Predictions Week Five: Center Cans on Center Stage

[WillRobinson]

Originally Posted by Looking Forward

Las Vegas Regional
After some precarious moments through the off-season, the Las Vegas Regional is back in 2015 for its 11th season. While there are teams from both coasts, Germany, and China among the field of 43, it's two teams with unfinished business that are in the spotlight. 148 and 987 had an unsavory finish to their on the field action in Dallas back in week 1, and are back in action. The two teams would simply have to maintain their levels of play to be favorites, but both will look to raise the bar further, even with championship berths already secured. 60 may have the best odds of disrupting the high rolling dynamic duo atop the leader boards, as they too have proven capable of scoring multiple capped stacks on their own. 1251 may be a valuable weapon for an alliance looking to knock off the top guns. Not only are the Tech Tigers much smoother at capping tall stacks than other can specialists at the event, such as 3245, but they can snatch cans from the step in autonomous. This could lead to some autonomous interplay with them, the High Rollers' canburglers, and possibly even the Robowranglers' 28-point autonomous aspirations (with Alfred left home in the bat cave). Despite some early exits, 341 and 3309 hope to be playoff factors as well. Daisy made leaps and bounds at their second district, but their consistency and can acquisition still leave a lot to be desired. The Friarbots have a scoring machine capable of creating multiple stacks from the landfill. While the odds are weighted heavily towards the favorites, there will be no shortage of action in Vegas this weekend.

Nailed it.

Teams 148 and 987 not only raised the bar, with the help of 5012 they improved their average playoff score by over 75 points. Of the seven playoff matches played, only two were below 200 points making them one of just a few teams to have a regional playoff average above 200.

Teams 60/3309/4322 were serious contenders putting up some very impressive playoff averages as well. Congrats to all the finalists making their way to Champs.