2014 Tech Valley Regional

[JackS]

Wow, what an event! I'd like to extend my congratulations to the Regional Planning Committee (Paul Schoch, Mary Burke, Rose Barra, Nancy Castler, and Ana Martinez, just to name a few) for organizing what was unequivocally the best regional I have ever attended. I'd also like to thank all of the volunteers who made the event happen, especially those who kept the matches on time and controversy free (including the FTA Liz Smith.) In a year when pedestal errors and field faults are the norm, having a replay-free regional was a remarkable feat. I can't wait to come back and do it all again next year.

That being said, congratulations to the champions 1126, 20, and 229; the winners of the Chairman's Award 340; and the winners of the Engineering Inspiration award 1511. You all earned it and good luck in St. Louis.

We're looking forward to making some repairs (boy does our robot need them) and heading to the Finger Lakes Regional in a few weeks. Hopefully the defense there will be a little friendlier to our claw.

[Johnnybukkel]

This was a wonderful event. For an inaugural event, it was really well organized, it flowed smoothly every second, and certainly felt like it was an event that was around for much longer than three days. I'd like to thank the volunteers for their hard work to produce a flawless regional for us to compete in. I'd like to congratulate teams 250, 3990, and 145 for a great display of skill both on and off of the field; it was certainly a blast playing against them! Also, team 340 for earning the Chairman's Award, and 1511 for Engineering Inspiration. I hope to see this regional be available for teams to compete in for many years to come, and wish everyone the best of luck in future regionals!

[Kevin Leonard]

Wow. What an amazing event.
First off I'd like to thank all the volunteers that made this event possible. I'd also like to thank Frank Merrick for coming and seeing what the capital region is made of!
The event was run so smoothly. The only problem (and I think quite a few team had this problem on Thursday) was the balls being slightly over-inflated throughout, but I think everyone learned to deal with that and it taught us some lessons about how to design an intake.
The referees were consistent and fair, and despite the match-killer tech fouls being still prevalent, the referees called them evenly and according to the rules.

We were taught a lesson on Friday about our catching mechanism (that it sometimes catches too well), and we learned from that too. (I encourage every team to find some way to prevent the ball from falling from the sky into your robot).

Thanks to Team 1126 Sparx for selecting us and forming that crazy alliance. Your cannon is absolutely frightening, and I can't wait to see you guys at FLR!
Thanks to Team 229 Division by Zero for your crazy drivetrain and passing abilities. With your collector fixed for elims, you were the perfect third partner for us!

Congratulations to Team 340 on your RCA. You guys have an extremely professional team and a consistent robot. We hope to see you guys go farther in elims at Finger Lakes.

Congrats to Team 1511 on your Engineering Inspiration Award. You guys had a great robot and one of the smartest drive teams in the whole arena. Your spirit and professionalism filled every room you were in. "I believe that Robots Rock!" We'll see you at Finger lakes as well!

Congratulations to the finalist alliance of 250, 3990, and 145. The instant your alliance came together I knew you'd be one of the toughest alliances in the place.
250's half-match T-Bone on 1126 shut us down for Finals-1, and made us very afraid for what could happen in Finals-2.
3990 had one of the best shooters in the place and a downright gorgeous robot. I only wish you could have played in Finals at full strength.
145's hammer was making shots all day, and their smart drivers knew how to skid around defense with their mecanum drive.
Good luck to 3990 in Quebec, and we'll see 250 at Finger Lakes!

Congratulations to Team 5030, The Second Mouse, on your Rookie All-Star Award. Your smart strategy took you all the way to a number one seed and two smart picks. We'll see you at Championships!

One last shout-out and that's to the Rookie Inspiration Award winners of 5236, Man-O-War Robotics. Besides building an incredible robot for rookies and making an impressive showing in eliminations, they also had an extremely professional team who really "got" the spirit of FIRST in their rookie year. They also had an extremely smart drive team who was fantastic to work with. They delivered on everything they could have, and be ready for them to be a force to be reckoned with in the coming years.

