2014 Chesapeake Regional

[Wetzel]

Originally Posted by wilsonmw04

sounds like bad timing.

It's only 2,000 people in a major metropolitan area, the basketball arena seats well more than us+2k, let alone the football stadium on campus. It shouldn't be a big deal.

[zim2411]

Congratulations to all the Friday award winners! Here's a sneak peek of the photos. More to come, once I sort through the 3695 photos from today.


Team Spirit Award sponsored by Chrysler
Team 1547


Full Res. Picture 1
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Creativity Award sponsored by Xerox
Team 1885


Full Res. Picture 1
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Entrepreneurship Award sponsored by Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers
Team 1741


Full Res. Picture 1
Full Res. Picture 2




Imagery Award in honor of Jack Kamen
Team 1111


Full Res. Picture 1
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Rookie Inspiration Award
Team 4945


Full Res. Picture 1
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Woodie Flowers Finalist Award
Joseph Shapiro (2377)
(Hit a picture limit in this post, will put it up later)

Volunteer of the Year
BAA Baltimore Area Alliance

[Johnbot]

What an event!
We were watching the live stream all day today, and it was an amazing experience!

It was great to see our VA alliance parter, B.O.T., go on to lead their own alliance to the finals. It was also great to see other VAR teams, Triple Helix and Garrett Coalition, win the event.

[zim2411]

Congratulations to all the teams, mentors, volunteers, alumni, crew, VIPs, visitors, and everyone else who made it such a great event!

I wanted to get some of the award photos we took for those lucky teams out quickly, feel free to distribute them and use them on your websites. Check the out here:

Chesapeake 2014 Award Photos!

Lots more pictures to come, I just have to sort through 7336 photos first.

[KevinG]

Thanks to all the teams and organizers for a wonderful event. I had a lot of fun being a robot inspector, and will definitely do it again.

Also what happened that forced so many delays in the eliminations? There was even a rematch that wasn't really explained.

[karpiron]

Originally Posted by zim2411

Congratulations to all the teams, mentors, volunteers, alumni, crew, VIPs, visitors, and everyone else who made it such a great event!

I wanted to get some of the award photos we took for those lucky teams out quickly, feel free to distribute them and use them on your websites. Check the out here:

Chesapeake 2014 Award Photos!

Lots more pictures to come, I just have to sort through 7336 photos first.

Thank You, Peter for the GREAT Photos.

[notmattlythgoe]

2363 had a great time at the Chesapeake regional. We'd like to thank our partners 1629 for selecting us as their alliance partners and 623 for joining us and playing great throughout the elimination rounds. We were very excited when 623 was still available when it got back to our alliance for the last pick.

Congrats also to 1629 for their Chairman's award win, I'm not sure you could have a more perfect regional, 1st seed, regional winners, and chairman's winners. You guys are one heck of a team and we thoroughly enjoyed competing with and against you the entire competition.

We'd also like to thank our opponents in the finals, our great friends from 1610 and their partners 1741, 4945, and 2421. You all were great teams and we enjoyed playing Aerial Assist with you guys.

[MechEng83]

Thanks for an excellent experience at the Chesapeake Regional.
The venue was very nice (especially the carpeted pits!) There were several top notch competitors. The matches were exciting to watch. The regional planning committee did a great job of setting stuff up and communicating with teams and keeping us updated.

Originally Posted by KGenson

Also what happened that forced so many delays in the eliminations? There was even a rematch that wasn't really explained.

I think there were some challenges on the field, which cause delays as the ref's deal with them. We had to replay SF2-3 because of a field fault. Apparently something was unplugged on the hot goal for the red alliance. Luckily for us, the end result was the same. Of course, this resulted in us having to play 5 matches in a row and our drive motors were quite hot, pushing 150 F after the last match and the air compressor was about 160 F.

A sour spot for me: I didn't particularly appreciate being harshly accused by one team's mentor of breaking their team's robot during a match, especially when there's no way our robot caused the particular damage. We had even offered to help the team with any repairs. My team reviewed the match video that evening where the damage occurred and confirmed we never were near the damaged robot.

