Regional Reports/Reporters Wanted.

[Joe Johnson]

I have been playing with the idea of a "publication" where folks who are casual FIRST fans can get a feel for the FIRST season the same way a casual sports fan can catch up with the NFL or NBA or whatever by scanning USA Today or SI.

To that end, I have started posting my Predictions messages (eventually we will have a place for these things but for now, we are just going to post them on the usual fora).

I would like to have a The Week That Was type column that summarizes the regionals after the fact. What we want are INTERESTING articles that can give people a flavor of what happened at the regional. Below I will give some of examples of the type of thing I am looking for (though these are still rough, they give the idea). They cover CT, MI-Detroit, & IL Regionals. I was AT the Detroit regional and I still found it interesting to have another point of view.

Point of view is the key. Each of these columns gives facts but also give analysis and insight.

So... If you are interested, please pull together a story of the regional. It does not have to be the COMPLETE story of the regional but make the STORY complete -- make it as stand alone as you can so that it doesn't require a lot of knowledge of obscure facts to make it readable. Most of all make it INTERESTING.

PM them to me. I will get them to a team of folks that will help me pick the best and then we will publish them in some way. Be sure to let us know if you want the posts to be anonomous (WE will know who wrote it but we are willing to keep that information private if it gets a better story -- for example, if you are identified with team X you may be shy about criticizing their picks or the picks of others for fear of having your opinion adversely affect your team).

Thanks,

Joe J.

Week3 LookBack CT
UTC Picking Breakdown

176 picks 25- Strong strategic pick, 25 is arguably the best bot, 25 accepts, again a good call, there is no guarantee that they would be able to make a stronger alliance picking by themselves at the 6 spot.

1493 picks 20- A little bit early for team 20 to be picked, there were higher scoring robots available. 1493 and 20 are geographically close to one another and did spend some time practicing driving together, this may have contributed to the decision

716 picks 40- after beating the #1 seed 176 together in match 75 (176 was a surrogate team so they still retained the top seed) This was a good strategic choice, 40 was one of the highest scoring bots (putting up 26 ringers on Friday for the second highest total) and it was already clear that these teams could compete together. 40 accepts

1685 picks 195- 195 declines as the current 6 seed there are enough strong offensive bots remaining for 195 to have a fair number of options of how to form an alliance, not a bad time to decline.

1685 picks 236- a quality pick again, 236 showed it could score reliably, with 4 ringers in at least 3 of its matches. 236 accepts.

237 picks 1089- 1089 was likely over looked an many scouting sheets because they were inconsistent, however they put up as many as 5 ringers in a round, a good pick, 1089 accepts

195 picks 1124- it still baffles me that 1124 had not been picked, if for no other reason than to prevent them from teaming up with 195, 1124 was not the most consistent bot (possibly due to mechanical problems, as reported on cd) however they put up 7 ringers in one match as well as multiple 4+ ringer matches, this ranked them among the top scorers.

1733 picks 173- 173 was an early favorite but quickly fell in the rankings due to aggressive New England defense. With the ability to put up 4 ringers even with some resistance they were a quality pick.

839 picks 134- with the arm bot pool wearing thin this pick is not bad but certainly could have been better.

ROUND 2
839 picks 157- 157 had a strong first match but was less than consistent, likely falling victim to that same defense that caused many other teams to fall in the rankings. A good pick.

1733 picks 1099- hands down the best pure ramp bot 1099, scored 210 points in their first 6 matches it is apparent 1733 did their scouting and new what they wanted.
195 picks 558- another quality ramp bot with defensive ability, 195 was clearly comfortable with the ability of their bot and 1124’s to take care of the scoring on the rack, 558 was a good choice to almost guarantee points in the end game.

237 picks 549- 549 was one of the few hybrid bots that could actually perform well in the match and end game. A quality pick especially this late in the draft.

1685 picks 177- 177 much like last year built a capable offensive bot that could bash with the best of them. Since this alliance was not the strongest offensively this was an excellent strategic pick, one of the few teams that can score or shut some one down whichever was necessary.

716 picks 1027- If you read my analysis of 195’s picks you can apply them here, both alliances add quality ramp bots to their high scoring duo, another good choice.

1493 picks 230- This might have been the steal of the draft, 230 was one of the top scoring bots in Hartford and also had a quality ramp system, It was surprising to see 230 last this long in the draft, however they were exactly what 1493 needed.

176 picks 2104- much like the 3rd and 6th seeded alliances 176 saw the need for the 60 points at the end and picked a quality ramp bot, making 2104 the only rookie in eliminations.