[Dominick Ferone]

I would like to say on behalf of team 5030 all the kids loved the event. We had a lot of fun and all the teams, refs, judges and volunteers were so inviting and helpful. We did really well and there were many great bots. To everyone going to FLR i wish all of you luck and to everyone going to st louis can't wait to see you there. For now were gonna work on getting the offensive side of our bot going and making the drive train better. ( during the quarter finals we lost all power and speed while moving i think we blew a cim.) Can't wait to go back to nytv next year.

[Jonathan Ryan]

Don't want to repeat everything above….but, AWESOME regional, fantastic volunteers, great judges, referees and field staff!!!!
With Angry Eric as an MC, we have been to the Finals two years in a row. He may be Team 145's good luck charm.

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You.

Great to see the rookie teams doing so well. Nice to see some old friends from FLR and make some new ones from other states and countries.

Congrats to 1126, 20 and 229. Super alliance, excellent strategy, flawless execution.

Thanks to 250 and 3990 for adding 145 to your alliance. I think we made the Finals pretty exciting!!!

Good luck to everybody competing in another regional or going on to St. Louis.

Already looking forward to the New York Tech Valley Regional next year.

[Starke]

The Arctic Warriors had a wonderful time at the inaugural NY Tech Valley Regional! Congratulations and thank you to the Regional Planning Committee for creating this event. The regional ran smoothly and efficiently.

Thank you to the referees, FTA, and volunteers. It was such a pleasure to watch the referees and FTA patiently work through any problems that arose and talk to all students kindly that had a question on the match. The volunteers also worked with the teams well and directed teams where to go with a smile at all times.

Thank you to teams 3044 and 2228 for partnering with us in eliminations. It was a hard fought battle and it was a pleasure working with the both of you!

Congratulations to the Regional Champions 1126, 20, and 229, Chairman's Award winner 340, and Engineering Inspiration award winner 1511. It was wonderful to work with you throughout the competition.

Overall we had a wonderful time! Looking forward to coming back in the future!

[Silver]

Hey all, Digby Baker-Porazinski from 5236 here.
As this was Man O' War's first year and first regional, we would just like to thank everyone who attended for your generosity, kindness, and willingness to lend a hand. There were several instances where, without the unabated help from our fellow teams, we would have been dead in the water.
Specifically, we'd like to thank Team Rice, our alliance captains, for selecting us to compete with you in the quarterfinals and semifinals, all the way up to the last match before championships. We really can't begin to express our gratitude for this opportunity. In addition, we thank you and Team 358 for supporting us whenever we needed help. Nice job on those bumpers
We'd also like to thank the Rocketeers, Team 20, for your constant assistance throughout the competition and the weeks preceding it. Without your aid, we might not have had a functioning robot. Your class on the field exceeded our expectations, and it was a pleasure to compete with and against you. The same can be said for team 250, who helped teach our novice programmers.
Congratulations to all who attended! You can expect to see Man O' War next year Until then, thanks for the ride!

[1493kd]

What a great job done by all those that worked to organize the event. I love the venue. Just need to work out some parking issues and add some more food options so people do not have to wait 30 minutes for a cup of coffee.

1493 had our best regional to date-
Kudos to the current and former students for writing the essay that earned Paul Schoch the WFA. I have never meet a nicer man who would give anyone the shirt off his back.

Very proud of our students and the hard work they put into the robot. After Thursday I do not think any of our 3 mentors touched the robot or had to tell the students to do anything. They handled Friday and Sat almost on their own.

I think we were much better then the 24th ranked team but that is the nature of the beast this year with having to rely on partners so much. I can see how scouting is so important this year.

Could never figure out why our auto worked 100% on practice field and then was about 50% on the field. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Hope to make a few improvements (2 ball auto) for FLR and looks forward to seeing everyone again.

