2016 MAR Season

[Hallry]

It's worth noting that it appears 3637 is now registered for the World Championships via the waitlist. I don't recall whether or not this takes away from MAR's 22 World Championship slots (I don't believe it does, but don't quote me on that), nor do I remember what happens if they additionally qualify for STL by winning, earning a qualifying award, or being given a point slot at MAR Champs.

[Link07]

Congrats to 2590, who were finalists at South Florida and earned a wildcard spot to the Championship. Also congrats to 11, who won the South Florida Chairman's Award.

For those counting, that's 3 point slots deducted from MAR's overall total (1676 CA, 2590 Finalist, 11 CA)

[alephzer0]

Originally Posted by Hallry

It's worth noting that it appears 3637 is now registered for the World Championships via the waitlist. I don't recall whether or not this takes away from MAR's 22 World Championship slots (I don't believe it does, but don't quote me on that), nor do I remember what happens if they additionally qualify for STL by winning, earning a qualifying award, or being given a point slot at MAR Champs.

Waitlist slots do not count against MAR. As to your second question, they will still count the slots against MAR. If those teams would get points slots, we simply don't lose any slots (i.e. the bar is still set at the 22nd ranked team) but if they rank below the bar will be raised (up to possibly the 19th ranked team in this case).

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by Hallry

(I don't believe it does, but don't quote me on that)

Sorry, I just cannot resist.

[AGPapa]

Well there goes week 5! With only event left before MAR Champs we should expect invites for teams with mathematical locks on a DCMP bid to go out early this week. (Last year it was Tuesday).

We (5895) had a blast at the Bridgewater-Raritan event! Congratulations to 1676, 5624 and 223 for winning! I also really liked team 25's robot, they took the already fantastic robot they had at Hatboro and added an amazing scaling mechanism.

Also congratulations to 225, 1640 and 1391 for winning Westtown. The Westtown roster looked very challenging, and I look forward to watching the webcast recording.

Finally, congratulations to 11 for winning the Chairman's Award in South Florida!

Originally Posted by alephzer0

Waitlist slots do not count against MAR. As to your second question, they will still count the slots against MAR. If those teams would get points slots, we simply don't lose any slots (i.e. the bar is still set at the 22nd ranked team) but if they rank below the bar will be raised (up to possibly the 19th ranked team in this case).

I believe this is correct, but the reverse-wildcards rules are fairly arcane so I'm not sure (there may be a difference between points slots and winning/awards).

I also think it comes down to FIRST Mid-Atlantic being given discretion to give points slots to any team they want, so they can skip over waitlist teams when giving out points slots. They can't do the same for awards.

EDIT: I'm actually not sure if FIRST Mid-Atlantic can skip over waitlist teams for points slots, I thought that is what happened in 2014, but I was mistaken. There was a very complicated chain of events in 2014 that Ryan summarizes here.

[Jscout11]

Originally Posted by AGPapa

EDIT: I'm actually not sure if FIRST Mid-Atlantic can skip over waitlist teams for points slots, I thought that is what happened in 2014, but I was mistaken. There was a very complicated chain of events in 2014 that Ryan goes summarizes here.

I'm not positive, but I think last year 1403 was skipped over for points slot because they already got in through the waitlist.

[Brian Maher]

Congratulations to the winning alliance at Bridgewater of 1676, 5624, and 223! Those were some intense finals matches; you certainly earned your banner! Congratulations to 1676 on EI and 869 on Chairman's Award. I had no idea 869 had such an impressive outreach program! A thank you to teams 25, 3340, and 555 for being a part of 1257's first ever #1 alliance!

Originally Posted by AGPapa

Well there goes week 5! With only event left before MAR Champs we should expect invites for teams with mathematical locks on a DCMP bid to go out early this week. (Last year it was Tuesday).

I've put together a list of those mathematical locks. Congrats to all these awesome teams that have secured their MAR Championship qualification!

1 225
2 2590
3 1676
4 1257
5 5624
6 365
7 1218 DCA
8 11
9 25
10 193
11 708 DCA
12 1640
13 834
14 341
15 4573
16 1391
17 5404
18 1403
19 869 DCA
20 4454
21 5407
22 1626
...
37 1647 DCA
...
54 1923 DCA
...
78 321 DCA
...

It was calculated as:
55 (teams at DCMP) - 7 (DCA teams) - 19 (teams with second play remaining, excluding 1923 with their DCA) = 19, plus the Chairman's teams.

[Ben Martin]

Congratulations to 1676, 5624, and 223 for winning Bridgewater! I'm looking forward to watching how the competition went down.

We are looking forward to playing with many of the best New Jersey teams for the first time this year at MAR Champs. Based on the defense we saw during the playoff rounds at Westtown, the playoff rounds are going to be insane. There were 3 or 4 good low goal scoring robots with quality driving that didn't get picked.

[Hallry]

With week 5 in the bag, I've updated my unofficial 2016 MAR Ranking Google Doc: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing. I will note that it does differ from the official FIRST Rankings in regards to Team 225's ranking points. The official FIRST Rankings show them having a total of 145 points, while at their two districts they earned 72 and 68 points, respectively, which only adds up to 140. I've messaged the FRC Teams email about the matter. Either way, 225 is still decisively ranked first - Congrats!

Originally Posted by BMSOTM

Congratulations to the winning alliance at Bridgewater of 1676, 5624, and 223! Those were some intense finals matches; you certainly earned your banner! Congratulations to 1676 on EI

Originally Posted by AGPapa

Congratulations to 1676, 5624 and 223 for winning!

