Predictions Week Five: Center Cans on Center Stage

[Nathan Streeter]

Originally Posted by rocknthehawk

They were a lot of fun to watch, and a lot of fun to go against in the final. I know team 1768 was extremely happy to play with you guys (2877) and 663. Easily some of the most exciting matches I've ever been a part of.

You guys (1768, 2877, 663) definitely did keep us on our toes in those Finals matches! 1768 and 2877 are both very strong HP stackers (each putting up 2 5- or 6-stacks with RCs and noodles!) and 663 was able to make worthwhile contributions from the landfill... 1768's can grab forced us to dig deep to get any of the RCs from the step! Glad to see everyone on your alliance will have an opportunity to attend DCMP (663 being the first team below the cutoff will hopefully get a chance to attend)!

Thank you to our partners 125 and 1786! We were very excited to be able to pick you both! We were rough in a couple matches, but when we clicked we really clicked!

[Aaron (Awe-Sum)]

I'm surprised you didn't mention that 42.5% of the teams at FIM Centerline are competing for the first time (including us )

[AustinShalit]

1836 is excited and ready for the Ventura Regional!

[Boltman]

Originally Posted by AustinShalit

1836 is excited and ready for the Ventura Regional!

..And 5137 is excited to compete after watching so many. Ventura is a brand new regional! By the beach, So Cal awesome!

Then back to San Diego for another one. Heading up in just a few hours.

Here's the webcast link....

http://new.livestream.com/accounts/12224997/frcventura

They say it goes live 2PM today. They will also be updating Twitter during the event.
https://twitter.com/frcventura

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by Looking Forward

(NE) Northeastern University Event
Sitting Atop the Pile- 125, 1519
Looking to Unzip- 4048
Gaining Traction- 126, 166, 1768
The Young Guns- 5735

Atop a pile of cheesecake maybe. I can't wait to see what sort of food group based shenanigans our kids get up to with our flag this week. (UMD was vegetables, RIDE was fruits, I want to see them do something with the Candy Corn food group)

[MrJ-3974]

Originally Posted by Looking Forward

(MAR) Upper Darby Event
Most established solo scorers- 225, 2607
Shorter stackers- 103, 316, 1143, 3974
Have potential, but need a major finish to reach Lehigh- 3929, 4954
Established canburglar- 365

Thanks for the mention.

Upper Darby doesn't have the starpower of some other MAR events, like Hatboro-Horsham in week 1, but the top-tier teams have the potential to make this a very unique competition.

225, 2607, and 1143 have banners already but TechFire's to-date OPR of 64.9 blows the other teams' out of the water. However, there are a number of teams attending that, I believe, have yet to hit their stride. 365 is a can-thief no doubt, but I expect MoE's stacking/capping ability to be on display even more than it was during their quarterfinal exit at Chestnut Hill. I expect the Fighting RoboVikings of 2607 to also improve on their qualifying scores and challenge TechFire for the #1 rank.

Speaking of Chestnut Hill, two finalists (3974 and 1712) will be on hand as well as Pioneer Valley finalist 316. Likewise, 1143 captained the #6 alliance to victory at Mount Olive.

Just below the top teams, there are some very unique machines looking to be the 2nd or 3rd teams that will help an alliance wrap up a victory. 1712 showed stout stacking-and-capping ability at Chestnut Hill, as did 433, who ranked #3. Beyond that, 103 and 272 are perennial contenders with OPRs in the low-20s and will likely improve those numbers.

The X-factor here might be home team and mechanum experts 357, who were bounced in the Hatboro-Horsham quarterfinals and have an OPR of 7.5, which leaves plenty of room for improvement.

[IronicDeadBird]

Always accurate with the information you gather per usual... Thanks for the shout out!

[microbuns]

Looking Forward - I'm always looking forward to your weekly post! Always gets me excited for the next week. Thanks for all the work you put in.

[alicen]

Love that Peachtree got a full write-up this year!

