2013 Washington DC Regional

[ToddF]

Semi-finals 2 video up here.

I love how 116 fires disks downfield from the feeder station so 2415 can pick them up off the floor. A much discussed strategy which I had not seen implemented until now.

[Wetzel]

Originally Posted by ToddF

A cool thing about this regional, the wild card rule kicks in big time.

The winning alliance is 79, 379, and 383.

79 already won the Orlando Regional, and 379 already won the Queen City Regional. That means that the finalist alliance captain (2415) and first pick (116) get wild card invitations to the Championships. That takes away the sting a bit...

116 was the second seed captan and 2415 was the first pick.

Originally Posted by santosh

2415 also won E.I. at Peachtree so they were good on champs as well. I guess those spots (116 and 2415) go somewhere else now.

2415 was previously qualified, so their wildcard passes on (I think). 116 was not previously qualified, so their wildcard does not pass on. Wildcards are only given for teams that were previously qualified, not if a team double qualifies at a regional.

Wetzel

[Hadi379]

On behalf of Team 379, we would like to thank team 79 for giving us the opportunity to join their alliance. You guys had a great strategy and we never veered from it throughout the eliminations. We would also like to thank team 383 for their outstanding game play. Your floor pickup really made a difference by not congesting the feeder station or the playing field.

Also, congratulations to teams 116, 2415, 4466, and 3123. It was one of the craziest finals I've seen or been a part of. It really could have gone either way.

In regards to the wildcards, I believe they were granted to teams 116 and 4466 because 2415 had previously qualified.

This has been team 379's best season to date. With such a young and eager team of students, we are very excited for the future of this team. We hope to see some of our new friends at worlds and thanks again to everyone that helped make this happen.

[Gregor]

Originally Posted by ToddF

Semi-finals 2 video up here.

I love how 116 fires disks downfield from the feeder station so 2415 can pick them up off the floor. A much discussed strategy which I had not seen implemented until now.

http://www.watchfirstnow.com/archive3.php?id=62515533

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by ToddF

Semi-finals 2 video up here.

I love how 116 fires disks downfield from the feeder station so 2415 can pick them up off the floor. A much discussed strategy which I had not seen implemented until now.

It's not the very first time it's been played, but it was certainly more successful than our attempt at it.

Can't wait to watch all of these elims on youtube. 612, 2415, and 79 were all on super potent alliances. I think no matter what, 79 + Brazilian Team = Gold.

[nerdherdmember]

I had a blast at my last regional as a student, although now we on 422 have to hope that the wait list is kind to us after being eliminated by the eventual champions in the quarterfinals at both regionals we attended. Meeting Woodie Flowers, Dave Lavery, and Dustin Benedict was quite cool, given that the regionals 422 normally attends do not attract very high profile names, and Shan from 612 and Tom from 79 were both kind enough to put up with my ramblings during and after the competition.

We on Team 422 would like to congratulate to team 79, 379, and 383 for their regional championship, and thank them for an extremely exciting set of quarterfinal matches. The scores and defense our alliance put out would have won any other set of quarterfinals, but we could not top your deadly autonomous accuracy and consistency and your blazing fast cycle times.

A thank you to our alliance partners and friends 2642 The Pitt Pirates and 166 Chop Shop – you guys were amazing, and with a little smarter defense and more autonomous shots in QF2-2, we could've gone on to win the whole thing. It was great being on an alliance with both of you, as your drive teams are a blast to compete with. 2642 – you guys were simply amazing. Friendly and high scoring, we couldn't have asked for better partners. 166 – after competing with you in qualification 40, even though we lost by two points that would've made us the #1 seed, we knew that you guys would be our second pick regardless of our first pick. An ungodly 6 CIM drive train with blue nitrile treads and a consistent autonomous and hang coupled with a tough robot and very agressive drivers made a perfect second pick. In Qualification 40, you successfully pinned two robots behind our pyramid for a period of time, and generally made 2974 regret their decision to go mecanum. Great job.

