2008 detroit regional

[Paul Copioli]

Congratulations to team 440 on their first ever regional win. I absolutely can't believe they were available for the final pick. In the eliminations they averaged 8.3 laps per match (teleoperated). In the finals, they did 9 laps in each match.

Congratulations to 27 for their Chairman's Award and good luck at the Championship.

For those of you that did not get to see Detroit in action, you missed out on a great competition. Here are a few things I want to point out:

1. The refs were consistent, made correct rulings and fixed mistakes when they were brought to the refs attention. Sure, they made mistakes, but corrected them when they could. Detroit has always had consistent reffing and this year was no different. I also want to welcome back Ron Webb as Detroit's Head Referee.

2. The first match on Friday was 124 - 70 (minus 20 penalty points making it 50) with a total of 15 hurdles between the two alliances.

3. There were about 10 hurdlers in a group that were all good. For a regional with 32 teams, that is pretty impressive.

4. The elimination rounds were intense and had many high scoring matches. The quarterfinals had all but QF1 go three matches and one had a tie.

5. The finals had a total of 412 points scored between the two matches. That is an average of 103 points per alliance!

6. I eye-witnessed a couple extraordinary things that team 27 accomplished:
(a) They repaired a completely demolished main drive gearbox withn a 6 minute timeout. This type of failure would have put 99% of FIRST teams out of the eliminations.

(b) The diagonal last second shot was ridiculous. They nailed it from the red alliance side right after the red overpass and banked it off the side board on the blue overpass and scored the 8 point hurdle as time expired. In person, it was spectacular!


Thanks to 469 and 440 for being such great partners. I can't believe 469 edged out 27 for the number one spot by 0.4 ranking points. That is just 1 auton line between the 10 matches. I thought there was no way 27 would lose the number one spot, but 469 pulled off another miracle.