2012 Mid-Atlantic Robotics FRC Region Championship

[Foster]

Originally Posted by Deetman

Heard an interesting discussion come up down by the field during the finals. MAR champs vs. FiM champs at IRI. 341, 25, and 1640 vs 67, 469, 830. Don't know if it could happen but it would be quite a match.

Well there is always lunchtime the first day at IRI. Lots of time for a best two out of three....

[ENeyman]

I am pretty sure I remember them announcing 357 as one of those teams. I could be mistaken, but I remember thinking, "wait, didn't they already qualify at DC regional?" Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

[AGPapa]

Originally Posted by ENeyman

I am pretty sure I remember them announcing 357 as one of those teams. I could be mistaken, but I remember thinking, "wait, didn't they already qualify at DC regional?" Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

They definitely called 357. I was (and am) confused too.

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by jblay

1676 looked dominant when it played but appeared to have communication issues. Can someone clarify exactly what was going wrong?

I can try. We would lose comms, the lights on the radio were solid blue (not flickering), the RSL never missed a beat, and the cRio was up and happy every time an FTA could see the lights.

We changed radios several times, radio power supplies (and all related wiring), ethernet cables, redeployed code, re imaged the cRio, cyt the frame rate on the camera again (to 10) and a whole bunch of other things - basically, anything anyone suggested.

Here's the exact scenario, which is 100% repeatable: We power on, connect to the field, then after ~1 minute, we lose comms. Reboot the cRio, wait another ~1 minute, lose comms again. Reboot again, and comms stay solid forever. We were 100% successful with this once we stumbles upon it mid-dat Friday.

We had at least 5 FTAs look it over, and we couldn't nail it down to anything specific.

I have to call out Pete K especially for his HUGE efforts in helping us troubleshoot this thing. He graciously stayed late Thursday and ran a match for us 3 or 4 times, and graciously agreed to let us run a match with 6 robots Saturday morning (the bots were on carts, not on the field, but we were trying to ensure the wireless was properly loaded). The NI guy, and several others all gave it a great shot, but Pete was our hero for the MAR Region Championship.

From what we learned, we think we'll be able to duplicate the field conditions at home and use a packet sniffer (again) to see what's really going on.

I'm not convinced it is a field problem, but more likely a problem in our bot that makes us more sensitive to something in the field. The fact that we never failed as red but always failed as Blue is suspicious. Especially when several teams also failed as blue.

Now this bug is getting personal, we're going to find it and fix it - but maybe not in time for St Louis.

[MOEhat]

Originally Posted by rocpe

Congratulations to Teams 341, 25 and 1640 for taking the MAR Championship. Special thanks to our alliance partners 365 and 222 for taking a chance on us. It was a pleasure being a "Moe"bot during our run to the semis. Your teams exhibited only grace and professionalism under pressure and in defeat. Your programs set a shining example that we hope our program can strive to emulate and develop into in the future.

We enjoyed being on an alliance with you guys! we pushed until the last second, and proved how well we work. the other alliance definitely had to work for their wins!

[nuggetsyl]

Thank you to 341 and 1640. I do not think you will find a alliance to triple balance faster. Look forward to seeing you both at champs.

[Ryan Dognaux]

Originally Posted by AGPapa

They definitely called 357. I was (and am) confused too.

They did call our team number even though we had qualified already by winning the DC regional. Since we had already qualified, one would assume our spot would be passed to the next MAR team in line. Though I'm not sure if our DC qualifiation would have any bearing on our MAR qualifation. Regardless, we are not attending the championship event this year, and we wish 56 and/or 2180 good luck! Both teams built great quality machines that will represent the region well.

I want to say thanks to 1089 for picking us and thanks to 816 for joining the #3 alliance. Unfortunately we had issues in our second QF match, sometimes things just go wrong at the worst possible moment. That's FIRST. However, I'm still glad we were scouted as an accurate shooter even if our ranking wasn't showing it.

Great job to 365, 222 and 1626 for playing some great matches, a true quality alliance.

1218 - we are extremely happy that you qualified for the championship event! Good luck in St. Louis!

3929 - the whole team was ecstatic when you won the Rookie All Star award. You have had a heck of a rookie season, good luck at the championship and keep the momentum going into next year!

341, 25 & 1640 - the most impressive play I have seen this year. Good luck in St. Louis as well, I expect to see one of these teams in the finals of their division.

All in all, a VERY competitive district championship. In the years to come, I think we will see teams only improving and growing stronger due to the district model. Here's to a great season and good luck to all the MAR teams who will be competing at the Championship event!