Notable matches-

Match 44(?) following a less than exciting 0-2 match 1991, 25, and 358 put up 316. Including a last second ringer and ramping by 25. Well worth a download if you can find it.

QF4 (both matches)- The one sided scores in these two matches don’t reflect the quality of the teams, with what are arguably 4 out of the top 5 robots at the regional it is worth watching

All 3 finals matches- all three of these matches are good examples of how an alliance can play brutal defense yet still score quality points.


The Big Questions-

What happened to team 25?

Very simple, it is easier to stop one great bot than it is to stop 2, with 195 and 1124 on the same alliance 176 had no choice but to play defense, that left 558 to play 1 on 1 with 25. I don’t know if it was intentional or not but 195 and 1124 seemed to regularly set picks for each other(one bot getting in the way of the defender while the other scores. 25 is great but 195 and 1124 were a lot to over come.
How about the match algorithm, who got lucky because of it?

While it is tough to say for sure but based on rankings and actual offensive ability it appears that 1493 and 1685 may have received a littlie bit of help, both are in the highest third of numbers. And seeded a lot higher than they may have had there been a few more rookies.

Were there any questionable calls?

1124 didn’t get bonus points in their first semifinal match because they were touching a tube, this cost them the match. Having not seen it with my own eyes I can’t tell you if the right call was made but 1124 recovered and came back to take the last two matches.

Who broke at the wrong time?
1493 spent their 2nd semifinal match dead in their home zone and most of the 3rd dead on the other side of the field. Whether or not they would have stopped the powerhouse #6 alliance is questionable but this certainly didn’t help.

Conclusion
Winning alliances need to have 2 quality scorers to over come that super aggressive defense, Quality Hybrid bots are a rarity but they can make all the difference if you can find one(case in point 230’s effect on the 1493/20 alliance).

Notable Award winners-
Paul Kloberg of team 25 took home the WFA, more info in his thanks/congrats thread

Jessica Boucher, Volunteer of the year, also the second team 40 mentor to win an award (Dan took home the WFA in Manchester.

236 with yet another Chairmans bringing them up to 5 (4 from UTC)

Week3 LookBack MD Chesapeake Regional
Alliances (captain/1st/2nd)*:
1-293/75/203
2-836/1629/204
3-1975/175/1719
4-1894/611/614
5-768/1418/165
6-341/1727/2234
7-1748/612/339
8-2199/869/888
*no declines

1 defeats 8- 3 matches
7 defeats 2- 2 matches
6 defeats 3- 2 matches
5 defeats 4- 2 matches

1 defeats 5- 2 matches
7 defeats 6- 2 matches

1 defeats 7- 2 matches


While UTC and Detroit were won through defense, Chesapeake played out completely different (which is surprising for a Mid-Atlantic regional). The regional was dominated by rack scoring, and was won that way. A whopping 11 matches had an alliance score >100. The winning alliance of 293, 75, and 203 scored a grand total of 0 bonus points during the eliminations, winning by rack domination. With the exception of a couple matches, ramp points had no real impact on the elimination matches, and when they were scored they did not change the outcome of a match. After losing their first match to an intensely defensive #8 alliance (the #8 alliance posed the biggest challenge to the #1 alliance), 293 and 75 began scoring almost exclusively on the top row, and it paid off. Very few teams were capable of challenging these two on the top row, and it paid off as they were able to construct rows of at least 5 in every single match afterwards (and twice getting rows of 7). 203 played enough defense to prevent any large enough rows to be formed beneath, but the other alliances began to (un-successfully) try to challenge the #1 alliance on the top row. In F-1, 75 and 293 had capped 1-5 and 7 with red tubes, then 612s human player landed a ringer on top 8, stopping a probable row of 8 (although they still got 7), which was one of the highlight reel plays of the day. In a semi-final (iirc) match 293 also removed a spoiler breaking up a long row and nearly placed in over a blue ringer.
Possible reasons for the more offensive game play include:

• Lower quantity of quality rampbots
• More ramming and outside bumper zone contact penalties
• Disparity of levels of ability between elite teams at the regional and lower level teams (11 100+ pt matches, several 0s as well).
• Many competitors refined their machines and got more driver practice after their week 1 and/or 2 regionals (such as 75, 293, 1629, 612, 836, and 339 to name a few)
  