Some other items which could be improved in the future: I didn't really like the access restrictions to certain stair cases, as it made the trip to and from the stands excessively long. The safety glasses table on Thursday was refusing to loan any glasses to people with team shirts, despite the fact that they might be parents/family of teams, rather than team members or mentors (who should be allowed to borrow them too). We talked to the lead safety advisor, and I think he remedied the situation.

To end on a positive note:
We walked away with 4 awards: Entrepreneurship, Gracious Professionalism, and our first time ever with Industrial Safety, plus the Regional Finalist award. Thanks to our alliance partners from 1610, 4945, and last minute addition for the final match, 2421. This is one of the best elimination alliances I've had the privilege of being a part since I joined our team. Congratulations to the Winners, teams 1629, 2363, and 623. Congratulations, again, to team 1629 on their RCA win. Congrats to 329 for winning EI. Congratulations to 4949 for winning Rookie All Star. Good luck at the World Championship to all the winners.

[1629GaCo]

Thank you to everyone involved in making the 2014 Chesapeake Regional a success. I know there are many moving parts, but you all did an exceptional job of organizing this event.

On behalf of Team 1629, we would like to say thank you to our alliance partners 2363 Triple Helix, and 623 Cougar Robotics. We truly complimented each other throughout the eliminations, and brought home the gold. Each team did exactly what was asked of them to make the alliance that much more effective.

2363, your double autonomous was deadly, and your truss catch was awesome! You all are an amazing team, and there will be great things to come!!! We look forward to working with you again!

623, your inbounding/trussing/stellar defense was what kept this alliance strong. You did exactly what was asked of you and never waivered once bit when strategy changed. Thank you for joining us on the amazing journey and keep up the great work!

329, congratulations on your EI award, you have a truly amazing story and good luck at the Championships!

Steve Shade and all of the referees, you all were amazing. You handled everything with class and pride, even in the face of adversity. You gave the announcers the penalties and the reasons for the field resets. The job you have is the hardest in FIRST, but you all did it well!!! Thank you for smoothly ran matches, and overall attention to detail.

Good luck to everyone attending the Championship Event, we hope to see everyone there!

[mwilbur]

Originally Posted by MechEng83

...and the air compressor was about 160 F.

We had excellent luck this year with using a fan to blow cooling air over our compressor during operation. Having a pneumatic shooter, the compressor spent a lot of time on when the robot was enabled.

[protoserge]

Originally Posted by KGenson

Thanks to all the teams and organizers for a wonderful event. I had a lot of fun being a robot inspector, and will definitely do it again.

Also what happened that forced so many delays in the eliminations? There was even a rematch that wasn't really explained.

The reflective target on the blue goal was unplugged/not fully seated and did not operate during autonomous. This resulted in the field call to replay the match.

There was also use of an alliance member substitution card that required a lengthy conversation with the head ref.

The rest of the delays were standard time periods between brackets.

[Peragore]

Does anyone have video of the awards ceremony, or at least the Innovation in Control Award? I am so proud of my team for winning, and we want to use the judge's script for PR purposes, as well as just listen to our names announced over and over again. So over the moon about this!

[mrmummert]

Hello...

We had a great time at Chesapeake. Congrats go out to winners 1629 (and their Chairmans win ),623 and our friends from 2363...see you all at St. Louis. Also congrats go out to our alliance partners 1741, 4945 and 2421.

The venue was great and it was well run. The only two things i didn't like were
the way the stairs to the field were set up (which if its held there again will
probably be changed) and the load in/ load out. I guess i'm spoiled by the way they do it at VCU and Palmetto.

[RoboMom]

Thank you to all the teams! We also had a crew of terrific volunteers.
This was the first year in this venue and there were many decisions to be made behind the scenes and in the planning stages. It's always a balancing act between safety, working with venue restrictions, the volunteer base to support decisions and what works best for the teams.
All the teams and volunteers will be given the opportunity to give feedback in a survey, and the planning committee will listen.
We had some talented photographers who took thousands of really great photos of teams, volunteers and the event. These should be up on our website soon.

[wilsonmw04]

Originally Posted by Peragore

Does anyone have video of the awards ceremony, or at least the Innovation in Control Award? I am so proud of my team for winning, and we want to use the judge's script for PR purposes, as well as just listen to our names announced over and over again. So over the moon about this!

I know it won't help this year, but, typically, If you go to the announcer right after the awards ceremony you can get the script itself without need for video.