2003 IRI live on the web!!

[Gope]

Wildstang out early...wow, i can't believe it

Alliance of 292 and 25 didn't win???how?!?! I can't believe it?!

[Yan Wang]

I was very surprised with the results... interesting. Congrats though to the winning alliance.

Heh, Joel: "This will be an interesting round. But to comply with my statement from earlier, 292's alliance will win."

No it didn't

[Joel J]

..and after it all.

I must say IRI was the best competition I had the pleasure of watching this year. I literally couldn't get out of my chair to do anything once the elimination rounds began. I had to see it out until the bitter end.

25: what happened? This is the second time I have seen you lose a competition because your robot died on the field. I had high hopes for you guys and you were primed to take this competition by storm.

308: My gut told me it would be you, but I just had to pick 25. Had to. I don't regret making that pick. You guys get credit for impressing me throughout this entire competition. From now on, you should use the "trump" autonomous mode. Drive back and get in position to go up the ramp, but don't go. Wait about 3 seconds, then drive forward. I can almost guarantee you will move everything to your side of the field. You are that powerful.

494,33,378: You guys get credit for systematically proving me wrong in each level of the elimination rounds.

Now for the match by match reflection (lol).

Quarterfinals

[1] 494,33,378 vs. [8] 71,902,1038
I don't know. But the past makes me want to root for 71's alliance.

I was incorrect. I had never expected that kind of power from the 33 machine. They, along with any of their other two alliance partners, simply powered through QF1. Good job.

[2] 308,27,469 vs. [7] 47,343,1022
I think 47's alliances will make this match awesome, but in the end 308's alliance will move on. 308's alliance is just _that_ good.

I was correct. 47's alliance came out in this round and made it really awesome. They had me going after the first match and partway into the second match: I thought I would be proven wrong twice in a row. 47, your alliance gave it an excellent try.

But, who could ever doubt the power of 308's alliance in this round? In my opinion 308 had the best luck when choosing partners. How could they have gotten 27 and 469? It was just meant to be for you all today.

[3] 292,25,68 vs. [6] 963,111,535
This should be another good matchup. In the end though 292 will move on. 292 has that thing called strategy _wrapped up_ and under control. Also, they have an excellent alliance--25, woo!

I was correct. 963's alliance came out fighting in their first match, but 292's alliance had their stuff together.

Match 1:
292 expertly dabbled around on the opponent's side of the field, clearing out boxes, while 25--being the speedy robot they are--mixed it up with 111 and then drove around the field wreaking havoc like a finely tuned destroyer.

Then came the ramp battle. I was impressed with the way 292 and 25 double teamed 111: it was like 111 wasn't even there. Also, I was impressed with how 25 waited until the last minute (that honestly didn't look like a lucky move) to push 111 off when they raised their wedges. That was.. genious!

Match 2:
I don't understand why 111 was sitout for this match. If they were in the match, their alliance would've had more than a fighting chance of coming back to push this round to 3.

[4] 980,65,930 vs. [5] 222,45,67
This is a tough one. I like how both of these alliances are formed. In the end, though, I guess I am going to root for the folks on the 222 alliance (45--because, and 67--for picking us at nats). Sometimes, when in doubt, things like these make the difference

I was correct. I honestly had no idea how this round would turn out, but team 222's alliance stepped up to the plate and hit a home run.

I have never seen 45 operate as well as they did in this round throughout the entire season. And 222, you were the dark horse in my mind, because in the end your's abilities surprised me: never expected that you would be _that_ together. 67, as always you came out fighting. You, time after time, "embrac[ed] the stack" and held on to it until the bitter end.

Semifinals

[8] 71,902,1038 vs. [5] 222, 45, 67
Another tough one. But in the end, I think 222's alliance will move on.

The 71,902,1038 alliance didn't make it to this round; rather, the 222,45,67 alliance did.

I was incorrect. This was another round in which the 494,33,378 alliance proved me wrong. They kicked up their level of competition a notch, and as much as I hate to say it, totally dominated their semifinal round. Good job to them, but also to the 222,45,67 alliance for giving it their best shot.

[2] 308,27,469 vs. [3] 292,25,68
This is the granddaddy of the elimination rounds, if it actually happens. This round will be fun to watch. 308 has 469, and 292 has 25. Who ever wins the round should win the regional--err, I mean invitational. My gut is telling me to pick 308, but prior ties leave me choosing 292's alliance to move on to the finals.

My gut was correct, but my pick was incorrect. I do, however, give myself partial credit for saying that whomever won this round would go on to win the competition.

