2011 Arizona Regional
 

Alright guys who's coming and who's excited about this years Arizona regional? Any predictions based on what you've seen or heard?

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

I predict that 498 will get the Beach Bots award! :)

Should be a fun regional. New venue...

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

2840's coming, and universally excited.

The new venue should be interesting. I always found the Coliseum's arena lighting to be a bit dim away from the field. Depending on how they light the new venue, robot maintenance during Elims should be quite a bit easier.

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

I'm worried about the size of the pits.

That and the power, I know from experience (electrical service calls and looking at E sheets) that most high schools really aren't set up for large events where you have 50 something groups with lots of battery chargers and power tools.

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

Team 60 is STOKED for the AZ regional this year. We've got a solid team and and awesome robot ready to compete down there.

Although we are quite worried about the size of the arena; high school gyms aren't built for this type or volume of competition. And are the pits really in the hall ways?

Whatever happens it should be an interesting experience. :D

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

Don't tell 330 that! They're undefeated in that category!

We'll see how the venue change goes, I've always had mixed feelings about the coliseum; it was nice to compete in a real "stadium" of sorts and there was a ton of room (once they moved the pits into the exhibit room, was a little cramped with everything on the main floor), but the lighting was pretty abysmal and the food policies were frustrating. With a regional the size of Arizona I am a little worried about a high school arena for it, especially since high school gyms here aren't as large as other parts of the country in my experience. Hamilton is one of the biggest high schools in the state though so if anyone can host it they'd be the place to do it. If anything just think of it as being a more "intimate" regional :p

Looking forward to this year, my spring break finally coincides with the regional again so I'll get to see all 3 days! This will be my last year doing FIRST in Arizona so I'm going to want to see the whole thing.

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

I'm looking forward to making the long drive through the desert to Phoenix, although the landmarks are starting to get familiar (Quartzite for lunch at the Quail Diner, Fraggle Rock, the Colorado, etc...).

Can't wait to see your robots! I won't be judging this year, but I will be inspecting them!

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

I am excited this year! Got a great bot and ready to Rock! Hope we put on a good show!. Anxious about new site, power and space concerns as well as doorways. It is a recession though so I guess we tough it! Glad we still have a regional!

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

I think it'll be a lot of fun! I'm volunteering for Robot Inspection this year, and helping with field construction/tear down as well. I think it'll be a great event and I'm excited to see all of the AZ teams once again.

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

Must be doing something right, 498 looked like the best team at Duel in the Desert ;) (which I need to post pictures and video of... )

The only FRC event I've attended in a high school gym was the Fall Classic in Pasadena, and while the lighting was better, it just didn't have the grandness of the Coliseum... oh well, I'm sure it'll work just as well, without the lighting issue.

By the way, are you in ece 369 at UA?

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

Glad to hear it, too much work to go and see it this year. I'm sure the regional will be exciting as always.

Yeah, I sit about 4 rows in front of you. Last class for the CE minor :D

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

its not cold here :( so don't bring a jacket lol

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

Have been hearing a lot about 498.

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

Dropped off the robot tonight, it looks like most teams opted to do it tonight rather than bring it in in the morning. The field is in the gym with stands on both sides of the field (drivers now get to hear cheering in surround sound) and is slightly lowered below the stands so everyone should get a good view of the competition. Pits are in the hallways, it appears the numbering scheme alternates between lowest number, highest number, 2nd lowest number, 2nd highest number, etc. so rookies should all get a chance to chat with veteran teams nearby. The hallways are pretty large by my standards and as long as teams adhere to the rule of not having an excessive number of people in their pit traffic shouldn't be an issue (it looks like traffic will all be on one side of the halls with all the pits on the other side).

Regional is tomorrow! I hope everyone is excited, see you there (with my blue hair again)!

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

Will there be a web cast?