One team I do not see congratulated here yet that undoubtedly deserves it is team 612. After the Virginia Regional, in which my team's drive chains snapping and comm issues kept them from going for gold in a close quarterfinal against teams 1541, 1262, and 1610, they came to DC ready to win the whole thing. Both team 612 and 422 made one significant change to our robots before this event – we added larger pieces of lexan to the feeding slide to our hoppers. In the strategy meeting at the end of day 1, a lot of teams were discussed – Team 79, 2642, and 116's fast cycles, perfect auto scores, and fast hang; Team 2630's full court shooter and adaptability; Team 2415's 7 disk auton and ground pickup – but the one team my scouts placed as the number one contender to win the regional, after analyzing a 3 inch thick binder of data, was team 612. When they put up a triple digit score in Qualification Match 2, everyone at the event knew that they were the team to beat. Because of a servo-shifting problem with their supershifters, they were unable to capture the #1 seeding spot, but still formed a very threatening alliance that averaged 123 points per match in elimination rounds. Because Virginia has not yet moved to a district system, their falling short of the finals has left them without a ticket to championship, and getting a judge's award cannot repay that. Although the trophies from this event didn't stay in the region, 612 has proved that Virginia is a competitive region without a doubt, and for that, I thank them.

- Harrison

[Hadi379]

I agree about 612, they could have been in the finals. SF2-3 could have gone either way if team 2630's battery cable wouldnt have came unplugged during the match which left them stranded at the feeder station.

[What?ItWorked?]

Us at Area 53 had similar issues with our cRIO and radio, the cRIO gave an "out of memory" error, and we had to completely reset it. Our radio kept on disconnecting during matches, we're still not sure whether that was due to placement (not a very good call on our part) or what.

[ToddF]

Originally Posted by Wetzel

116 was the second seed captan and 2415 was the first pick.

Oops. My mistake. The info was even posted earlier in the thread, and I looked right past it.

[Cotton150]

Congratulations Team 1885 for winning the Washington DC Regional Chairman's award! Team 384 cant wait to see you in St Louis!

[ErikaSosa]

Originally Posted by nerdherdmember

In the strategy meeting at the end of day 1, a lot of teams were discussed –
...
Team 2630's full court shooter and adaptability;
...
but the one team my scouts placed as the number one contender to win the regional, after analyzing a 3 inch thick binder of data, was team 612. When they put up a triple digit score in Qualification Match 2, everyone at the event knew that they were the team to beat. Because of a servo-shifting problem with their supershifters, they were unable to capture the #1 seeding spot, but still formed a very threatening alliance that averaged 123 points per match in elimination rounds.
- Harrison

Exactly what I was thinking of 612. Excellent robot. When they paired with 2630 (which I honestly thought would be picked sooner than 3 - they lost the 3 games they did 'cause of some communication issue, and when they played, it was really goodlike you said above) I was pretty sure the alliance would at least make it to the finals.

Shame 2630's robot stopped working during that 3rd SF game. It was only 6 points at the end, and their robot proved that it could score consistently (they were defended well too, not sure by which robot, but it did a great job).

All said and done, 2630 were already guarenteed to STL after the Israeli regional. Shame 612 could not make it. They really had a good robot. One of the best in DC this year... I felt like they deserved to go

And at last, congrats to the winning alliance. They were impressive all through the elim's. Well done also to all the other teams going to STL, if through awards, or if through WC. HAVE FUN!!

[MooreteP]

Originally Posted by ToddF

We didn't compete at this regional, but I came up to watch Saturday as a spectator for my first time since becoming a mentor. The experience was thoroughly enjoyable. I spent the morning mostly looking at robots in the pits, and picking up as many best practices as possible. Then, in the afternoon, the elimination matches were great!

Before going to bed, I wanted to get some video of the finals up on youtube. Enjoy it here.

Great videos, thanks.

