2010 Los Angeles Regional

[NoahTheBoa]

Congratulations to 1515 on Chairman's! You guys definitely deserved the recognition after being such a huge presence in Los Angeles for so many years. Also, congratulations to 1717 for Inspiration and winning the regional as well. Good luck to both teams in Atlanta.

Nancy winning WFFA definitely capped off a great season for 1138.

[Sunbun]

Congrats to 1515, 1717, 330, and 1452 on their success!

Thanks to 1160 and 1671 for being great alliance partners! Shame that we couldn't get further, but glad that our opposing alliance made it all the way to the finals.

For the record, there were four finals matches played: 12-12, 14-10, 8-10, 9-3.

[dexo568]

Hey, team 3328 here. Just wanted to say how impressed we were with everything. We had no idea it was going to be anything like this- everyone was so enthusiastic and positive, and the crowd was incredible. We were also sort of impressed with how far we got, so thanks to nerdherd for picking us for their alliance. Two questions, though: First what was up with the WFFA winner? She didn't seem very happy. Two, what was causing the ~20 minute delay between the last finals match and the finals tiebreaker? Was it a field problem or a team robot problem?
Anyways, thanks for making our rookie year such a great experience..

Oh-- I was 3328's human player (the tall kid). If any of you saw me around, hey, that's cool.

[EricH]

Let's just say that when 1138 won the Regional Chairman's last year, Nancy had to be pulled into the line by the students and mentors on the team. She doesn't like taking credit for doing something. At least she won't have to accept it next year...

I have no clue on the delay, but there's a mandatory 6 minute delay, plus any timeouts (6 minutes each, one at a time) and whatever the MC works in in terms of dancing.

Incidentally, I understand that more than 200 people were watching the eliminations on the webcast. That's a lot of people. Thanks to 1515 for organizing that, and I hope to watch the finals once you get those uploaded to TBA (assuming that they were archived).

[NoahTheBoa]

Originally Posted by EricH

Let's just say that when 1138 won the Regional Chairman's last year, Nancy had to be pulled into the line by the students and mentors on the team. She doesn't like taking credit for doing something. At least she won't have to accept it next year...

Yeah, you pretty much hit the nail on the head. Nancy isn't one to seek the limelight and as a mentor she is always thinking of the kids first so she feels that the honors should go to them instead of to her. This attitude is the reason why we feel she deserved this award and why we've worked for 5 years to get her this award. We know that our team would not be where we are today without her. And even though we did not qualify for Atlanta this year I know that the team sees this season as a success.

[DCA Fan]

Originally Posted by NoahTheBoa

Yeah, you pretty much hit the nail on the head. Nancy isn't one to seek the limelight and as a mentor she is always thinking of the kids first so she feels that the honors should go to them instead of to her. This attitude is the reason why we feel she deserved this award and why we've worked for 5 years to get her this award. We know that our team would not be where we are today without her. And even though we did not qualify for Atlanta this year I know that the team sees this season as a success.

The thing is, Nancy deserves this award more than anyone I know (that hasn't already gotten it), and at some point, she was inevitably going to get it. Now we just need to convince her to take the recognition because really this is just formalizing the recognition that everyone up to Dean and Woodie already have given her for her work.

[akeisic]

The finals are the most exciting regional finals I've ever seen in my 11 years in first! I can't wait for the videos to surface. We knew it was going to be a battle when the first match resulted in a 12-12 tie! And then to take it to 3 games after that! We've managed to completely confuse thebluealliance.net; it isn't even capable of displaying a four match final nor is it displaying the correct winners! I don't think anyone expected the finals to be THAT close! Jim Beck and the regional committee must be ecstatic to have hosted such an exciting regional.

If you missed the finals, you missed 5 of 6 robots moving in every autonomous with all 10 back balls being advanced to the front. In one match I think 8 points were scored in autonomous alone - 4 for each alliance. 294 and 1717 scored from the far zone. 330 and 968 scored from the midfield and 980 scored from the front. The coordination between the teams was fantastic.

I give mad props to 330, 1717 and 1452 for winning the event as well as 1515 for Chairman's and Nancy for WFFA. I also thank 968 and 980 for joining our alliance and making such a great run to the finals. We were soooo close... I must say that I walked away with a smile on my face in being a part of something that exciting!


Note: As a coach on the field, I didn't notice the ~20 minute delay between matches 3 and 4 of the finals. I thought the our reset time was about the same as the other matches. Naturally though, my perspective is skewed because we were in a flurry of activity between every match. We did call a time out between two of the matches, but I don't know which two.

[Jamie Kalb]

Originally Posted by akeisic

The finals are the most exciting regional finals I've ever seen in my 11 years in first!

I agree hands down. One of the best regional finals I've ever seen! Those were some incredibly powerful alliances. I think we just got a glimpse of what elims at Atlanta will look like.