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

Love it! Thank you

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

I hope the practice day was exciting for everyone! It looks like most teams got inspected though there wasn't too much practicing going on. I spent most of the day helping solve programming issues so I didn't get to see too much of other teams but there were definitely a few that looked intimidating.

And nice to meet everyone on CD who stopped by! I hope I can run into a few more of you over the next 2 days.

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

The regional is looking pretty good in its new facility, Hamilton High is a very nice campus, plenty of free parking, the pits in the hallway is working pretty good, the gym looks like it is going to be big enough to handle the crowds, and the food is decent and reasonably price. Just try and find an arena out here that can say the same thing.

Teams have been wonderful with the inspectors. Lots of cooperation and eagerness to make things work. Kudos to Karen from 842 for building us a 5V power supply to run the radios at the WPA kiosk.

Knocked out a lot of issues with radios and software versions. Some teams are trying to use last year's radios. Can't do it, and its tough to tell them they have to find a DLINK and a converter in order to compete, especially when their school is several hours away.

Be sure to have memory sticks with 2.27.11 version of the DS and v28 of the cRIO image available. Had to update many teams' DS software and a few cRIO images.

It was good to meet Andrew, nice to see CA represented by 330, always fun to see the NERDS again and 842 is always impressive to watch. Bienvenidos and buena suerte to the two teams from Mexico, you know this is going to be a loud and FUN regional when you have Fervot (3462), Tecbot (3158), and Orange Crush (1011) in the same room, going to have to dust off my earplugs :D

Well, suns coming up, time to head to Chandler.

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

What's going on in the regional...I can't see any of the results :(

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

Does anyone at the event have a schedule they could upload?

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

http://www2.usfirst.org/2011comp/eve...edulequal.html
The match schedule's online, but the match results and standings links on that page don't seem to be working.

Current Standings
 

The Event site does not have current standings. Can someone upload the data?

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

To everyone there today ... great job

Re: Current Standings
 

They're up on the FIRST site. http://www2.usfirst.org/2011comp/eve.../rankings.html

60, 330, 842, and 2449 are on the top with 7-1 records. 1011 (5-0-3), 498, 2840, and 1492 (6-2-0) round out the top 8 for now.

Now if the awards page was up...

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

Just curious, is 3785 (Gila Monsters) related to the now defunct 64?

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

WFFA: Fredi (842)

Control: 842

Delphi, web Page: 2449

Creativity: 1726

Imagery: 1011

Entrepreneurship: 3019

Animation: 3158

Volunteer: Melody

I think these are accurate, please accept my apology if not

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

Their team info lists #64 Gila Monsters as a sponsor, so there appears to be a connection (I would presume in the form of their sponsor, GM)

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

Whee, what a day! I like the new venue and the pit layout. At times the robot queuing area can get a bit crowded, but it all works out in the end.

After sorting out some issues in the early matches, partly due to the rather...large logo pieces, 2840 has made what I like to think is a pretty decent robot. Once we get our minibot to deploy properly tomorrow morning, all should be most excellent.

Props to Fervot and Tecbot for being absurdly spirited; it's like a soccer game in there!

See you all tomorrow morning, bright 'n early!

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

3785 is sponsored by the GM proving grounds, the largest sponsor of team 64. The grounds moved down to Yuma, AZ and since the teams which split from 64 after it folded don't use the gila monster theme most of it went with the sponsor it appears. Anyone at competition or that sees their logo will notice the gila monster now has a prison cap since Yuma is home to the state prison.

Lots of good matches today, I'm excited to see what the eliminations look like tomorrow when some of the top teams get together. We have a few teams with minibot deployments (330, 60, 1492, 1726, I think 842 or one other as well) and a few that have been trying or are working on it (I know we got our deployment on at the end of the day, get to test it in the morning).

Good luck tomorrow everyone!

