2013 Minnesota North Star Regional

[gyroscopeRaptor]

What an astounding final series of matches!

More notes and things i nthe morning, but shout out to 4665, Predators, the team we mentored, for winning Rookie Inspiration! These guys are going places.

In addition, we are very proud of our Industrial Design award win. Thank you to all the judges for giving this amazing award.

[Boe]

The Fighting Calculators would like to thank 967 Iron Lions and 4607 Coalition of Independent students for helping us to our first regional victory in our 7 year history, we couldnt have done it without you guys. Also congrats to 2220 Blue twilight who brought home the chairman's award

[Jon Stratis]

The regional was really made great by all the teams there. Everyone got where they needed to be on time (in fact, the field crew was struggling not to get too far ahead of schedule the entire weekend!), and you guys really gave us some exciting matches! I know I was on the edge of my seat through the entire finals... it seemed like every match was a nail-biter!

A big shout out to the teams that pulled together to help a struggling rookie team build a robot practically from scratch. Everyone loves to point out the GP when one team goes over to help another. I think it says a lot more when you get 3 veteran teams working side-by-side for 6+ hours in one pit to help a rookie team have a successful regional. I know they were extremely grateful for all the help they got, and they are definitely coming back next year! In fact, I heard them speculating about a water game earlier today...

And taking off my inspector hat for a moment and putting on my team mentor hat... I really can't believe our robot did end up a pike of twisted metal when it fell from the pyramid yesterday! It was what our team had dreaded the entire season, and when it happened I figured we were done for. A few quick repairs, and we got right back on that horse (err, pyramid...) 45 minutes later in the next match. The team is bummed that we won't be going to champs, but it was still a great weekend for us (just like Duluth was), and we can't wait to see everyone again at the MSHSL Championship in May!

[gyroscopeRaptor]

2175, do you have an archive of the webcast and/or the awards ceremony?

[Boe]

Originally Posted by gyroscopeRaptor

2175, do you have an archive of the webcast and/or the awards ceremony?

yes, we do im not really involved with the webcast stuff but i would expect we will have videos up within the next few days hopefully

[Nemo]

Thanks to everybody involved in a really great FRC regional. This was our first time attending North Star, and we found it to be really well run and staffed by very organized and knowledgeable and friendly volunteers. I talked to people from a bunch of teams throughout the weekend, and I was privileged to constantly meet sharp people who really care about FIRST.

I am a little heartbroken on behalf of the finalist captains who came very close, our fellow Iowans from Team Neutrino (3928), who are a great bunch of truly nice people. They brought an amazing machine that seemed like the clear favorite at the event, and our team is inspired by your work. The combination of 3928 and the lightning fast scoring 2574 was pretty daunting, and adding even more autonomous scoring (and defense) from 4239 was even scarier. After watching the predictably large scores and the way team 4239 was playing defense in the first couple of rounds, I was thinking "this is gonna be tough if we make the finals..." We knew we'd need to catch a couple of breaks. I thought both sides played great. The finals matches were the most exciting ones I've seen.

Our alliance partners 2175 and 4607 were terrific. 2175 had to work through some issues and after playing well all weekend ended up peaking in the last match. Their robot can cycle back and forth to score really quickly, and we loved the way our strategies worked together nicely to allow a smooth traffic flow. I must say it was fun being allied with a team that cheers so loudly! Our scouts were pretty tickled to get 4607 in the second round after watching them compete, and our alliance definitely couldn't have done it without your tough defense and hanging points. Defense in this game is a tough job - you have to do it just right to significantly slow a good scorer without drawing fouls. This rookie team knows how to play smart and work as a team, and I see them taking it to a new level on the way to bright future.

Congrats to our partners and the other teams who won awards, especially 2220 (Chairman's Award) and 1816 (Engineering Inspiration).

Minnesota rocks! 180 teams divided by MN population = highest team density of any state. Seeing the level of excitement and support for FIRST Robotics in Minnesota is really satisfying and inspiring. Thanks to everyone involved!

[Kstuck]

Nemo covered just about everything I can think of except for one small detail....

Nemo was named a Woodie Flowers Finalist at North Star.

Team 967 congratulates Nemo for being named a Woodie Flowers finalist!

Team Neutrino gets the shout out for attempting to help our alliance out by trying to use a timeout so team 2175 could fix a broken CRio in the semi's.

Hats off to the whole alliance of 3928, 2574, and 4239 for showing what gracious professinalism is all about.

[runneals]

Read our updates from North Star on our blog. Also for those of you who would like more information about our award winning robot, you can visit our robot pages!

Originally Posted by Nemo

I am a little heartbroken on behalf of the finalist captains who came very close, our fellow Iowans from Team Neutrino (3928), who are a great bunch of truly nice people. They brought an amazing machine that seemed like the clear favorite at the event, and our team is inspired by your work. The combination of 3928 and the lightning fast scoring 2574 was pretty daunting, and adding even more autonomous scoring (and defense) from 4239 was even scarier. After watching the predictably large scores and the way team 4239 was playing defense in the first couple of rounds, I was thinking "this is gonna be tough if we make the finals..." We knew we'd need to catch a couple of breaks. I thought both sides played great. The finals matches were the most exciting ones I've seen.

Thanks Nemo. We were so disappointed not to finish our season strong, but you guys had a fantastic defense. In fact, our robot suffered a major impact that we think was enough to move our 25 pound weight forward enough to injure our pneumatics and our auton controls, which ultimately did us in. The only regret we had was to not use a vice but instead a large

Congrats to you as well for being named the WFFA recipient. Nice to have 3 Iowan WFFA's at North Stars.