Hawaii Regional 2008

[galewind]

its back up!

[Pjohn1959]

It back up

[Winged Wonder]

the Pacific Buhhdist Academy drummers get tons of points for being awesome. maybe they can come perform in Atlanta too?

[xcentrix]

Originally Posted by Winged Wonder

the webcast is down again... do they just not show awards? i like watching the awards ceremonies.

it's up, again somebody go to pit admin and gt me a nail gun

[Alexa Stott]

I would just like to say congratulations to the winning alliance, as well as everyone who received an award, but most importantly the state of Hawaii and the regional planning committee for pulling off such an amazing event. I have honestly never had this much fun at a regional. The luau was absolutely amazing (and yes, we did try the poi!). The entire event had such a positive, welcoming attitude; the spirit of aloha was everywhere this weekend. I loved all the "local flair" of the regional.

If you ever get the chance to go to the Hawaii Regional, DO IT!

[Un Luchador]

Glad to hear of the Hawaii regional's success! Congratulations to all of the award winners and finalists

[waialua359]

Originally Posted by Raul

Wow, I think this is the first time in FIRST history that a 15 seed got to be an alliance captain.

The only way this can happen is for every team above the 15th seed to be picking or picked before it got to them.
1 picks 3
2 picks 8
4 picks 14
5 picks 6
7 picks 9
10 picks 11
12 picks 13
then finally
15 picks 19
Amazing! I thought this would never happen. That is FIRST for you - doing the amazing!

Raul

Raul,
You are very observant!
In fact, we were planning on selecting with our second pick,
in this order, team 2090, 597, and 2437.
2090 was selected in the 1st round.
I stood next to Darrel of team 597 in the pits and watched as the teams were being selected, thinking that we would probably get him.
Then all of a sudden, Darrel was like "holy crap," we moved up to the 8th seed. He was so worried, hoping that his student rep would be OK in selecting, not expecting at all to be choosing as an alliance captain.

[Q. Sheets]

I was watching the webcast yesterday and heard Dean announce new homework to the teams at this regional. But since I was only half-listening, I'm not 100% sure that I heard it correctly. Could someone who heard it (and is 100% sure) please repeat it here.

[Lavapicker]

Just to answer the question, we weren't trying to tip anyone over, in fact, we were tipped over in a quarterfinal match. The first tip happened in Hybrid mode when our alliance partner hit the back of 233 pink as they were going for their third line. We noticed that 233 had to back up after knocking balls off the overpass so we tried to block them in to slow them down. They were a hurdling monster so we knew we had to do something. The second time they went over we hit them broadside on a turn as they were carrying a ball. All of this was bumper to bumper and just good hard play. The third time was the same situation as the first. If you're not going to allow defense then you might as well hand them the trophy. No one is going to out-hurdle 254 poofs and 233 pink. We only took them to a third match by playing hard defense and hurdling like crazy too. It worked for us in SVR with team 100 and 254 too. I hope Nationals will be called the same way or no one else has a chance.
233 and 254 drive teams seemed to be ok with the matches and we were estactic to just be able to keep the matches close with them. Your bots are great! Hope you all had as good of time as us in the Hawaii Regional. We can't believe a member from Team Pink won the Poi chugging contest at the Luau! Thank you 846 - funky monkeys and 2460 for going to battle with us. We had a high-spirited alliance that had fun! Hope to see you all at Nationals!

[Jeff K.]

Originally Posted by Lavapicker

Just to answer the question, we weren't trying to tip anyone over, in fact, we were tipped over in a quarterfinal match. The first tip happened in Hybrid mode when our alliance partner hit the back of 233 pink as they were going for their third line. We noticed that 233 had to back up after knocking balls off the overpass so we tried to block them in to slow them down. They were a hurdling monster so we knew we had to do something. The second time they went over we hit them broadside on a turn as they were carrying a ball. All of this was bumper to bumper and just good hard play. The third time was the same situation as the first. If you're not going to allow defense then you might as well hand them the trophy.

Watching from 233's side of the field, it didn't really look like that. Pink was tipped intentionally. Never have I seen the crowd cheer so loudly when a robot was tipped. They were able to right themselves, but then the other alliance tipped them once again. This time when they were down, they were pushing the robot and hitting the gripper. Bumper to bumper?!?