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

842 330 2662
60 2449 1165
1492 1726 3577
3517 498 1013
2657 1164 3019
2840 486 1633
1011 1212 3785
2403 3158 3853

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

I don't know about other people watching the stream but I think this MC is great. He knows a lot about the teams playing and has tons of energy. Just wish that the MCs at more of the events had knowledge of the teams they were introducing, nothing is better than when the MC on Einstein talks about the history of the teams.

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

A big THANK YOU to the folks who gave us the TECBOT webcast!
¡GRACIAS!

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

This comes as a HUGE surprise! I thought Fredi had garnered this prestigious award eons ago. Well done, judges! Can't wait to read his WFFA essay and learn even more of his adventures and contributions.

Congratulations, Fredi!

Jane

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

Same here.
I saw the awards page and was surprised as well.
Congrats to a great teacher on a great team.

update: Congrats to the winning alliance! Was there any doubt 330 would win again? :)

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

I case you don't know, Corbin is a Crush (1011) alumnus! So yeah, he knows all about it....

I also think he did a great job

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

congrats to all that won awards! (u may remember me as the girl from plasma that ran around yelling "GOOD MORNING/AFTERNOON/EVENING"! this being my first year, i was super pleased! 2403 Plasma will be attending vegas! hope to see some of you there!

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

Something that's been bugging me a bit:

What happened to 60 in the final match? There's no way that that score would have been that lopsided if they'd been mobile, I'm certain of it!

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

(Just made an account to post on this).

Yes, that was certainly odd. Their driver station light on the field was blinking, so they might have lost communication.

I'm also wondering about the transmission they had. They tossed our box bot around with it when we played against them, but it didn't seem to come into play as much in the finals.

Great job everyone who competed, by the way. It was a tough competition.

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

George mentioned something to me afterward about "how many times do I have to tell them not to pick up the batteries by the wires?" but I don't know if that comment is related...

Anyways, fantastic job by the winning alliance! I'm especially happy for 842, having witnessed personally how hard they worked for it

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

team 60 totelly lost connection to their robot. they were scrambling to get it going but really there was nothing to do about it. oh well it was a very very good match up to the end. i hope you all enjoyed it and had fun

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

lets just say its very very beautiful. i like a team who can switch to a fast offence and a powerful defence with a flip of a switch

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

Oh no doubt. It was amazing and certainly surprising, but I'm wondering why it didn't come into play in the final rounds. I didn't see nearly as much torque being applied when they charged across the field. Or maybe that's just my observation.

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

not sure either but it could have been the fact they lost connection with their robot

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

But even in the matches prior, they should have been able to FLOOR everyone in front of them and I just didn't see it. Ah, well, it was a great matchup and both alliances definitely deserved to be there.

Also, noticed the Amon Amarth fan-ness in your signature.

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

Yup, you're right about 3785. I'm the lead mentor for the team, but we're all rookie team, mentors and students. The only connection we had was GM DPG sponsored the team.

We had a great time, and everyone was super helpful. Super happy to have made the quarterfinals. Way to go 1011 and 1212!! We're all excited about returning next year.

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

Here is a synopsis of our participation at the AZ Regional.

The MC was great!
Don Knight was fabulous!
The Pits were small and hot, drank many bottles of water!
The field was great!
Pits for the finals in the hallway were extremely cramped, and hot!

Synopsis on this year's 2011 event


4 Falcon Robotics team members recieved W.W. Graingers scholarships, Gerardo Rodriguez, Ramon Balerama, Glenda Maldanado, Mike Kanaly
1 Falcon got Made Dean's List Edwardo Fernandez, now he competes at the championships for the National Title for a scholarship and a person letter of recommendation from Dean Kamen
1 Mentor got the Woody Flowers Award,me, I feel extremely honored
The team won the Innovation in Control Award sponsored by Rockwell Automation for the control and design of their robotic arm.
The team won the robotics competition with their robot Dulce's DREAM with their allaince partners the Beach Bots, from California and RoboKrew from Tolleson HS, in Tolleson, AZ.


