Great Lakes Regional 08

[Paul Copioli]

This year was the first time we have been back to GLR since 2003 where we lost in the finals to, guess who ... 67. This is really getting old Seriously though, GLR is my favorite regional as I have been the game announcer since 2004. I want to say thank-you to Dave Noff for finding a great replacement for me this weekend on short notice. The announcer did an excellent job.

Congratulations to the winning alliance, especially 326 who received their first regional win ever! I hope you are going to the Championships. The 60 points in hybrid in Finals 3 was awe inspiring.

On behalf of team 217, I apologize to our alliance partners during the finals for our hardware issues ... they kind of just snuck up on us as we have not seen the intermittent connection issue all season long. A disappointing loss, but some of the best fun our drive team has had.

Team 66 - Thanks for picking us and thanks for being a great strategic partner. Your positional defense was excellent and we worked very well together.

Team 910 - I can't believe you guys were left available to us in the second round. You have a great team and your strategic play was also very amazing. The ball hand-off was one of the most memorable plays we had this year. It wa a fun set of elimination matches.

Team 201 - You opened our eyes to how clean, strong defense can be a major factor in this game and we will be watching the videos of our matches against you many times over in preparation for the Championship.

Team 68 - Congratulations on Chariman's Award. You definitely desserve it.

Team 67 and 503 - This seriously has to stop. We have to stop being on the opposite side of the glass ... 2005 on Einstien (67 & 503), 2006 on Einstein (503), and now 2008 GLR Finals (67 & 503) ... enough is enough.


To the GLR planning committe and all the volunteers: Thank-you for putting on such a wonderful event. Hopefully the schedule works out next year so team 217 can attend.

[cool breeze]

I didn't get a chance to see the alliance selection, It would appear that a lot of strategy was displayed at Great Lakes. Could some one explain what slections were made, and did most of the top 8 decline an invitation. If so, bloody awesome!!!! That was probably one of the better regionals of the year. Thanks in advance.

[GaryVoshol]

Originally Posted by cool breeze

It would appear that a lot of strategy ... did most of the top 8 decline an invitation.

I believe 27, 33 and 67 (not necessarily in that order) declined invitations by 66. All were graciously done.

It certainly served to make the elims interesting and hard to predict. I heard predictions from different people of at least 5 of the alliances advancing to the finals.

[PizzmasterP27]

Originally Posted by Ryan Dognaux

Keep your eyes peeled for these bad boys at GLR



1646 foam fingers are awesome.

i am so glad we partnered up with you guys for elimination. Not only did we create a great alliance but we got foam fingers. Thanks

[Swan217]

Originally Posted by GaryVoshol

I believe 27, 33 and 67 (not necessarily in that order) declined invitations by 66. All were graciously done.

It certainly served to make the elims interesting and hard to predict. I heard predictions from different people of at least 5 of the alliances advancing to the finals.

From Jeff Waegelin and my predictions (plus lame excuses why they didn't pan out):
1. 66 217 910 beats 8. 291 862 573
2. 47 494 1023 barely beats 7. 67 326 503*penalties
3. 27 469 1646 beats 6. 65 68 245
5. 33 107 201 beats 4. 1718 70 451

5. 33 107 201 barely beats 1. 66 217 910*tech difficulties
3. 27 469 1646 barely beats winner of 2 vs. 7*penalties

Winner of 1 vs. 5 beats Winner of 2 vs 3*tech difficulties

I still insist that if Alliance 7 hadn't screwed everything up, then the predictions would've held

[Joe J.]

Great Lakes was a blast! Thanks to 291 for selecting us to play in the Eliminations, and 573 its always a blast playing with you guys. We gave it a good shot, and I've never been so excited about a tie. ORANGE ALLIANCE!!

I loved the 910 to 217 hand off, It was a great strategy!

[meaubry]

Cool Breeze,
At Ypsilanti Great Lakes Regional - three teams declined the opportunity to be the #1 seeds partner. Each CHOSE to control their own destiny (as they have the right to do so by finishing in the top 8 spots). Each did decline as gracefully as possible under the conditions.

The drama played out like a well scripted play.

Knowing that once a team declines, they cannot be selected by any other team after that - AND, guessing(?) ahead of time that each might decline them, they did the smart thing in forcing the issue and making the 3 teams decline. If any one of them had said yes, they would have had a fantastic partner - so , they had nothing to lose and a whole lot to gain.

Strategically this eliminated any opportunity from the top 8 teams to pair up and become a "super" alliance.

