Most likely division to produce the champs

[Tottanka]

I know its a hard gamble but i beliebe that this year the champs will come from Curie...what do u guys think?.

[Dan Petrovic]

I'd say Curie with 1114 and 330.

But the same thing was said about Newton with 25 and 111, 968, 254, 71, and several other teams there for last year.

[nparikh]

Who knows--the divisions that are stacked will eliminate the best teams as they play each other. The picking system ensures that the three best robots in a division will not ally with one another.

I say it's up in the air--things change rapidly.

[Joel J]

I think this is the year the divisions seen as favorites will come out on top. There are alot of quality scoring robots at the championship event this year (especially in Galileo), and this is unlike previous years. For example, last year Newton was the popular division, because it had the hardest field, but when you look at the actual teams in Newton that were of stellar quality, you could really only make a list of 6-8. That is, a small number of teams carried the division. This year Galileo has a massive amount of quality teams present, and of course Curie has 1114+330 (and others as well). All it takes this year is for the correct team to seed 1st, and then to execute properly.

[Cory]

Originally Posted by Joel J.

I think this is the year the divisions seen as favorites will come out on top. There are alot of quality scoring robots at the championship event this year (especially in Galileo), and this is unlike previous years. For example, last year Newton was the popular division, because it had the hardest field, but when you look at the actual teams in Newton that were of stellar quality, you could really only make a list of 6-8. That is, a small number of teams carried the division. This year Galileo has a massive amount of quality teams present, and of course Curie has 1114+330 (and others as well). All it takes this year is for the correct team to seed 1st, and then to execute properly.

It's going to be harder than ever for the top teams to seed first, though.

Not only are there not enough qualifying matches to weed out the teams that get lucky with partners, and don't play anyone tough, but now the match scheduling algorithm is going to make it easier for high numbered teams to seed and harder for low numbered teams.

If I were 2056 I'd be pretty happy right now. They have a very very good chance at seeding first in galileo.

1114's got a better shot than 330, but all it takes is one team coming out of nowhere to seed first and muck up all the pairings.

The last couple years when there's been a division that seemed to be the odds on favorite to win, they havent.

Archimedes in 05--most of the top teams didnt seed. Everyone got split up. A division considered weak by most (Newton) won.

Newton in 06- The top teams got split again. Everyone thought that outside of 233 and 217 Archimedes was weak, as well.

In 2004, however, Archimedes did have a lot of very good teams, and they did win the event.

[Joel J]

And I'm saying this year is unlike any in the past.. I'll refer you to the list of quality teams in Galileo.. they can't all be shutout from the top 8. And more than that, due to the number of good teams that simply must be available in the second round, I could win as the 6th seed.. easily. And the alliance would be nothing to sneeze at, either.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by Joel J.

And I'm saying this year is unlike any in the past.. I'll refer you to the list of quality teams in Galileo.. they can't all be shutout from the top 8. And more than that, due to the number of good teams that simply must be available in the second round, I could win as the 6th seed.. easily. And the alliance would be nothing to sneeze at, either.

And because of that alot of good teams are gonna miss out.

[ALIBI]

Curie, OK, I am biased. The most likely division to produce the champs is just too difficult to guess this year. Teams that have done well and that are expected to do well look out. You have got a target on your back and when any alliance goes against you they will try their hardest to shut you down. This years algorithm for match pairings and in championship field assignments has more than ever before attempted to level the playing field. At West Michigan I saw for the first time ever, at least for me, a strange patern. None of the actual 1st picks came from within the top eight seeds (one team did decline). Absolute quality teams that know how to win were way down in seeding due to what I believe was effective deffense during their qualifying matches. The winning alliance will be the alliance that can sort through all of the quality teams and put together the right combination (discussion in another thread). I went back to see why we were finalist twice last year without a regional win, the other alliance shut down our offensive weapon(s) so that they could win, simple as that. Out of respect for Michigan teams and our friends in neighboring/near by states and country, I do believe that Curie does have a lot of teams with the ability to put together winning alliances and the depth of teams in Curie is going to produce one tough winner. There are just too many teams in Curie that know how to win when faced with tough competition.

[slickguy2007]

I'd really have to agree with Cory. The match algorithm this year really gives the higher numbered teams an advantage. It only takes one team in a top seed that doesn't belong to be there to mess up an entire division for finals.

Good luck to everyone in Atlanta!

[MasterChief 573]

I think that people are overlooking alot of the good robots in Newton and sort of overlooking that we have robots such as 501, 696, 573, 1038, 33, 573, 148, 987 and 68. There's alot of possibilities there, I'd love to see a 696, 501, 573 alliance I think it could produce a really power house. So because of the massive amount of good robots and the fact that I'm biased I'm going with Newton for the win!

[Herodotus]

I wouldn't be a robotics member if I didn't pick my own division But really I think it is a toss up. I saw a lot of matches won by alliances that didn't have particularly good machines because they used their robot's strengths and paid attention to their weaknesses. This year's game seems to involve a tremendous amount of strategy and that is what it really comes down to.

Any way you slice it I think the matches are going to be pretty amazing and I can't wait to see how things turn out.

[redbarron]

Curie!! But actually I too think that its a toss up if not only because of strategy being a big part of the game this year, but because of the new way the matches are being put together making it harder on some teams.

[GaryVoshol]

Originally Posted by ALIBI

At West Michigan I saw for the first time ever, at least for me, a strange patern. None of the actual 1st picks came from within the top eight seeds (one team did decline). Absolute quality teams that know how to win were way down in seeding due to what I believe was effective deffense during their qualifying matches.

There was a similar pattern at GLR. In Detroit, a smaller regional, several alliances picks were made from within the top 8.

Beside the defense factor, the whole match scheduling algorithm skews the results. The fewer teams there are at a regional, resulting in more qualifying matches, the less effect the algorithm has. The Championships are like 4 huge regionals. You will see quality teams picked from the 9th through (approx) 30th positions of the rankings, some as the first picks.

[ALIBI]

Originally Posted by GaryV1188

There was a similar pattern at GLR. In Detroit, a smaller regional, several alliances picks were made from within the top 8.

Beside the defense factor, the whole match scheduling algorithm skews the results. The fewer teams there are at a regional, resulting in more qualifying matches, the less effect the algorithm has. The Championships are like 4 huge regionals. You will see quality teams picked from the 9th through (approx) 30th positions of the rankings, some as the first picks.

I would agree that with a smaller regional the algorithm would mess up what FIRST is trying to do with match pairings and that you would see 1st round picks from wihin the top eight seeded teams. West Michigan had 54 teams, I would call that a medium regional and the Championship will have 86 teams per field, I would call that a very large regional.

The point that I was trying to make was that the number 1, number 2, number 3..... seeds did not think that thier best alliance partner could be found in the top eight seeded teams. At West Michigan there were several picks for the teams seeded in the bottom third. Every other time I have ever seen alliances picks, 1 would pic 2, 3 the new 2 would pick 4 the new 3 (sample of oberved picks only). That is, you would usually see at least three or four teams in the top eight join other teams in the top eight. The top eight would pick from within themselves and need to call up the 9th, 10th, 11th etc. seeded teams to become alliance captains. That did not happen at West Michigan. There was no suffling of the top eight seeded teams.

[BobC]

Currie has two teams Aces High 176 and 1114 Simbotics who won GTC together are in Currie. Also Aces High 176 and 716 The Who'sCTEKS who won the UTC Winter War Zone Scrimmage togetherare in Currie. Also Aces High 176 was number one seed and finalist at the UTC Regional this year .But I am not being bias. Good luck to all Currie teams.