Best Robots Not At Championship, 2012 Edition

[Billfred]

We haven't had a thread like this one for a few years that I can remember, but considering the expanded size of Championship and the collective gasp when some high-caliber teams have finished their last regional without a banner...

The Rules:
* Check the Championship roster to confirm your picks. (Mind you, the Michigan and MAR invitees may not be on this list yet.)
* Anyone who mentions their own team should be showered in a firestorm of negative Reputation. If you really should be on this list, odds are someone will mention you.

With that said, here are my picks from the events I attended:

343. Metal In Motion had a plenty smooth robot this year, robust and handling the bridges with ease. They knocked us out at Peachtree in the quarters as part of the #8 alliance on their way to the finals, and we returned the favor in the Palmetto finals the following week. It's a hard break to see them finish this season with two silver medals. (Indeed, ever since they won Palmetto in 2010, every field they've played on--Newton that year, Palmetto and North Carolina in 2011, and Peachtree and Palmetto in 2012--they left with silver.)

1771. Our friends from North Gwinnett had the robot to beat in Georgia, leading to a showdown with #1 1311 in the penultimate qualification match. Put those two together, and we thought it was on lock (even before they picked us). Quarterfinals gremlins gave us a shock, and that was supposed to be that for their season--but these guys got into high gear and raised the funds to get to North Carolina. They wound up on the other end of the bracket from 1311 again, netting silver.

Who comes to mind for you?

[Richard Wallace]

Uhh, ... 217?

Missed qualifying at MSC by 1 pt.

[Sean Raia]

I was about to say... Where the heck are the thunder chickens??

[waialua359]

Is it true that 71 and 217 are NOT attending CMP this year?

368, 1056 from HI get my vote.
368 has been a regular for years........too bad not this year.

I'm so glad we will never be on such a list.....

[JackS]

2168 - 2 #1 seeds NYC and CT. Control system issues doomed both their alliances before the finals.

[Karthik]

71 - 4 World Championships, 5 Einstein appearances (gave them credit for Einstein in 1997, even though it didn't exist)
177 - 2 World Championships, 7 Einstein appearances
217 - 2 World Championships, 6 Einstein appearances

8 Championships, 18 Einsteins. It actually makes me sick to think of Championships without these three teams.

Other top teams who are missing out:

294 - 2 World Championships, and an amazing alliance partner for us last year.
1625 - One of the top teams in FIRST over the past 5 years
1730 - One of the up and coming future powerhouse teams
188, 829 & 2168 - Lumped them together because the situations are similar. Great robots, great qualification performances, but bad luck in the elimations.

[Peter Matteson]

Add me to the list of people who were impressed by 2168. They deserved a trip and the fact they were knocked out by controls system issues at back to back regionals is criminal.

Also it isn't a valid championship without the Beast, 71, Team Hammond. Until some one else gets 4 they are standard of excellence in FIRST for on field excellence. They way they run that team is a bar of off field excellence as well.

I will put in an honerable mention for 2791. They were the class of the BAE regional until their control failure that they never seemed to have fully recovered from at CT.

[thefro526]

I'll toss my vote in for 2168 as well. They're likely the 'best' robot not at the CMP.

On the subject of 71, one of the teams that inspired me way back when I started FRC, you'd think that winning 4 Championships would get them an auto bid to CMP - or something.

[TrevorJ]

This thread exemplifies why there shouldn't be buy-ins for the championship. With a field of up to 400 robots, there is no reason for so many excellent robots to miss the event. We shouldn't be saying that we have to wait for IRI before the best of the best are all in one place. In place of buy-ins, FIRST should have "at-large" spaces to fill the field with. A points system similar to the FiM and MAR point systems should be used for determining these spots. The 100 or so best robot performances by points at any regional, as well as the FiM and MAR championships, are invited to fill the "at-large" spaces in St. Louis.

[Mr. Van]

We really shouldn't be surprised by great teams not making it to the Championships - especially this year. The 3-team serpentine alliance selection system increases the likelihood that the "3rd best" team will not win. In fact, it assures that at least one of the regional winners will not be among the best robots (if any scouts at the event have done their job). With Coopertition Points re-arranging the ranking so much this year, there is an even greater chance that the "best" teams are not ranked as highly as they might be. They get more evenly distributed and only one alliance gets the win.

The district model seems to help this situation, but most of us are not in districts yet.

- Mr. Van
Robodox

[techtiger1]

I'm alittle suprised to see numbers like 188 and 910 not on the CMP list, even without seeing their robots.

[JohnSchneider]

Originally Posted by Mr. Van

We really shouldn't be surprised by great teams not making it to the Championships - especially this year. The 3-team serpentine alliance selection system increases the likelihood that the "3rd best" team will not win. In fact, it assures that at least one of the regional winners will not be among the best robots (if any scouts at the event have done their job). With Coopertition Points re-arranging the ranking so much this year, there is an even greater chance that the "best" teams are not ranked as highly as they might be. They get more evenly distributed and only one alliance gets the win.

The district model seems to help this situation, but most of us are not in districts yet.

- Mr. Van
Robodox

I dont know about that considering that some of the ones people are complaining about are from the District system.

[Basel A]

Originally Posted by animenerdjohn

I dont know about that considering that some of the ones people are complaining about are from the District system.

Speaking from Michigan, my primary complaint is not that the district point system is really bad at selecting teams to qualify for the Championship, because I realise that our system is a significant improvement over the regional system in that respect. My primary complaint is that Michigan is allotted spaces based on the number of teams/regionals here 3 years ago. Michigan, based on our number of teams, should be given more slots (~4 regionals for 190 teams) than 18 (3 regionals for 132 teams). I think it would be fair to reduce the number of buy-ins to increase the number of qualifiers. This would mostly alleviate my concerns about really good Michigan teams not making the Championship.

[tim-tim]

As of now 217 is not competing in the champs. They are the first alternate if any of the qualifying teams from MSC cannot attend.

In the event that they do not qualify, they (217) would make my list along with 177, 188, 71, 1771, 368, 1625, and 3138 are some of the few that stick out to me at the moment.

There were a lot of others on the list that were able to clinch in week 6 or during MSC/MARC.

[GCentola]

177. They continually build great robots and have been a sure-fire ticket to Einstein for the past few years. They have a solid robot this year, and it will be wierd to not have them at CMP.