New Central Illinois Regional Looking Good!

[BoilerMentor]

Originally Posted by Tom Ore

For those who missed the finals, here is a summary of the tipping:

F1: 1:29 171 tips 4296, no foul
F2: 1:35 171 tips 4296, no foul
F2: 2:19 171 tips 1986, no foul
F3: 0:20 4296 tips 4143, technical foul
F3: 1:00 171 tips 4296, no foul

In all the cases where 171 tipped another team were they actively playing defense?

If a robot is tipped by an opposing alliance member playing defense, at that point I believe it becomes a violation of the G27 rule and should have resulted in a Technical Foul and a Yellow Card. Meaning, the finals should have been over in two matches and the alliance in question should have lost due to disqualification. Fitting for the behavior, unsportsmanlike conduct, and strategy employed here. I'm outraged still, not sure if I'm more upset with the fact that the rules weren't enforced or that a team would employ that type of strategy to win.

I've never seen teams play like this. It is very disappointing if not infuriating. I'm glad our next event will have a very high quality officiating crew and always has.

[PandaHatMan]

Originally Posted by JeremyLansing

You are entitled to your own opinion, but as Team 171's drive coach I can tell you we were not deliberately trying to tip any robots on the Red Alliance. We were playing defense as hard a we could, and in the process, robots got tipped over. A robots center of gravity is an important consideration during design, and I can't help it if robots with higher CG's got tipped. I'm quite embarrassed that we ended up tipping 4 robots, but I find it insulting that you would say we did it intentionally

FIRST tries to remove some stress from the refs by making most of the rules clearly objective and not based on intent. Perhaps it was not intentional, but if you look at it objectively, 171 did tip over 4296 every match at approximately the same time each match. I have nothing against you or your team, but intentional or not, it did happen repeatedly, which can be viewed as 'strategic'.

[kylelanman]

Originally Posted by JeremyLansing

We could never get a good answer from the referees about the reason for either penalty called during Finals match 3, and I'm curious where you guys heard this, because they sound mutually exclusive. I find it hard to believe the refs would call intentional tipping on 4296 after no-calls on 3 previous tips. Regardless it was a very, very hard fought finals, easily the roughest matches I have seen in FRC. Congrats to both your teams as well as 1986 for the win.

Fact:
I was the FTAA down on the field. I heard the ref tell the score keeper intentional tipping. Then I asked the score keeper which alliance the call was on.

Opinion:
I believe 4296 tipped over at least once and possibly multiple times prior to the finals. Getting a reputation as an easily tippable robot lessens the chances the ref will deem it intentional tipping oppose to a design flaw.

A similar situation occurred with a team and leaving parts on the field. After 2 matches of things breaking off there robot they were issued a technical each match following when a part fell off.

[Cataclysmatic]

From 4296 perspective in response to the prior post. We had flipped once during qualifications. We had also resulted with flipping one other team during qualifications.

[JeremyLansing]

Originally Posted by PandaHatMan

FIRST tries to remove some stress from the refs by making most of the rules clearly objective and not based on intent. Perhaps it was not intentional, but if you look at it objectively, 171 did tip over 4296 every match at approximately the same time each match. I have nothing against you or your team, but intentional or not, it did happen repeatedly, which can be viewed as 'strategic'.

You are absolutely right that within the rules what occurred could have, and probably should have been called as strategic tipping. I take issue with the statements that have been made by others that we planned to do so, that we were attempting to execute an un-sportsmanlike strategy, and that we were trying to get a "dirty" win at all costs. I'm terribly sorry about what happened, but it was not intentional.

[jspatz1]

Originally Posted by Tom Ore

Apparently the refs discussed this after the match and decided not to call it because they didn't call it when 4296 was flipped twice and 1986 was flipped once. Definitely a very rough elimination round.

This is accurate. After a conference following the final match, the head referee reversed the TF called on 4296. The explanation given to our drive captain was that the TF would not have been consistent with the lack of TF's in the other multiple defensive tips that occurred in the round.

[Tim Koch]

On behalf of the Regional Planning Committee, we would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to all the teams that came and volunteers who took on the challenge of a week one inaugural regional and made it feel like we had been doing this for years! Your attention to detail, willingness to change things up to make something run smoother, and your overall positive attitudes and responses were simply stellar.

Whether it was engaging in conversation with teams in the pits, or watching you cheer from the stands, sharing your seats with visitors (we had an overwhelming response from the local community of first time people to an Robotics competition), to the closing rendition of YMCA, it was the “hardest fun” we have ever been part of.

We knew this regional was going to be competitive when we saw the registration list. Anyone willing to share what the best match they were part of? Good communication, good strategy session, good game play? Best shot under pressure?

Again, our thanks on behalf the entire Regional Planning Committee for the CIR.

[Ryan Dognaux]

Team 4329 had a great time at the first ever Central Illinois regional. The venue was very unique and once it warmed up a little bit after the cold morning, I loved it. The concession options were reasonably priced and excellent. The field crew and volunteers were on top of their game as well.

I wanted to personally thank all the teams we played with and against and apologize if our robot was dead in any of those matches. We were battling with many, many issues throughout Friday & Saturday that with the help of Al & the rest of the volunteers allowed us to narrow it down to a power issue. Rest assured we are putting together a plan for resolving this issue for the St. Louis regional and hope to be on top of our game at that event.

Congrats to the winners & all the teams who made this a really competitive regional.

[jeremylee]

Originally Posted by Tim Koch

On behalf of the Regional Planning Committee, we would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to all the teams that came and volunteers who took on the challenge of a week one inaugural regional and made it feel like we had been doing this for years! Your attention to detail, willingness to change things up to make something run smoother, and your overall positive attitudes and responses were simply stellar.

