VCU- A Wrap Up and Appology

[Joe Matt]

I'm back from an exhaustive VCU/NASA regional! I can barely speak and I've meet so many people. I want to throw a big welcome and hey to my new friends at El Diablo, 346. We had so much fun at the team party. Just remember, well, never mind.

Second is what happened today. Let me tell you that I'm GLAD ZONE ZEAL IS GONE! We made it through the elimination rounds and got into 5th. We picked Oz, team 388, and Two Train, team 395, as our alliance partner.

We dominated through the matches and used a unique strategy. We used the point system to our advantage and propelled up the rankings.

Sparky had no problems and the biggest one was a slightly off Dead Regcogining.

The second thing is an apology. I see that many of my posts, after looking back, were rude, blunt, and possibly very stupid for me to post. I have realized after these 3 days that CD isn't your typical message boards. You have a name, face, and personality here. So I apologize to all those who have a grudge against me, and I hope that you accept it and not take down Team 384 because of it.

And finaly, I want to throw out a thanks to 122 and Dave for giving me a showing of your Segway, Dave for giving me his omni-wheel pendant, and the other teams who we competed and help with: 1086, 510, 1095, 346, 343, 616, and many others.

[MrsT]

I spent Friday afternoon & today at VCU. My team wasn't there, but I couldn't wait until next weekend to see how this all plays out!

My thoughts....

Most notable game comment: STACKS don't matter!

Most surprizing: Less than half of the teams have an effective autonomous program

Most notable venue comment: They always SAID it -- but this year they MEAN it......safety glasses in pits!! =)

Favorite robot: 234???.....team with swinging boom that knocked over whole wall in autonomous mode without moving!

Most entertaining to watch: Dancing Robodog Bulldog(435) and wild robots practicing line tracking in the corner

Notable omission: maybe I missed it.....but I didn't hear that knee-slapping song - "(something)-eye-Joe"??....lol

Most spirited teams: Hawaii Five-10 (510), Robodogs(435), Spiderweb team(???), and Sparky(384)

Favorite uniform: Cougertrons(?) red jumpsuits

Best match: #105....Blue humans made a stack of 8!....and it stood a long time...but eventually was knocked down. Score 60/160

All and all -an exciting regional and a GREAT bunch of people. =)

With one notable exception....=(

Adults(from a team that will remain nameless) saved 2 rows of prime seating during the elimination rounds. When local spectators and random teamless people tried to sit - they were told that "these seats are for our team".....and the team didn't sit until the closing ceremony! Soooo unFIRSTlike. *sigh*

Just my opinions.....share yours!

Mrs. T

[hixofthehood]

I watched a little of the webcast finals and saw 234's crazy stegosaurus action. Man, that was cool.

If it hadn't've been for Cotton-eyed Joe, I'd('ve) been married long time ago. Where did you come from, where did you go, where did you come from Cotton-eyed Joe?
If the music system ever goes out at your local dance, I suggest to start singing this song, and everyone will be willed to grab a partner and do-ce-do.

[Ryan Dognaux]

I just got back from VCU, and I must say that it was by far the best regional I've been to. I really don't know what it was, but it was great I had tons of fun! And The robots... Sparky, your robot rocks, I'll remember you guys forever... and Thanks to team 614 and team 422 for being our alliance partners!! I wish you all good luck into your other competitions.

I'm extremely excited that people have been talking about our robot Expect some footage and pictures from VCU to be posted sometime in the near future.

Watch for 234's "Flailer" at the Arizona and Midwest Regionals!!

Also congrats to 384, 395, and 388!

Addition: here's a picture of 234's flailer in action @ VCU http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...threadid=18975

[Munkaboo]

We were contemplating picking 234 for the arm... but we decided to go with 343 since we knew it could push the arm away in autonomous mode... guess we made the right choice

Oh and:

We enjoyed allying with you the last QF match, we were very tempted to choose you for our alliance partner but we figured you would decline. (and the team was split as far as alliance partners went) The choosing process took almost an hour for us, sooo much drama.

[Joe Matt]

You never know Synergy...

Anyway, thanks for the kind comments to 384. You have no idea how meaningful they are to us. We had a loss in the team this year as an alumni died of heart failure and we dedicated this year to him.

Also for my awards!

Team with the best hand-out: Maximum Oz 388 with their triangle design with two sized philips and flat head screwdrivers in it and a tape measurer!

Best Button: Synergy 975 (look at Munkaboo's sig picture and you have the button art.)

Coolest Spirit Item: Hawaii 5-10 for their tiki-torches (they removed the oil and placed a flash-light and fan with paper on top) and their surf board.

[Mr. Ivey]

Hey I would just like to say to whoever was at the VCU Regional, all the people from the different teams that I met were all quite polite, and friendly, whenever you talked to them. I had a blast at competition, and I will have to say that some teams out there were increadable, not only in their attitude, but in their willingness to help. Deep Run High School, 1068 I believe, was a rokie team, and they were having problems. I helped them, but seeing the response from not only my team, Team 384, but from so many other teams showed me that FIRST isn't just about a competition and trying to have the best robot out there, but it's about helping others learn, and being willing to help out when others need it. I would also just like to say that Hawaii Five-10 (Team 510), ya'll had some serious spunk for your robot, and cool little lantern things. But to all that participated in the VCU event, you did an outstanding job of giving a good name to FRIST.
~Mr. Ivey

[$aravind.k$]

I have to agree with my teamates and say every team did a good job and IT WAS AWESOME and also want to thank every team that cheered for us!

