2010 New Jersey Regional

[PayneTrain]

Wow, what a competition.

Team 422 was snowed in for weeks at a time and unable to get in school, but we had a dedicated group of builders and programmers to piece together a robot in 12 days.

During competition, we had breakdowns due to old equipment (I think we had some Jags from last year's robot, Redemption) and problems with some parts we were never able to test.

I know some may think we didn't deserve to male eliminations, much less place 2nd overall after qualifying matches, but as broken as I am able to admit the system is (ala Portland Regional) we were the team capable of using every competitive strategy to gain as many points as we could by the end of prelims. We played methodical, penalty-free Breakaway, and positioned our Alliance to easily push in points while we tried to manage the back or mid-field and prevent scoring. We are all thrilled that we managed to pull together a robot in a short amount of time and after many late nights before and during competition to reach the finals against such a well formed opposition.

We'd like to congratulate Team 25; They didn't need a scoring strategy, they earned number one through raw power and perfect execution in their robot.

We'd like to congratulate Pascack (1676) on their part in Aliance 1's victory and say we are excited that you will be coming to the best regional on the East Coast this year. (maybe second to New Hampshire)

3053, you guys had one tough little pusher-bot that really drove the dominance of the Alliance home. Good luck to all three of you in Atlanta.

2016, man, what a team. We're almost ecstatic that 303 ended up denying a spot on the finalist alliance. We're sorry we couldn't help bring home a banner for you this year, but looking around your pit and your section in the stands, I picked up on a few things that I want our team to improve on next year.

816, you guys are some Anomaly. What was almost just another forgettable pusher bots at competition was heavily noted upon by our scouter and strategist, and picked up by us through selection. You guys always had us competing in every round, and did we ever give 25 and their partners a run for their money. Good luck guys.

Team 422 is really excited to follow up our semifinalist berth and Motorola Quality Award earned at last year's regional with another trophy and medal to bring back to Maggie Walker this year. I told some members of our team that someone is trying to tell us we need to go back to Trenton a third year to finally win the team another regional. It will have been 10 years since our previous regional win, and we seem to be crawling closer to a dynastic form of competition success.

We want to focus our time before VCU on improving our robot to reach finals and maybe even win there, and maybe look towards really refocusing the team outside of the build season. 2016 is a model team, even if they didn't win this year's chairman's. I've considered going after a northeast sponsor next year, since I'd like to go back up to Trenton again.

Good luck to everyone attending their next competition, be it Virginia (NASA/VCU) Atlanta, or anywhere else!

[thefro526]

The 2010 New Jersey Regional was by far the most Challenging and Rewarding Event I've ever been to in my 5 Years in FIRST. For those that don't know we were plagued with various problems throughout qualifications that we couldn't trace to any single source. I believe we replaced 1 Digital Sidecar, 1 C Rio, 1 C Rio Power Connector, and 1 USB hub before we actually were able to run successfully. For those of you that don't know, we played the majority of the regional without our kicker due to these control problems.

But, I have to thank some people:

1089 - Thank you so much for your help resolving our watchdog issue and giving us the correct wire for our C Rio connector. Without these two things we definitely wouldn't have made it to the finals.

Sean (Shaun?) from 25, thank you so much for your advice on Coaching. I believe that if you wouldn't have opened my eyes early on we would've still be trying to traverse the bump and kick from the mid-field, I sure owe you one.

422 - Thanks for picking us, I know you took a HUGE chance on us and I'm glad it paid off. I wish you the best in where ever you go next, hopefully you'll be able to go one step further.

2016 - It was awesome playing with you guys, the spirit that your team had and the level of professionalism shown by your drive team is admirable. You guys have quite the machine there, I hope that we can get back together at the championship.

Also, thanks to the various people who supported me and gave me advice throughout the day, Mr. Gregory, Stogi (Akash), Wayne Penn, Tyler Moser, Mr. Moser, Jared from 341, and many more. It was really difficult for me to make the transition from a Student Driver to "Adult" Coach, but knowing that all of you had faith in my abilities to lead and Coach was a huge help.

Finally, I've got to say congrats to Nick and the whole Drive Team from 816. You guys really made me proud out there. When the going got tough you didn't give up and you never let your spirits get broken. Also, Nick you've definitely got some talent, probably more talent then any Driver on 816 has ever had, I hope that together we'll be able to bring one home this year. (Btw, I totally wasn't crying after we made it to the finals.)

Everyone better keep an eye out for 816. We've got some modifications in the works for Philly, lets see if they pay off.

MIGHTY DRAGON ANOMALY!

