Silicon Valley Regional (2016)

[Michael Corsetto]

What a weekend!

First, thank you to all the volunteers who put the event on. SVR has many long-term volunteers, it was nice to see so many familiar faces.

More than anything, 1678 loves SVR for the teams in attendance. Along with many seasoned veterans, we had the pleasure to work with a number of truly fantastic rookie teams at this event, including 5924 and 5940. I am expecting great things from these teams in the coming years.

Speaking of up-and-coming teams, I was once again very impressed with 649 at this event. The students and mentors have so much passion for the program, only good things are in store for this group!

We'd like to thank all of our alliance partners in both qualifications and eliminations. This year, more than most, the alliance needs to work as a unit in order to ensure a capture each match. We really appreciate the hard work and determination each of our alliance members showed in the qualification matches.

Special thanks to our good friends on 971, 368 and 3303 for putting up some epic finals matches at SVR. Epic does not do those matches justice.

Thank you to our partners 254 and 1662. We've learned so much from 254 and its been a privilege to play on the same side of the glass these last couple of years. 1662 was a steal at the end of the draft, and played fantastic, clean defense throughout the eliminations.

Lastly, another thanks to 971 and 254. These are the two best robots in the world right now, hands down. Thank you for inspiring us to continually iterate and improve.

Originally Posted by bduddy

I believe 254 was originally (incorrectly) given a challenge instead of a scale by the referees. As far as I can tell, only one red robot was actually on the batter at the end of the match. Here's the video: https://youtu.be/cGe8wdbfl_E?t=25200

A few clarifications here:

According to our alliance captains retelling of the referee's explanation, the original scoring gave 1662 a challenge and 1678 a scale. Both robots were on the batter. 254 was given neither challenge or scale points (and was clearly not on the batter at the end of the match).

After we challenged the decision, thinking 254 was contacted by 3303 in the last 20 seconds, the referees discussed. They determined that 1678 and 1662 were both interfered with by 3303 in the last 20 seconds and gave both robots scale points.

I still believe that 254 deserved the scale points, and I believe the video shows this to be the case.

I think both alliances handled the situation very well, as uncomfortable as it was. However, there was quite a bit of boo-ing from the audience after the scoring change. I think this has become one of the unfortunate cultures at SVR, and it isn't the first time that 254 has been boo-ed at this event.

-Mike