[warbot620]

douse anyone who was at the vcu regionals think that team 620 was was shafted during the finale round alliance picking when

1st officials said on intercom you could decline a offer from a team ahead of you but still accept a offer from another team latter, but if you didn't accept you would be eliminated.

2nd team 620 has an offer from the team ranked 2nd or 3rd (cant remember) and decline btw(they decline b/c already had made arrangements with the oakton team)

3rd when team 620 has an offer from oakton we accept

4th totally incompetent field manager run over after we had already gone over to team oakton and talks to the guy running it then comes back and says you can do that and so we take are place back in 8th pance and choose are partners, they don't even give us the chance to accept the other teams offer.

5th we talk to head ref and they say that we were are allowed to accept oaktons offer

6th we have to go in the finals without any change b/c "it's too late"

[RLopez]

hehe another reply from 384, yes i agree with everything that was said by the 384 crew in this post.... it was fun! i loved every bit of these 3 days... our plan was just to have fun, and guess what, everyone enjoyed everything and had loads of fun! i want to thank everyone for cheering us on and yelling with us even with some voices dead.. hehe :-) thanks to everyone congratulating us, the comments were all awesome and i just want to thank everyone for making this all possible... this was my first year at those competitions and i didnt expect such a big crowd like there was and it was one of the best moments.. i've met some great people from other teams and ive gotten a lot closer to my team as well.. :-) hopefully i will see some familiar faces in next year's competitions!

GOOD JOB EVERYONE!

THANK YOU TEAM 395, and 388! YOU WERE AWESOME!!!

[EbonySeraphim]

I, as I member of team 623 (Ohm Boyz, ranked 4th entering QF matches) was very pissed off that Madison couldn't accept our offer because we generated our highest score(and I think it was there's too) with them of 230. That game was perfect, and our robots complimented each other nicely. Madison's autonomous mode complimented us nicely and im my opinion would have beat out Sparky(not to start a war) to the top. Not the fastest, but would have won a pushing contest had both got to the top. In addition to that our bot had plenty of weight (129.5) to push around anything we wanted to and our driver was good. That was the big reason why we got to the top, we knew how to play the game. I'm not going to say we should have won this or that, but I was pissed that we couldn't work with Madison(620) in the quarter final matches.

[Eric G]

Sparky, Congratulations! You guys were great! So many people said going into this that we shouldn't expect much from caster bots. Obviously that was not true! You guys had some great power. I saw 587 push some strong robots back, but when they went head to head with you guys, you shoved them off of the top of the ramp.

Your alliance (384, 977 and 388) was phenomenal in ability and in personality. I was happy to see the some of the nicest people at the competetion win the crown!

I enjoyed meeting you guys. I wish you well in nationals!

Eric

I too am from team 623. First off, lemme congratulate all the teams for a job well done. I had the best time in my entire life and it was truly a pleasure.

But I still have my quibbles with the announcements. It was to my understanding that a team couldn't only decline once. The Second time the team would be dq'd. Also, the judges and refs should be absolutely sure about something before they make an announcement. When our team beat the blue alliance for the 2nd game, they said we were moving on. But we didn't. And we didn't find out till we queued up again. I mean, that was a downer. But once again, good job everybody. Especially to (395?)
the team from the bronx. Them. Awesome job.

[ChrisH]

When your team is offered an alliance you may either accept or decline. If you decline, then you may not be asked by any other team. If you decline an alliance in the first round you might be allowed to accept another offer in the second round, but I don't think so. If you are already in the top 8 or are moved there by picking within the top eight seeds, you may form an alliance even if you have already declined an alliance.

Let's say that you are the #10 seed. You have noticed that the #1 and #3 seeds and the #2 and #5 seeds have been hanging around together, so you figure you're going to wind up #8 if not higher. If #1 should suprise you and make an offer, you may turn them down. But if you do forget any plans for an alliance with #6. Since you turned down one alliance, you will not be allowed to form another one with a lower ranked team. (Assuming the officials understand the rules) If, after turning down #1, things turn out as you originally expected then you will be allowed to compete in the elimination matches. But you will compete as the leader of the #8 alliance, not as part of an alliance other than the one that made the first offer.

The two reasons to decline are a non-functional robot that cannot be repaired in time for the Finals or you are close enough to the top that you think you can lead an alliance of your own. The first is GP, the second may be hubris.

I'd cite the rule but the link to HyperRules doesn't seem to be working and I can't remember what I did with my rules CD. It's way out of date anyway.

Things have been this way since the second year we had alliances, due to there being so much "deal making" going on that an eighth seeded team couldn't get anybody to accept an alliance the first year. Well they did get somebody, but only after four or five other teams declined. I was kind of embarassed for them.

Don't just Read the Rules, Know the Rules

BTW Stacks do matter, you guys just haven't figured out that wanton distruction of them is a BAD THING. I saw a whole lot of matches in Sacramento where the winner would have been much better off to leave the losers stacks alone. If you don't understand why, then I suggest that you go read the rules until you do.

[DougHogg]

Originally posted by ChrisH
BTW Stacks do matter, you guys just haven't figured out that wanton distruction of them is a BAD THING. I saw a whole lot of matches in Sacramento where the winner would have been much better off to leave the losers stacks alone. If you don't understand why, then I suggest that you go read the rules until you do.

Hi Chris,

I don't recall seeing anything about the Sacramento match being broadcast or webcast. Did you drive up to Sacramento? Did the Cheezy Poofs pull off another win?

See you in Phoenix.