2009 Microsoft Seattle Regional

[Fred Sayre]

It is so strange to me that the group is called SWAT. Especially since there was a SWAT team from UW/Roosevelt high just a couple years ago (that I was on for a couple years before they lost funding and the lead mentor had a kid). I still wear SWAT shirts around and people approach me saying they were on the team before my time. Every time I see someone walking around the Seattle event with the SWAT stuff I have to double take.

On another note I am very excited about competing this weekend! I think there are a lot of good teams. We have some of the nicest, most helpful and selfless mentors and students that I think will help make it hard to believe the percentage of rookies we have attending the event. I have already seen some very impressive rookie machines that I am eager to play with. Its going to be a very strong event this year in the Key!

[sciencenerd]

Hey, does anyone know if they released a match schedule for the Seattle regional before the pits closed tonight? Our scouters were hoping to do some preliminary analysis, but it seems that no one remembered to pick up the schedule!

If anyone has a copy of that I would really appreciate it if you could post it in this thread or email it to me at kylecorbitt AT gmail DOT com. Thanks.

[Madison]

Originally Posted by sciencenerd

Hey, does anyone know if they released a match schedule for the Seattle regional before the pits closed tonight? Our scouters were hoping to do some preliminary analysis, but it seems that no one remembered to pick up the schedule!

If anyone has a copy of that I would really appreciate it if you could post it in this thread or email it to me at kylecorbitt AT gmail DOT com. Thanks.

They generated them really late, Kyle. We didn't get a copy until about 7:15.

Luckily, they're also up on the FIRST site: http://www2.usfirst.org/2009comp/eve...edulequal.html

[Rick TYler]

Originally Posted by Madison

They generated them really late, Kyle. We didn't get a copy until about 7:15.

There was a qualifying match schedule generated and printed right after lunch. After it left the Scorekeeper's hands we don't know where it went. It's entirely possible that the FTA did a new one after we left at 6:15, but I wouldn't now why, since there were no team changes that I know of.

What robots impressed you in practice? I thought some of the usual suspects were quite good (1280, 488, 1983, 1318). I have a piece of paper with some of the more impressive (to me) rookie teams, but I left it on the scorekeeper's table. 2865 is the only one I can remember offhand.

[pitzoid]

Originally Posted by Rick TYler

There was a qualifying match schedule generated and printed right after lunch.

The FTAs have to activate the schedule to get it to print, that also post it to the FIRST Web Site.

I just went and looked, the only ones for this week that weren't up by tonight was Colorado and Long Island (don't know why NY wasn't up).

[Rick TYler]

Originally Posted by pitzoid

The FTAs have to activate the schedule to get it to print, that also post it to the FIRST Web Site.

If I wasn't clear before, I'm one of two Scorekeepers at this event. I sat at the table when the schedule was generated and we printed the first 70 copies. I even got to see the "out of paper" message on the computer screen.

[Rick TYler]

The Seattle Regional is over, and it was a smoothly-running machine. We finished Friday six minutes early, and everything Saturday was running on rails. We had one field crash Saturday morning that caused a 3-minute delay, and during Finals 2 (of course it was the last match ) the start button bounced and went from "off" to "start" to "pause." This caused about a 1-minute delay while the robots (which had moved about a foot) were rolled back into place and the match was restarted.

Alliances featuring 1280 and 488 made it to the finals, where 488 managed to win the clash of the Big Dumpers. Personally, I think it was smart defense that won the event for 488/1425/1569. 1294 and 2660 were not quite as good in their supporting roles (this time). If these two alliances played these finals ten times, I think there is a good chance they would go five-and-five.

It's such a pleasure working at an event that ran so smoothly. I <heart> the FTA team (three people) at this event, and the other volunteers were just great. Not as much dancing as some other FRC events I've attended, though, as there was very little reason to use up time.

If you like to watch the action, volunteer to be a scorekeeper. We are busy BETWEEN matches, but don't have anything to do during the competition except watch the robots.

[TKM.368]

Congrats to our friends 488! A well deserved and long time coming win for you. Good Fortune must have been upon you...