I am not a supporter of the serpentine draft, but even more so - I am not a supporter of the top 8 picking from among themselves. It's just a quirky opinion I have about eliminating uncomfortable and potentially embarassing situations, like forcing a public decline.

I will say that I was disappointed in the people in the crowd that choose to boo the 3 teams that did decline the #1 seeded team.

I do not believe any of the choices were a surprise to them and it is somewhat disappointing that the folks whom were booing, didn't really understand what was going on "behind the scenes".

Next time perhaps, someone could instruct the crowd to "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain".

Great strategy 66 and 217 - brilliant move.


Added note -
I think you might see something like this play out in Atlanta also, so it should be interesting to see what transpires.

Mike Aubry

[adman]

Originally Posted by Mike Copioli

There were three seperate issues with our robot. The issue with the Hybrid was something we have been trying to resolve all weekend. It is very involved and cant be reproduce in the pits. The problem only occurs during match play and occurs on occasion. Of course during the elims it occured over %50 of the time. We do not have an explaination for the problem at this time. The first match of the finals the hybrid issues presented. During tele mode the robot made it to the first overpass and then was dead in the water. A bad battery connection was blamed. During the third match we position the robot in lane 2 for Hybrid. The robot did not move in either Hybrid or tele. That issue was a loose main cable going to the terminal block. We could do nothing to get it back. Even after our alliance parters nudged us a few times. (which was a brilliant move BTW, Thank you). I hope this answers your questions. The GLR was a great time. Lots of great teams and great alliances. I thought for certain the 27, 469, 1646 alliance was going all the way. The event took a very interesting turn when they were defeated. In the end the best alliance won. Congratulations teams 67, 326 and 503. Good luck in Atlanta.

We had some instability too. Lost a few matches to wires coming loose.
In our final match in Cleveland 1126 lost its battery in the first part of the
match. Try tethering up and throwing in a very very short printf ( otherwise
the overhead may mess up your algorithm) and chase your robot around with
a programming cable. You never know what a variable is doing until its under load.
I am sure we will see you guys across the glass or on our side in Nationals.
No one likes losing on a broken bot. Better to die in battle. You'll figure it
out and good luck at Nationals.

[Craig Roys]

On behalf of Team 1718, let me start by saying congrats to 68 for the Regional Chairman's Award; Jim Zondag for the Woodie Flowers Award; and 67, 326, and 503 on the Regional Championship (5 lines, 2 balls, and 60 pts in a 15 sec hybrid period - color me impressed!).

A big thank you to team 70 and 451. You guys were great alliance partners - if we had it to do over again, we wouldn't change our picks. Unfortunately, in the end we just didn't have quite enough. All three very close matches that could have gone either way.

Good luck to all going to the Championships - we'll be watching, but unfortunately we won't be there. Hopefully we'll be seeing some of you in off-season events.

[Chaos Marine]

[quote=GaryVoshol;726857]I believe 27, 33 and 67 (not necessarily in that order) declined invitations by 66. All were graciously done.

As you know 33,27,67 did decline us (as predicted) if any of these teams were to join together they would have been a POWER HOUSE! so with the help of so friends we did a little spying work and put the plan into action. I think most of you can figure the plan out from the way we pick those teams.

[FoleyEngineer]

Originally Posted by Paul Copioli

Team 910 - I can't believe you guys were left available to us in the second round. You have a great team and your strategic play was also very amazing. The ball hand-off was one of the most memorable plays we had this year. It wa a fun set of elimination matches.

Paul,
Thanks. We were tweaking out launcher and control system, and beefing up our arms right up to the playoffs. We knew we'd be ready to go when/if we were chosen. When we played together in the playoffs and were able to hurdle 3 and 4 times per match plus get the 3 or 4 lines in hybrid, I think that was a real significant boost from a third alliance partner, and as you called it a "rope-a-dope"! Plus, when they played D on you, it left us free to shoot and hurdle balls to you which was such a blast. My wife said that "hand-to-hand" ball transfer was really neat to watch. We opened up our arms and it looked like, "Here! We've got a present for you!" and then you reached in and took it and we sped off to get another. What a riot!

[65_Xero_Huskie]

Originally Posted by FoleyEngineer

Paul,
Thanks. We were tweaking out launcher and control system, and beefing up our arms right up to the playoffs. We knew we'd be ready to go when/if we were chosen. When we played together in the playoffs and were able to hurdle 3 and 4 times per match plus get the 3 or 4 lines in hybrid, I think that was a real significant boost from a third alliance partner, and as you called it a "rope-a-dope"! Plus, when they played D on you, it left us free to shoot and hurdle balls to you which was such a blast. My wife said that "hand-to-hand" ball transfer was really neat to watch. We opened up our arms and it looked like, "Here! We've got a present for you!" and then you reached in and took it and we sped off to get another. What a riot!