Originally Posted by Ben Martin

Congratulations to 1676, 5624, and 223 for winning Bridgewater! I'm looking forward to watching how the competition went down.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! It was another crazy weekend for us and we greatly appreciate all of your support. Special thanks to 5624 and 223 for being truly amazing alliance partners - we couldn't have asked for a better elimination alliance. We've posted our full-field footage of all the 2016 Bridgewater-Raritan Qualification and Elimination Matches, as well as Alliance Selections and the Awards Ceremony, on our YouTube Channel here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...vGwP0QPyEFMd9D. I also just submitted all of our videos to the TBA page, so they should all appear here once they are approved: http://www.thebluealliance.com/event/2016njbri. Enjoy, and we can't wait to see everyone at MAR Champs in two weeks! Best of luck to everyone competing at the Montgomery District Event next weekend!

[Ben Martin]

Originally Posted by Hallry

I will note that it does differ from the official FIRST Rankings in regards to Team 225's ranking points. The official FIRST Rankings show them having a total of 145 points, while at their two districts they earned 72 and 68 points, respectively, which only adds up to 140. I've messaged the FRC Teams email about the matter. Either way, 225 is still decisively ranked first - Congrats!

Why would we not have 73? The playoff rules clearly state you have to "win" 2 matches to advance, and a "win" is worth 5 points. I read this as a true "tie" is only if you get to the 7th order sort.

[Hallry]

Originally Posted by Ben Martin

Why would we not have 73? The playoff rules clearly state you have to "win" 2 matches to advance, and a "win" is worth 5 points. I read this as a true "tie" is only if you get to the 7th order sort.

Ah now I see (Sorry, with being at Bridgewater this past weekend I didn't know much about what went on at Westtown). I agree with you Ben, it should be counted as a win, not a tie. I'll be sure to fix that in my Google Doc, sorry about that. It's interesting that this page of the official rankings doesn't credit the win, but it is taken into account in the overall ranking points.

[AGPapa]

Originally Posted by Hallry

Ah now I see (Sorry, with being at Bridgewater this past weekend I didn't know much about what went on at Westtown). I agree with you Ben, it should be counted as a win, not a tie. I'll be sure to fix that in my Google Doc, sorry about that. It's interesting that this page of the official rankings doesn't credit the win, but it is taken into account in the overall ranking points.

There is currently a bug in how playoff points are calculated with tiebreakers in the official rankings, so FIRST is manually adding in tiebreaker points to fix it.

You can see this adjustment at the bottom of this page.

[rcoren22]

Originally Posted by Hallry

With week 5 in the bag, I've updated my unofficial 2016 MAR Ranking Google Doc: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing. I will note that it does differ from the official FIRST Rankings in regards to Team 225's ranking points. The official FIRST Rankings show them having a total of 145 points, while at their two districts they earned 72 and 68 points, respectively, which only adds up to 140. I've messaged the FRC Teams email about the matter. Either way, 225 is still decisively ranked first - Congrats!





Thank you, thank you, thank you! It was another crazy weekend for us and we greatly appreciate all of your support. Special thanks to 5624 and 223 for being truly amazing alliance partners - we couldn't have asked for a better elimination alliance. We've posted our full-field footage of all the 2016 Bridgewater-Raritan Qualification and Elimination Matches, as well as Alliance Selections and the Awards Ceremony, on our YouTube Channel here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...vGwP0QPyEFMd9D. I also just submitted all of our videos to the TBA page, so they should all appear here once they are approved: http://www.thebluealliance.com/event/2016njbri. Enjoy, and we can't wait to see everyone at MAR Champs in two weeks! Best of luck to everyone competing at the Montgomery District Event next weekend!

And Thank You, thank you, thank you!
What an incredible ride it was. Thanks to our friends at 1676 for believing in us. We have been dreaming of winning a banner with you guys for awhile and it seems that the steaks are finally on the grill! After we had some difficulties Saturday, we knew we had to come out Sunday like crazy and it seemed to work. 5624, it was great working with your team - you guys are a real fast low goal cycling bot and you were great throughout the entire elims. 1676 is absolutely a shut down d with capabilities of low goal cycles and defense breaching- triple threat.

Looking forward to running with the rest of MAR next week at Lehigh!

[Hallry]

It was just announced at Montgomery that the capacity of MAR Champs will be increased from 55 teams to 60 teams!

Originally Posted by rcoren22

And Thank You, thank you, thank you!
What an incredible ride it was. Thanks to our friends at 1676 for believing in us. We have been dreaming of winning a banner with you guys for awhile and it seems that the steaks are finally on the grill! After we had some difficulties Saturday, we knew we had to come out Sunday like crazy and it seemed to work. 5624, it was great working with your team - you guys are a real fast low goal cycling bot and you were great throughout the entire elims. 1676 is absolutely a shut down d with capabilities of low goal cycles and defense breaching- triple threat.

Looking forward to running with the rest of MAR next week at Lehigh!

Thanks so much for the compliments. You guys certainly turned up the heat on Sunday morning, scoring 7 and 8 low goals in two qualification matches, and we were ecstatic to get you guys on our alliance. We certainly couldn't have done it without you. I hope Jack enjoys his steak.

[vmorgs]

For those of you not at Montgomery and not live streaming it, I thought I'd let you know they just announced it will be the top 60 teams going to Lehigh instead of the top 55.