Top Bots for 2009?

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Johnny

973 also won the LA Regional, that's probably what they meant.

I know, but when you specify a regional the team wasn't at...

[AdamHeard]

I'd say, my two favorite robots from the west this year; 330 and 1717. Tragically, 330 can't make champs. I have not seen a single robot that can play as effective defense, that can avoid defense as effectively and still score well.

They aren't the #1 scorer, but they still score a lot and more importantly, they make it a bad day to for the #1 scorer on the other alliance (which too often at vegas was a certain bright orange target).

1717 showed their potential at LA, and nearly won (imo they did win, we won one match by a footfault on their alliance, that's it). At Sacramento they showed that potential can be, and was, turned into pure dominance. If an all black strafing, turreting, powerdumper (and often shooter) doesn't scare you, it should.

Originally Posted by roboticWanderor

has no one mentioned 973? the Raptor is definitely a force to be feared after Sacramento...

1717 is one of my favorites but the huge list could not be complete without roobts like :
624
148
1114
1625
67
etc.
really it goes on and on, it will be the alliance selections and teamwork that pose the greatest threats at Champs, not single robots.

Good call on all the other robots you mentioned, but after our performance at Vegas I don't think we should be considered a top team. In my opinion, the robot performs GREAT, and the only single failure between two regionals is a failed radio power cord (which was proptly made more secure). We are fielding a rookie team, and on top of that threw all precedent out on the team, we have entirely new practices. Our scouting, pit crew, and driving are solid in my opinion (and I'm very happy with them), but we are not a top team.

It was a great lesson in teaching our students there is much more to doing well at a regional than just a good robot, and I hope we learn and improve on this and truly do earn the regard. I KNOW the students can do it, and they know what they have to do, but actually making it happen isn't always the easy part. This is far off topic, but for the first time in my life I finally feel like an effective mentor (yet at the same time know I will look back in 5 years, or heck, even 1, and say I knew nothing). It was great hearing from the kids, "Ohhhhhh. that's why you were such a stickler for quality/performance/continuous improvment", after walking around our regionals.

In the end however, it doesn't matter what the robot looks like, how fast it dumps balls, or how many empty cells it can run. It's how many points it scores, and how many points it keeps the opponent from scoring. Sure we can dump more balls faster than a good deal of teams in ideal conditions, but it's the reality of a 2 minute match many teams are beating us in.

[smurfgirl]

Originally Posted by The Readinator

121, 126 (GaelForce), 1100... All of them did extremely well in the CT Regional... Hope to see them in Atlanta....

I know that 121 won the Boston Regional, and that GaelForce helped out the Überbots at the CT Suffield Shakedown (to win by 1 point !!).

Ethan, I'm pretty sure it was the other way around... 126 did most of the scoring. (Oh yeah, and congrats on getting a CD account.)


I volunteered on field reset at both the Boston and Connecticut regionals, so I watched a lot of matches in person in addition to all of the regionals I followed on the webcasts. There were some truly spectacular teams at both. 20, 61, 121, 126, 175, 190, 694, 1100, and 1902 were all very impressive at scoring. Team 2265 played terrific defense. I am very glad we weren't up in any matches against them. Many specific teams formed great alliances and showed excellent teamwork during both qualifications and elims.

[EricLeifermann]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

I'd say, my two favorite robots from the west this year; 330 and 1717. Tragically, 330 can't make champs. I have not seen a single robot that can play as effective defense, that can avoid defense as effectively and still score well.

Why isn't 330 going to Atlanta?? I was so looking forward to seeing and taking pictures of their drive system this year.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by EricLeifermann

Why isn't 330 going to Atlanta?? I was so looking forward to seeing and taking pictures of their drive system this year.

330 didn't qualify. They had decided to only go if they qualified.

[The Readinator]

Originally Posted by smurfgirl

Ethan, I'm pretty sure it was the other way around... 126 did most of the scoring. (Oh yeah, and congrats on getting a CD account.)


I volunteered on field reset at both the Boston and Connecticut regionals, so I watched a lot of matches in person in addition to all of the regionals I followed on the webcasts. There were some truly spectacular teams at both. 20, 61, 121, 126, 175, 190, 694, 1100, and 1902 were all very impressive at scoring. Team 2265 played terrific defense. I am very glad we weren't up in any matches against them. Many specific teams formed great alliances and showed excellent teamwork during both qualifications and elims.

That's true, Sorry 121... I wasn't really that concerned about scouting at the regionals though... That was Eric N's and HaHa's job!

Was it just me or did the teams that had fans on the back of their robots seem to have better acceleration than those that didn't? (i.e. 121 and 716)...

(thanks )

[Johnny]

Originally Posted by EricH

I know, but when you specify a regional the team wasn't at...

I know, i think they meant to say Los Angelas instead of sacremento.

[Dillon Carey]

my pick as of right now would be between 67 and 217

[TheOtherGuy]

Originally Posted by Snapalope

my pick as of right now would be between 67 and 217

Funny, they're against each other in the first match tomorrow
http://www2.usfirst.org/2009comp/eve...edulequal.html

[Dancin103]

Originally Posted by Meredith Novak

103 is a Hall of Fame team. Does anyone know why they are not on the list for Atlanta?

