2015 Waterloo Regional

[Bluman56]

Something interesting to note... all 3 robots on the 1st seeded alliance have a wild card. So their opponents in the finals all qualify for champs. However, (this is where it gets interesting) 5406 is very likely to win Rookie All Star, so they also have a wildcard which I am guessing gets passed onto 4678? Can someone confirm?

EDIT: Scratch that. Got rookie qualifying awards confused.

[JohnFogarty]

That 2nd seeded alliance took most of the cans and still lost F-1 :O

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Bluman56

Something interesting to note... all 3 robots on the 1st seeded alliance have a wild card. So their opponents in the finals all qualify for champs. However, (this is where it gets interesting) 5406 is very likely to win Rookie All Star, so they also have a wildcard which I am guessing gets passed onto 4678? Can someone confirm?

Wildcards only go to the Finalist Alliance, in order of selection. No further. Admin Manual Section 7.3.3

[Christopher149]

Originally Posted by Bluman56

Something interesting to note... all 3 robots on the 1st seeded alliance have a wild card. So their opponents in the finals all qualify for champs. However, (this is where it gets interesting) 5406 is very likely to win Rookie All Star, so they also have a wildcard which I am guessing gets passed onto 4678? Can someone confirm?

I don't think 5719 has wild card-generating potential, because Rookie Inspiration (which they won at GTRE) is not Rookie All-Star (which sends you to St. Louis).

[iVanDuzer]

Originally Posted by JohnFogarty

That 2nd seeded alliance took most of the cans and still lost F-1 :O

2056 and 3683 each grabbed two cans. One of Red's RCs got stuck in the corner of the field between one of the stacks and the ramp.

[Bluman56]

Originally Posted by Christopher149

I don't think 5719 has wild card-generating potential, because Rookie Inspiration (which they won at GTRE) is not Rookie All-Star (which sends you to St. Louis).

Yup thats what I realized soon after I posted it.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Bluman56

Yup thats what I realized soon after I posted it.

Wild-card scenarios right now: First two teams on finalist alliance (1114 and 2056 previous wins generating). If either rookie picks up RAS, the entire finalist alliance has a berth. Ditto if one of the alliance members from either alliance picks up EI or RCA (1114 and the rookies are ineligible for the latter). Right now, 1334 is probably really hoping for one of those things to happen (and it's highly likely).

[Bluman56]

As of this regional, 2056 has won 21 regionals without being defeated. Their next regional ends on April 4th. Last year The Undertaker entered Wrestlemania with a 21-0 record. On April 6th he left 21-1. Will 2056 suffer the same fate with their Undertaker streak?

[orangemoore]

Originally Posted by Bluman56

As of this regional, 2056 has won 21 regionals without being defeated. Their next regional ends on April 4th. Last year The Undertaker entered Wrestlemania with a 21-0 record. On April 6th he left 21-1. Will 2056 suffer the same fate with their Undertaker streak?

The biggest threat (in my opinion, in Canada) to 2056 is 1114. If for some reason 1114 ends up on the other side of the glass against 2056, it could end the streak.

[Stephen Liggett]

Originally Posted by Bluman56

As of this regional, 2056 has won 21 regionals without being defeated. Their next regional ends on April 4th. Last year The Undertaker entered Wrestlemania with a 21-0 record. On April 6th he left 21-1. Will 2056 suffer the same fate with their Undertaker streak?

I'm convinced! How could they not suffer the same fate!

I think it's safe to say Wrestlemania statistics are underused.

[waialua359]

Originally Posted by orangemoore

The biggest threat (in my opinion, in Canada) to 2056 is 1114. If for some reason 1114 ends up on the other side of the glass against 2056, it could end the streak.

With this year's game scoring of total points (average score/match), I highly doubt you will see them on opposite sides of the glass.
In previous games of win vs loses, I can see a bad matchup where that has happened before. But this year, it doesnt matter who you play against. For past Waterloo events, people paid attention to when 1114 played against 2056. This year, the matchup doesnt matter.
In the end, the better teams just end up ranked higher. I cant remember a game where you could lock up the #1 seed after day 1 of qualifications, if ever.

Personally, I'm a fan of it. You are less affected by bad match schedules and bad alliance seeds on the way to the finals. The better alliances win, generally speaking. There is no, good 1-4-5-8 bracket and hoping to be in the 2-3-6-7 bracket if that route is "easier" to get to the finals. Last year that had huge implications, especially since wild cards were being given out.

[orangemoore]

Originally Posted by waialua359

With this year's game scoring of total points (average score/match), I highly doubt you will see them on opposite sides of the glass.
In previous games of win vs loses, I can see a bad matchup where that has happened before. But this year, it doesnt matter who you play against.
In the end, the better teams just end up ranked higher.

Personally, I'm a fan of it. You are less affected by bad match schedules and bad alliance seeds on the way to the finals. The better alliances win, generally speaking.

You're definitely right, I would be really surprised if 1114 and 2056 were not together.

[waialua359]

Originally Posted by orangemoore

You're definitely right, I would be really surprised if 1114 and 2056 were not together.

And I'd bet that 1114 and 2056 likes the scoring system much better than in the past of W-L's.

[Bluman56]

Originally Posted by orangemoore

You're definitely right, I would be really surprised if 1114 and 2056 were not together.

Agreed. I just like the narrative is all.

[Bongle]

Originally Posted by waialua359

With this year's game scoring of total points (average score/match), I highly doubt you will see them on opposite sides of the glass.
In previous games of win vs loses, I can see a bad matchup where that has happened before. But this year, it doesnt matter who you play against. For past Waterloo events, people paid attention to when 1114 played against 2056. This year, the matchup doesnt matter.
In the end, the better teams just end up ranked higher. I cant remember a game where you could lock up the #1 seed after day 1 of qualifications, if ever.

Personally, I'm a fan of it. You are less affected by bad match schedules and bad alliance seeds on the way to the finals. The better alliances win, generally speaking. There is no, good 1-4-5-8 bracket and hoping to be in the 2-3-6-7 bracket if that route is "easier" to get to the finals. Last year that had huge implications, especially since wild cards were being given out.

Even as a mortal team, I really like this year's qualification system (even though we seeded low. We deserved it with constant mechanical or driver glitches). I was following along alliance selection with TBA's top-15 OPR numbers, and rarely was a team more than 1 position away from their OPR number. The alliance selection also went basically in line with what our scouts predicted.

Especially in Ontario with the inevitable essentially unstoppable 1114/2056 alliance pairing, it was nice to know that performance could get us a trip to the finals instead of sheer luck avoiding the 1-4-5-8 bracket*. I hope FIRST tries to keep the spirit of this year's qualification/elimination system next year, even if they return to W-L-T as primary sorting metric.

*Especially once the "winners' 2nd champs tickets fall over to finalists" rules were introduced, avoiding the 1-4-5-8 bracket was the #1 priority for finals. I believe in 2013 we declined an alliance selection that would've made a stronger alliance simply because it would've lead us to 1114/2056 in the semis, but we needed to make the finals.