The 2008 Beantown Blitz (Hosted by team #125)

[Rosiebotboss]

Directly from the Queen of NEMO...

Hello team leaders!

NEMO (Non-Engineering Mentor Organization) provides support to mentors from FIRST programs in the non-technical areas such as mentor recruitment, sponsors, fundraising, travel planning, team organization and team building. I will be facilitating a NEMO meeting at Northeastern University in conjunction with Beantown Blitz on Saturday, May 31. The session will be held in the VIP lounge at Matthews Arena from 9:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Mentors are free to come and go as their responsibilities to their teams dictate.

Please share this information with the mentors on your team. I am sure that a lively discussion will be held. I hope to see a representative from each team at our meeting!

[Heretic121]

Originally Posted by Heretic121

offically 4 days now...

My prediction...

2 decent hurdlers + rage will win this event...

okay... -rage... +any team who can consistantley control the golden track ball + do laps to accumulate 6pts per lap apposed to 2...

[sgreco]

Originally Posted by MWTrek

Is the standard alliance selection procedure used. I can't remember from last year. If so, the golden trackball will certainly effect selection strategy.

Last year there was standard alliance selection, so there most likely will be again.

Alliance selection will be key, a three hurdler alliance, that has one team that can easily control the golden ball, will dominate. Even if a team doesn't win in hybrid they can still get the golden trackball fairly quickly. I feel like these additions to the rules make lap bots obselete.

[dbell]

Originally posted by Heretic121
offically 4 days now...

My prediction...

2 decent hurdlers + rage will win this event...

Originally Posted by Kingofl337

I guess that breaks that prediction

I predict - 2 decent hurdlers + 190 for defense

hmmmm...
It's interesting that both Heretic121(of team 121) and Kingofl337(of team 40) refer to "2 decent hurdlers"?

Another BAE or Battlecry winning alliance...

[Brandon Holley]

Originally Posted by dbell

hmmmm...
It's interesting that both Heretic121(of team 121) and Kingofl337(of team 40) refer to "2 decent hurdlers"?

Another BAE or Battlecry winning alliance...

Or will we see 1519A + 1519B + XXXX

[Tapoore]

Originally Posted by Brandon Holley

Or will we see 1519A + 1519B + XXXX

Well, we did pick our 2nd bot at Mayhem in Merrimack in '06...

Who knows.

Looking forward to the Blitz, guys!!!

[Kingofl337]

Originally Posted by Tapoore

Well, we did pick our 2nd bot at Mayhem in Merrimack in '06...

Who knows.

Looking forward to the Blitz, guys!!!

Yes, I remember that

[andrew348]

Originally Posted by Heretic121

okay... -rage... +any team who can consistantley control the golden track ball + do laps to accumulate 6pts per lap apposed to 2...

To bad 58 is not attending... That would have been perfect for that strategy.

[Scott L.]

Is BTB being webcast?

[StevenB]

Originally Posted by Scott L.

Is BTB being webcast?

I don't think so. However, we'll be sure to put some video up on our website, and I would guess that some other teams might too.

Elimination alliances:
1) 181 - 9151 (1519's speed racer) - 2593
2) 348 - 121 - 69
3) 40 - 175 - 839
4) 88 - 176 - 1991
5) 1058 - 228 - 2170
6) 999 - 172 - 61
7) 1350 - 1519 - 1027
8) 663 - 1099 - 1685

[Eric O]

I must say that the 1519 racer bot was the best robot I saw at doing laps. One match I believe they did 8 lines in automode and 13 lines in driver mode for a total of 58 point contribution to their alliance. That wasn't with a bunch of robots dead on the field either; it was through heavy robot play. I never thought I would see a racer score this many points. I wished they had played with the racer this season because it would have been extremely effective (Not that their other bot wasn't, it just wasn't as unique). Props to 1519 for building such an awesome racer bot!

[andrew348]

Team 348 would like to thank Team 121 The Rhode Warriors and Team 69 Hyper Robotics for being on our winning alliance.

We would like to congratulate Team 88 TJ^2, Team 176 Aces High, & Team 1991 The Dragons

We would like to thank Koko Ed for the flags.

We would like to thank our mentors Herm, Kwol, Mr. Nestor & Nobles.

We would like the MC for knowing the Shaniqua Shuffle and introducing our alliance as "The Blue Alliance"

[MWTrek]

I'd like to congratulate teams 348, 121, and 69. And thanks for the time out.

I'd like to thank our alliance partners 88 and 1991.

Who ever said this wasn't a defensive game should have seen this event.

[andrew348]

Originally Posted by MWTrek

I'd like to congratulate teams 348, 121, and 69. And thanks for the time out.

I'd like to thank our alliance partners 88 and 1991.

Who ever said this wasn't a defensive game should have seen this event.

Yeah. We got a verbal warning for overaggressive driving and a 10 point plenty for high speed ramming.

[AmoryG]

All I can say is that I enjoyed myself and the competition went pretty smoothly. It was nice to see that all though winning this didn't qualify you for anything in particular the competition was competitive just as it was in the Boston Regional and in Atlanta. I have to admit though I would have enjoyed competing in the elimination rounds partially because our team didn't make it past the qualifying matches in the two other events we went to.

Something I'd like to ask you other teams that went. Between the time when your robot was shipped home from the last official competition you went to and the Beantown Blitz, what kind of changes had you made to your robot? One thing we changed was our poker. Originally we had to stop under the rack and position ourselves. We then launched the poker which was simply a metal bar with a head attached to it which launched the ball up and off. After the Boston Regional we went to Atlanta with the nutrons and with their help we changed the poker around a bit and it became a slapper. This was similar to the slapper from the nutron's own bot.

Also, after Atlanta we tried to change the hybrid mode around a bit so that it didn't need us to continuously press the button to keep on going. We always lost a signal beyond the first line so we just made it automatically go to the end and then curve to the left for two lines.