2008 New Jersey Regional

[Athleticgirl389]

A few people posted earlier (last night) that they were hoping to see 102 in action today... hopefully you were able to catch it and thanks to waialua359 for commenting on 102... I will pass the word on to them. And to Mike, the queing was easy hahaha. Hoepfully it goes well tomorrow.

I wish all the teams the best of luck tomorrow. About 20 matches remain so we'll see what can happen I hope yall at home get a great show to watch

And I must say, your team should never leave until the end of the day (aka after EVERYTHING is done) or else you end up like 102 and having 1 mentor and 1 student there to accept the =/ haha.

[Mike Schroeder]

Originally Posted by Joe Matt

I'll say it.... Wayne is a better MC than Shanequa IMHO. There.

*backs out*

I disagree while i think Wayne is a very good MC, Chaniqua shows a level of excitement and energy on par with Mark Leon.

[Wayne C.]

Originally Posted by waialua359

after watching matches.
Conclusion: Exceptional autonomous play wins matches.
When I saw the last match, how can you overcome a team that scores 50+ during autonomous while the other scores 16 (I think). The other team could stop playing during teleop period and still win.
The game was more fun to watch than I earlier thought or expected.
Other observations:
Team 25 had no problems loading up a ball, and without a manipulator. Impressive. If either they or team 103 are the #1 seed, and pick each other, oh boy!??!!
The best team to watch was 102! Its the coolest robot out there, picking its way around those larger bots. You gotta love it.
Robobees-great performance today. good luck!
We really miss playing here.

Thanks for the kind words. Overall our experience this competition has been inconsistent at best and knocking the track ball down has been an unanticipated challenge. We think we have that beat.

103 is certainly the hottest team on the floor this week. Ive watched them catch and settle a bouncing trackball and then quickly pop it off. They did a great job. And we owe them a lot for advice on repairing our ball knocker as well as giving us the key to solving the IR riddle yesterday. They are good friends.
Another team to watch is the rookie Robbinsville. They have been on fire with their auto mode and knocking the balls down. Great job for a first year team.

And congrats to 1089 (my family's team) for winning the web page award. They have worked incredibly hard against some ridiculous odds against them this past year. They deserve the recognition.

WC

[Wayne C.]

Originally Posted by "Big Mike"

I disagree while i think Wayne is a very good MC, Chaniqua shows a level of excitement and energy on par with Mark Leon.

They are BOTH wonderful emcees and I think the field staff should buy them both Evil Sundaes tomorrow when it is all over.

WC

[Zakkaz]

Another video from our onboard camera.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ajikaezrGQ

[Scott L.]

Nice video. How are you recording it, are you using the cmucam, what recording media, etc.

[Zakkaz]

Our robot has an on board webcam and an embedded PC (mini-itx board). it isn't the cmucam. we use it to track the ball in autonomous. we record on a compact flash drive.

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by Wayne C.

Another team to watch is the rookie Robbinsville. They have been on fire with their auto mode and knocking the balls down. Great job for a first year team.

WC

Totally agree. Those guys are a sure bet for Rookie All-Star. Very impressive performance for a rookie team..heck, any team for that matter. Way to go 2590!!!!

[galewind]

So I'm enjoying the NJ regional so far. There are glitches, sure, but that often happens at a week 1 regional. What's upsetting is that some teams are still having trouble driving around the track, which makes it harder to enjoy the game. I am sure it's incredibly frustrating for those teams.

Obviously I was expecting 103 and 25 to be the two big "Contenders" at NJ, but some teams have really shown their stuff!!

The Panthers (816) have been wrecking house and hurdling quite consistently.
The Gearheads (102) are quite a blur at times.... I don't know how they packed all that speed into that itty-bitty box, but man, does it move!
Another good hurdler was 449, and another was the yellow one with the big silver claws (I'm sorry I don't remember your number).
Cold Fusion (1279) was also hurdling exceptionally well, and had pretty good control.

Some teams are doing rather well without the ball, and one team I saw that I think really does that well is Killer Kardinals (136). Just like the Tornadoes (381), they've got a smart boat-like bumper design which helps them push and squeeze in between obstacles, but I noticed that 136 really realizes that they just need to ignore everything and keep driving, and their drive system is holding up and functioning rather well.

I've seen some great hybrid drives out there too. I haven't had the chance to see a lot of them, but the ones I noted the best were Raider Robotix (25) and rookie team Nemesis (2590). Nemesis crossed 3 lines and knocked 2 balls off for a 28-point start during at least one of their hybrid attempts. From what I was told, 25 scored 40 points in hybrid mode in one match.

Good hybrids are now starting to hit the 3-line mark, and some even all 4.

Oh, and I had a lot of fun subbing in for Georga A. on game announcing today. My apologies to Iron Devils, Mid Knight Inventors, and Blair Wrench Project for butchering your names or just plan getting them wrong. That's what I get for not knowing you all.

[Akash Rastogi]

Also, a little tip for teams in upcoming regionals: If the elevator or end effector of your alliance partners' robot gets stuck on the overpass and the robot tilts, please help them out to get the robot back on the ground if you are close enough to help right away. I saw some robots helping their alliance partners with this and some that didn't. Overall, its a principle of gracious professionalism and I would like to see it happen more often at upcoming and even tomorrow's competitions.

Just something that may help out.

[BandChick]

Originally Posted by lilstogi11

Not sure but I think it was 1089. And yes, they were good at hurdling.

Galewind is the advisor for Team 1089, so I'm guessing it wasn't us he was talking about!

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by BandChick

Galewind is the advisor for Team 1089, so I'm guessing it wasn't us he was talking about!

Oh, wow, i totally overlooked that. I guess too many hours of scouting can mess with your head Sorry.

[nlknauss]

Absolutely excellent job everyone! NJ is an awesome place to compete not only because of the teams in and around our state but because of the teams that come in from far beyond.

Originally Posted by galewind

Oh, and I had a lot of fun subbing in for Georga A. on game announcing today. My apologies to Iron Devils, Mid Knight Inventors, and Blair Wrench Project for butchering your names or just plan getting them wrong. That's what I get for not knowing you all.

Don't sweat it Chris! You did an excellent job stepping in just as you did at Garden State Rumble!

Good luck everyone, looking forward to an exciting last day!

[Scott Carpman]

I'll be down at Trenton tommorrow with a few other SciBorgs. Anybody have any buttons left to gve out?

[Nawaid Ladak]

Originally Posted by Bongle

The midwest regional needs to start playing games, then there should be a bit less load on the NJ webcast.

Edit: The midwest regional has started playing games.
Edit2: It'd be really cool if they got Obama to speak in Chicago, but he's probably busy in Ohio/Texas.

I think thanks to my other thread, he deserves to speak at the Championship event...

103 looks really good, and whats up with 25