I wanted to address some of the comments about Utah - starting with a bit about how the out of state teams inflated the regional a bit. It wasn't as big a factor as you might think. For a lot of teams in the surrounding states, Utah is the home regional. Example, 2122, from Idaho - there isn't an "Idaho Regional." So they come to Utah year after year, and are basically a hometown team. There were several Colorado teams, but that's not unusual for Utah either, due to its proximity. Furthermore, teams from out of state (and country in one case) were scattered throughout the rankings - anywhere from rank 1 to 52.
Really, there wasn't much to it besides good robots, good teams, and some great alliance selections. Personally, I believe 624 seeded first because of auto, which was the main flaw in a lot of robots, they seemed to underestimate it a bit. (We got a lot of coop too, about 8/10 matches, because something we designed for was being able to coop within 15-20 seconds of a match.) However, 1619 and 2122 were clearly capable of making stacks on stacks on stacks - 1619 was pretty consistently making 3 stacks of 5 with cans on top, with 2122 making 2 6 stacks with cans and noodles, and a shorter 3rd stack as well (in quals).
When it came to alliance selections, they were carefully put together and it really showed. You had the top two alliances with a lot of firepower once you include PrototypeX (who were part of the alliance that set the high score of 190 in quals). Then you had some other alliances that chose the specialist strategy, 192-1836-3006 is a good example. 1836 had been having some troubles with can stability, so they stacked 4 high while 192 stole cans from the step in teleop and capped the MilkenKnights' stacks. They were so effective at this that they were a single tote from making it out of the semifinals (it helped that 192's human player is the best I've seen this season - wasn't just distance, but he must've had laser-guided aim or something to hit the platforms every time). There were multiple alliances like this and everyone was putting up huge scores - it really was amazing to see.
Our alliance was chosen based on consistency, where us, 1619, and 4334 were consistently making the 1st spot through the quarters and semis, but man, it was quite a sight to see all the stacks go up. I mean, if you wanted me to list teams that really stood out, the list would just go on and on - 1339, 3166 (who had a unique strategy, check out this video of us and them working together one match:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM5khC6wRIk , #TeamNoTether?), 3200, 2996, 3374, 115, etc. Honestly, it made me wonder why we hadn't attended this regional earlier. We loved the competition, the teams are among the friendliest in all of FIRST, and the venue was pretty cozy (I can tell you it was definitely warm for an ice rink).
If anyone hasn't had a chance yet, definitely check out some of the playoffs matches from any of the alliances for some exciting Recycle Rush action - you won't be disappointed!
Edit: I finally got to see the intro...looks cool. Reminiscent of some other intros for a certain game...
Fancy that, better robots winning matches... - DampRobot [more] 
18-03-2015, 20:53
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