[Constance Wood]

Congratualtions to teams 1425, 488 and 1569 for their hard fought competition and winners of the Microsoft Seattle Regional....it was great to watch! I look forward to seeing you all in Atlanta....hopefully one or more of the teams on the same field!

And thank you to all the volunteers and everyone at the MSR....the competition ran smoothly,...although it would have been nice to have a couple of bleachers from last year for added noise...hahahaha...just kidding! I had a lot of fun and it was great seeing so many rookie teams doing so well. I look forward to seeing them next year when they are seasoned veterans...can we squeeze any more teams into Key Arena???

Connie

[Caio]

Congratulations to the winning teams 488, 1425, 1569!

Also, very large congrats to team 360 for their well deserved chairman's award! Wish you guys the best of luck in Atlanta

[Nawaid Ladak]

Even though i wasn't there, i enjoyed watching the arhive-cast

Thankyous

360- From what i heard about how you guys got a team from Turkey to come to MSR... my hat goes off to you guys, you guys truly deserve the chairmans award. I look forward to seeing you guys in atlanta, on and off the field

To teams 1318 and 2865: thanks for picking my team (945) to be part of your awesome alliance. It was great watching the alliance work together to get to the semi finals (and bring that semifinal to four matches)

To teams 488, 1425 and 1569: congrats on the regional win, as soon as i saw the alliances on the FIRST site, I looked at your s and said to myself... honestly, this is the best alliance at this regional, i would be scared if i was facing down dump by 488. I look forward to seeing all of you in Atlanta

A thanks to Madison from 488: she Sort of kept me informed of what exactly was going on at the event. what you couldn't see while watching the archives... my hat goes off to you

a thanks also to my team 945: Thanks for keeping me informed and for enjoying yourselves while you guys are out there, the regional is half the fun, the travel, visiting the mountains, seeing snow, and checking out the space needle are just a few bonus's of Seattle... oh and Coffee...you can't forget that.

To everyone else, it looks like this event ran very smoothly, considering you guys were consistently ahead of schedule... you guys must have been doing something right

I look forward to seeing all of you guys in Atlanta.... (i'll be volunteering)

[Fred Sayre]

Thank you everyone for your comments. I think anyone that was there could tell you, the Seattle regional was an amazing event. There were so many teams, and so many amazing rookies that really makes me believe that the northwest will become a breeding ground for some powerhouse teams in the very near future.

I remember looking at the match schedule, saying that the current match was supposed to start at 10:36 or something like that, only to look at my watch, and it was 10:36! Sitting in the stands all day scouting and watching the matches was so much more pleasant with the event running so smoothly. For that I applaud all of the volunteers that made it happen.

The strategy and aggressive defense really impressed me. All of the wins were hard fought and there were more incredibly close matches than I thought was possible. Pure scoring ability did not equate to wins and all of the machines got to spend some time pinned in the corner.

To 1318 and 1983, We remain afraid of you guys and STILL would much rather play with you than against you! I have not seen a better auto than 1318 and the skunk swerve is an amazing achievement that made it impossible for us to chase you down in Portland. Maybe in Atlanta we can show the rest of the country the power of the PNW!

To 1280, 1294, and 2660, I have the utmost respect for you guys. 1280 was an amazing machine, and for all the simplicity we were trying for in our design, you guys put us to shame. I felt guilty taking a design award, and not giving you guys some credit. I have to say, you guys could unload an epic amount of balls. 1294 really flew under the radar until I started seeing our scouting sheets coming back with 10-15 balls being scored by you guys. I loved your simple and efficient spiral hopper construction, and the accuracy in which you could put those balls into a trapped hopper was impressive. I didn't get to see to much of 2660, but after winning rookie inspiration you guys came back with an impressive seed, and put together an amazing team.

To 1425, and 1569, you guys were amazing. When we had some tough defense and missed a big dump in our first quarter final match. Near the end of the match after watching our machine intently, we were quite pleased to look up and still see the huge score our alliance had put up - right then I believed we could go all the way. 1425 handled the super cells with amazing speed and helped us put some big points up on the board, two high scoring records in the elimination matches! When you guys snuck in and delivered an empty cell right by 1280 when 1569 was holding them in the corner... it was a beautiful move. 1569 was a true jack of all trades, playing the empty cells, running some amazing defense, keeping robots off our back, and still putting an impressive number of balls in at just the right time. We couldn't have done it without you guys, and we all managed to keep our cool, and go undefeated in the elims despite some very tough matches.

