Predictions Week 3: Fighting for Position

[cziggy343]

Originally Posted by rfolea

Hey Chris, We meant to look you up at Peachtree but ran out of time .. Stop by and say "hi" at Palmetto.

You guys were amazing ...

See you in 10 days ..

p.s. How about YOUR predictions and inside info for Palmetto? Come-on, give us a scouting dump ...

well... for palmetto, i think that the team to beat will be 1251. each year they come to palmetto, they come to play and they come prepared. im expecting a lot out of the tech tigers here in clemson.

[Mike Schreiber]

Originally Posted by tdlrali

I can´t believe how right-on these predictions were for Detroit.

Chickens were just as good as predicted, and did take home a gold medal.

Chiefs and RUSH were among the best robots there, seeding within the top 5.

After 469&217 were paired, 27 and 47 paired up - however, they were defeated in Finals. However, RUSH had major problems with their drive train, I´m not sure if it still affected them during the finals matches. Congratz to RUSH for winning Chairman´s, though!

EXACTLY what happened

Predictions weren't totally right, we did get a blue banner . Unfortunately at the last minute 469 surpassed us and took the #1 seed. Otherwise we would have picked chickens and taken the triple crown. (WFA, Chairman's, and robot)

Our drive train problems did not affect our finals matches, however they almost lost us the semis. I feel kind of bad about winning by penalties in that second round, but rules are rules...

All in all, nice predictions. As of Saturday after our last match I was just thinking...Dang he was dead on.

[Rick TYler]

Originally Posted by Looking Forward

Ballfrog was one of the best hurdling machines in PNW,

Just a teeny-tiny correction. while Ballfrog was one of the slickest, nicest machines in Portland, it was attending the "Oregon Regional" not the "Pacific Northwest Regional." With the resurrection of the Seattle event, we now have two regionals in the area, and the Portland tournament received a new name.

[Sgraff_SRHS06]

Originally Posted by Looking Forward

CHESAPEAKE:
Over the past few year's, Chesapeake has become one of the largest regionals in FIRST, and one of the consistently most unbalanced. Every year it seems an "upper crust" of teams form at the event and dominate. Whichever alliance is successful at unifying these teams typically walks away with the gold fairly easily. I don't expect any of that to change in the 61 team field in Annapolis this year.
The Baltimore Area Alliance will once again be rocking the Halsey Field House in 2008. In '07 they managed to earn three medals (Chairman's, EI, and a finalist), each coming from a different team. I expect more of the same from this collection of teams, with at least one member sneaking into the finals and another collecting either RCA or EI. Whether they make the finals or not, look out for 768 and 1727 to both do well, and one of them likely to emerge as an alliance captain.
1629 is poised to be a member of the top-tier teams in Annapolis again in '08. Their inability to remove balls from the overpass and potential collection troubles may hurt them, but their quick and maneuverable drive should allow for them to score points even without a ball. I don't think they'll be able to carry an alliance on their own, but if they can pair up with another hurdler who can remove the ball from the overpass quickly, I expect nothing short of the finals from the Garrett Coalition.
614 is quietly one of the most consistent teams at the Chesapeake regional, but not only have they never won the event, they've never taken home an award. While I don't expect them to dominate the field, this could be the year they take the trophy monkey off their back and finally bring home some hardware.
Normally flowers wouldn't be considered intimidating, but when you line up against Miss Daisy you can find out just how scary they can be. 341 should be a reliable machine and likely a first-round selection.
836 was one of the best teams in Trenton two weeks ago, but their drivers seemed to struggle at times controlling their machine. If the Robobees' drivers improve with the added practice, they'll become my favorites to take home a banner from the Naval Academy on Saturday.
359, 11, 449, and 293 each also look to build off of decent earlier competitions that fell short of gold. I would watch out for 1626's debut here as well.

X-Factors:

Team RAID (2537) - one of the few do-it-all robots in the competition, albeit a bit top-heavy. Very maneuverable bot,

The Brigade (1980) - do not count them out!! It's #1 seed or bust for them!

CENTER OF MASS - At PlayDay--a number of the hurdlers flipped while trying to do their job. This may happen again at regional.

[cwood]

another robot to watch out for maybe 1218 from what i saw they were able to get the ball down and hurdle using their catapult consistently

[Kev]

my ego almost got inflated reading this.

almost.

[Joe Troy]

Originally Posted by Looking Forward

PITTSBURGH:

I'll start you off with one from an informant:

357 puts their '08 creation to the test in Western PA this weekend. Their Jester Drive will likely aid them in racing around the field, but I'm not yet sold on their manipulator. Watch for them to be an inconsistent hurdler, but still a first round selection.
Miss Ella's roller claw will likely be one of the best scoring mechanisms in Pitt, and as a result 522 will be hanging around late Saturday afternoon. The Robowizard's defensive mindset, and added complexities with their deployment of the gripper may end up hurting them elsewhere, but it won't be enough to keep them from doing well here. Expect them to at least grace the Semi-finals.
Starbot 337 somehow always does well, even when their designs don't seem too impressive. I don't know how well they'll do once they make the eliminations, but I can guarantee they'll be in the elims.

Pretty good prognostication.

I'm not sure who your informant was but...I think you got some good info.

357's Jester Drive was effective in making the robot a consistent performer in hybrid mode. 337 lived up to the prediction of "always does well". The combination of 337, 357 & 2614 proved to be a well balanced alliance that worked together to win against a strong alliance of 375, 291, & 2544 in the finals. The quarter finals were also challenging having to face 522, 222 & 120.

I would have added 222 to the "always does well" category.

Keep the predictions coming...this series of posts have been fun to follow!!

[Tom Bottiglieri]

The CT predictions were perfect. The only teams mentioned in the CT analysis (126,173,195,175,1124) met in semis with alliances of 1124/175/716 vs. 195/126/173. These were some of the most exciting matches this year.

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by Tom Bottiglieri

The CT predictions were perfect. The only teams mentioned in the CT analysis (126,173,195,175,1124) met in semis with alliances of 1124/175/716 vs. 195/126/173. These were some of the most exciting matches this year.

Well... almost all teams mentioned in the prediction were in the finals... Meh.


And.. LMAO @ DA CUTTT reference. Nice touch LF!