2013 Battle at the Border

[Jon Jack]

Battle at the Border is back for the 2013 season!

When: Saturday October 12, 2013 (teams can load in and set up their pit on Friday October 11th)

Where: Francis Parker School (6501 Linda Vista Rd.,San Diego, CA, 92111)

Cost: $250 before September 27th, $300 after September 27th. Practice robots play for free.

Agenda:
7:00am – Pits Open
8:00am – Practice Matches
9:30am - Opening Ceremonies
9:45am – Qualification Matches Start
3:15pm – Qualification Matches End
3:30pm – Alliance Selections Start
4:00pm – Elimination Matches Begin
6:00pm – Events Ends

Matches:
With 5.5 hours set aside for qualification matches, we're hoping to get between 8 and 10 matches per team.

Elimination Tournament:
Depending on the number of robots competing, the elimination tournament will be a 4 or 8 alliance tournament.

Awards:
All awards will be peer judged. A list of awards will be released later on.

Pre-Order Lunches:
We will have a lunch pre-order form available in the next couple of days.

You can find the registration form here.

[rsisk]

Robokong is registered with two robots.

[sanddrag]

Team 696 Circuit Breakers is registered with 2 robots. We will also be appearing with both robots a week later at the Fall Classic.

[Mk.32]

Hm.... would an 6000 watt goKart converted for RC be allowed to compete?

[markmcgary]

FRC4322 Clockwork Oranges from El Modena High School in Orange has registered with our robot, 'Fred'. We are looking forward to visiting Francis Parker School!

Originally Posted by Mk.32

Hm.... would an 6000 watt goKart converted for RC be allowed to compete?

No matter what you should totally bring it.


Can't wait for this year's BatB! It's gonna be an amazing competition. Hope the webcast is good.

[TheNightviz]

In the process of signing up right now! Looking forward to another great competition this year!

[Teamcodeorange]

I couldn't find any contact information on the website for general inquiry, so I decided to post here.

3476 is building a new set of bumpers for our second robot, and we were wondering if it would be acceptable to just use a single fabric color (as long as is clearly not blue or red, and we like orange ). I know 1538's second bot used grey/black ones last year.

And while I'm on the topic, are all second (and third, if you're 973) bots going to be preceded by "9" or is that just for clarity on the team list?

Excited for the event!

[sanddrag]

Originally Posted by Teamcodeorange

I couldn't find any contact information on the website for general inquiry, so I decided to post here.

3476 is building a new set of bumpers for our second robot, and we were wondering if it would be acceptable to just use a single fabric color (as long as is clearly not blue or red, and we like orange ). I know 1538's second bot used grey/black ones last year.

And while I'm on the topic, are all second (and third, if you're 973) bots going to be preceded by "9" or is that just for clarity on the team list?

Excited for the event!

Any possibility that if our two 696 teams play with each other, we can be granted an exception to bumper color rules? I just can't invest the time and cost for another set of bumpers for the small chance that the teams may be playing with one another.

[Jon Jack]

Bumper colors will not be enforced on second robots. We do ask that you make some identifier on the robot so that the referees and crowd know which robot is which.

All second robot team numbers are as published on the Battle at the Border website. If your team has a preference for a team number, let me know and I can change it.

[connor.worley]

As always, we'll have a 720p full-field webcast of the event. We're considering running a separate music playlist for the webcast, so let us know what you want to hear.

[sNeff]

I might be able to get part of the UCLA Racing Baja team to come down with me and show off our student built off-road car. Who should I contact at BatB about arranging that?
(we're at www.uclaracing.org/baja, for those interested)

[Teamcodeorange]

Now that we've all had some time to recover from that exhausting but wonderful weekend, it's time for a few reflections.

First of all, gigantic thanks to our two host teams, 2485 W.A.R. Lords and 1538 The Holy Cows. Each year Code Orange eagerly looks forward to this competition, which is always run with the professionalism and energy of any regional or district during the official season, and this year did not disappoint. 8 qualification matches per team, a full 8-alliance elimination bracket. Quite a feat for a single-day event!

