Predictions Week Six: Capping Off the Season

[Looking Forward]

As the regional season draws to a close, it has become apparent how much Recycle Rush has evolved already. Qualification averages have climbed by more than 40% since the opening weekend of the season. The dominance of coopertition in seeding has diminished and long gone are the cries that airborne litter’s value overpowers other game elements. No longer are the corners of the field graveyards for toppled totes. And with district championships starting this weekend and the big show in St. Louis just around the corner, the next steps should be every bit as exciting.

Even as the average teams have improved, the top flight teams have continued to push the pace. Recycle Rush can often be about who can literally reach higher, grab faster, and lift more. Unlike the past couple seasons, where advantages in mechanism design were typically subtle refinements and frequently secondary to driver skill, how a machine is built can be the determining factor between teams on one tier and the next. While alliances have found success building walls of four stacks, the top tier teams are now building fortresses constructed of fourty-two point towers. The mid-weeks of Recycle Rush were an evolution of how teams can play the game effectively in general. These final weeks will show how the top tier teams will face off against one another.

Indiana FIRST District Championship:
The inaugural season of the Indiana district system will come to a conclusion ten miles from where it started back in week one. With thirty-two of Indiana's fourty-nine competitors this season poised to compete once again, there is plenty of history established already. With only three qualifying events in Indiana, every team is guaranteed to have competed against one another at least once this season already. 234 is the only team in the state to win two events this season, but they are anything but a prohibitive favorite. Cyber Blue utilized a ridiculous coopertition total (440!) to seed on top in Purdue and some great litter totals gave them the edge in qualifications at Kokomo. 135, 1024, 1501, 1747, and 5188 can all go tote-for-tote with 234. With virtually all of Indiana's top teams being closely matched HP loaders, the serpentine may be a huge factor. Stealing bins from the step has largely been a clumsy affair in the Hoosier state thus far, with teams like 292 and 447 burrowing through the landfill to reach them. If a top flight canburglar emerges, it will be interesting to see if one of the big scorers scoops it up early in alliance selection and hopes to get one of the next tier of stackers, such as 71, 829, 3494, 3947, or 5402 at the backend of the draft. With this much parity, the battle in Indianapolis is poised to go down to the wire.

(PNW) Pacific Northwest District Championship:
Sixty-three teams will converge on Eastern Washington University, the new site of the PNW District Champtionship, to compete for the honor of being called the second ever Pacific Northwest FRC champions. 4488 and 1983 met in the finals last season, with Skunkworks coming out on top, and have five combined wins this season (all from the #1 seed). Shockwave and Skunkworks have yet to clash in 2015, but as PNW's top feeder station stackers, and both equipped with canburglars, they're both favorites for deep runs. Defending champs 1318 also has three event wins this season, twice with their customary allies Skunkworks, and is the most proven landfill miner in the Northwest so far. But IRS lags behind in can acquisition and has a little more inconsistency in their game than the top two teams. 2471 and 3574 have a chance at slipping by IRS as the first landfiller off the board during alliance selection, though neither have quite as impressive of a resume. 955 and 3663 will lead the next wave of corner loaders aiming at putting together a length run, followed closely by 2550, 2990, and 4061. If one of those teams can find a steal in the second round and consistently get cans from the step, they may be able to assemble a strong 1-2-3 punch and challenge in the finals. The utility knife play of 2522 or 4911, the autonomous scoring of 948 or 2046, or the shorter stacking of 360 or 1595 could prove to be the X-Factor on the right alliance. It should be exciting to see which teams are ready to step up and stand out in a much larger and more competitive event.

Silicon Valley Regional:
It's a new year, yet the same story at SVR. While there's quite the flock of quality teams among the 58 team roster, the victors will likely be decided by how the top four pair up. Just like 2014, that top four is 254, 368, 971, and 1678. While the undefeated storyline doesn't quite play as well in 2015, these four are once again the most established scoring powerhouses heading into the oldest regional in the West. Kika Mana has had the least time to improve since their last outing, but established themselves as a premier landfill miner. The Poofs will be looking to ditch the bottleneck of the chute door in order to raise their total output to the top 1% levels they demand of themselves. Citrus Circuits are coming in looking for their first triple victory season, and will be making refinements to continue getting faster at everything they do. Spartan Robotics lags slightly behind the top tier of competitors, but is still likely above the next tier of teams like 192, 846, 2035, and 2085. With the quantity of wild card spots available, the odds are favorable for 971 to be able to snag an invite to St. Louis even if they don't walk away with a banner. The can wars between 971 and 1678 are well documented already, and will likely serve as a precursor for playoffs to come. SVR will be one of the first true tests of how fast is fast when it comes to winning cans from the center.

(FIM) Bedford Event:
There's little doubt that week six is the best weekend of FiM action yet, and Bedford stands atop the pile. 548, 1023, 1189, 2137, and 4381 have already competed in the finals of a FiM event not just once, but twice, in 2015. TORC and Bedford Express rank 1st and 2nd in the FiM standing respectively, and justifiably so based on their impressive stacking machines. The Robostangs stacker is slightly behind those two in caliber, but they make up for it with lightning quick canburglars that may make them the top overall selection. 217, 3641, and 862 will each be looking to notch their second finals appearance, or preferably their first win, of the season at the event. This event should have a deeper field of quality scorers than most in Michigan this season. With the quantity of teams playing for the third time, it will be interesting to see how teams approach the event, and how much they're willing to experiment. One thing's for sure, the playoffs should bring some great action.