[DELurker]

Originally Posted by Ryan Dognaux

They did call our team number even though we had qualified already by winning the DC regional. Since we had already qualified, one would assume our spot would be passed to the next MAR team in line. Though I'm not sure if our DC qualifiation would have any bearing on our MAR qualifation. Regardless, we are not attending the championship event this year, and we wish 56 and/or 2180 good luck! Both teams built great quality machines that will represent the region well.

Basically, they took the "registered for Championships" list and eliminated any teams that were on that list. Since 357 has not yet registered, they were eligible for the 5 wild-card slots at MAR.

[DELurker]

Originally Posted by DonRotolo

From what we learned, we think we'll be able to duplicate the field conditions at home and use a packet sniffer (again) to see what's really going on.

I'm not convinced it is a field problem, but more likely a problem in our bot that makes us more sensitive to something in the field. The fact that we never failed as red but always failed as Blue is suspicious. Especially when several teams also failed as blue.

Now this bug is getting personal, we're going to find it and fix it - but maybe not in time for St Louis.

Team 1370 would like to help you guys out some more in tracking down this problem. If you need anything or want to get another bot group together on your simulated field, please let us know.

[bjbmcd]

Scott. Thanks for the ranking spreadsheet. You asked "Are there errors on the sheet or incorrect numbers there?" I believe 3974 should have 4 championship award points. 2 for Highest Rookie Seed Award and 2 for Rookie Inspiration Award.

Team 3974 (E=mCD) would like to thank everyone from the MAR District for making our rookie season terrific. The GP shown by all the teams was incredible. One question we heard many, many times at the events was “What does the mCD stand for". It is short hand for our school name Bishop McDevitt.

[Siri]

First and foremost from 1640, many thanks and congratulations to all the awesome volunteers that ensured the MAR Championship and MAR in general had a great first year!

And of course huge, huge (did I say huge?) thanks to 341 and 25 for entrusting us with this job. I cannot articulate how honored any of us are. Despite our scoring issues in quals, we always love contributing our flexibility to an alliance of such astounding capability and strategic insight. Plus, triple balancing rocks! Thank you again, and we can't wait to see you at champs.


Also, congratulations to Don Rotolo on a well-deserved WFFA. From what I've heard (apologies for missing our discussion in the whirlwind of mentoring 1640's pit and field crew through a rather abnormal weekend), there's no one better to represent MAR for this year's WFA. And many congratulations to 1676 as a whole on their well-deserved slot to Worlds! We hope to see you there.

My hats off to 1218, 2180 and 2016 (2016 as a 2nd pick!? Only at MAR) as well. You gave us a very serious run for our money in the Finals, especially on the triples. I could not be happier that all of you made Worlds, and I think it's a testament to how well the MAR/FiM system works that this is possible. It was very odd being on the other side of the glass from 1218; what a season!

And of course we'd be remiss in overlooking the huge accomplishments of 3929 (RAS--I've never met a better rookie), and 433 and 75 (RCA), as well as 3142 (EI). I didn't quite fathom the depth of MAR until I realized all the great teams in contention for these awards. Though just so you know, Firebirds, I think you're going every year until you take it all.


Finally, my personal congratulations to 365, 222 and 1626. Watching the MOE streak break is difficult for me even in this case. Let me say that your alliance was utterly impressive all through elims, and we were definitely concerned about how finals with you would've played out. You're a fantastic alliance and fantastic teams, and best of luck to MOE and Tigertrons at Worlds. You'll certainly be great, and we hope to play with (not so much against...) you there.


----

On a more practical note, we're leaving for St. Louis next Wednesday. Wow. So to all those amazing teams in our area also going...anyone have any unused cargo space or seats? We're definitely not as ready for this as we need to be. I don't even know our exact head count quite yet, but offers (specifically cargo space; I suspect most members will fly) are very, very much appreciated.

[Jared Russell]

Now that the first season of Mid-Atlantic Robotics is in the books I can come out and say it - from Week 1 at Hatboro-Horsham through Week 7 at the Region Championship, my expectations have been consistently surpassed. These events have run EXTREMELY smoothly, and you can already see what the extra competition and unbagging time has done for the level of competition in our region!

There are many thanks and congratulations to give out:

Thanks to 25 and 1640 for being amazing alliance partners! What is scary is that we were putting up 100+ consistently with PLENTY of room for improvement.

25 - Your driver and drive team are the definition of clutch, and your locking drive train was a huge part of why our triple balances were so quick and painless. You were a pleasure to work with in the booth - let's do it again some time soon

1640 - We were ecstatic that you were still available! Yes, there were higher scoring teams still on the board, but no one else could come close to your versatility (blocking the inbounder slot, crossing the barrier effortlessly, feeding balls, contributing a couple shots, and your swerve drive helped to ensure easy triples!)