308's alliance came out in match one and fought their way to an impressive win; the match was really good. In match two, it seemed as though 292's alliance would come back as 25 dominated the autonomous period of play, but 25 soon died, and the match ended with the 308,27,469 alliance winning and moving on to the finals.

I still want to know what happened to 25 in this round.

Finals

[5] 222,45,67 vs. [3] - 292,25,68
This will be an interesting round. But to comply with my statement from earlier, 292's alliance will win.

The 222,45,67 alliance didn't make it to this round; rather, the 494,33,378 alliance did. The 292,25,68 alliance didn't make it to this round; rather, the 308,27,469 alliance did.

I was incorrect. Neither of my picks for the finals made it . However, the final rounds were fun to watch. 308's alliance seemed to be down in all of their matches, but they consistently came back close to the end. At the end of the first match, it seemed as though the 494,33,378 alliance would prove me wrong again. But 308's alliance came back in matches two and three and settled their title as 2003 IRI Champions.

Why?

I did all of this to try and start a trend of posting competition summaries on ChiefDelphi. I don't like writing for extended periods of time, so my comments aren't as detailed as I would like others to be, but its the idea I am attempting to put across. If, after every regional, someone would post the highlights of both the qualification and elimination rounds, then all the people that couldn't attend would be in the "know." Also, a nice and detailed record of that regional would be saved for those wanting to know in future years. Sounds like a plan?

[Joel J]

Originally posted by monsieurcoffee
I was very surprised with the results... interesting. Congrats though to the winning alliance.

Heh, Joel: "This will be an interesting round. But to comply with my statement from earlier, 292's alliance will win."

No it didn't

LOL, I know. Oh, and DJ Fluck: I guess the string of National Champions getting second and not first place at IRI has ended.

[ebmonon36]

I think the problem with 25 if I heard right was that they were teetering on the edge of the ramp in just the right way that none of the wheels were able to get enough traction.


Eric

[Joel J]

Originally posted by ebmonon36
I think the problem with 25 if I heard right was that they were teetering on the edge of the ramp in just the right way that none of the wheels were able to get enough traction.


Eric

Oh wow. All they needed, then, was a little nudge from their partner. That explains 27 blocking 68 from getting up the ramp. [edit: No wait, it was common practice for 27 to block robots at the bottom of the ramp.]

[Ashley Weed]

Hmm.. I wonder how much the drivers affected the outcome? Of the 'high ranked' teams from this year, how many actually used their '03 drivers? or were in the process of training?

Great show, thanks to SOAP, NASA, and all at IRI for the broadcast.

[David Hoff]

Originally posted by weedie
Hmm.. I wonder how much the drivers affected the outcome? Of the 'high ranked' teams from this year, how many actually used their '03 drivers? or were in the process of training?

Cyber Blue used about six or seven different drivers during the practice and qualifying rounds. One of the drivers was our 2003 driver but for most of the others it was their first time driving. Many of them did pretty well, but I also think that drivers may have changed the outcome of a few matches.

[Beth Sweet]

Originally posted by weedie
Hmm.. I wonder how much the drivers affected the outcome? Of the 'high ranked' teams from this year, how many actually used their '03 drivers? or were in the process of training?

I don't know about the rest of the teams, but I know that our team was using IRI for driving practice because all of our '03 drivers were seniors (probably not the best idea...) so we have to train all new ones this year.

[Chris Hibner]

Originally posted by Joel J.
25: what happened? This is the second time I have seen you lose a competition because your robot died on the field. I had high hopes for you guys and you were primed to take this competition by storm.

308: My gut told me it would be you, but I just had to pick 25. Had to. I don't regret making that pick. You guys get credit for impressing me throughout this entire competition. From now on, you should use the "trump" autonomous mode. Drive back and get in position to go up the ramp, but don't go. Wait about 3 seconds, then drive forward. I can almost guarantee you will move everything to your side of the field. You are that powerful.

Joel,

First off, good luck at Clarkson. I shook hands with you and exchanged words after you guys beat us in the 3rd match of the 2-out-of-3 for the 2002 Championship at EPCOT (at least, I'm pretty sure that was you, but it all moved so fast that I might be wrong). That was an exciting elimination. You seemed very nice so good luck to you.

As someone stated previously, 25 was teetering. We sat ourselves out of that match but I was standing behind the tape behind our drivers station. It appeared that 469 started to move toward 25 to block them when we both realized that they were stuck there. Just to be sure, I yelled to our alliance to be sure not to touch them and to keep 68 from helping them out. 27 did a GREAT job of blocking 68 at the bottom of the ramp. Our entire alliance strategy (and 308's team strategy since the beginning of the year) was to block teams at the bottom of the ramp.

