MAR Regional Champs

[George A.]

So I am personally of the mindset that MAR champs is completely open this year.

There isn't that one or two game changing robot that if they align would be impossible to beat like there were in years past.

It's prolly going to come down to good second round picks. If you have 2 great HP robots who will get the halfway decent landfill bot?

Either way I'm really excited for Thursday.

[Gdeaver]

It'll come down to the RC's. Who gets them.

[Josh Goodman]

Originally Posted by George A.

There were some designs at North Brunswick that were downright laughable and one got disabled for being so dangerous.

QFT. A noble effort of the guys from 869 to retrofit that grabber onto a rookie, but it unfortunately was super dangerous, illegal, and a pre-match time suck.

I'm excited to watch the ever-increasing excitement of the center-can battles, but please remember to stay safe. If not for your robot's sake, for your head referee!

[Brian Maher]

My team canburgled on the Finalist alliance of North Brunswick (Parallel MORTiverse). It became an exciting challenge trying to scout the other canburglars in playoffs and prevent them from getting their preferred containers. As a historically defensive team, it's fun to play the defense game again while greatly increasing our own scoring potential.

[Libby K]

Originally Posted by George A.

There were some designs at North Brunswick that were downright laughable and one got disabled for being so dangerous.

Originally Posted by Josh Goodman

QFT. A noble effort of the guys from 869 to retrofit that grabber onto a rookie, but it unfortunately was super dangerous, illegal, and a pre-match time suck.

Please don't assign that hook entirely to 869, especially if you consider it a failure.

Our last-minute attempt to give 5666, a team we knew well (from working under 1923's wings all build season), a way to contribute to the alliance and get a shot at MARCMP, was a result of both 1923 and 869 working together with 5666 to see if they could make something work.

Sorry that it wasn't perfect, but I don't think it's appropriate to call anyone, especially a rookie team, laughable. I think coming home with Rookie All-Star proved they're a pretty fantastic bunch of kids.

They learned a lot from the playoff experience, so I consider it a success.

[George A.]

Originally Posted by Libby K

Please don't assign that hook entirely to 869, especially if you consider it a failure.

Our last-minute attempt to give 5666, a team we knew well (from working under 1923's wings all build season), a way to contribute to the alliance and get a shot at MARCMP, was a result of both 1923 and 869 working together with 5666 to see if they could make something work.

Sorry that it wasn't perfect, but I don't think it's appropriate to call anyone, especially a rookie team, laughable. I think coming home with Rookie All-Star proved they're a pretty fantastic bunch of kids.

They learned a lot from the playoff experience, so I consider it a success.

I didn't mean to degrade anyone's effort. That was not my intention. I also didn't call out any particular team number in my comment. Full disclosure I discussed how ludicrous the hook on 3340 looked in its first match saying to a mentor on my team (who helped them install it) that it reminded me of the hook you'd see in a movie to drag someone off of a stage.

Again, I apologize if my comment came off too brash.

[Libby K]

Originally Posted by George A.

I didn't mean to degrade anyone's effort. That was not my intention. I also didn't call out any particular team number in my comment. Full disclosure I discussed how ludicrous the hook on 3340 looked in its first match saying to a mentor on my team (who helped them install it) that it reminded me of the hook you'd see in a movie to drag someone off of a stage.

Again, I apologize if my comment came off too brash.

It's all good - I get it, but I'm also defensive of them by nature... I remember when 1923 was made fun of by other teams at NJ when we were rookies, and I'd just have hated for them to see that exchange without your background.

Ours looked like a terrifying angry scythe. I think I'd take the Vaudeville Hook instead...

[75vs1885]

I'm so happy that 75 won EI!!! I can't wait to see them when I have free time at worlds(if I do ).
SO PROUD OF ALL OF YOU!!!

[jprince58]

Originally Posted by 75vs1885

I'm so happy that 75 won EI!!! I can't wait to see them when I have free time at worlds(if I do ).
SO PROUD OF ALL OF YOU!!!

Thanks Stephen, can't wait to see you there! Congrats to your team for making it to Champs again. 75 is so honored to receive this award, and we couldn't be more happy to represent MAR at Champs with all the other well-deserving teams.

[Josh Goodman]

Originally Posted by Libby K

Please don't assign that hook entirely to 869, especially if you consider it a failure.

Our last-minute attempt to give 5666, a team we knew well (from working under 1923's wings all build season), a way to contribute to the alliance and get a shot at MARCMP, was a result of both 1923 and 869 working together with 5666 to see if they could make something work.

Sorry that it wasn't perfect, but I don't think it's appropriate to call anyone, especially a rookie team, laughable. I think coming home with Rookie All-Star proved they're a pretty fantastic bunch of kids.

They learned a lot from the playoff experience, so I consider it a success.

Well then, first off, let me apologize for not being clear with my intention. I was not by any means bashing that alliance. Reading back, my word choices may have been harsh. My only intention was to take an example of a simple situation that happened at the event to highlight what previous posters have said about the safety aspect. It was a shame to see those quick changes be deemed unfit for play -- I am not shaming that decision from the alliance at all (I was typing from memory, I just remembered 869 was alliance captain).

I'm also glad to hear the backstory behind the changes as well. From the outside it seemed like a missed opportunity, but I can clearly see that's not the case and all three teams are very deserving of their due accolades.

Again, my only intention was to highlight the safety of the field crew and robots and hope to see the level of play continue to rise in the MAR Championships.

[Link07]

On a different note, I was especially impressed with all of the Chairman's teams this year. Looking forward to seeing all of the cool Chairman's Pits and videos! Best of luck to everyone.

[Hallry]

Originally Posted by Link07

On a different note, I was especially impressed with all of the Chairman's teams this year. Looking forward to seeing all of the cool Chairman's Pits and videos! Best of luck to everyone.

Agreed! Here are all of this year's MAR District Chairman's, Engineering Inspiration, and Rookie All-Star Award Winners:

Chairman's: 1647, 303, 708, 1218, 1676, 321, 1923
Engineering Inspiration: 11, 1676, 1218, 2729, 75, 365, 3314
Rookie All-Star: 5407, 5438, 5640, 5420, 5624, 5404, 5666

[Link07]

Originally Posted by Hallry

Agreed! Here are all of this year's MAR District Chairman's, Engineering Inspiration, and Rookie All-Star Award Winners:

Chairman's: 1647, 303, 708, 1218, 1676, 321, 1923
Engineering Inspiration: 11, 1676, 1218, 2729, 75, 365, 3314
Rookie All-Star: 5407, 5438, 5640, 5420, 5624, 5404, 5666

Anyone got any thoughts as to who might win? It looks hard to choose, but someone's gotta do it.

[Ben Martin]

Really looking forward to this event. There are a lot of great MAR human-loading 6-stackers that we haven't had a chance to play with yet

We're doing our best to make sure whatever alliance we're on can get lots of landfill points (and not lack RC's).

[MisterJ]

225 can dominate the landfill. And if I remember right, 1218 can as well.

225's 20-point auto might be the thing that gets them to the #1 seed. At SCH (80 auto points) and at UD (160 auto points), their auto totals were more-than-double the next-highest total. (By my count, 225 has 5 district/regional blue banners in the past 3 years, but ousted in the semis twice at MAR champs.) With such a unique landfill-oriented machine, this could be their year.

There are some strong robots hidden way down in the MAR rankings, though. 316 (18th), 1811 (29th), 5420 (44th), 5404 (49th), 103 (53rd), and 193 (54th) are all better than their rankings and could be contributing to high elimination scores at Lehigh.