Our finals opponents 1218, 2180, and 2016 gave us huge scares in both Finals rounds!

1218 - You are my favorite team in FRC. You were able to overcome some setbacks during qualifications and selections to assemble quite an impressive display of firepower! Nobody was cheering harder than I when it was announced that you had qualified for Championships. Can't wait to see and talk to you there!

2180 - Great, great robot! It is always a hard fought match when we line up across from you.

2016 - Similar to 1218, I was ecstatic when you guys qualified for the big show. Congratulations!

365 - We have now played 70 rounds of Rebound Rumble, and only saw you ONCE on the field! I don't know why the scheduling gods have conspired to keep us apart this year, but hopefully in St. Louis and the offseason we will actually get to play on the same side for once!

3929 - Congratulations on RAS! I cannot believe you guys are rookies. See you in St. Louis!

75 and 433 - Congrats on Chairman's! Those videos were impressive.

3142 - Congrats on EI! A huge accomplishment for a relatively young team in our ancient region!

Don Rotolo - Count me among those who thought, "what, he hasn't already won WFFA?" It was great to finally meet you in person and I look forward to getting to know you better over the coming years

........

Miss Daisy is battered, bruised, and scarred from 70 hard-fought qualification and elimination matches, but she is ready and raring to go for the World Championship in St. Louis. We will do our best to represent the Mid-Atlantic Region and try to bring home some more hardware! Thank you to ALL of our competitors and partners during this Regional/District season: Each of you has helped us to learn how to use our machine more effectively, and has provided inspiration to drive our continuous improvement process.

The Miss Daisy robot that we put on the field is truly a reflection on all of you.

[waitwhat?]

Team 869 would like to congratulate the winning alliance of 341, 25, and 1640. Your team was absolutely phenomenal and it seems like MAR will be very well represented this year in Champs.

Team 341, for what its worth, we just wanted to thank you guys specifically for taking the time out to try the triple with us a couple times on the practice field, even though we didn't get a chance to try it in competition, it was still an exciting experience. I would also like to thanks you guys for playing against us in one of the most exciting matches of my F.I.R.S.T. career.

At the same time, team 869 would like to thank our alliance partners, 2590 and 486 for taking a chance and picking us! Wish we could've gone farther but it was still a hell of a ride!

[scottandme]

Originally Posted by DELurker

Basically, they took the "registered for Championships" list and eliminated any teams that were on that list. Since 357 has not yet registered, they were eligible for the 5 wild-card slots at MAR.

That's what I assumed, just because they deferred at some point (which MAR may/may not have known), doesn't mean they would necessarily defer again.

Can anyone else confirm my memory of the teams announced yesterday? My numbers and the MAR list don't agree, and no final numbers have been posted on the MAR site.

From the crowdsourced data here https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...RnY 0E#gid=20

1. 1218 (skip 365, skip 222)
2. 1676
3. 2180
4. 2016 (skip 2590)
5. 486 (skip 272)
6. 357
7. 11
8. 56

What I thought was announced at the MAR Awards: (may have swapped 56 and 2180), but I'm fairly positive 2016 was the #5 spot.

1. 1218
2. 1676
3. 486
4. 357
5. 2016
6. 56
7. 2180

There are some big differences here, which seem to significantly impact 2180 and 56.

[ZeroGAdam]

Originally Posted by scottandme

That's what I assumed, just because they deferred at some point (which MAR may/may not have known), doesn't mean they would necessarily defer again.

Can anyone else confirm my memory of the teams announced yesterday? My numbers and the MAR list don't agree, and no final numbers have been posted on the MAR site.

From the crowdsourced data here https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...RnY 0E#gid=20

1. 1218 (skip 365, skip 222)
2. 1676
3. 2180
4. 2016 (skip 2590)
5. 486 (skip 272)
6. 357 (skip 11)
7. 56

What I thought was announced at the MAR Awards: (may have swapped 56 and 2180), but I'm fairly positive 2016 was the #5 spot.

1. 1218
2. 1676
3. 486
4. 357
5. 2016
6. 56
7. 2180

There are some big differences here, which seem to significantly impact 2180 and 56.

There was a scoring error in the Unofficial MAR ranks... We were contacted today and were told that we qualified. I suspect that they forgot to add in 60 points to our score for finishing as finalists. This would only effect us and not 1218 nor 2016... Everything has been worked out now...