2013 Buckeye Regional

[Starke]

Looking forward to a great competition. Just a heads up that the qualification schedule it out for the Buckeye Regional. Good luck teams!

http://www2.usfirst.org/2013comp/eve...eduleQual.html

Matt

[kmusa]

Originally Posted by Robby Unruh

This will be our first year providing webcast for a regional- so if anyone has any feedback during/after the fact (preferably during, would like to get everything adjusted ASAP!), shoot me a PM or post here. Much appreciated.

Overall, it's been working well. A couple of audio glitches.

Any chance of getting the commercials out of sync with the actual matches?

[FIXIT]

Congratulations to Buckeye Regional tournament champions 639, 2834, and 2252. You put on a great show!

Now that it's over, I'm curious to know how the Buckeye compares to the other regionals you have attended this year. Areas for discussion: what did everyone think of the Cavaliers basketball game as the team social? What about loading and unloading your robot, parking, robot inspection, overall pit environment, and the practice facilities? Anything else?

[Alex Cormier]

Originally Posted by FIXIT

Congratulations to Buckeye Regional tournament champions 639, 2834, and 2252. You put on a great show!

Now that it's over, I'm curious to know how the Buckeye compares to the other regionals you have attended this year. Areas for discussion: what did everyone think of the Cavaliers basketball game as the team social? What about loading and unloading your robot, parking, robot inspection, overall pit environment, and the practice facilities? Anything else?

Honestly. The regional was not that great.

If you would like more feedback, I'll happily give it to you in a PM.

[Ed Law]

Originally Posted by FIXIT

Congratulations to Buckeye Regional tournament champions 639, 2834, and 2252. You put on a great show!

Now that it's over, I'm curious to know how the Buckeye compares to the other regionals you have attended this year. Areas for discussion: what did everyone think of the Cavaliers basketball game as the team social? What about loading and unloading your robot, parking, robot inspection, overall pit environment, and the practice facilities? Anything else?

This is our first time attending the Buckeye Regional. I think it is well run. Loading and unloading was easy. Parking was plentiful closeby, and not expensive. Robot inspectors were very experienced and quick. Pit was spacious. It was nice to have the option to attend the basketball game but we did not take advantage of it because our team usually like to have a nice team dinner together.

However practice facilities is lacking with 53 teams. We have to wait for a very long time to get to use the field. Also had a bad experience with an Ohio team with one parent saving 5 rows (over 60 seats) by herself when our team was all there. She would not let us take any of the seats and her team finally showed up 10 minutes later. Not knowing what the social norm is in Ohio, we did not make a big fuss about it. Another complaint I have is the concession stand. I have no problem with not allowing outside food and expensive food. It is like that in a lot of places. My biggest problem is they are only open for a very short time during the peak lunch hour. I guess it is not worth their time to staff the concession stand when there may not be a lot of customers. So if I miss the lunch hour because we have to work on the robot, then we are out of luck.

[Lydia Yeckley]

Originally Posted by Ed Law

However practice facilities is lacking with 53 teams. We have to wait for a very long time to get to use the field. Also had a bad experience with an Ohio team with one parent saving 5 rows (over 60 seats) by herself when our team was all there. She would not let us take any of the seats and her team finally showed up 10 minutes later. .

I'm sorry to hear that. That is not the true norm here. I believe I know which team you are referring to, mostly because the same woman may have tried with us on Friday. Ironically, it was in the same spot 2252 has been sitting since our founding in 2007. I hope you didn't receive must hassle after that.

Also, I would like to extend my thanks out to teams 639 and 2834. We really couldn't have done it with out you guys!
639, Code Red Robotics, truly is a fun-loving team. It was a blast dancing, cheering, singing (amazingly on 'Living On A Prayer' I might add), and meeting all of you while we were in queuing. Not to mention we are ecstatic that you picked us!
2834, Bionic Barons, you guys were extremely reliable on and off the field. And for that we thank you. Sharing the feeding station was no problem and it was a beautiful sight.

Hoping to see you all in STL!

[Joon Park]

Despite the unqualified head referee, we had an absolute blast at Buckeye. I went into the regional uncertain of the outcome, due to the numerous robot problems we experienced at our previous week 1 regional. Thankfully, the mechanical and programming solutions we implemented after our first regional were successful and our robot performed to expectations.

I never could have believed we'd end up ranked 2nd or that we'd bring home a blue banner. To 2834, 2252: in hindsight, we could not have picked better alliance members. The scores we racked up in eliminations were well beyond my hopes and most importantly, I had one of the most exciting and fun times of my life working with your drive team members. Thank you so much to all of you.

