Most Competitive Regional

[J Flex 188]

well i suppose the tedency is to equate the winners of the championships with being the "best" teams in FIRST simply because there is no other way to measure them. No matter what anyone does, it would be impossible to compare team statistics and what not to form an idea of what really is the "best" team in the organisation. its the same thing you can see in amature sports. Still, id have to rank winning the championship as one of the best/if not only way to accurately see how good a team is. The problem with anything else lies only if you havent seen which teams are being compared to etc. video and hear-say can only get you so far.

Originally Posted by KenWittlief

I think it would be a mistake to equate winning the championship with being the best team

just as an aside.

while it might be true that a huge majority of engineering firms are located in the midwest, a team does not necessairly need them to be succesful. im going to use woburn as an example.. mostly cause i dont know any other team our primary sponsor is a bank and trust, with three or four mentors at one team, all former teachers @ woburn. and we took 2nd in canada, and 1st in west michigan. so im sure that having that tech base to work with is superb, but not necessairly a big reason for success.

edit: oops, used reply to thingy twice.

[KenWittlief]

now that I think about it, the way the games and the competition are setup, having to play with an unknown alliance partner, and the amount of chance involved, with variables that are outside your control

its almost as if FIRST is not really intended to be a robot building contest at all!

like maybe there is some deeper hidden purpose behind this whole program? something elusive and yet, profound.

I cant quite put my finger on what it could be

but maybe being the most competitive team out there is not what its all about?

[Steve W]

J Flex - Thanks for the complement ( I guess) but I have never been a teacher.

Asfor the most competetive thats easy. It's the one in which you are competeting at the moment. All the rest are a breeze cause your not there. As for the Canadian Regional as being the most competetive because of more teams, I'm not so sure. It will be the Best regional though. I have seen a lot of teams and believe me when I say that I never saw 1 not being competetive. Even the teams that could barely run were pushing in the pits and doing their very best to help their alliance partner during matches.

Where will the best robots be? We won't know till it's all over. The best robots may not be at Championship but they will still be the best robots.

[JVN]

Originally Posted by Nathan Pell

Don't be too hard on Tytus. We were told by the announers that no one had four bots on the ramp at that point. Tytus was correct, as this was the information he was going off of.

I didn't know I was being hard on him?
Sorry Tytus, didn't mean to be mean, just issuing a clarification.

If you look here:
http://www.usfirst.org/robotics/2003/index.html
You can see that Florida was a 3rd week regional.

John

[Yan Wang]

How about the Canadian Regional? It's the only one in another country but it's full of competitive teams like 48, 188, 783, 639...

This year, the 70+ teams, 2+ fields, and up to double the qualifying rounds should make it one great regional. I don't know if anyone can judge a regional's competitiveness with clear objectivity but I at least know that the Canadian Regional willl be highly entertaining and fun. As it has been the last 2 years.

[Mike Schroeder]

not to sound mean,but this really isnt somthing that anyone is gonna veiw objectivly. JohnVNeun,Erin Rapaki is gonna say New Hampshire, or one of the New England area regionals, Andy Baker,Katie Reynolds,DJ Fluck, THe Gilberts will most likely say Midwest or one of the Midwest regionals, Me,Wanyn C, Aignam,Rich, are gonna say NJ or one of the midatlantic regionals, Cory,Kristina,THe Golds,and possibly Ken(he is everywhere, probobly one of the few in FIRST that can give an accurate answer), will all say one of the West coast regionals.... the one down side to more regionals, and the increased growth of FIRST, is the variation of teams at each location, i have never been to any of the west coast regionals, my only experiance with the Midwest is IRI, and that isnt a "Regional"(but its really close). while this is a great question and i a know it comes up almost every year, i think that FIRST has gotten to big for anyone regional to be "The Most Competitive"


BTW, NJ owns all regionals

[pauluffel]

I assume it's up to me to speak up from the southeast,

Peachtree Regional is the most competative! w00t!

or at least it will be in a few years, give Georgia two years with two or more veteran teams and the Peachtree'll be competative enough to compete for most competative (that sets the date two year from this season, sounds like fun, but until then, we'l just have to make do with the Championship as "Most Competative Event"; see y'all in April!)

edit: I don't really say "y'all", but it was stereotypically fitting.

[Dave_222]

Mike you have a very valid point i agree that it is a matter of perspective. Oh one more thing i think Philly owns J&J. :-P

[Joe Ross]

Even if you find someone who's gone to regionals in all regions (and I would consider the south a 4th region), most likely they won't have gone to the best (however you define best) regional in that region. And even then, there is some (a lot) of bias involved.

Anyone have an idea for a ratings system for teams similar to the BCS?

Joe

-Attended LA, San Jose, Cleveland, NYC, LI

[Wetzel]

Originally Posted by KenWittlief

I dont agree - cars are not made in machine shops, they are made on assembly lines with equipement that would never be taken offline to build a part for a FIRST robot

I cant think of any part or component on a FIRST robot that could not be made in any basic machine shop - there are only a handfull of different types of metal-working machines

and they are used in machine shops all around the world.

In my opinion, the hardest part of the competition is not that actual manufacture of the robot, but the design process. It is the enginners that go through the design process all the time that will have the edge in this competition, not the best machinist.

Wetzel

[Rich Kressly]

Originally Posted by Big Mike

BTW, NJ owns all regionals

Whew, I thought you went soft there for a minute, Mike. Actually, I know this is not anything to be answered objectively.

103 has competed at regionals in New England (the 02 finals at UTC will remain one of my fondest memories), Philadelphia, NJ, and MD. Joe is right about there being so many regional choices these days. Because of our location NJ and Philly will always be competitions of choice.

The Philly teams have really "matured" over the last few years, making it every bit as competitive as NJ. NJ is the regional we started at seven years ago and keep going back to because of the awesome combination of competitiveness and comraderie. Because of that comraderie, even the rookies in NJ are usually tougher than most. However, there was a rookie champ in Philly in 2003 too. We also attended MD in 2003 and had a great time. As a first year event it was excellent and, in looking at the team list for 2004, I'd characterize MD as potentially being very competitive.

I know we'd love to go back to New England for a regional in the coming years, the Naval Academy is a beautiful venue and packing up for the midwest one of these years would be an awesome experience too. But locking horns at home in Philly and NJ (now at a much bigger venue) is way too hard and close to resist.

Hmmmm..... I think I need to rob a bank, lengthen the season, and convince school that being on the road for two months straight is a good thing

[Aignam]

Originally Posted by Rich Kressly

Hmmmm..... I think I need to rob a bank..

Good thing your team won the Chairman's Award last season.

[Rich Kressly]

Originally Posted by Aignam

Good thing your team won the Chairman's Award last season.

[edit] actively acquire more financial resources [/edit]

[edomus]

Philly

[KenWittlief]

:^) there is a big difference between

needing to rob a bank

AND

planning to rob a bank