INsight: World Championship Representatives

[INsight]

Here is our INsight for the Indiana teams representing the state at the World Championships this week in St. Louis:

1024 - Kil-A-Bytes - Carson

The Kil-A-Bytes will be making their 9th trip to the World Championships and go into St. Louis with huge momentum, having swept all of the events within Indiana. They are one of the 2 teams representing Indiana at this week’s Championship that has made it to Einstein carpet (2008 - Overdrive). They will look to contend in their division against the other powerhouse teams.

Past Championship Appearances: 2015 - Carver, 2011 - Curie, 2009 - Curie, 2008 - Archimedes & Einstein, 2007 - Newton, 2006 - Curie, 2005 - Galileo, 2004 - Archimedes

868 - TechHOUNDS - Carson

The Indiana District Chairman’s Award winners will be attending their 11th World Championships and are the other team representing Indiana to make it to Einstein (2004 - First Frenzy / Raising the Bar). They bring a very competitive robot that guided alliances to wins at both the Walker Warren District event and the Queen City Regional.

Past Championship Appearances: 2014 - Newton, 2013 - Archimedes, 2012 - Galileo, 2010 - Newton, 2009 - Archimedes, 2008 - Newton, 2006 - Newton, 2005 - Newton, 2004 - Galileo & Einstein, 2003 - Archimedes

4103 - Roborioles - Archimedes

These first-time event winners and State Champions will also be first-timers at World Championships. The Roborioles have been around for 5 years and have made a huge jump in performance for this year. They will be flying high off of their win and will look to use their climbing ability to attract a quality alliance within their division.

Past Championship Appearances: None

1501 - Team THRUST - Archimedes

Team THRUST will be heading into St. Louis for the 5th time in their team’s history and will be looking to make a breakthrough. They qualified on district points and will look to remain as competitive as they have within the 4 district events they attended. Their automated / vision controlled scoring ability will make reaching the increased tower strength very attainable for their alliances.

Past Championship Appearances: 2015 - Carson, 2014 - Curie, 2012 - Curie, 2007 - Archimedes

1747 - Harrison Boiler Robotics - Archimedes

The pandas from Harrison Boiler Robotics will be taking their talents to St. Louis for the 7th time as a District Point Qualifier. They will be looking to leverage the lessons learned from winning the Tippecanoe and Perry Meridian District events into a competitive eliminations run at their division.

Past Championship Appearances: 2013 - Archimedes, 2012 - Galileo, 2010 - Curie, 2009 - Curie, 2008 - Curie, 2006 - Galileo

135 - Penn Robotics Black Knights - Carson

The Indiana State Engineering Inspiration Winners will be making their 16th trip to the World Championship and will also be a competitive team to represent Indiana. Their high goal shooting and climbing robot will be able to meet whatever expectations their alliance partners will ask of them.

Past Championship Appearances: 2015 - Archimedes, 2014 - Curie, 2013 - Curie, 2011 - Curie, 2009 - Newton, 2008 - Archimedes, 2007 - Galileo, 2006 - Galileo, 2005 - Newton, 2004 - Galileo, 2003 - Curie, 2001 - Galileo, 2000, 1999, 1998 - “Nationals”

45 - TechnoKats - Archimedes

The TechnoKats have steadily improved as the season has progressed. After being the reliable low-goal scoring robot to round out the 1024 & 1747 combination at Tippecanoe, they added high-goal scoring capabilities for their repeat at Perry Meridian. At State, they were able to outrank their former alliance members and captain the number 3 seed.

Past Championship Appearances: 1992 - Present, 1998 World Champions

1529 - CyberCards - Carver

The CyberCards brought home the title of State Champions to their school, one that last won themselves a State Champion in a sport in 1981/1982 with a Girls Cross-Country championship (Source: IHSAA). Southport High School should be extremely proud of their robotics team, which made one of the most effective, simplistic robots. With their experienced drive team, they are definitely ready to compete at their 1st ever trip to World Championships in their 12th year of existence.

Past Championship Appearances: None

461 - Westside Boiler Invasion - Tesla

The original Purdue team will be invading the World Championship for the 11th time after grabbing the final District Points Qualifier position in the state. Throughout this season, they’ve consistently scored boulder after boulder in the high goal. Will they have the firepower to keep up with the rest of the competition in their division? We think so.

Past Championship Appearances: 2012 - Curie, 2010 - Newton, 2009 - Galileo, 2008 - Archimedes, 2007 - Galileo, 2006 - Newton, 2005 - Curie, 2004 - Curie, 2003 - Galileo, 2000 “Nationals”

6012 - STEAM Rollers - Galileo

These Rookie All-Stars will be representing all of the corn-fed, simple robots from Indiana and will surely be great ambassadors for Indiana. While they aren’t the flashiest or highest scoring robot, they will be fielding a reliable, defense-busting robot drivetrain.

Past Championship Appearances: None

3147 - Munster Horsepower - Curie

Team 3147 received a golden ticket via a waitlist invitation and will add to Indiana’s collection of competitive robots heading to St. Louis. It will be their 2nd trip in their 7th year of existence. Munster Horsepower will add similar abilities to an alliance as 4103 and the Roborioles; a high-goal scoring shooter with the added ability to scale the tower during the end game.

Past Championship Appearances: 2014 - Newton

Overall impressions about Indiana’s experience going into champs:

• Offensive strategies in Indiana were strong and that should be reflected in their influence on alliances they play with in St. Louis. Indiana teams bring a wide variety of robots to this year’s competition; from our high-goal specialists, to boulder manipulators, to tower scalers. One thing they all share though is their ability and dedication to breaching defenses. The breaching rate at #INCMP was ridiculous, with only 6 missed breaches (out of 156 possible) throughout the entire tournament. The #INCMP capturing rate was also impressive, with captures occurring 62.1% of the time (at least 1 of the alliances was capturing every match).

• Compared to other regions, traditional robots defending their towers/courtyard were not as prevalent in Indiana. This may lead to Indiana teams needing to adjust their offensive strategies as a result or they will be slowed down by more experienced and harassing defenders.

• In place of traditional defense, Indiana teams have instead had to face a shortage of boulders. As offensive robots scored more and more, alliances and human players were more cautious with boulder re-entry and placement, which slowed the scoring pace in Indiana. We’ll undoubtedly see this form of defense throughout the divisions in St. Louis. Will Indiana teams and their alliance partners be able to adjust?

Good luck to all of the Indiana teams playing at Championships!
And INsight will be back with more next season.

[tindleroot]

One quick note: FIRST's data for the 2001 and 2002 championships is not formatted correctly and as such most teams that competed at those championships do not show up in the database. Only the teams that were division winners/finalists show up. For this reason, I know 135 was in the 2002 Archimedes division even though the main records don't show it, and I bet 45, 461, and 868 were all at champs that year as well.