interact with the field staff at all, but heard great things about them. Our disappointment lies in the fact that we were having minibot issues earlier, and once we finally get everything working the field didn't register the hit. It's tough to see the students do everything in their power, and do everything right, only to lose due to something out of their control.

I've been told it's physically impossible for our minibot to contact the bolt, so at the moment I've got no idea why the minibot didn't register. That was the first time in two regionals the tower didn't trigger for us (15+ successful triggers).

Overall, it was a fun regional, we got to play with some old friends, see new friends again, and meet even more new friends. We are all chomping at the bit for another chance to compete, and can't wait to see you all again in St. Louis.

Congrats to 25, 1676, 1522 on the regional win. We had some great matches together, and regardless of the outcome, they were some of the most intense matches I've been a part of in a long time. I'd love to see some footage of our semi-final matches if anyone has it.

Also a big congrats to 2363 on the Woodie Flowers Finalist. You guys are an awesome team and it was great to see you guys again. Its a shame we didn't get to work together, but hopefully we'll get another chance in St. Louis.

There really were tons of great teams at the regional, I saw so many teams helping out others who were having problems I literally couldn't name them all if I tried. So thanks to all of you unsung heroes, making sure there were as many robots on the field as possible.

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

Thanks for the shout out. I can honestly say that nobody in the arena was more surprised than I was! It is truly special.

I wasn't aware of the tower difficulties in the elimination matches. We were in our own little zone, I suppose. I'm really sorry to hear that it impacted your competitiveness. Somehow, we managed to escape the competition without having any problems with the towers. I guess that we were one of the lucky few.

Best of luck to you at the Championship. We'll stop by to say hi if we're not in the same division as you guys.

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

A BIG thanks to 422 for picking us for their aliance, and also thanks to 612 for being great alliance partners!

Congrats to 25, 1676, and 1522 on the Regional victory, you guys fought hard for it and deserve it!

Congrats to team 1086 on the Regional Chairman's win and congrats to team 1885 for the Regional Engineering Inspiration, as well.

75 enjoyed the Virginia Regional, once again! It's such a well run event and we loved every minute of it, Thanks!

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

I want to throw a little shout out to Team 75. You guys are a model team, so much to the point our officers have contacted your officers/captains for ideas from team structure down to team shirt policies. You always know when your team's in the building...
"SEVENTY. FIVE! SEVENTY. FIVE!"

I'm sorry to hear Team 11 isn't planning returning because of the referees. Talking to Lisa about the minibot trigger rule when we lost in our qualification match (against 75 of all teams XD) and you could tell that while she didn't approve of the rule, she knew it was her duty to uphold the rules. She knew when we got DQ'd in the quarterfinals, that was a rule not instituted based on her beliefs of how the game should run, but what FIRST believes should happen.

I respect that.

To all the teams planning on coming back next year:
One thing I love about downtown Richmond is the food. Since I go to school 4 blocks from the Siegel Center, I can vouch for minor indoctrination to Richmond culture.

While you have chain staples on Broad Street, you can find the gem Bo'dillaz on the other side of Broad next to the Arts School (everything is an awesome quesadilla!). And in the Shockoe Bottom, we have long-standing establishments like Bottom's Up Pizza and River City Diner.

There are so many great things to do and places to eat in Richmond--so much so that I am documenting them not only for my team, but also as a reference to any out-of-town friends.

Not to rag on the NJ or Chesapeake Regionals, but Trenton had a Taco Bell, Chesapeake had a JimmyJohns and a Subway, and we have all of that and a dozen more!

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

On a side note: I know that Chesapeake has more to offer than you listed, and I know NJ has more to offer than you listed. I have been to both Regionals twice (at their current locations). The places you talk about I did not see while I was at Virginia.

Maybe since you are familiar with the area, you know where these little hide-aways are located.

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

Sounds like it might be a good idea for someone to publish a pamphlet detailing food listings for the area, I know one of the teams did so this year (1522?).

Richmond's got a lot of great food options, even within a close walk of the Siegel Center (Jamaica House, Qdoba, Tropical Smoothie, Five Guys, Extreme Pizza, Chipotle, Panera Bread, Sakura, Great Wraps, etc...). Bottoms Up is also a great choice, their pizza is absolutely divine (alas, I can't eat it because I have celiac disease, but I've had it before!). Further out, there's Jason's Deli, Plaza Azteca, Outback Steakhouse, etc...

I'd better stop before I end up being the one making said pamphlets, and I'm not really associated with a team anymore! :P

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

As far as counter-service establishments within walking distance of the respective venues, I would have to disagree. However, things in the Shockoe Bottom or on Grace, Main, or Cary Street in Richmond aren't within good walking distance (<5mins) from the Siegel Center.

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

ya that was us, but our team didn't do a very good job of distributing them. It was partially due to the fact that a lot of our members are new so all they wanted to do was sit in the stands and partially due to the fact that we didn't have a completely satisfactorily working robot until late Friday

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

I think you all should make it a point to try again next year; I picked up one of the pamphlets and thought it was well done, it could prove very useful. You should drop some off at pit admin next year if you have the chance! :)

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

Well, if we're gonna beat you, we insist that you be operating at your very best, otherwise it's no fun.

Class act goes both ways, your guys helping 3625 (who then won RCA) was great, a sea of yellow shirts really livened up the place !
Fully agreed. I don't know her name (well, now I do...), and indeed some of the calls were disappointing - but every call was as fair as could be. No issues there.
I might not return to the Virginia Regional because I gained so much weight from the excellent food there! :yikes: Jus' kiddin'. a few hours on the treadmill can fix that.

Seriously, NJ has some food choices, but it cannot compare to Richmond even a little. And NJ is our home regional. Jamaica House rocks!

I said it before, I'll say it again: Virginia has friendly people, great volunteers, a wonderful venue, a wonderful location (e.g. good food, parking, stores for robot parts, etc.) and tough competition. Nobody could want anything more.

Re: 2011 Virginia Regional @VCU
 

Have the videos of the recorded webcast been posted anywhere yet? I checked TBA and didn't see any. I know there was at least one team recording the webcast.