  Some storylines:
• 1727 defeats 341 for Chairman's. 768 also beats 341 for EI. Daisy was visibly upset after not winning any team awards (although a few cried for a different reason when mentor Dina Campagna won WFFA). Daisy has gone 2 years without a Regional Chairman's, has their window of opportunity passed?
• Baltimore Area Alliance teams triumph, winning Chairman's (1727), Engineering Inspiration (768), Finalist (1748), and having 5 of 8 teams make the elimination rounds. A chant of "BAA! BAA!" could be heard through-out the field house from the pits after the award ceremonies.
• Teams step up from Week 1 results. Most evident from the #7 finalist alliance. 1748 wasn't picked in VCU, yet captained this alliance to the finals. 612 was the 15th pick in VCU, 7th in Chesapeake. 339 also went unselected at VCU. Other teams that improved included 75, 293, 341, and 611.
• Buzz gets sick. At least 12 members of Buzz got sick during the weekend, including the whole drive team. 4+ members of 175 were hospitalized. The new drivers were clearly not as capable, and resulted in Buzz falling to the third pick, and playing lots of defense during their brief stint in the Quarter-finals. This drew some comparisons to 2004 VCU, where a Nora Virus outbreak sidelined many teams.
• 612 heats up when the ramps come off. Much like VCU, 612 picked up their performance in the elimination rounds, where they (like VCU) removed their ramps. They scored as many as 6 ringers in the elimination rounds, much higher than their qualification totals. The decreased weight gave them less traction (which helped with their sub-par turning), and they no longer had to worry about their ramps deploying correctly and on-time (early deployments were a problem at VCU, and 612 would have to dedicate as much as 45-50 seconds to set up their ramps properly for other teams to climb on).

Week3 LookBack MI DET
Alliances
1-1286,47,2283-47 was an interesting pick, they were good, but not great. 302, 1718, 217 and 469 were all better hangers than the Chiefs. Seeing 1286 this high shocked me. They have no offensive capabilities. They have a hard time pushing even. They are one of the examples of teams getting lifted by the match system

2-469, 302, 1502-Two of the best hangers (469 and 302), 469 had one of the top ramps as well. Really, they were the strongest alliances all things considered.

3-1718, 27, 1481-1718 was in the Newton Semifinals alliance that lost with 987 and 1503 last year. They were by far the most consistent scorer in Auto Mode. Rush was really struggling, even missing their last match to repair their drivetrain. They had good ramps making them a valuable asset and in the Elims, they were able to score effectively.

4-703, 217, 49-This was a very interesting alliance. The Thunderchickens should not have been picked this low; they were as good if not better than anyone picked above them. This alliance had the two big bruiser defensive bots in 703 and distant relative team 49. While they are unknown to most people, 703 is becoming a Michigan force, winning back to back Kettering Kickoffs.

5-247, 123, 903-The winning alliance had very little rack scoring firepower unlike the alliances above them. They had the best defensive robot in 247 and a consistent and smart partner in 123. 903 and 247 were able to shut down every alliance's hangers and all three were able to get back on 247's ramps.

6-519, 33, 1602-This was one of the weaker alliances. The Killer Bees were the only offensive member. They were both the only hanger as well as the ramp for the alliance. The Killer Bees were the next best team in auto mode in terms of hanging.

7-1941, 397, 314-This was a strong alliance. 397 and 314 were both decent hangers and 1941 was a stronger defensive robot. The pick of 314 was probably based on 397 asking to play with their best friends. The relationship between 397 and 314 is a strong friendship.

8-2048, 1250, 1701-This alliance was outmatched and really couldn't compete with the number one alliance. They 1250 and 1701 were average to weak hangers and 2048 was not really fit as a great ramp

Storylines
Pitt Champs-Da Bears(247) and Team Cosmos(123) pulled off the back to back regional victories. They had two defensive robots and 123 did all of their hanging. Team 247 was easily the most impressive robot I saw all competition. They were a great defensive machine and had one of the best ramps I have seen this year.

Las Guerillas-They righted their ship at Detroit. After being picked way early at Great Lakes (There is a post about GLR being a popularity contest that alludes to this fact), they realized that they had a design problem and changed their gripper design becoming a stronger robot and living up to their reputation as one of the best teams in FIRST.

Lack of Super Teams in Finals-Like Karthik said in his E-Mail the teams in the finals were not the super teams that we are acustomed to at a Michigan Regional. This is because with several weaker teams seeding high, these super teams like 47, 33, and 217 were playing as one-man scoring teams.

Finals Decided by Defense/Ramps-In what I think is a viable strategy that needs to be watched the next few weeks, the winning alliance was able to play strong defense as well as get onto a ramp to win the match. The problems 469 and 302 had in the finals was that they were defended and could not hang at all. They were able to get up on 469's ramps but the opposing alliance had more ringers up and had both teams up on 247's ramps.

Back-to-Back-The ThunderChickens won their second straight Chairman's Award at Detroit. It is interesting to see this, next year 503 will probably be back and presenting at Detroit.