Whether it was engaging in conversation with teams in the pits, or watching you cheer from the stands, sharing your seats with visitors (we had an overwhelming response from the local community of first time people to an Robotics competition), to the closing rendition of YMCA, it was the “hardest fun” we have ever been part of.

We knew this regional was going to be competitive when we saw the registration list. Anyone willing to share what the best match they were part of? Good communication, good strategy session, good game play? Best shot under pressure?

Again, our thanks on behalf the entire Regional Planning Committee for the CIR.

My two favorite match moments involved the Roboteers:

In our match before Quals 21, we ended with a bent lower cylinder. We managed to get it removed, but didn't have time to install the spare. We sent the robot out anyways hoping the arm would stay up with only 1 cylinder. This was a tough match up against the Roboteers and Titanium. As we played some tough defense with our arm flopping around, our alliance managed to pull off a very close win by 1 point. I hope someone has the match recorded for our team to watch again.

The 2nd was Quarters 3 Match 2. With the Roboteers on our alliance this time and down 1 match already, our alliance played a great match to force a rubber match. On defense, our alliance was able to prevent the opposing team from scoring for over a minute to end the match. As I caught our driveteam coming back to the pits, Martin from 2081 on the opposing alliance was coming back to the pits with a big smile on his face and said something to the effect of "I knew you guys could do that to us." Here's a video of the match uploaded by 4213:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2vOnc1RrEE

You can see at the end the blue ball still hasn't been put in the goal. 2081 went on to win in match 3, and I'm sure we'll reminisce about this great best of 3 in the future.

It was a lot of fun to finally be able to play with and against all the local teams from Central IL at the same regional along with all the great teams who traveled.

[XaulZan11]

I probably have a minority opinion on intentional tipping, but I don't think tipping should ever really be called. Imagine I push a box bot square on their side, push with full power for 5 seconds and they just get pushed to the side but stay righted. Imagine I push a tall, high CG, arm bot square on their side, push with full power for 5 seconds and they tip over. Should I get a tipping penalty for just pushing a top heavy robot who happens to tip? (Kind of joking, but if so, then I'll just build a really top heavy robot knowing that opponents would be afraid to play defense on in fear of getting tipping penalty).


Especially for a week 1 and first year event, I thought CIR was a great success. After hearing and seeing some of the issues the other regionals had, I think CIR did a fantastic job. Hopefully, Illinois doesn't go to districts next year so 1732 could attend!

[Ryan Dognaux]

It looks like the Channel Cats team 1094 captured some of the elimination matches & qualification matches 71-80 & can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnxYxpXol19JVG7sar12H2Q

I was wondering if anyone else happened to record any other matches & planned to upload them?

Edit: Just saw 1094's post a page back - did you guys manage to capture all of the qualification & elimination matches?

[Sunshine]

Here is my take on the venue as a spectator.

Lots if room for growth if they plan accordingly. Lots of space for more pits.
Lots of food choices around venue.
Hotel rooms are inexpensive compared to other sites.
Well run tournament.
Great crowd
Will need to add portable bathrooms in future. Very long lines for the one.
Having one exit door was a pain.
Should add a second concession.
There will not be enough bleacher seating if they add more teams in the future without adding more seats.

The finals
The final matches played out as I predicted. I have said all along that aggressive defense will become the norm.
To the drive coach of 171. It's hard to believe that tipping was accidental when it appeared your driver went in for the kill shot as the other robot was starting to flip. That was this man's observation. It looked deliberate. Fool me once but don't try to fool me three times.

Advantage Platteville! The same head ref is usually in Milwaukee so if he doesn't change his opinion on the tipping, we'll all see it again.

[jeremylee]

I found these two finals videos on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5YPGacCbhA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzmhG-Bsmio

After watching a few times, as far as I can tell, the refs may have made the correct calls for these 2 matches. More rough than we've been accustomed to in the last few years. Plan accordingly!

I didn't see much of match 2 as I was helping take down our pits. I'd love to see a video of that also if someone has it.

[barn34]

Guys, I agree that the finals (and all of elims for that matter) were rough on everyone's bumpers. Elims are always high intensity and that just ramps up as you get closer to the finals. With the nature of this year's game, this intensity resulted in some unfortunate toppling of the robots competing in the championship matches. Being on the opposite end of that unfortunate event in a regional deciding match last year, I empathize greatly for anyone having to watch a high stakes match play out with that sense of combined disappointment and helplessness. However, blatantly jumping to any conclusion and publicly accusing any team of intentionally dirty play is in the exact opposite of everything the spirit of FIRST represents. I'm sorry, but thats completely uncalled for. I know this is a time of frustration for some teams, but please take a step back, calm down, and remember what this program is really all about.

[DeAnnaC]

Originally Posted by Ryan Dognaux

It looks like the Channel Cats team 1094 captured some of the elimination matches & qualification matches 71-80 & can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnxYxpXol19JVG7sar12H2Q

I was wondering if anyone else happened to record any other matches & planned to upload them?

Edit: Just saw 1094's post a page back - did you guys manage to capture all of the qualification & elimination matches?

I believe we have all of them captured, they are uploading now.. we started a new youtube account which is listed above.

If anyone needs raw footage for something, please let us know. In case you didn't know, anyone can tap into the video feed at any regional/championship event and record it. They have a dedicated 'recording station' at each event. We now use a laptop, but back in the day, we used a home DVR with a hard drive/dvd burner to capture.

See you in STL!

Feed the Fish!

DeAnna