As for our autonomous: we have a guidance system on board that helps to keep us on track. In the 3rd match of the finals agains the Martians, they spun us coming over the top, but we spun back around and got most of the bins to our side. That helped a lot.

As for the delay thing in auto mode - that is our autonomous mode shifting gears. We have impact detection in autonomous mode. If our guidance system senses an impact, we shift into low gear and then start back on course. It usually takes us about a second to recognize the impact and then another second to shift gears - then we start moving again and we're generally able to push through anyone else in autonomous mode (it worked for us a few times in the eliminations at the IRI).

As for picking alliance members - it was more good scouting and relationship rather than luck. 469 had problems all day so no one else seemed to want to pick them. We know them very well, so we asked them that once they fixed their machine, they should come near our pit and bang their robot around to demonstrate that it would be okay. They did that to our satisfaction so we picked them. When our 2nd pick came around and they were still available, I was overjoyed. I said out loud, "this is going to be GREAT". A couple of notable FIRST mentors looked at me and asked, "who are you going to pick"? I said, "469". They looked at me like, "what in God's name are you thinking?" The crowed also appeared surprised when we picked them. Oh well, it was our gain.

-Chris

[Aignam]

Yeah, we ended up getting stuck at the top of the ramp, teetering in just the right way so no wheels touched. We warned our alliance that this was one of our weaknesses when we had a strategy meeting and said it very rarely happened, so lo and behold we jinxed ourselves and it happened. The opposing alliance did an excellent job at blocking our partner and not going near us. Good job and congrats to the winning alliance and all the other great alliances.

[Joel J]

Ah, its all clear now. Thanks for the explanation. Good luck to 308 in the future.

Originally posted by Chris Hibner
Joel,

First off, good luck at Clarkson. I shook hands with you and exchanged words after you guys beat us in the 3rd match of the 2-out-of-3 for the 2002 Championship at EPCOT (at least, I'm pretty sure that was you, but it all moved so fast that I might be wrong). That was an exciting elimination. You seemed very nice so good luck to you.

As someone stated previously, 25 was teetering. We sat ourselves out of that match but I was standing behind the tape behind our drivers station. It appeared that 469 started to move toward 25 to block them when we both realized that they were stuck there. Just to be sure, I yelled to our alliance to be sure not to touch them and to keep 68 from helping them out. 27 did a GREAT job of blocking 68 at the bottom of the ramp. Our entire alliance strategy (and 308's team strategy since the beginning of the year) was to block teams at the bottom of the ramp.

As for our autonomous: we have a guidance system on board that helps to keep us on track. In the 3rd match of the finals agains the Martians, they spun us coming over the top, but we spun back around and got most of the bins to our side. That helped a lot.

As for the delay thing in auto mode - that is our autonomous mode shifting gears. We have impact detection in autonomous mode. If our guidance system senses an impact, we shift into low gear and then start back on course. It usually takes us about a second to recognize the impact and then another second to shift gears - then we start moving again and we're generally able to push through anyone else in autonomous mode (it worked for us a few times in the eliminations at the IRI).

As for picking alliance members - it was more good scouting and relationship rather than luck. 469 had problems all day so no one else seemed to want to pick them. We know them very well, so we asked them that once they fixed their machine, they should come near our pit and bang their robot around to demonstrate that it would be okay. They did that to our satisfaction so we picked them. When our 2nd pick came around and they were still available, I was overjoyed. I said out loud, "this is going to be GREAT". A couple of notable FIRST mentors looked at me and asked, "who are you going to pick"? I said, "469". They looked at me like, "what in God's name are you thinking?" The crowed also appeared surprised when we picked them. Oh well, it was our gain.

-Chris

[Elyse Holguin]

why couldn't i be there???? man... good job to everyone.

::sigh::
::sits depressed because i missed iri and have only one week here::

[Mike Soukup]

Originally posted by weedie
Hmm.. I wonder how much the drivers affected the outcome? Of the 'high ranked' teams from this year, how many actually used their '03 drivers? or were in the process of training?

Wildstang used rookie drivers because our regular drive team graduated and we wanted to get potential drivers for next year some practice & experience driving in a real competition. Since they weren't as polished as Allen & Dan, our regular drivers, they made some mistakes and they weren't as good at defending the ramp. Because of the inexperience and a little bad luck we were actually in last place right before our 2nd to last match, but most of us didn't care, we were just enjoying the competition. All that being said, our new drivers did a wonderful job and made noticable improvements from their first to last match.

[Kevyn H.]

Same way for us (G-Force 535), we had a new driver and a human player that had never even seen a match before....and besides the facts that our robot hadnt been touched in weeks before the competetion, we had no autonomous mode (no programmer), and we were missing some parts. Major problems, if you ask me...