Originally Posted by The Lucas

Cybersonics prefer to 3 regionals (NJ, Florida, Philly) to 2 regionals and Championship (Florida is a travel regional replacement). For the last two years, they have gone to these 3 regionals. Last year, their performance at the regionals convinced them to register for Championship at the last minute (and bring a small team down to Atlanta). Their robot was great as usual this year, but they are not bringing it to Championship.

I would imagine they will send some people down for the Hall of Fame, just not the whole team and the robot.

Ok, many of you are wondering why we are not on the list for Atlanta. We're not going and do not plan on going in any way shape or form, although I believe one of our students will be traveling down with some friends. Our team has valid reasons and many concerns about Atlanta. We have more fun doing multiple regionals and not nationals. We like going to regionals, because the kids have more fun and they are more personable then nationals. We have our reasons for not going, and they extend past what I have said here in this post. We will miss being able to play with teams like yours Meredith, and Lucas, we got to play with you and against you in Philly which was fun, congratulations again.

Thank you to y'all that think our robot is great. I appreciate it. This year we had the chance to play against and with many great robots with many great teams. This year was fun.

Cass

[Gaurav27]

Originally Posted by Goldeye

I used OPRNet to throw the rankings for all the regionals into a spreadsheet, and sorted by OPR. These numbers are for one competition each; I don't have full-season numbers (yet).
OPR can be interpreted as a team's average contribution to their alliance's score; these numbers only include qualifying matches (afaik).
Top 25 is arbitrary.

- 71 stands out beyond the rest, though it's possible their high OPR there is a bit boosted by inconsistencies in their alliance's behavior. Their next appearance is 37.98 OPR, placing 59th on this list
- 67's dominance is supported not just by their top notch OPR appearing three times, but also by their consistently high RPI. They had to play tough teams.
- 67 (#2,7,17), 188 (#3,21), 399 (#4,11), 694 (#6,12), 1625 (#10, 23), 2056 (#9,16) appeared in the top 25 OPR multiple times.
Some slightly off topic statistics:
- 18 different teams appeared in the top 25 OPR.
- After these performances high scoring performances, 12/25 went on to win the regional.
- 13/18 teams will be going to Atlanta (Assuming usfirst.org's championship team list is currently up to date). 103, 694, 968, 1279, 2199 will not be there.

Here are the new top 25 entries after all 6 weeks of regionals.

RANK	REGIONAL	TEAMS	OPR	SAA	PM	RPI
1	il	71	63.5486	13.6863	49.8623	0.568321
1	grl	67	55.2469	7.51402	47.7329	0.638985
1	on	188	54.8454	20.1327	34.7127	0.606606
1	ca	399	53.8913	5.26321	48.6281	0.589569
1	sdc	968	52.8536	12.8229	40.0307	0.640392
1	az	1726	51.507	5.52655	45.9805	0.629979
1	ct	694	51.2924	10.4047	40.8878	0.560702
1	dt1	67	50.9408	0.617258	50.3235	0.610938
1	gl	67	49.4348	22.2294	27.2054	0.584032
1	oc	217	49.0695	16.2635	32.806	0.61046
2	on	2056	48.8918	8.98663	39.9052	0.619678
2	il	1625	48.8205	13.9918	34.8287	0.55816
1	co	399	48.5697	6.64104	41.9286	0.646447
1	ny	694	48.4503	16.4318	32.0186	0.536565
1	pa	103	47.671	1.65085	46.0202	0.611837
2	ct	2877	47.5881	13.4042	34.1839	0.527964
1	fl	103	47.4899	7.30672	40.1832	0.608943
3	ct	121	47.1896	8.28233	38.9073	0.632378
2	az	69	45.903	7.08524	38.8177	0.59304
1	wat	2056	45.2946	3.26659	42.028	0.619405
2	oc	67	44.7387	11.5185	33.2202	0.580594
1	dc	2199	44.7381	26.4954	18.2427	0.54878
2	pa	1279	44.2944	19.2321	25.0623	0.581121
2	sdc	1622	44.2074	10.3862	33.8212	0.582763

These numbers are pretty self-explanatory.
To look at all entries/entries from specific regionals you can download the spreadsheet from my post here:
ALLREGIONALS-OPRNET

[cziggy343]

how are people finding the OPR this year?

[Sam N.]

I really admire 668, 100, 254, 766, and 1868 (Davis mod) for their simplistic and effective designs.

1717 has a tremendous amount of control over their bot. The driving makes them even better.

[asmo0901]

I would have to say team 2825 (WAVE ROBOTICS) has an awesome robot hands down! and team 1714 (MORE ROBOTICS) are great too!

[EricLeifermann]

Originally Posted by asmo0901

I would have to say team 2825 (WAVE ROBOTICS) has an awesome robot hands down! and team 1714 (MORE ROBOTICS) are great too!

Its 2826 not 2825 just to let you know...