I'm exhausted, in a good way.
Every Regional begins and you wonder how it will develop and will it be exciting.
This one was.
Congrats to the aforementioned 125 NUTRONs, 126 Gael Force, and 1511 Rolling Thunder on their championship.
The semifinals were hot, with 1100 the T-Hawks, blocking 3173 the IgKnighters FCS with resounding cracks. 3173 at one point knocked their blocker off.
3780 Robot Unicorn Attack surprisingly found themselves as the 5th seed and did a great job scouting to get two steals in 229 Division by Zero and 1153 the Robo-Rebels. 3780 had a relatively simple Robot that dumped in the 1-point goal. They benefitted from a favorable match schedule and picked brilliantly, getting two great late improving shooters while they played essential defense to take them to the semifinals, losing by less than 10 points in each match. Oh, for the want of a climb, the match was lost.
Gael Force is back in the house with their first Regional win in four years and taking home the RCA. They and the NUTRONs would do their 10 point climb that engaged after the Buzzer sounded. (Five Second Rule)
Rolling Thunder got their first win since 2005 to go along with the GP award (also at FLR) and the IS award.
846 The Funky Monkeys, all the way from San Jose, got their ticket to St. Louis punched with the EI award. In the Eliminations, they gave up on shooting and spent the entire match protecting 3173 in the corner with their FCS, more than once pushing Rolling Thunder all the way across the field. It almost worked. I think their shooter was actually broken. 88 managed the Wombo Combo Slamma Jamma with a 30 point climb and four disc dump in their final match. 846 has yet to win a Regional in 11 years, hopefully it will happen at SVR. Monkey Poofs anyone?
The lesson is that for a FCS to win at the remaining Regionals and Championships, they're gonna need a great defensive bot with good traction.
They were beaten by two great cyclers.
Time will tell if an FCS can beat rapid cyclers.
Start scouting.
The Cyber Gnomes came all the way from Ontario, not to escape the cold but those BFFs in Toronto.
They have had some transitions to make with the Ontario teachers action and had a list of sponsors from their community of Clearview Township that surely would violate the FMS bandwidth limit. They build their Robot at JT Snowmobile Shop and their robot includes snowmobile parts. Probably not COTS in Florida, but here in the Northeast? Sure. Hopefully 2013 will get a win in 2013 next week at GTR West. When they are fully functional, they can shoot and climb with the best.
383, The Brazilian Machine were back in Boston and were on their game by the end. IMHO, they were overlooked in the Alliance Selections. They should fare better in DC next weekend.
I would say the same for 23 PNTA. Good shooting and climbing. A shame that they won't have a second regional to improve in.
3236 TriForce had the most entertaining climb, I think they made 30 points once or twice. In it's early climbs it was doing pull-ups, up, and down, and up, and down. Then they finally got in their groove and would climb to the top, only to fall to the floor (once landing on 23), Then they would rush back to the lowest rung for a 10 point climb. They had these round lead sinker weights on their robot that looked like truck nuts. When they fell, the weights would fly off in all directions making the audience think that they had broken many parts
Gracious Professionalism was evident all around. The best example was when 88 fell from the top with a crash and silenced the crowd. By the time they got back to their pit, dozens of teams were waiting to offer their assistance.
I will post some videos shortly including one of the weirdest climbers you will ever see from 2084 Robotsbythe-C, a greatly improved 3958 Schrodinger's Cat, whose mentor Joe Johnson has been in FIRST forever, won the WFFA.
Thank you to all of the volunteers, judges, and teams. Kudos to the GDC.