[Mark McLeod]

I had fun in NJ working with the teams there. Maybe I'll come back next year.

My special thanks go out to Sarah, Mike and Pete for running the field this weekend. They made it all happen for every team there. They take a lot of grief when teams start blaming the field, but they helped a LOT of teams solve their problems. Maybe a few teams learned to troubleshoot a little better this weekend due to their calm and focus. At least maybe they'll remember to turn their robots on and strap their batteries in.

[Graham Donaldson]

So there's way way way way WAY too many people to thank for this NJ Regional (my first as a college student), so I'm just going to give some shout-outs to the really special ones in my mind:

First, not to the teams, but to the VOLUNTEERS! Especially the ones running the field - Sarah, Mike, and Pete are there year after year, and they always do a fantastic job. Week 1 Regionals are very tough to run, and when you've got an arena full of students, parents, and coaches pressuring you to get the field working and dead robots running, it's even harder. Somehow, they manage to do it every year, and I don't think we give them nearly enough credit.

Obviously, the next has to be to all the teams for showing why Jersey is such a fun and competitive regional year after year. I'd like to give an extra thanks to all the teams that made elims so fun to watch (even when we weren't playing - the matches were all awesome!), but an even bigger thanks goes out to teams 25 and 3059! Though we missed 103 this year, it did give us the chance to get picked by 25 (which we were ecstatic about) and then add 3059 to the mix. It was a great alliance and a great playoff series and we are so happy we can finally say we've won a regional.

I'm going to give a special little shout out to 3059, who as a rookie team built an awesome little bot that did everything we asked of them. Guys, the fact that you were able to pull through and score so many points for us when 25 was bogged down and double-teamed is awesome - we CAN'T thank you enough. We'll see you in Atlanta, and can only hope you enjoy it as much as we did our rookie year - there's nothing like it.

Thanks again to all the other teams that competed and I didn't get a chance to name, as well as (again) the countless volunteers who help make NJ run so smoothly.

See everyone next year!

[Wayne C.]

My turn to say thanks to our allaince partners and competitors alike.

1676- we have always been really proud of what your team has been growing into and it was a privilege to have you as our partners. Our strategy was to have you consistently move up the back row balls and then assist as things got nasty in the midfieold and forward. That you did really well.

3059- The best robot in any of these tournaments is the one that does the job they can do consistently well and a team that can work together with the alliance. Your team did just that and we are all indebted you for keeing the scores rolling in when our bot was the bullseye

And to our competitors- thanks for pointing helping us find the flaws in our machine so we can be stronger next time. Everyone played their best and all should be proud. No coach can ask more than that.
The pounding we took by 2016 in round 2 of the finals brook 2 of our drive drain modules. That frantic fever pitch activity in the sidelines was our whole pit crew working on 3 parts of the robot replacing the drives in the 6 minute time out. We went to the field at the bell not knowing if everything was back in place but confident in our design. We couldnt even reset for auto mode. Thank God it all worked. I am very proud of my team.

But if nothing else the "tackling a really tough problem" brought the team closer together. I guess thats what FIRST is all about.

Good luck to everyone in your future events in the rest of the season. Maybe we will see you in the Championships and we can play again.

WC

[ks_mumupsi]

Originally Posted by Wayne C.

The pounding we took by 2016 in round 2 of the finals brook 2 of our drive drain modules.

WC

I just wanted to say to this comment, we were trying our best to keep you blocked without damaging your robot, sorry about the drives but hey you guys are a solid team and it was fun watching our robots compete in that match...

great job as usual guys.

[sidkulk]

Hey everyone,

This was definitely one of the most exciting regionals I've been too.

I would like to congratulate Teams 422, 2016, & 816 for putting up an amazing fight.

Team 25, 1676, & 3059 for winning the New Jersey Regional!

Team 3131 for the Rookie All Star Award and the Highest Rookie Seed Award.

Team 2016 for Team Spirit!

Team 102 for Gracious Professionalism!!

Also Team 75 for winning the Engineering Inspiration Award!

Last but not least I would like to thank all the members of my team, Team 1403, for winning Chairmans!!!!

This regional was amazing and I look forward to seeing everyone at New York, Boston, or Championships.

[Wayne C.]

Originally Posted by ks_mumupsi

I just wanted to say to this comment, we were trying our best to keep you blocked without damaging your robot, sorry about the drives but hey you guys are a solid team and it was fun watching our robots compete in that match...

great job as usual guys.

No Problem with that. Believe me- we know that playing in the elims means rough and tumble play. Its a part of the game. And now we know what needs beefing up and what we can improve on.

