2015 Finger Lakes Regional

[LeelandS]

As always, Finger Lakes was an amazing event. The kinds of score we saw in most qualification rounds was outstanding. We may not have had any clear powerhouses like 1114 or 148 or whohaveyou but there was no shortage of high-tier teams, and the top 8 was constantly shuffling. I don't think anyone had solid predictions throughout the event of who would end up on top.

Congrats to 4039, 3015 and 378 for the event win, and to 5254, 340 and 174 for some hard-fought finals. But double congratulations to all of them since we have an interesting circumstance where all teams in the finals are qualified for worlds, thanks to 4039's Chairman's win and 340's pre-qualification from Tech Valley! For a finals that was decided by 3 points, I don't think there is a more fitting way for an event to go down.

Personal congratulations to my alma mater, 1126. I thought 1126 had this event on lock after watching them put up 3 six stacks in one of their last qual matches. In the end, the firepower just wasn't enough and a bad first semifinals match ended their run. Nevertheless, I've never seen a team more prideful in defeat. Ending the competition by killing the regional record (which they help set) is a better way to go out than anything I could hope for. I thank them for helping us all the way through the event and bonding with members of my team as the event went on. We've had a tight partnership this season and I would love to see it continue to go strong. Go SparX!

To say that my team is unsatisfied with our performance is an understatement. But there is always next time, and a whole year remains to improve. FLR 2016 can't come soon enough!

[ATH1RSTYM00SE]

Well I guess now that the dust has settled and the emotions have worn off a bit, now is a good time to throw this here.
First off I want to thank our Alliance partners 340 and 174. You guys were a pleasure to work with and were everything we hoped for out of an alliance. I wish we could have won with you guys but unfortunately it didn't work out that way. For anyone wondering, we think the reason we had trouble keeping the recycling cans on the totes in the last match was because in the second finals match when our stack got knocked over it landed on one of our can stabilizers. The stabilizer wasn't mounted very sturdy so the falling totes shifted it. This translated to that stabilizer poking the can off the stack when we tried to lift past a certain height.
Now onto more thanks stuff. I'd like to thank 3015 for 2 things. First things first, thanks for making me look like an idiot. When you guys won ei I jumped from my seat and yelled because I knew that generated us a wild card slot but nobody else on my team knew that yet so they all looked at me confused. . Secondly thanks for being so nice as to come to our pit to congratulate us on finalists. You guys were humble and definitely a deserving team. We hope to see you again in St Louis.
Next I want to give a huge shout out to 4039. You guys were truly a class act and exemplify everything FIRST strives for. Not only did you build am excellent robot but you helped your community enough to win chairman's
Truly a well rounded team. Even more than that, you guys were incredibly nice to us the whole event and were super pleasant to talk to. The award you presented to us at the end of the competition helped boost our morale more than you can imagine and you guys seemed genuinely happy to present it to us. We were a bit down in the dump because we fell just short of the finish line but you guys were so understanding and nice. I'm not sure if it was how great people you were or how colorful your shirts were but talking to you guys as we were packing up our pit put a smile on my fave. I can't even think of accurate words to describe just how great of a team of people you guys are but know that your graciousness did not go unappreciated.
Lastly I want to thank everyone who made this event run smoothly. 5254 has nothing but positive things to say about this regional.
I guess I'll throw a mini shout out here to the drive coach of 5030 for being a cool dude to talk to as well as the mentor from grapes of wrath who told us all about the wonders of rivnuts

[GCentola]

Alrighty. I haven’t said anything on Chief in a while but there are a few things about this past weekend that I feel need to be said.

First, I would like to acknowledge all of the hard work by the judges (and their impressive dancing skills). I was a Judge Assistant and some of the amazing things said about so many teams are truly incredible (some of which I already knew). If your team did not win an award, you still have a heck of a lot to be proud of because some of the discussions were pretty intense. I hadn’t really seen that perspective before.

Next, of course, congratulations to the winning alliance as well as Makeshift for their “double-win.” You guys truly have a special program going on and I wish you all of the best. It really is a neat case that every robot in the finals gets a ticket to champs. As much as I still have mixed feelings about this game, both alliances were impressive to watch.

Lastly, I need to give a shout-out to 1126 because, well, I’m a bit biased. I may not be able to put it as eloquently as a good friend of mine just a short scroll up the page but I agree with him 100%. You guys were ready to go on Thursday and functioned like a well-oiled machine…while working on a well-oiled machine. It was really neat to talk to some of the newer members and see that the flame is far from extinguished. I couldn’t watch matches on Friday, but I got score updates and I was texting Dylan throughout the day. Even after some exciting scores, every response was followed with “could be better.” This isn’t terribly surprising, but I’m happy to see that the drive for continual improvement is still ever-present – and you guys did just that. Saturday brought some excellent matches (and high scores!!) that you should all be proud of. You made your way to the 2nd seed alliance captain and picked a stellar combination that would have been playing in the finals in any other year. You gave every eliminations match your best shot, even after an unfortunate mishap in the semis. In true SparX fashion, you put up a fight to the end and showed everyone that you were out, but by no means down. Some of the plays I watched you guys make are things I would expect from a veteran Drive Team, and the four of you conducted yourself like pros. It was truly a pleasure catching up with people and meeting some new ones. The team may have had a few hiccups while I was a student, but the past few years have shown me that you have come back fighting. I truly wish each and every one of you the best.

