2014 MN State Championship

[Ginger Power]

The MSHSL Robotics Championship is on its way so let's start talking about it! It looks to be a highly competitive event with a ton of great teams in the field.

2175
3018
2052
3313*
5172
4778
2502
4536
4539
3038
2512
4656
2181
3926
3277
5290
3102
3202
2498
4009
3293
4607
2227
3007
4624
3883
2530
4845
1816*
2169*

*Chairman's Winner

In my opinion the top teams in this field are: 2175, 2052, 2512, and 3883 in no particular order. All of them are elite level scorers and should be big factors in the elimination rounds.

There seems to be a lot of balance in the field with about the same number of robots specializing in the three primary positions (Inbounder, midfield, and Scorer).

There are a ton of young teams represented this year with 8 of the 30 teams being first or second year teams. Don't let their age fool you though. There are some elite robots in this group that will undoubtedly have an impact on the elimination rounds.

5 of the 6 finalists of the 2013 MN State Championship have qualified again this year including all three Champions (2052, 2175, 4607). These teams hope to repeat their success again this year.

The 2014 MN State Championship will definitely be a fun event and great opportunity to spread the message of FIRST in Minnesota!

[Chief Hedgehog]

For the MN teams that made it to the Championships - Congrats! Give them all they can handle - we will be rooting for you!

For our Minnesota Brethren - if you were fortunate enough to make it to the Championships and qualify for the MSHSL Tourney take a page from our playbook.

After the Championships, DO NOT pack your robot in the crate. Send the crate back home empty. Last year we asked about shipping early on and they told us that our crate would not be back in time for the MSHSL Tourney. So we made room on our bus. Thank God we did.

For All MN teams - Bring your robot back with you! There are upwards of 400 teams that will be shipping their robot back - You have no control when and where your robot will be in the shipping line.

IF NEED BE - LEAVE A KID BEHIND! OK, I joke a little. Put your robot on a car/van/bus that will make it back to your school.

Have fun!

[FRC3883FRC]

Im glad our team made it this year. After missing it by 4 slots last year it was nice to make it back. Our robot made a huge improvement shooting wise from LSR to North Star. 11 out of 12 aton shots. Would have been 12 if the encoder had not failed in the last match. With all the teams it should be a great time. I was a senior the first year of state and was also the driver. No better way to end the senior year with the first ever robotics state champions seeding first. Maybe the new team can do it again, but with this game who knows what teams will pull out the win. Its always nice to get an extra competition in the season. Cant wait to see all the teams there, its going to be a great time!

Let the good times roll.

[Richie_Richter]

It's sad not to see our friends from team 2705 not on the list. Especially considering they had the highest OPR in the 10,000 lakes regional. It's unfortunate that their performance in their first regional didn't earn them a spot, because they definitely deserve to be there.

If only we had more volunteers in Minnesota we could make the switch over to districts. There are definitely enough teams in the state at this point, it's the volunteers that's getting us stuck. We probably had around 10 people from our team (both parents and students) volunteer at 10,000 lakes regional in anything from field reset to queuing.

Either that, or I think we should make a change to how the qualifying teams are selected to reward teams that show improvement from one regional to the next.

Oh and BTW, my power alliance is 2502, 2175, 3018. But that would never in a million years come together.

[Jon Stratis]

Originally Posted by Richie_Richter

Either that, or I think we should make a change to how the qualifying teams are selected to reward teams that show improvement from one regional to the next.

It's very difficult to balance fairness to all teams - Teams that improve over the course of multiple regionals are great and should be rewarded for doing so (and often are rewarded with spots in St. Louis), but at the same time we need to recognize that most teams in MN don't have the opportunity to do multiple events and show that improvement. Based on my count, 29 of 186 teams did 2 events, which means 157 teams did not have the opportunity to improve between regionals.

That said, since you mentioned 2705... Their first regional was scored at 4 (per the official numbers) and by my rough math their second regional scored around 54. With the cutoff this year being at 35 points, they would make it if we took the best score (which definitely isn't fair for those 157 teams!), but would not if we took their average score (29).

Another note from personal experience... last year, my team made it to states based on our performance at Lake Superior, earning (I think) 39 points. We only would have earned (I think) 19 points North Star... if you average those, we would not have made it to states last year. This year we did not, as we only got 30 points at Lake Superior. We would have gotten (I think) 51 points at North Star, and the average would have been enough for states.

It's very difficult to rank every team in the state in a fair and consistent manner. At least so far, the planning committee has decided that only counting the first event is as fair as we can be. If you have specific suggestions for alternative methods and why they would be fair, please PM them to me here, over e-mail, or on Twitter and I'll make sure the committee hears them... although there are no promises that any changes will actually be made. Sometimes our most vocal individuals, and the ones most likely to push for change, are those coming from teams that do multiple events, and we need to make sure that the other 157 teams also get heard.

[Aren Siekmeier]

Originally Posted by Chief Hedgehog

For the MN teams that made it to the Championships - Congrats! Give them all they can handle - we will be rooting for you!

