2012 Midwest Regional

[avanboekel]

Just thought I would start a thread to discuss the 2012 Midwest regional.

Who is coming?
How do you think the game will be played in comparison to other regionals?
Any predictions on a winning alliance?

Only 4 more days!

[AlecMataloni]

Wildstang will be there, as usual.

Looks like we lost plenty of great Wisconsin teams and volunteers this year, which is unfortunate. Regardless, I think Midwest will be just as exciting as it always is.

[DBortnick]

The Mechanicats will be there as well. Looking forward to it!

[BigJ]

Sadly UPS will have to follow and root for our friends from the U.S. Cellular arena in Milwaukee

Yay for Spyder

[avanboekel]

2338 will be there as always. Even though we are losing lots of teams to Milwaukee, I think there will still be plenty of good competition with multiple powerhouse teams. It looks like this will be a lot of teams' first regional (including ours and Wildstang's). Should be interesting to see what other local teams came up with this year.

Video of our bot
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbRqygvMVhY

On another note, is anyone interested in trading t-shirts? I have 2 t-shirts (1 small 1 medium) and a mechanics shirt (small) that I am willing to trade. Shoot me a PM if you are interested.

[RRLedford]

Team 3135, Robotic Colonels, will be there with our side-of-bridge (no grip) defensive oriented and 3-bot balance optimized design.
PIC below shows our practice bot without the long range passing shooter mounted yet.
Still working to get ballast weight distribution tweaked out to the max so that, with only two of six wheels providing all the traction, we sill maintain precise control of our movements on and location along the bridge edge rail.



-DIck Ledford

[Squeakypig]

This is a regional that I personally am very excited to watch. We have seen in the past that some powerhouse teams can take a tournament nearly by themselves, but not this year. This year that 3rd bot can make all the difference, but on top of that, teams that you didn't expect to rank high can end up as 1st seed! It will be interesting to see how the first competition will go for teams like Wildstang and Hammond, but what interests me more is how Bombsquad and the Robowranglers have improved since their first competition. Since Bombsquad and the Robowranglers both have wide orientation bots and we already know are competitive, I will call those 2 teaming up, picking a wide bot as their 3rd bot, and triple-balancing their way to a victory. (This can only be said on my part due to the fact that I haven't seen a lot of the other teams in the field)

EDIT: Also excited to see improvements from Winno. Sorry I forgot about ya there for a second.

[Richard Wallace]

I missed Week 3 while traveling in China, but now I am back in the US. Chicago, in fact. Just arrived from Hong Kong a couple of hours ago.

Looking at the Midwest field, I see there are 16 rookie teams registered. Al, I will be at the pavilion first thing tomorrow to see if I can help you get them all inspected.

[IndySam]

I'm surprised at the lack of practice going on at Midwest?

What are teams doing?

[Andy Baker]

I'm surprised no one has asked yet, so I will:

What does Team Hammond's robot do?

Andy B.

[Grim Tuesday]

Originally Posted by Andy Baker

I'm surprised no one has asked yet, so I will:

What does Team Hammond's robot do?

Andy B.

I have the feeling that you know a bit more about it than we do...

[Mike Soukup]

Originally Posted by Andy Baker

I'm surprised no one has asked yet, so I will:

What does Team Hammond's robot do?

Andy B.

Come on Andy. You know just as well as anyone that their robot doesn't do anything before 4pm on practice day of their first regional. It's usually broken down into piles of metal & motors that slowly get reassembled into a BEAST. It's their yearly tradition. Since I'm at work today and not going until tomorrow, I'm curious too.

[Grim Tuesday]

Does anybody actually know? Andy's post made me really curious.

[Richard Wallace]

Originally Posted by Mike Soukup

... their robot doesn't do anything before 4pm on practice day of their first regional. It's usually broken down into piles of metal & motors that slowly get reassembled into a BEAST. It's their yearly tradition.

I can confirm that Mike's generalization about 71 is applicable this year. As of 4 pm (when I left Midwest, bound for the Niles District in Michigan), the BEAST had yet to emerge from its lair. I can report it has a nice looking swerve drive, loads from three sides, and will very likely be able to shoot. Its bridge arm looks strong enough to do the job. Its CG might be a little high. Time will tell, but as usual I would not like to play (or bet) against them.

EDIT: Two more details -- (1) their ball intake is simple, powerful, and quick, (2) they have a stinger.

[trident523]

Hello! I've been recording and uploading every match so far, and hope to continue along to the end! Good luck to all teams.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL291E34FB3CCBAB7D