[mdituri]

Originally Posted by Looking Forward

(MAR) Bridgewater-Raritan Event
Five finals losses in the past 4 years- 1403
Making their MAR debuts, despite competing twice already- 3314
Strong stacking and canburgling performance in Waterloo- 1676
Contenders looking to step up- 193, 222, 293, 2016

3314 is looking forward to doing coopertition in every single match at BR this weekend or having an alliance partner that can do coopertition so we can make stacks and stacks and stacks.

We would love to bring home the blue. So far 3314 has been 3, 3, ...so this is the week to be 1...(which means we will be 4 at North Brunswick..hmmmm).

We have been missing our MAR friends: pope john, pascack, tigertrons, beta, cougar, aperture, panthera, the fives, robbie, roboraiders, and everyone else. This is all I could think of off the top of my head this morning. See you tonight!!!!!! Stacks and Cans and Noodles and Burglers and Yellow Totes on Totes.

[Bryce Paputa]

Originally Posted by Looking Forward

(FIM) Livonia Event
Denied in the finals- 27, 217, 548
Building towards their ultimate goals- 67
Rising force in Michigan- 4362

Missed our finalist alliance (3641, 503, 5756)

[Coach Norm]

Originally Posted by Looking Forward

Hub City Regional
Reworking to reach high expectations- 2848, 3310
Gunning for a 3rd straight banner weekend in Lubbock- 2468
Texas twosome- 1817

Nailed Hub City - It was fun and very competitive working with 3310 and against 1817 & 2848.

[wireties]

Originally Posted by Looking Forward

Oklahoma Regional
Looking to punch their championship ticket in Oklahoma again- 4522
Favorites- 1296, 1806
Trying to work out their gremlins- 1775

Nailed OKC - Alliances containing 1296 and 1806 battled it out in the finals and can burglaring featured prominently in the 1806 win. One match was 207-194!

[forbes]

Originally Posted by wireties

Nailed OKC - Alliances containing 1296 and 1806 battled it out in the finals and can burglaring featured prominently in the 1806 win. One match was 207-194!

Also got both of the finalist second picks as "Sooner hopes" 932 and 3507 which is even more impressive!

[WillRobinson]

Originally Posted by Looking Forward

Las Vegas Regional
After some precarious moments through the off-season, the Las Vegas Regional is back in 2015 for its 11th season. While there are teams from both coasts, Germany, and China among the field of 43, it's two teams with unfinished business that are in the spotlight. 148 and 987 had an unsavory finish to their on the field action in Dallas back in week 1, and are back in action. The two teams would simply have to maintain their levels of play to be favorites, but both will look to raise the bar further, even with championship berths already secured. 60 may have the best odds of disrupting the high rolling dynamic duo atop the leader boards, as they too have proven capable of scoring multiple capped stacks on their own. 1251 may be a valuable weapon for an alliance looking to knock off the top guns. Not only are the Tech Tigers much smoother at capping tall stacks than other can specialists at the event, such as 3245, but they can snatch cans from the step in autonomous. This could lead to some autonomous interplay with them, the High Rollers' canburglers, and possibly even the Robowranglers' 28-point autonomous aspirations (with Alfred left home in the bat cave). Despite some early exits, 341 and 3309 hope to be playoff factors as well. Daisy made leaps and bounds at their second district, but their consistency and can acquisition still leave a lot to be desired. The Friarbots have a scoring machine capable of creating multiple stacks from the landfill. While the odds are weighted heavily towards the favorites, there will be no shortage of action in Vegas this weekend.

Nailed it.

Teams 148 and 987 not only raised the bar, with the help of 5012 they improved their average playoff score by over 75 points. Of the seven playoff matches played, only two were below 200 points making them one of just a few teams to have a regional playoff average above 200.

Teams 60/3309/4322 were serious contenders putting up some very impressive playoff averages as well. Congrats to all the finalists making their way to Champs.