Highlights

Team was in 3rd after prelims on Fri
Team had only two practice matches due to redesign issues
Team had to redisign minibot deployment structure due to design error, on Thursday
Team finished 1st at the end of prelims on Sat.
Team had to replace the gripper gearbox with only minutes before the match and was finishing it at the robot was being placed on the field during the last qualifying match.
Team had to replace gripper arm that was broken with only a few minutes during the quarter finals after a robot rammed into its arm.
Team used scouting data to pick the best alliance, had three robots that could hang a tube in autonomous
Team had to go to three matches in semi to move on to final to win.
Team had CNN covering their participation in the event for a documentary about Extracurricular STEM to be aired May 15th!

all in all it was a great event for us! Now on to the Championships!

THIS IS OUR 1ST ROBOTICS WIN EVER!

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

The judges in the blue shirts don't judge the WFA. Not sure who it is done by, maybe past WFA winners?

I second Fredi getting WFA, couldn't have picked a better mentor, especially after watching him in action this week.

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

How could we miss you Kelly, you're energy, and your whole teams energy was contagious! Loved it!

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

The WFFA and WFA are indeed judged by past winners.

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

True but - those who do are still filling the roles of judges, yes? :D

I cannot imagine the work cut out for people who decide the CA or the WFFA at regional/district level much less Championship level. Or any of the awards for that matter. There's nothing better than an excellent, sometimes animated, discussion among the judges as decisions have to be whittled down to - just one. And there's nothing better than to see the joy/disbelief on the winner's/winners' face(s) and the pleasure/joy/emotion on the judges. It is magnificent and one of the things that FIRST gets right in all of the programs.

Jane

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

I would like to thank and congratulate everyone at the event.

Here are some videos of the very last match.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7HYQgn6wOc - From the side of the field
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-puPjye-6E - From the Stands

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nVcidly1Nk - From the side of the field

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

I'd like to congratulate 842, 330, and 2662 for winning the Arizona regional.
I'd also like to thank 2449 and 1165 for being outstanding alliance partners and for helping us take second place.

To clear things up regarding the last match of the regional; yes, we had a battery issue due to team members picking up batteries from the wire. The wire was hardly connected to the battery and wasn't able to give the Dlink enough juice to send a signal. We're not disappointed about losing, you guys fought hard for your place, we're disappointed for going out without a fight.

All in all, we learned alot form this regional and hope to see everyone in Las Vegas or in St. Louis :)

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

yup i am i huge fan of them

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

Congratulations to you and your alliance partners! You guys were tough!

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

see you guys in St. louis and it was a pleasure being your partner in our finest matches

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you team 330 the beach Bots and thank you team 2662 the Robokrew! You guys were the best alliance partners!
Hope to see you both in St. Louis! Maybe we can pair up again! Take care and good luck the rest of the season! The Tollison team 2662 RoboKrew did not expect to find themselves in the finals much less win, and not they are facing a catastrophic success! They need to raise the fund to attend the championships! If anyone can help please do! Contact me through CD and I will pass on the info to them. Thanks again everyone!

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

thanks! i am planing on being just as loud and energetic at Vegas! (well once my voice comes back!) this was an absolutely amazing experience!!!

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

have fun in Nevada

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

Team 330 had a great time at the Arizona regional. Aside from the overly cramped halls during eliminations, Hamilton high school served as an excellent venue for the regional. Thanks to all the volunteers.

We'd like to thank 842 and 2662 for being fantastic alliance partners. It was a pleasure working with you. Looking forward to LA and St. Louis!

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

Congratulations to 842, 330, and 2662 on the win, to Fredi for the WFA, and to 2486 the CocoNuts for the RCA! This was a fantastic Arizona regional that ran very smoothly. The venue had its ups and downs, but it was in general a bit more exciting than the coliseum. The pits were arranged well as far as finding teams was concerned, the only really cramped time was during eliminations (that back hallway was not the best place for 24 teams!).