Arizona West Regional:
Proven playoff performers- 2122, 3309
Trying to find their Saturday afternoon mojo- 498, 1165, 1492, 1726
Rookies- None

Chesapeake Regional:
High scoring HP stackers- 1690, 2363
No shortage of stacks from the landfill- 1086, 1629
Looking to take their game to the next level- 836, 2377
Rookies- None

Lone Star Regional:
Chasing 3 Regional Wins- 118, 624
Trying for their first gold of the season- 701
Working out the kinks of their rebuilds- 231, 4587
Capable from the feeder- 1477, 2587, 2881, 3999

Midwest Regional:
Proven scorers that have won with 2481- 1756, 2451
Got things going at the right time- 1625
Trying to find playoff success- 16, 2338
Hoping for their first multi-win season- 2062

Minnesota 10000 Lakes Regional:
Five weeks to improve an impressive stacker- 525
Captained the Lake Superior finalists that lost by a combined 3 points- 2052
Most confusing pit neighbors ever- 4198, 4225
Their bot lifts- 4536

Minnesota North Star Regional:
Definite favorites- 2826
Consistent landfill miner- 3130
Should improve- 967, 2175, 3055, 3928
Defending champs making their debut- 4778

Queen City Regional:
Looking for their first banner of the year- 48, 233
Building towards their fourth straight multi-win season- 1986
Useful role players- 144, 337, 2081, 3814

San Diego Regional:
Have had five weeks to improve in hopes of qualifying- 2485
Trying to upgrade from silver to gold- 1538, 2102, 3476
Bin handlers- 399, 1266, 1572

Smoky Mountains Regional:
Established favorites- 456, 3824
Knocking on the door of gold- 2783, 3959
Looking for the right partners- 1002, 1466, 2614, 5338, 5492
Trying to rebound- 4265

Western Canada Regional:
Defending champs, won 2015 events as the final selection- 2013, 4334
2014's final selection, poised to take on a bigger role- 4719
Yet another final selection winner (IE) poised to move up in the draft- 3562
First outing in the final week of play- 26/33 teams

Windsor Essex Great Lakes Regional:
Can they top 300?- 1114, 2056
Trying to engineer an upset- 3683
Battling for a spot on the #2 alliance- 2852, 2959
Chances at least one wildcard spot vanishes- Almost certain

(MAR) North Brunswick Event:
Favorites looking for their third win of 2015- 2590
Have work left to do to reach MAR champs- 1923, 2234, 3314
Improved dramatically, but still fell short of Lehigh- 4954
Searching for gold- 11, 25, 303

(FIM) Lansing Event:
No mistake they're in the FiM top 5- 314
Near the MSC bubble- 308, 3536, 3707, 4216
Award winning rookies- 5527, 5533, 5559

(FIM) Troy Event:
Gunning for top spots in the FiM standings- 33, 2337
Ace human player- 5167
Rounding into form at the right time- 469
Trying to lock up MSC spots- 226, 818, 4130, 4961

[Street_dreamZ]

Are you a human

[DonRotolo]

S/he is indeed human.

The real question is s/he an Earthling??

[Boltman]

San Diego:

I gotta feeling that its gonna be a good game
That THIS game's gonna be a good game.

Go out and smash it
Like Oh My God ... Jump off that sofa

Let's get get it OFF

Fill up my cup
Mozoltov
Look at bot dancing

Just taking... off

Let's paint the town
We'll shut it down
Let's earn QA up..and never down
...We'll do it again and again and again and again...and again and again and again and again...

Lets do it to it and rush right through it .... "my scouting rules" and then we'll choose those other TWO who simply rulez!

Eat lunch/plan/cheesecake ....

...and with their skillz...we win/win and IN

We dance then win/win/win and IN....

...then two more: win F#1 and win F#2 ... and we all are IN!

Is their still room at the INN?

-Iron Kodiaks "an effective robot" indeed.
@2015 Recycle Rush

[Aaron (Awe-Sum)]

Goodness we got mentioned on the prediction thread
Appreciate the shoutout, and hopefully we nail down the state spot

[carpedav000]

We've got a huge surprise for the Indy district championship. Long story short, we are no longer mostly a container bot (we still have the claaaaaw).

[dodar]

Originally Posted by DonRotolo

S/he is indeed human.

The real question is s/he an Earthling??

You can be human and not an Earthling?

[orangemoore]

One small correction, 2481 is not competing at Midwest this year.

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by orangemoore

One small correction, 2481 is not competing at Midwest this year.

Don't think LF said they were. LF pointed out two teams that had previously won events with 2481 were at Midwest.

Originally Posted by dodar

You can be human and not an Earthling?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranger_in_a_Strange_Land

[Wayne Doenges]

FRC Team 1501 T.H.R.U.S.T. will have a few surprises at the Indiana State Championship

[carpedav000]

Originally Posted by Wayne Doenges

FRC Team 1501 T.H.R.U.S.T. will have a few surprises at the Indiana State Championship

Oh god, they perfected perfection!

[sentos153]

447 may have done something to grab your attention too

[carpedav000]

Originally Posted by sentos153

447 may have done something to grab your attention too

I'm not surprised, you guys are great as well. We've done something drastic that keeps our amazing container ability, but set our tote ability to the same caliber as 71!

[tindleroot]

Originally Posted by carpedav000

I'm not surprised, you guys are great as well. We've done something drastic that keeps our amazing container ability, but set our tote ability to the same caliber as 71!

Excited to see you guys. As for our team, let's just say that there will be three tall things during our matches instead of two

[Citrus Dad]

In SVR after their performance at Sacramento, 2085 is above 192 and 2035. 846 traditionally improves a lot from their first regional so they also could be in the running for that slot.

Note that 368 travelled with a skeleton crew last year and may be doing the same this year.