Originally Posted by akeisic

If you missed the finals, you missed 5 of 6 robots moving in every autonomous with all 10 back balls being advanced to the front. In one match I think 8 points were scored in autonomous alone - 4 for each alliance. 294 and 1717 scored from the far zone. 330 and 968 scored from the midfield and 980 scored from the front. The coordination between the teams was fantastic.

I saw Red score 5 and Blue 4 in autonomous in one match. That's out of a maximum of 6 possible for each. Fantastic work!

Originally Posted by akeisic

Note: As a coach on the field, I didn't notice the ~20 minute delay between matches 3 and 4 of the finals. I thought the our reset time was about the same as the other matches. Naturally though, my perspective is skewed because we were in a flurry of activity between every match. We did call a time out between two of the matches, but I don't know which two.

I was watching the webcast, and I definitely noticed the delay. I wanted to see more action! The matches were such nail-biters that I couldn't wait for the next ones.

[Brad Voracek]

Congrats 1515 on Chairman's award, it's been a long time coming for you guys, and congrats 1717, 330 and 1452 for winning the regional! I'm glad 1717 won, you guys have one of the best robots this year in my opinion, and as your only way to atlanta I'm glad it payed off.

West coast represent at Atlanta! =)

On another note: I hope to see 399's return to Los Angeles next year, in my short visit Friday many people came up to me and asked where we were, and it was sad to have to tell them we chose not to come this year. So to all those wondering, the bright purple and orange should be back next year, louder than ever Sorry to those of you that missed us!

[Peter Johnson]

One thing I noticed after alliance selection was that both 330 and 294 (alliance captains) had won previous regionals and thus were playing for their other alliance members to go to Atlanta (notably their first picks, 1717 and 968 respectively). Playing to win a second regional is a good motivator, but playing to help other great teams to get in is even more of one!

1717 ended up double-qualified for Atlanta as they won EI, but of course they didn't know that during the finals! It's a pity that 968 didn't qualify; they had many issues during the first day of qualifications but really got it together from late Friday onward (I believe they were the 8th seed when picked by 294).

[Eric24]

I had an amazing time at this regional! Congrats to 1515 on the Chairman's award and 1717, 330, and 1452 for the regional win! 294, 968, and 980 also did an excellent job and made the final matches some of the best I've ever seen. I also had the great fortune to have a match with 1717 and 294 which was very exciting. Despite not qualifying for Atlanta this year, team 1138 had a great time and we're glad that Nancy was finally recognized for all her hard work. We couldn't do it without her!

[ShaneP]

Team 330 would like to thank everyone involved in making this regional what it is. It was a huge amount of fun and very competitive. Thanks to 1717 and 1452 for making excellent alliance partners. Strategizing with you was very enjoyable (really, Amir, I enjoyed it :-) ) It was intense competing against you, 294, 968, and 980 - those 4 final matches were brutal! Congrats to 1515 on winning the CA. Congrats too to 1717 on winning the EI award. Thanks again to everyone - we now look forward to the championships.

[David Brinza]

Congrats to 330, 1717 and 1452, you were most deserving winners of the event. Those finals matches were exciting beyond words. My wife and friends who were in the stands said the finals totally rocked the arena.

Team 980 thanks Teams 294 and 968 for inviting us to their alliance. Taking on an offensive role was a change for Team 980, but the strategy worked well.

Amir's dream to create the Engineering Academy at Dos Pueblos is becoming reality. Their program is just incredible, with awesome students who really standout in the program. I cannot imagine a more deserving Engineering Inspiration Award recipient than Team 1717.

Congrats also to 1515 for CA. They provided the webcast of the event, created MorTorq TV and have raised the visibility of FRC in SoCal in many ways.

WOW! The LA Regionals were just the best!

[Smoores]

Wow, I'm just in a daze after that competition. Why bother going to Atlanta, when you could go to L.A. I'm sure many of the robots there could have won regionals elsewhere (and many did). I am very honored to be apart of my team, that did so much with so little, for all four years of high school. Our robot was capable of doing everything exactly as we had hoped when we designed it way back in January. We have never ever had a robot do that. I hope that in the future, we can persuade the district to actually support us, and not hinder our efforts to meet. Maybe one day they could actually consider us a team at least. Unfortunately it is my last FIRST competition as a student, and I never got to see our team live up to its potential. I think the real goal of the team has been fulfilled though, with every High School senior going into an Engineering university. One is going into Biomedical engineering, another into electrical engineering, one into arcitectural engineering, and I'm headed into Aerospace engineering, where I will bring airplanes to the poor man. Thank You all for making this experience incredible, I hope college robotics is as difficult as this!


-
Smoores
(the big fat driver of 2272's robot)

[dantheflipman]

That competition was amazing. The final matches had some of the best autonomous performances I have ever seen. Although 1388 got knocked out in the semi's it was a great competition to end my career as a FIRST student. The little break-dancing competition i had with a kid from MorTorq on the floor was pretty fun as well Great job to all of the teams there, and I hope to see you next year as a 1st year mentor.