Secondly, HUGE thanks to our friends on teams 696 Circuit Breakers and 3255 Super NURDS. It was totally awesome to be able to collaborate on scouting with both of your teams and our new members had a great time learning the ins and outs of scouting and statistics. And of course, to 696 for driving BOTH of our robots and ALL of our things in their trailer both to and from the event (and for IRI too, for that matter). You guys truly exemplify gracious professionalism on and off the field, and are role models that 3476 always strives to emulate.

Thirdly..on to the competition! Thanks to team 2984, the Vikings, for extending an invitation to our "B" robot (9476) and to team 1572, the Hammer Heads, for joining our alliance. Amazing teamwork put us through three nail-biting quarterfinal matches before giving it our all against the #1 seeded alliance in the semi-finals. For driving a robot that experienced carping issues at the beginning of the day and weighed in at probably 30 pounds lighter than our competition robot () I was extremely proud of how our rookie drive team stepped up to the challenge.

At last, big thanks to team 2485, the W.A.R. Lords, for inviting our invitation to the #2 alliance to join our "A" robot (3476) and for team 399's "B" robot (9399) for finishing up our alliance. 399 - you guys proved that with smart strategy and amazing driving, you can put up some of the best defense that I have ever seen, keeping any and all blockers away from 2485's commanding full-court shots. 2485 - it's hard to describe how amazing it is to be able, for the second year in a row, to extend an invitation from the #2 position to your #3 position and form an alliance that goes on to win the event. We had an awesome time being on your alliance!

To our semi-final opponents: 8973, 696 and 4322: I have been in FIRST for three years and I've never seen three more tightly-contested matches. Nail-biting until the last robot was hanging, what an awesome matchup. And to our finals opponents, 9973, 1538 and 4470, in some of the most strategically-intense matches I've ever watched.

3476 would like to extend our thanks to all those who coordinated, volunteered in, and participated in this wonderful event. We are already looking forward to next year.

Burbank, here we come for the Fall Classic!

[Jeremy Germita]

Despite logistic issues on our end, 399 enjoyed the event. BATB is always a very well run event and we are glad to take our rookie members to this competition.

We'd like to thank the following entities:

Event Hosts teams 1538 The Holy Cows and 2485 W.A.R.Lords. Thanks for hosting the event for the third year in a row. I'm always impressed at how well the event is run. Thanks to 2485 and Francis Parker for being a great venue for an offseason event and thanks to 1538 for webcasting and recording the event. It meant a lot to our members, mentors, and fans back home to be able to see us compete live and for us to share match memories with everyone.

Pit neighbors and eventual alliance partners team 696. Thanks for lending our B team a computer to use for a few matches. This was invaluable in the process of working the electrical and software kinks from the robot.

Eliminations alliance partners to our A team(399) 2493 Robokong and (9)696 Circuit Breakers B. It's always a pleasure to work with Robokong. They're a great program with solid drivers and solid strategy and we hope to work together again in the future. Congratulations on your highest rank ever as #5 alliance captain. Thanks to (9)696 for rounding out the alliance. Extremely solid bot from a great team. Your increasingly well designed and performing robots are an inspiration to our team.

Eliminations alliance partners to our B team(9399) 3476 Code Orange and 2485 W.A.R.Lords. After many years of competing on the opposite side of the field as you, it's a pleasure to finally work together. Words cannot express our gratitude for your selection of our B team rookie bot for eliminations. Both of you have been inspirations to everyone on our team and it was a beautiful thing to see our robots together. It was an honor and inspiration to work with a division winning and a regional winning team. Robots aside, you were both very easy and fun to work with. Congratulations and thank you to two of California's newest perennial powerhouses.

Finalist teams 1538 The Holy Cows, (9)973 Greybots, and 4470 TiGears. These were among the most exciting finals matches I've been involved in. Going into the finals, we knew it was not going to be a cakewalk. Your dynamic and well-executed strategy supported that.

Semifinalist teams (8)973 Greybots, 696 Circuit Breakers, and 4322 Clockwork Oranges. These semifinals were insanely close. We were on our toes until the final score was announced.

And special thanks to Mark Liu for taking photos of the event as well as the volunteers for ensuring the event ran smoothly.

Thanks again, hope to see most of the teams at the various SoCal regionals this spring.

This was the final offseason competition for Team 399: Eagle Robotics, but not the last for one of our robots