[BAM]

I had a great time at the DC regional, and hope we return next season. The teams that attended were top notch, and I'm looking forward to compete against a few of them again in St. Louis.

To my knowledge, our cRio problems has yet to be solved. Like Andrew said, the issue has baffled students, mentors, and volunteers alike. A big thank you to everyone that came over to help, including members from both our alliance, the opposing alliance and the wonderful volunteers and FTAs. It's a bummer we couldn't get our problems sorted out in time; 2415 would've loved to play with our alliance partners for another two matches.

Speaking of alliance parters, another thank you needs to go out to 116 and 4466. I was honestly shocked that 4466 wasn't picked sooner. The robot looked as if it was made by a seasoned veteran team. Similarly, 116 was a fantastic alliance captain, but that was to be expected.

I can't believe I have to trudge through 2 complete weeks of school before St. Louis. Looking forward to seeing some of you there,

-B.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

Can't wait to watch all of these elims on youtube. 612, 2415, and 79 were all on super potent alliances. I think no matter what, 79 + Brazilian Team = Gold.

And you know what? They were both great teams to work with. The real funny part is that both 1772 and 383 are from the same area of Brazil and do kickoff together.

But, we can't forget about 379 either, without their rain of two pointers we could not have done what we did. (And for the record, in case people missed it, they can shoot 3's but since 383 and 379 both had the same preferred shooting spot for 3's but 379 felt comfortable shooting 2's it was decided to have them run 2's unless the spot was clear).

2415 — I'm sorry about what happened and that we couldn't help get it sorted out. If you need anything you guys know how to reach us.

1885 — Congrats on the RCA win, good luck in St Louis. Your outreach efforts are astonishing.

116 — Great job on the EI and on constructing an incredible alliance, I'm sad we never got to play with both alliances at 100% strength. That would have been some exciting play.

It was a blast meeting new teams in DC this year. I know it'll be a regional 79 always remembers fondly.

[PayneTrain]

That event totally blew the pants off of any other regional I've ever been to. At least 30 of the robots there would make eliminations at any given regional, and I would say at least 16 teams there are Championship worthy. I would like to say a few things.

-This was probably the most competitive regional of the weekend. It wasn't the event with the best teams, but there were so many good robots on the field at once, and high scoring matches were decided by fewer than 12 points (a perfect cycle multiple times. Having 82 and 85 point ties was unbelievable. The fact that scoring 132 points can't give you a close win is insane. I loved it.

-Everyone there was so nice. The volunteers I got to work with (until I coughed up a lung Friday night and was under orders to sleep off my cold), all of the teams, staff, speakers... I guess I'm going to to probably end up at more than 3 events next year, and I'm more than ok with that.

-Even though the tournament winners aren't from the National Capital Region, don't dismiss the National Capital Region. 79, 379, and 383 lit up the court and deserved to win, but it's a crime that 612 isn't going to St. Louis. They can (and have) put up better numbers than over 95% of other teams in the sport. It's unfortunate the Wild Card can't account for a team that excelled all season but couldn't fry the big fish. I hope to see them wiping the floor at some offseason events if the CMP waitlist is unkind to them as much as fate has been.

-I'm really proud of my old team, 422. When I joined the team as a freshman, we went to our away regional and we were just a dozen dudes and some parents on a trip that was a financial impossibility. We had a robot and a prayer. 5 years later, 5 dozen students, parents, grandparents, dedicated mentors, alums, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, sponsors both current and potential, VirginiaFIRST board members, and friends traveled up to 3 hours away just to get a glimpse at what the team has done. It doesn't look like there's any real big hardware in store for the team this season, but it's so rewarding to see the jarring evolution of the team over the last five years, and I can't wait to watch the next five. 422 comes from a government and social sciences school in the inner-city of Richmond and it's getting people from all all walks of life to care about what the team does. So many people are investing so much time and money into the 30-odd students because they see their booming potential becoming a reality.