Anyway, thanks again to everyone, and go Seattle!

[Navid Shafa]

I think it is easy to say in behalf of the team that we had an AmAzInG time at MSR, regardless! Everything went smoothly, and a lot of rookie teams were able to look up to you guys! We were glad to see you guys win, you definitely deserved it!

Oh and by the way, What time is it?

[dtengineering]

If there has ever been a more unanimous choice for Chairman's than 360, I doubt I've seen it. I think every team there had to admit that the most deserving team had won.... and honestly, you were a serious threat to take the Championship, too.

From the moment I saw video of the Xbots big blue machine on youtube, I couldn't help but think, "Dang... I wish I'd thought of that. What a beautiful machine." Now it has a beautiful trophy to sit next to it, thanks to some great play alongside 1425 and 1569.

Perhaps one of my best memories of the event (aside from getting to present the WFFA to Mike Criner... I'm willing to bet he's still in shock...) was the rendition of the Turkish national anthem on Saturday morning. I never did catch the student's name, but that was simply the best rendition of any national anthem I have seen at any FRC event. I'm sure hoping the Sultans of Turkiye will be back next year.

I have great empathy for 2927 and 2922, the #9 and #10 seeds. We have ranked as high as 12th and not been picked, but to be one or two steps short of the top eight, and then not make it to the eliminations must hurt that much more. Take heart... eventually this structure pays you back... three weeks after seeing 12th and NOT being picked we seeded 65th and WERE selected for the playoffs. It is weird and inexplicable sometimes, but it does work out pretty well over time.

To our wonderful alliance partners, the Flying Hedgehogs, who have a bodacious machine that truly lives up to their audacious name, and the tough tank pusher from 2944, it was great to play with you. We have absolutely no idea what caused our machine to become partially paralyzed after autonomous in our second match. We hadn't changed anything before the match, and when we hooked it up after the match it worked fine in the pits. The only weird thing, the drive team tells me, was a DS reset right before the match, but the captain spoke to the field officials and they didn't notice any comm errors during the match. In any case, I can still picture emtpy red trailers passing by our machine, our hopper loaded and ready, but the robot unable to move or dump. Hopefully we have paid the karmic debt to the glitch-gods for all three of us for the next few years, because it just was not to be on Saturday afternoon.

Most importantly, however... thanks to Kevin, Deb, and the hundreds of volunteers and sponsors that put this event together. The ride back home was filled with lots of chatter about "next year".

For those of you heading on to Atlanta, congratulations and good luck. For the rest of us, "next year" starts now.

Jason

P.S. And how could I forget to thank the Skunks for sharing their scouting data? I spent more time looking at that than I did at the match results, I think.

[techedguy]

Originally Posted by Nawaid Ladak

Thankyous


To teams 1318 and 2865: thanks for picking my team (945) to be part of your awesome alliance. It was great watching the alliance work together to get to the semi finals (and bring that semifinal to four matches)

It was great for my team to see what a team with some serious spirit was all about (945). Our guys were bananas for your team from early on. We're rookies and learning FIRST but some of my team is learning about how a TEAM works for the first time as well. We had a great run in Portland as a rookie and an even better run at Seattle but the best opportunity was being in a position to form alliances in both Seattle and Portland with some fun, gracious, exciting teams. I look forward to seeing all of the teams we've connected with over the past few months (working with and against us) 1983, 488, 1318, 945, 360...some I only know names...Cyberwolves, Yak-Attack, Robo-Idaho, AmmoKnights...probably forgetting too many but really wanted to thank the teams, the coaches, and the mentors for those teams for making this such a great experience for myself, our team, and our sponsors. Good luck in Atlanta, maybe we'll see you all there in 2010!

Sal Lorenzen
Mentor/Coach FRC #2865