This year was my first as a volunteer, and it definitely gave me a perspective on how much effort goes into coordinating and running an event this large. As an inspector, I want to thank all the teams for getting their robots inspected at the earliest possible chance - we only had 7 teams left at the end of Thursday, 6 of which finished before 10 on Friday, which may be a new record!

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

498 had fun. We had great partners in eliminations (3517 and 1013, thanks guys it was fun). The pits for eliminations were pretty poorly located in my opinion and the pits where too small and hot but otherwise the new location for the regional wasn't all that bad.


And as usual we have a laundry list of things to improve on as a team for next year.

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

We had a lot of fun. The arena was a whole lot better then the cavernous arena last year. It was great being so close to the field.

842 - It was great watching you improve all throughout the event. Too bad you didn't get a chance to showcase the two tube autonomous.
2662 - It's hard to believe that the robot with the most consistent autonomous was still around as the last pick of the draft
60 - That was an amazing collision at the beginning of F-1. Good luck in Vegas and see you at the championships.

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

Team 2662 RoboKrew would like to give a big thanks to Team 330 Beach 'Bot and Team 842 Falcon Robotics for selecting us to join their alliance. We were surprised and honored to compete with such outstanding teams. As Fredi said, this really is a catastrophic success! It's impossible to overstate what an impact this will have on our students. Somehow, someway, we will be in St Louis!

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

I think it'll be a bit easier than most teams have it with that travel voucher ;) I bet that was a sweet surprise for all the teams that qualified for championships!

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

We always say at the beginning of the robot build season that if you just do one thing very well, you will be in the finals! You are proof of that. The other thing is SCOUTING, nobody likes to do it, buts its critical. Scouting has been our number one asset for three years now. We use wiimotes that are connected to a laptop to record all the robots actions on the field. After we have all that data we can sort teams by any of the criteria we want. We call it reverse game play, instead of you hitting a button and something happens, something happens and we hit a button.

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

Team 2449 would like to thank all of the participant of the AZ regional for making it an awesome experience for our team, we had a ton of fun! We have struggled every year up to now and this year we were finally able to show our true potential, and had a great time doing it! I could not be more proud of my team! Teams 60 and 1165 thanks for the experience getting us to the finals, I know our students will remember that forever! I wish we were able to come through for you all in the end, as we tried hard to get our minibot and autonomous working right, as we knew, without it we would be dead in the water against 330, 842, and 2662! How could we compete with 3 Ubertubes and 2 minibots!! That was a great alliance! Congrats to everyone.

Also, I agree that the Regional at Hamilton is much nicer than the coliseum, we were worried, but it turned out great! The only glitch being the packing of all 24 teams down the dead end hall for quarterfinals. I specifically liked the environment at lunch of everyone eating together and the cozy feel of the audience to the field.

See you all next year!

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

Here are all the pictures I took at the AZ regional:

https://picasaweb.google.com/allan.n7ujj/AZFIRSTRobotics2011#

There are 674 of them. I deal in quantity, not quality! Thank God for digital cameras.

You are welcome to use any that you wish for whatever purpose you want. Feel free to pass the link or pictures to anyone who might be interested.

The collection is 842centric, but there are hundreds of others besides the Falcons. I concentrated on the Hayden kids when we realized they had a good chance of winning their first (pun intended) robotics competition.

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

Anyone have any good video or high quality action shots at the AZ regional? I have not been able to find any archives yet. We are posting what pictures we have on our web page, but we don't have many robot pictures. Thanks.

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

I have HD video of the matches that 842 played in on Saturday uploaded to youtube.

You can find them here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/0705920

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

One more great thing about the regional was the food. Great prices, short lines, plenty of choices, and if you didn't like the food, you were free to bring your own in.

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

I've posted my pictures from the Arizona Regional....

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?ai...7&l=ab5a6bede0

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

so who all from the az reg is going to St.Louis ???

Re: 2011 Arizona Regional
 

good luck