As our BMS mentors tell us- there is nothing we can break that we cant fix.

WC

[delsaner]

Hello all,

I would just like to say this was an amazing regional, and I would like to thank every single team for being a part of it.

25 and 3059- Thank you for being a part of this win with us. We could not have done it without the help both of you gave. Thank you 25 for helping us with our communication errors.

816, 2016, and 422- You guys put up quite a fight in the finals. I hope to see you guys in Atlanta, I am confident in your teams that you can make it to ATL. (422, we can't wait to see you guys again in VCU!)

1403- Congratulations on winning the Regional Chairman's Award! From the looks of your video, you guys totally deserved it. Good luck with the rest of your season!

75- Congratulations on winning the Engineering Inspiration Award. We are looking forward to seeing you again in VCU as well, along with 293. (I cant wait to hear the 75 chant again, I love it )

[heather]

Team 223 would like to congratulate teams 25, 1676, and 3059 for their win! You guys were awesome!

25 - it was so much fun working with you in our second match and setting a national high score that lasted most of the day!

1676 - you're very welcome for the cable, and we would love to come up and practice with you guys!!

3059 - you guys were awesome, especially for a Rookie team. Congrats on your win, you guys must be so excited! (my friend Rich would like to add that he'd picked you as a winner in the first match he scouted you )

Team 1403 - Congratulations on your Chairman's Award!! Hopefully we'll be able to make it to Monty Madness again this year.

We'd also like to thank team 1279 for selecting us and team 1089 for being great alliance partners. Team Thermometer! Haha

[Mark McLeod]

3059 isn't a rookie team, but they do build a really good robot, especially for a second year team.

Good luck when you play in NYC!
Sorry I won't be there to see you perform this time.

[George A.]

So this is going to be a little long winded, but hang in there with me, I have a lot of people to thank.


Thanks to everyone that is on the planning committee with me. We work all year for a product that lasts for 4 days, and boy did we have our hands full.

Thank you to the people working the field. Sarah, Mike, Pete…you all are amazing! I have no doubt that if it were not for you 3 that we would STILL be at the competition. Not only could you troubleshoot problems before they happened, you made all the delays as short as possible, and kept things on track.

Thank you to our refs. You had a lot of things to keep an eye on this year, and I wouldn’t want to have your jobs for a minute. There were some tough calls, but you all made them with grace and dignity. If a team had a problem you talked to them about it right away, and usually cooler heads prevailed.

Thank you to the field reset crew. Your job truly is back breaking, but you made it look easy, and still had a smile through it all. (PS Karma, you are truly the man, we joke around, but we would be saddened if you weren’t there)

Thank you to the audience, and the spectators. We started a half hour late on Saturday, we played what seemed like forever on Sunday, but you all kept dancing and having a blast. You really are what makes FIRST special.

Thank you to the people who texted me that they were amused by my announcing. It has to be gating to listen to me for 2 days straight, and I tried to make it entertaining. I know this game wasn’t the best to watch, but you guys were amazing and helped me by letting me feed off your excitement.

Finally thank you to my partner in crime. Ms Gallop, it’s amazing that we have been the tandem of NJ since 2005, and every competition has been wonderful. Once we get in a groove there is little that can shake us. You truly are a joy to work with, and hope to have many many more years being your tag team partner.

Now for the congrats

Congrats to the winning alliance. 1676 & 3059: savor this, because you’ll never be able to relive your first blue banner. 25: congrats on another great bot, and another blue banner to add to the collection.

1403: It’s about flippin time. Make us proud down in Atlanta.

Last, but not least, congrats to Chris Gregory. The fact that you don’t think you deserve the WFFA just goes to show you how much you DO deserve it. You are a class act through and through, and one of the best announcers I know. Trust me, if you didn’t deserve it, there wouldn’t have been a mob of people waiting to hug you after you left the field.

So another NJ Regional is over. I have no voice and my feet are sore, but I wouldn’t have changed anything!

[delsaner]

Originally Posted by George A.

Congrats to the winning alliance. 1676 & 3059: savor this, because you’ll never be able to relive your first blue banner.

Just a correction, this is not our first blue banner. It is, however, our first regional champion banner.

[Akash Rastogi]

Anyone who does not know Chris Gregory needs to get to know him. Such an amazingly friendly person and an amazing team leader. Everyone should take a page from his book. Once again, congrats Chris.

[George A.]

Originally Posted by delsaner

Just a correction, this is not our first blue banner. It is, however, our first regional champion banner.

That's what I meant , I was there when you got yours for Chairman's...either way enjoy the win.