Not only against the Florida-California-Alliance, but the California-New Jersey-Hawaii Alliance. 968 lost two victors because of apparent "bumper to bumper" contact when another robot was inside of their robot during the semifinal match. There were times when I could see a robot cross back over the line dividing the track about a good six inches to a foot and no penalty was assessed. Where were the penalties when properly due?

Just my $0.02

Other than that, it was an amazing regional. We were feeling the Aloha spirit the whole time we were there and we thank the Hawaiian teams for that. It was fun seeing old friends from over the summer. Such a competitive group of teams from all over. It was definitely a fun trip for our team. This regional has definitely been a first with easily most epic team social ever, and opening and closing ceremonies. A big thanks to Alex Ho for putting this together and Jim Beck, Dave Lavery, and Mark Leon. This is a sign of the direction where FIRST is going. Congrats to 233, 254, and 2454.

[Lavapicker]

When you're laying down across the field blocking the entire lane as they were you're going to get hit in places you don't want. I'm just stressing that the initial hits were bumper to bumper. We were accused of hitting above the bumper and I can assure you our arm system would have bent to pieces before it pushed another bot over and was in no way used to tip anyone. Fact is that 233 was kind of tippy. They would rock quite a bit. Like I said in another post, we were hit broadside while carrying a ball in the semi's and went over for the first time in two tournaments and we're quite stable. BTW, We asked 233 about their arm after the tipping match and they said it was just fine. It was a monster like their entire bot. You've got to build your bot for contact. Poofs rammed us good at the end of the third match and knocked a pwm cable out and killed a motor. As rough as it looked to folks in the stands it was going both ways and we weren't crying over it...neither did I hear drive teams from either side complaining.
As for calls...I agree there appeared to be some small overlooked ones but the matches played and were ultimately determined like I think they were supposed to be. I think the ref's in Hawaii did an overall excellent job! I questioned one about a few obvious ones and he said they wanted to call but saw the same thing on both sides so decided to make it a no call. In SVR you had both teams in the challenge box after every single match trying to figure out what wasn't and was called...it was a pure mess. It was extremely frustrating to watch and play and was worse yet, inconsistant. In Honolulu the calls were very consistant and fair in my opinion....and we didn't win!! We sure had a blast though! Aloha,

[chaoticprout]

Originally Posted by Lavapicker

When you're laying down across the field blocking the entire lane as they were you're going to get hit in places you don't want. I'm just stressing that the initial hits were bumper to bumper.

Having the drive teams on your alliance cheer as 233 tipped over the SECOND match, however, is not part of the competition, no matter which way you try to spin what you just did.

[MasterRobot]

does anyone know if there is going to be an archive of the webcasts? I kinda wanted to re-watch the 2nd semi-final where team 233 was flipped by the other alliance a number of times.

It was an awesome match

[RobJ]

Originally Posted by MasterRobot

does anyone know if there is going to be an archive of the webcasts? I kinda wanted to re-watch the 2nd semi-final where team 233 was flipped by the other alliance a number of times.

It was an awesome match

I have all our matches on video, I am hoping to put them on our website when the season is over.

[ejSabathia]

I just want to take the opportunity to thank all the Hawaiian teams for their hospitality. Personally, I've never had so many friendly faces greeting me @ a FIRST event. From the students to the adults everyone was very welcoming. Please excuse me for not remembering every name and number...But in particular the people from 359 (Glenn), 368 (Alan), 2454, 2024, 2090... thank you all!

As far as play goes on the field, things always get emotional and i try never to hold any action against any individual after the buzzer has sounded. With that said, I'm not going to say anything negative. What i will say is that a rookie team, 2454, played some of the best defense of the event. When we discussed strategy as an alliance we made it clear to all the drivers that when going after high scoring opponents to AVOID robot contact. The most effective way to shut down an offensive robot is to take away the scoring object. In the finals you can watch 2454's driver trying to stay a quadrant ahead of 368. The last half of the match they placed themselves between 368 and the ball and strafed side to side keeping them from picking it up.

my 2 dollars and .54 cents

~EJ