I haven’t paid much attention to this year, but I truly had an exciting weekend. FLR is always such a high-quality event and this year was no exception. Hope to see you all next year (or, shameless plug time, at Ruckus, which will be on 10/17 at the Main Street Armory in Rochester).

[dsherw00d]

378 would like to thank 4039 and 3015 for inviting us to join their alliance. Both are great teams and we had a fantastic time!!! Congratulations to 4039 on their Chairman's and to 3015 for the Engineering Inspiration and Woodie Flowers!! I graduated from SUNY Brockport and worked in Spencerport during college.

The finals were a bit stressful given our controller and arm deployment issues, but it worked out in the end (3 pts!!) with all 6 teams going to Champs!!! The last couple of years, we've been the 3rd robot with enough uniqueness to be beneficial to the winning alliance. Last year with 1507 and 20 we had the 1507 ball hand off and the back stop. This year, we had the first "noodle quiver" (an idea from 4039) and the can battles with 174. We never imagined we would be part of the winning alliance 2 years in a row!!

We've also had very good experiences with our neighbors in Canada. We won the 2014 Ruckus with 610 and 1241. We then went to GTRE (Oshawa) for our first 2015 regional and finished 5th with 1815. We played with 2056/2852 and as the #8 seed were opposite of them in the quarters when they put up 210! 1114/2056/4039/610/2852/etc are all going to St. Louis and the can wars are going to be crazy!! 340 and 1511 have great auto can snatchers and they are going to be a huge asset at Champs.

We had a blast and are very grateful for the opportunity to compete with some very high performing teams. This is my 4th season as the coach/mentor for 378 and I'm always amazed with the robots at FLR from the top to the bottom!!! We had 340 on our right and 1507/1511 across from us in the pits. Then 191, 1405, 20, 174, 578 in the same short stretch of pits just down from us. It's amazing how we walk around the pits and see so many high quality teams year after year.

See everyone in a few weeks!!!

[Shifter]

MakeShift would like to thank all those who put together the Finger Lakes Regional. This was our first time attending and we found it to be very well organized, a beautiful venue and a welcoming atmosphere.

The level of competition at RIT was impressive and 5254 set the standard from start to finish. As our 2015 Boost Award Winner we can't wait to see you shine at World's. 340's world class can-burglar and impressive stacking made for a potent combination. 174 was a great pick as a third robot with their amazing can-righting mechanism.

With the quality of machines and driving from 1126, 1507, 2228, 3003, 1405 and so many others, putting up stack after stack in qual's and then playoffs, we needed a lot of luck to make it to the finals.

Our sincere thanks to our underdog 7th seed alliance partners and newest FRC friends. In a year sometimes dominated by one or two robots, the three of us proved to be stronger together than each of us as individuals. It was a true pleasure to work with 3015 - from strategy to robot, you guys are one solid team. 378 was the key to our alliance, contributing timely RC's and just enough landfill totes. We loved sharing a moment of #teamquiver with you!

With only a three point difference in the deciding match it could definitely have gone either way. We were so pleased that, as it turned out in the end, all six teams in the finals earn an invite to St. Louis.

Finally, to be recognized with Chairman's amongst such storied teams was truly an honour. This touched us deeply and we will do our best going forward to live up to this title. One note for teams that are striving for this award but were disappointed this year - we know how it feels to work so hard and not be recognized but please, please, please keep striving. Keep working at all those things that spread the message of FIRST and inspire our future leaders - award or not, it's the right thing to do.

[robowrestler]

The Finger Lakes Regional was once again an outstanding event. Thanks to all the volunteers that make the event what it is. Also a huge thanks to 4039 MakeShift For picking us and 378 for being awesome alliance partners, it was great to see our alliance MakeShift happen. 5254, 340, and 147 played a great elimination tournament, and especially great in the finals.

[Starke]

The Arctic Warriors had a wonderful 2015 Finger Lakes Regional Competition. We consider FLR to be our home regional and it did not disappoint. Thank you to Team 5254 and Team 340 for choosing us to be part of your alliance. It was so cool to make a new friend in the coach from 5254 and work with some old friends from 340. We had a blast showing our abilities with you guys and making it into the finals.

A special congratulations to Dante from Team 1126 for winning Volunteer of the Year. You have been such a great head ref over many years and a great friend to me.

Looking forward to next year!

[Rebecca Wasmer]

Any word on why Rookie All-Star was not handed out?

[ThunderousPrime]

For anyone who wants to relive any of the matches from the Finger Lakes Regional, all quals and elims matches have been posted on 1511's Match Video Channel. A spreadsheet of all of the matches and the corresponding URLs can be found here.