Oh, and 2252: that was an absolutely SICK autonomous you guys had there.

[JJackson]

First id like to say congratulations to 2016 for your Chairman's win and to 639, 2252, and 2834 on the regional win. I'd also like to thank and say sorry to 2016, and 3496 you were great alliance partners.

I will say our captain had multiple bad experiences with the head ref, and leave it at that. I have also never been in a drivers' meeting where you have not been allowed to ask for clarification on any rules. The live scoring was way worse than at the Canadian regionals (usually accurate within 3 points), while at Buckeye they were out by almost 100 points one match(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3jjWmlpry0) and 20 another.


On the other hand all of the other volunteers that I interacted with were all quite pleasant. As well as everyone I spoke to in the pits from other teams

EDIT: There were a few teams that didn't have their home state/province called out including ours, right before we went up to sing our national anthem. I know there was a what? moment for a lot of us.

[Justin Montois]

I won't speak for my entire team, only my experience. However, I am sure 340 will not be attending the Buckeye Regional in the future.

Last year, our experience with the head referee was not good, but we decided to give it another chance. This year was far worse however. It started for me at the practice day drivers meeting. I had a question about how blockading was going to be called. However to my surprise the Head Ref finished his comments without taking any questions. As he walked off the field, I saw the FTA, who was really good by the way, ask him if he was going to take questions. The FTA then took the mic and informed us that the Head Ref would not be taking questions. I've never seen that happen at any other event. Ever.

Later that same day, I noticed our robot, like at FLR, seemed to find spots of the field that it didn't seem to respond right. I wanted to make the FTA aware of it and see if we could watch our signal strength in the next match to see if it seemed to drop at all. Perhaps this was my mistake, but I decided to walk towards the FTA who was sitting behind the scorers table. I was abruptly stopped by the Head Ref who questioned why I was anywhere near the scorers table. His attitude was abrasive and unprofessional. I explained why I was there and he told me to go to the question box and wait. He proceeded to talk to another referee for a few minuets before letting the FTA know I was there. It was clearly a move by him to try and showcase his authority. It was really a joke to be honest.

And this is all bad calls aside. I understand that mistakes will be made. But it's his attitude that is embarrassing. I want to let all rookies know that most head referees are very pleasant and understanding. They are happy to explain decisions and even apologize if/when a mistake is made.

Being on the field, I heard from several teams that their interactions with him were very negative. He needs to be asked not to come back or the Buckeye regional will quickly become a tough regional to fill.

On a much lighter note, I want to say that I enjoyed spending time with 1126, 1507, 2016, 2252 and 4085. The mentors and students on those teams are awesome and they made a tough event for me a really positive experience.

[Grim Tuesday]

Wow, what an event! Going from not making eliminations in Fingerlakes to being second alliance captain and taking home a blue banner for the first time in 8 years is really an experience to have. I can't wait to redesign our pit to make a place to display it!

There is no doubt in my mind that we could not have won without the help of 2252 and 2834. Watching this alliance play...there was no way to tell the order that they were chosen. In fact, you couldn't even tell who was the alliance captain! Take any one alliance partner out of the equation (which did happen a few times in fact) and we still had an amazing alliance. It was especially nice meeting and celebrating with the drive team of 2252. Also, it was not until we were on the bus ride back that our coach said to me "so how did you like meeting the Ed Law" and I was like wait, "he was the strategist on 2834 with the laptop?". Ed, if you're still reading this thread, I was the guy from 639 who came over and shook your hand right after alliance selections. You guys are the definition of a steal, it was absolutely criminal and unbelievable that 2834 was not picked early in the first round.

Congratulations to Chairmans winner 2016. Watching the entire arena doing the 'silent clap' in honor of your programs to help the deaf was really, really neat and inspiring. You could tell everyone there was just saying themselves: wow these guys absolutely deserve it.

To Engineering Inspiration winner 1629, just wow. If I get a chance at I want to talk more to you guys about your program at Championships, just to learn how we can improve and emulate a team of your caliber.

One interesting fact: 639 (us), 2016, and 1629 all stayed in the same hotel. Walking down to breakfast yesterday morning, who would have known that we would have all won something that qualifies us for Championships!

I want to give my thanks to all the amazing alliances we played against in Eliminations. 1014, 3266, 4269 - you guys were no slouches and I remember thinking "this will be no cakewalk" right before the first quarterfinals.

