Top 5 robots in each state

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Originally Posted by Billfred

Anyone that doesn't put 4451 at the top of the list this year isn't paying attention. Gold at Palmetto, silver at Orlando, semifinals in their subdivision? Undisputed.

1319 probably gets the #2 slot--they figured out the chute game early, won Georgia Southern Classic and were running pretty decently on Curie.

Several teams built strong cases for 3-5--283 (which is a new veteran team, never dormant), 343, 1102, 1876, 4073. All were good in their own domains, though only 4073 left with a banner.

(I'd note that this was an up year for many more teams--of the Columbia-area teams, I'd posit that only 4901 really backslid. 1293 and 2815 definitely ran better, and with some tuning 3976 could have their best machine ever at SCRIW.)

1319 got my #4 spot because of stability, in short, they weren't. Their robot functionality was great, as usual, but when they tried to lift 6 stacks they would tip, at least at Peachtree, this instability caused them to drop stacks. From what I understand they had added intake wheels that were not on at GSC, which affected their balance. Also, they broke during eliminations at Peachtree and that cost them.

283 was the most stable and innovative one-sided lift I saw. Their lift was stable enough to hold a can on top of the top tote with out supporting the can at all. They earned the innovation in design award presented to them at Peachtree. If they had gone to St. Louis they would have been picked, may have been picking and with all that space on the back of their bot, if they didn't add can robbers, they probably would have been cheesecaked. Also, not to be picky but, according to some of our mentors, they did compete the first year with 281 and just this past year, (off season 2014), restarted, this is what I meant by dormant.

4451 another extremely good bot, but I did see them drop a stack, this is the only reason they are below 283 on my list, who I NEVER saw drop a stack. Not many teams can say that I don't think. Also, based on where teams finished the season, 343 leads the pack with a Finalist division trophy.

4901, that was the bot with the "elephant ears" for grabbing cans right? While they didn't work as well as they had hoped they were interesting.

Overall this was a good year for South Carolina and I look forward to an even better year next year. Who knows, maybe we can get a SC team onto Einstein next year.

PS: SCRIW is going to be fun! With so many robots in the area that only needed one or two things to make them great, it is going to be a very competitive field.