Congrats to all the local teams for representing the area so well. Team 20 once you got your robot dialed in on Friday you were the class of the regional IMO. 250 probably played some of the smartest matches all weekend and used great strategy to come out on top very often. 3044 I am so impressed how far your team has come, congrats on the team spirit award. 2791 I hope you can fix your arm issues, having seen you at the practice field and how great it was working. I can only hope others get to see it at FLR.

Lastly I would like to thank 379 and 3003 for selecting us to partner with. That second match really showed what we could do. If only we could have repeated it for the 3rd match. Best of luck to both of you

[minhnhatbui]

Many, many thanks to everyone at Tech Valley, from the volunteers to the teams, students and mentors: your warm welcome has melted our hearts and we were happy and blessed to be part of this inaugural event and be able to meet incredible teams.

Kudos to 250 and 145, best alliance partners. Going through finals was exciting, but very sorry to let you guys down because of our catapult failure. Timeouts weren't enough and we insisted on calling the backup team to replace us, but 250 refused. I stand behind my students: you guys should have called a backup team.

Congratulations to 20, 1126 and 229 for this well-deserved regional win. You guys were fantastic. 340 is an inspiration to us. Thank you 1511 for helping us with tools. Thank you to all who tried to speak French to us, it made us feel at home.

We were in awe and admiration in front of so many great and well-established teams - 20, 340, 358, 1126, to name a few - and competing against you all was a great honour. We definitely learned a lot.

[1493kd]

Does anyone have any videos of matches? That would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[Kevin Leonard]

Originally Posted by 1493kd

Does anyone have any videos of matches? That would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

We have some, and I'll try to get them posted to YouTube as soon as possible. We recorded every match of the regional with a full field view for scouting reasons. We'll probably post eliminations first, then all the quals in sequential order. They'll likely be on our YouTube channel.

[1493kd]

Great thank you...

[Mark McLeod]

358 had a blast at the first Tech Valley Regional!
Great thanks to WFFA awardee Paul Schoch and committee for such a well run first year event.

FIRST teams are always so helpful.
Teams from all over lent us help, from the Rookie All-Stars team 5030 (ranked #2) who 3-D printed a part for us, to our pit partners: 340, 250, 20, 379, the list goes on. We appreciate each and every one of you!

This competition was hard.
Thanks to Southold Team 870 for choosing us, and to our partners Cambridge Team 5236 the Rookie Inspiration winners.
We worked well together. That change out of all our wheels in the semi's with seconds to spare was incredible.

Congratulations to 145,250,3990 who bested us in three very close semi-final matches. We're sorry the wear and tear from those very tough semi's probably made it more difficult for you to be fully operational in the finals.

Kudos to the winning alliance 20, 1126, 229.

Much thanks to the field staff/crew and refs.
You took great effort to get the scores right and you did a terrific job keeping the balls in play.
We know we may have stressed the refs out a bit maintaining clean defensive play.

P.S.
That terrific Mentors Lounge was visited constantly by our team mentors.
Quiet, coffee, baked treats,...
Good place to sew Turkish bumpers!
Thanks to Team 20 for organizing and running that.

[Larry Lewis]

Originally Posted by Thunder910

Congrats to Team 1511 on your Engineering Inspiration Award. You guys had a great robot and one of the smartest drive teams in the whole arena. Your spirit and professionalism filled every room you were in. "I believe that Robots Rock!" We'll see you at Finger lakes as well!

Thank you Thunder910, for the kind words. We were really honored to receive Engineering Inspiration this year. Also, thank you for the comment on our drive team. I know our students spend a lot of time analyzing the game and coming up with strategies. They were happy to see your comment and to know that people appreciate their efforts.

Congratulations to the winning alliance of 1126, 20, and 229! Not only were you a great alliance but you were very gracious for taking a time out when we needed to fix a robot on our alliance.

Also congratulations to all the teams that won awards this weekend!

Congratulations to 340 on their Chairman's Award win!

[colin340]

Super cool event great teams, great people.

my only complaint:

The place was too small for the number of teams there, and the event is only going to grow.