The semifinals were real nail biters. 1551, 4085, and 1126 gave us some of the most intense matches I've played. Seeing this alliance put up 156 pts in QF4 made me exceedingly scared going into the Semifinals. I honestly would have been completely okay being beaten by an alliance this caliber in the Semis. To address the call made in SF2-2, I will complain about officiating later in this thread but I would like to note that if it had been not made we still would have won 105-104. By the time Eliminations came around, it was clear that 1551 had really earned their seed. 4085 is a scoring machine and 1126 was another second round steal.

To be honest, my least favorite part of the event was the finals. Going in, I thought our alliance had about a 50-50 chance. 1507, 706 and 3260 were a great alliance. 1507 and 706 were scoring machines and 3260 supported them well. I find it a real pity that we couldn't play against the 'real' 1507 as in F1-1 their shooter didn't seem to be completely working. And to have to call in a backup robot for the alliance captain in F2 is a really sad way to end the regional. 4121 was just about as good as backup bots get but I don't think many robots at the event could fill in a hole left by the first alliance captain. I really wish our alliance could have provided you guys with a WildCard but this was all our first championships qualification this season. It was an honor to play against 1507; you guys continue to inspire us every year.

In fact, I think it is one of the greatest pity's in FIRST that there are not enough awards and Champs qualifications to go around. An amazing team won the Engineering Inspiration award but I'm sure our friends on 340 gave them a run for their money. GRR is another team that constantly inspires us and makes us want to do better, both in robot quality and in outreach. I'm really sorry we will not be seeing the orange of Churchville/Chili in St. Louis this year.

Special shout out to 174 for giving us their front and center seats after we got to eliminations and they didn't. The old fingerlakes teams seem to have a special sort of partnership that is never officialized but just exists.

Now for the regional as its self:

Load in was fine and parking was good. The venue was great for spectators viewing wise but awful concessions wise. The only food you could get was greasy and the boxed lunches were not very good (but what can you expect). The biggest issue was the concessions stands running out of food for parents on our team who had not ordered the boxed lunches. It was very odd to have only two stands open and a ton shuttered with a captive audience.

Volunteers as well were a hit or miss. The head judge was one of the nicest people I've ever met but in trying to find the Chairmans presentation room, our presenters were almost directed into the judges room and immediately afterwards told that if they had entered we would have been removed from consideration for any awards.

The field seemed somewhat worse for wear. The goal counters were almost always off (though they got better as the event went on). The pyramids looked like they were going to fall out and wobbled a little bit.

The officiating was not the best, and I agree that there should not have been a tech foul called in SF2-2. I could see Dante, the head ref from FLR wearing a SparX shirt getting absolutely livid about some of the calls made at this event and I completely agree with him. Our teams run in with the head ref and field personal happened between the finals and semifinals; there should have been a field timeout called because we were playing back to back matches, instead we were forced to use our coupon so two robots on our alliance could make repairs. We also got a weird penalty for 'destroying the field' when the carpet just become untaped while we were driving over it.

Announcer JonDarr was amazing as usual but the announcer on Thursday was insulting and unprofessional. His embarrassing jokes and penchant for making fun of teams that weren't making their shots made me want to miss our practice matches so he wouldn't poke fun at us. If he had continued past lunch we would have lodged a formal complaint with the regional director but it looks like someone else did and he got kicked off. The MC was good but not on the tier of someone like Angry Eric or Karthik. He did what he needed to and got the crowd going but was rather wooden and scripted when introducing teams and giving opening ceremonies.

Pit Admin was really good in general though matches queuing 30 minutes early was somewhat inconvenient. The practice field from my view was fine, though nothing to write home about.

I don't mean any of this as a knock on the volunteers who made this event run smoothly and ahead of schedule for most of the time. It's unfortunate that we end up remembering the bad things that happen and not the things that go perfectly.

Finally, the match schedule was wonky. I know this has nothing to do with the event its self and completely luck but the seeding positions were luck, pure and simple. We were second seed because we coasted through our first four matches with great alliances before getting our robot working and actually winning matches on our own merit. The same thing happened with 1551. Other teams like our partners 2252 and 2834 ended up underseeded due to bad schedules. However, by the end of the event, I think all the top 8 had truly earned their seeds.

Finally, if FTA Paul is reading this thread, we did end up finding out Robot Lockup Form right after we told you we lost it.

Overall, Buckeye was a fun regional but I don't know if we would return to it. The officiating is a major problem. There are certainly some problems that need to be worked out but I hope the planning committee will take all that has been said into consideration and make it better next year.

