2015 Denver CO Regional

[Qcom]

It's coming up fast! I'm super excited to meet up for a second time with 1619, 1410, 662, and of course all the southern colorado teams and teams we saw at the 2996 scrimmage earlier this year!

This year 2996 will be bringing up our full practice field like last year; we're planning on having it set up for practice matches and the full regional. If you have any questions about the field let us know!

So, who is coming?

[lcoreyl]

6 Wildcards up for grabs:

1619 - Utah winner
2996 - Utah EI
1011 - AZ East - Chairman's
1730 - GKC EI
1723 - GKC winner
5489 - Utah Rookie all-star

other interesting info about the teams:

1730 - #3 OPR worldwide after 4 weeks
1619 - #13 OPR worldwide after 4 weeks
2996, 662, 3200 < all alliance captains at Utah
4499 - would have been #5 alliance captain @Dallas if not selected to alliance 4.
1339, 4550, (sure i'm missing some others) < selected into elims

[mrnoble]

We are seriously excited! We had a great time with the Colorado contingent at Utah, and we know there will be some high level play in Denver this year. Let us know if y'all want to get together while you are in town!

[IronicDeadBird]

Nobles words don't even do justice to how excited some of us are. Through a miracle and a half (not to mention an awesome supervisor) I got the day off and while I didn't make it to Utah as a drive coach I will be on the field on our home turf.

[CaityDawh]

I am so excited for the Colorado Regional. It will be so amazing to play against and with so many great teams. I can't wait to see all the wonderful robots! It will really cool with a lot teams on their second regional. I guarantee we will see some new and interesting strategies!

[Pretzel]

I can't wait for the regional to start, and I'm sure that many on team 1619 feel the same way. It will be somewhat different that previous years for us, in that the regional will be during school for the first time for us! It's usually during our spring break, but a combination of a late spring break and an earlier Colorado regional (week five instead of six) means that the regional is actually a weekend before the start of our spring break (which begins on April 4th this year for us).

[CaityDawh]

We had that experience for the Greater Kansas City Regional. The college that hosts the event was on their spring break, but our high school's spring break started the next week. Which also means that we are missing school to come to Colorado, but hey it's for Robots!

[will4499]

Originally Posted by lcoreyl

6 Wildcards up for grabs:

1619 - Utah winner
2996 - Utah EI
1011 - AZ East - Chairman's
1730 - GKC EI
1723 - GKC winner
5489 - Utah Rookie all-star

other interesting info about the teams:

1730 - #3 OPR worldwide after 4 weeks
1619 - #13 OPR worldwide after 4 weeks
2996, 662, 3200 < all alliance captains at Utah
4499 - would have been #5 alliance captain @Dallas if not selected to alliance 4.
1339, 4550, (sure i'm missing some others) < selected into elims

4499 actually would have been the 8th alliance captain at Dallas. We had a few tough matches where we did not score high since our container mechanism was not yet on the robot, preventing us from capping our own stacks. It is finished now, and will be on the robot for Colorado though.

[Qcom]

OK, after practice matches today, some interesting things have developed:

1. Team Driven. WOW, they are a stacking machine! Up-a-creek will definitely be given a run for their money.

2. Door clearance. If you haven't gotten your robot through the circuit a few times, know that there are some really tight spots. We have to really tilt our robot a ways to fit through the final doorway when going back to the pits from the field.

3. Match Efficiency. I'm noticing a great improvement over last year. Teams are cycling much faster, and the game design as a whole seems to be less hectic on our wonderful volunteer refs and judges, who teams had some disagreements with last year over certain fouls and rule interpretations.

Overall, a great round of practices, and a good job by all. Keep innovating!

[Michael 4499]

Hey, I would just like to thank our alliance partners 1723 (for picking us) and also 5318 for making a great alliance allowing us to make it to finals. This was the first time that we have made it past semi's which was an amazing accomplishment for us. Congratulations to team 1619, 1730, and 4593 for winning the whole tournament. This was an amazing tournament and The Highlanders were glad to be able to participate in it and (luckily) qualify for worlds with our first Chairmans award win.

[mrnoble]

Highlights for AngelBotics:

• The scoring. It sure felt great to see so few contestable penalties, and to see that this game is low(er) stress on referees.
• Seeing the success of teams we admire, like 1619 and 4499.
• Captaining an alliance.
• Canburgling! I will try to load some videos later today of the war betwen our bot and both 1619 and Rapid Accelleration in the same semis match. It was really fun to provide the most entertaining moment of the whole competition.

[mrnoble]

http://youtu.be/P9XAflAM5WQ

[Pretzel]

Originally Posted by mrnoble

http://youtu.be/P9XAflAM5WQ

That was my favorite match of the entire competition, and the one I was looking forwards to the most! I wanted to see how our "Rakenator GT 17701 Laramie Longhorn Edition" fared against your canburglar, and we found a number of improvements that need to be made both on the mechanism and in software throughout the eliminations.

I have to say, without a doubt, that yours was the most effective of the regional from the start. Sometime after the season I'd enjoy getting together and taking a closer look at it to see what specifically made it more effective.

[cdurgan]

Here is another angle on that match.

http://youtu.be/p4o7fsB8-hQ

[CaptainKirby]

So, I've been doing FIRST for six years now. These six years include 6 FLL events, 6 FRC regional events, 3 off season FRC competitions, and 1 trip to CMP. Of these combined 16 FIRST events, this Colorado Regional was my favorite. By a long shot.

Not only did I have the time of my life watching the matches, but I also had the pleasure to meet students from a number of teams. At the end of the regional, I realized that I had made good friends on 10 other teams. I'd like to thank these individuals for giving me something, other than the robots, to smile about.

I also have to give a shout out to Todd, one of the best Master of Ceremonies that I have ever seen.

So, until next time:
Totes my goats, totes totes my goats

-Jake