You guys and 503 were definatley the sleepers of the competition.
both of you guys were definatley on our list

[cool breeze]

Originally Posted by meaubry

Cool Breeze,

I am not a supporter of the serpentine draft, but even more so - I am not a supporter of the top 8 picking from among themselves. It's just a quirky opinion I have about eliminating uncomfortable and potentially embarassing situations, like forcing a public decline.

Added note -
I think you might see something like this play out in Atlanta also, so it should be interesting to see what transpires.

Mike Aubry

I am no fan of the top 8 picking amongst themselves as well, I feel if they weren't allowed to pick those teams THAT would be a great equalizer as well. But I guess we have to play the cards we are dealt and if we find ourselves matched against a super alliance, then we try and find a winning strategy.

Congratulations to the winning alliance and to all the teams involved. There are many teams around the country who are happy to just have a robot score one hurdle in a match. I know this may not be the goal and is not the goal of many very good teams, but take joy in victories which may not be so obvious to you right now.

[Adam Freeman]

First off, WOW what an incredible regional. Other than 2007 IRI, I think this was the most powerful competition I have been too:

217 - Ingenious design for the grabber, something I would have never thought of. The drive team is incredible; coordinating grabbing the ball, bringing it back under one overpass, then flinging it at exactly the right time to score was just awe inspiring. Plus, looking across the field seeing Paul over there thinking up strategies is very scary. Congrats on the silver, you guys already have 2 gold, we get to have this one

27 - I watched you guys at Detroit and since then I was really looking forward to competing with you at GLR. Your robot is a scoring machine, and the drive team operated it perfectly. We were very scared when you guys picked up 469.

33 - You guys were in the top three of our list the entire weekend. Objectively, I had you guy ranked over my own team going into alliance selections.

469, 494, 47, 70, 1718, and 107...all incredible teams and robots. I really enjoyed watching all of you, especially watching the 469 learning curve with their new shooter.

66 - Hopefully, there are no hard feelings, from us declining your invitation to join your alliance. We felt very lucky to be inside the top 8, and given the serpentine draft and the strength of the field, we wanted to be able to control our own destiny. Prior to alliance selections, there was an incredible amount of discussion going on between the top teams...217 talking with 66....66, 47, and 107 discussing scenarios with us...just an awesome amount of brainpower trying to predict what was about to happen.

68 – Congratulations on your Chairman’s award. Hopefully, you can join us in the Hall of Fame, you guys deserve it.

Congratulations to 326 for there first regional win. I moved you guys up my list when I saw that booming launcher and that incredible hybrid mode. You guys really proved to be heroes in our matches, picking up the ball and shooting it over when we were unable to do it. Plus 5 lines and 2 balls, WOW, I didn’t even know you were capable of that… Thank you for being a great partner.

503 – We win together again , What can I say? Pitting next to you, I closely watched the transformation of your robot from and arm into a shooter. Watching your drivers adjust to the change throughout, I knew you guys would be competition ready by Saturday afternoon. Thank you!!

[JoeXIII'007]

As you know 33,27,67 did decline us (as predicted) if any of these teams were to join together they would have been a POWER HOUSE! so with the help of so friends we did a little spying work and put the plan into action. I think most of you can figure the plan out from the way we pick those teams. [/quote]

*sigh* There went any real chance to keep things ~a mystery, yet again, Mike did explain it pretty thoroughly, and I must confess, after knowing the plan and everything, I loved the crowd reaction to the whole thing. Though I don't recall booing, I do easily recall the very pronounced "OOOOOHHHHHHH!!!!!" along with the gasps and sounds of utter shock.

That said, thank you Mike for explaining it, and though yes, us attempting to pick amongst the top 8 initially would be against your position on the matter, a little 'research' may make that an amazingly powerful tool to prevent others from attempting the exact same thing. Due to mid build-season issues, 66 did not have a great bot this year, but they still play hard and keep playing what strategically is best.

And again, a HUGE thanks to 217 for engineering the feat. We would not have gotten to finals if it were not for the plan. Either that, or finals would have been predicted at selections, which would have made for a rather dull and especially uninteresting elimination (like a row of dominoes falling, 24 of them to be exact, with three that don't fall). Instead, all the matches were extremely exciting and rather enjoyable.

Congratulations to everybody, who competed pretty darn well.