[LeelandS]

Originally Posted by Grim Tuesday

You guys are the definition of a steal, it was absolutely criminal and unbelievable that 2834 was not picked early in the first round.

Can I just say, as soon as you guys picked up 2834, I was dumbfounded. I couldn't even fathom has they had fallen so far in the draft. Props to you guys, Simon, as it tells me you did your homework where others did not.

Congrats on joining the group of Finger Lakes teams who qualified for champs! I look forward to seeing you guys out there!

[Yipyapper]

I felt absolutely awful for SparX and the rest of their alliance in SF2-1 when that foul was called and gave them their first loss. But that tech foul in SF2-2... I just saw the flag and the "x" symbol and everyone on the team just looked at me, wondering what the call was for. I couldn't tell them; I had absolutely no idea. Correct me if I'm wrong, but they got another foul that round, causing them to lose from the 23 foul points awarded to the other team.

I've had a fondness for SparX since we were at Buckeye with them two years ago. I just find it a shame.

I was, however, very happy to see 2016 become our first pick in alliance selections! I, for one, noticed that their overall OPR wasn't as high as some other available picks, but their vast improvement made them an absolute steal when it came time for us to pick someone. It doesn't hurt that them and 177 were with us in the 2011 world finals; I'm sure James, our driver and member of the drive team for 3 years, was pleased to get reacquainted, along with some other members of the team who got to know a few of them that year. I regret not having met them 2 years ago, even though I had the full capability of speaking to them in St. Louis.

I won't comment on specifics concerning the regional itself, but rest assured I personally won't vote to go to Buckeye ever again. Queen City was fun, but it's unfortunate that it fell on Waterloo this year (again, best event I've ever been to: Waterloo 2013. It's great every year, but this year it was something else).

[Tetraman]

Originally Posted by Grim Tuesday

Special shout out to 174 for giving us their front and center seats after we got to eliminations and they didn't. The old fingerlakes teams seem to have a special sort of partnership that is never officialized but just exists.

I will pass the shout out along.

About 174, I don't know if anyone really knows the troubles we had this season, but let me just say that with the work the students put in to making the robot work and be as competitive as possible was beyond ANY other year in our history. There hasn't been a group of students like this for us ever and even though we hadn't had any of the kind of success we had last year I would say we discovered more about ourselves and our team.

Team 174 extends a congratulations to 639, 2252 and 2834, to team 2016 and 1629. You were all amazing teams to watch and we wish you all good luck for the rest of the year.

I wasn't at the event, so I have no comment about how the competition was run. What I will say is that if there was a problem, teams should contact the planning committee for Buckeye, rather than only rant about it on CD - otherwise nothing might be changed.

(on a side note, I picked 639 to win FLR in my Pickem show. I guess I get half credit for you guys winning a different regional? )

[ErvinI]

I would like to thank the FTA for his willingness to help clarify any issues. The live scoring seemed to have malfunctioned in our first quarter-final and we wondered how we all of a sudden lost 20 points. We thought somebody forgot to count the coloured discs 3496 scored in the pyramid goal for our alliance. He was willing to look on the score sheet and talk to us to see if there were any goals that were miscounted. Turns out that it was just the live scoring that was wrong. Kudos to the FTA for looking into it!

I would also like to thank 2016 and 3496 for being great teammates. I was on the practice field during alliance selection and was thoroughly surprised when I found out that we were the 6th alliance with a great floor pick-up bot and a consistent climb-and-dumper. We went into our quarter-final matches confident that we had a high chance of winning the regional as a low-seeded alliance. We ended up falling in the quarters however to a strong third seed. That last match was incredibly hectic and exciting, and really could have gone either way depending on how the fouls would have been called. Incredible job on defence, 1126, you guys really made sure to keep us back in your own field!

[Kevin Selavko]

Originally Posted by FIXIT

Congratulations to Buckeye Regional tournament champions 639, 2834, and 2252. You put on a great show!

Now that it's over, I'm curious to know how the Buckeye compares to the other regionals you have attended this year. Areas for discussion: what did everyone think of the Cavaliers basketball game as the team social? What about loading and unloading your robot, parking, robot inspection, overall pit environment, and the practice facilities? Anything else?

Security didn't let in any food, but during lunch the food stands ran out of food almost immediately today. The practice field was off by about 5 inches I think. The pyramid on the field was separated at the connection above the first rung before one of our matches, and I saw the pyramids lifting up throughout the day. When having the teams cheer for their state you forgot ours. Also the comment by the announcer about us being in unwelcomed territory was unnecessary.