For our Minnesota Brethren - if you were fortunate enough to make it to the Championships and qualify for the MSHSL Tourney take a page from our playbook.

After the Championships, DO NOT pack your robot in the crate. Send the crate back home empty. Last year we asked about shipping early on and they told us that our crate would not be back in time for the MSHSL Tourney. So we made room on our bus. Thank God we did.

For All MN teams - Bring your robot back with you! There are upwards of 400 teams that will be shipping their robot back - You have no control when and where your robot will be in the shipping line.

IF NEED BE - LEAVE A KID BEHIND! OK, I joke a little. Put your robot on a car/van/bus that will make it back to your school.

Have fun!

We filed a Robot Removal Request with FRC Logistics (FRCLogistics@usfirst.org), and they have given us permission to take our robot out of the pits with us. We will have to do so with our own equipment and without access to the loading dock (shouldn't be a problem).

Also, though we asked if we could send the crate home empty, we will be required to take that with us as well. We're not entirely sure yet if it's going to fit in our trailer... The FedEx donation is a good deal of money, so I'm sure FIRST would like to cut back on it when they can.

I would get in contact with FRC Logistics sooner rather than later, since it looks like Pit Admin etc. will want a copy of the approval letter they send.

[mjc49]

Originally Posted by compwiztobe

...

Also, though we asked if we could send the crate home empty, we will be required to take that with us as well. We're not entirely sure yet if it's going to fit in our trailer... .

We may have room in our trailer if you don't think you have enough room. Since we did not qualify for state, we will be sending our robot back in the crate.

I will stop by your pit and ask for you, or feel free to stop by 3042's pit and ask for Mike.

[Aren Siekmeier]

Originally Posted by mjc49

We may have room in our trailer if you don't think you have enough room. Since we did not qualify for state, we will be sending our robot back in the crate.

I will stop by your pit and ask for you, or feel free to stop by 3042's pit and ask for Mike.

Hey, that would be great! I'll shoot you a PM. Thanks!

[pntbll1313]

Originally Posted by compwiztobe

Hey, that would be great! I'll shoot you a PM. Thanks!

If that falls through come see us at champs (you're more than welcome to come see us anyway haha). I know we're getting a bigger trailer than last year so I bet we could make some space.

[FRC3883FRC]

Just a little taste of what our team hopes to do again at state. 11 out of 12 autonomous shots at North Star. Would have been 12 if the encoder did not fail in our last match. Any way here is every autonomous shot from North Star all at once. Who knows what will happen with 6 extra hours of build. Hot goal detection?
Every Auto Shot at Once

[LDiDomenico]

Here is a scouting spreadsheet for the MN State Championship.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...MvY/edit#gid=0

OPR data is from Team 27's scouting spreadsheet.
Good luck to everyone going to State!

[Ginger Power]

Originally Posted by LDiDomenico

Here is a scouting spreadsheet for the MN State Championship.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...MvY/edit#gid=0

OPR data is from Team 27's scouting spreadsheet.
Good luck to everyone going to State!

Do you want to make it an open source scouting spreadsheet so teams can enter their own data? That system seems to work well for the World Champions scouting sheets.

[LDiDomenico]

Originally Posted by Ginger Power

Do you want to make it an open source scouting spreadsheet so teams can enter their own data? That system seems to work well for the World Champions scouting sheets.

I changed it to public access. I thought that the link would allow anyone who had it to add information. Hopefully it works now.

[Ginger Power]

Originally Posted by LDiDomenico

I changed it to public access. I thought that the link would allow anyone who had it to add information. Hopefully it works now.

Thanks!

Edit: I tried to edit our teams data but it still wouldn't allow me to. It says that the spreadsheet can be accessed by anybody on the web, however, it still says editing is private.

[dag0620]

Originally Posted by Chief Hedgehog

For the MN teams that made it to the Championships - Congrats! Give them all they can handle - we will be rooting for you!

For our Minnesota Brethren - if you were fortunate enough to make it to the Championships and qualify for the MSHSL Tourney take a page from our playbook.

After the Championships, DO NOT pack your robot in the crate. Send the crate back home empty. Last year we asked about shipping early on and they told us that our crate would not be back in time for the MSHSL Tourney. So we made room on our bus. Thank God we did.

For All MN teams - Bring your robot back with you! There are upwards of 400 teams that will be shipping their robot back - You have no control when and where your robot will be in the shipping line.

IF NEED BE - LEAVE A KID BEHIND! OK, I joke a little. Put your robot on a car/van/bus that will make it back to your school.

Have fun!

Just so you know, Connecticut is holding it's Championship that same day, and our Regional Director and the teams are working with FIRST to make sure our teams attending Champs and CT Champs will have their shipping expedited so the robots make it back in time. So it would be worth letting HQ know, THIS WEEKEND, before your crate gets handed over to Shepard on Saturday, to see if there's anything they can do.