Minneapolis Regional Discussion 2016

[Ginger Power]

It’s about that time when we start talking about the Regionals in Minneapolis. North Star and 10K Lakes are sure to be exciting. So far 19 teams from North Star have previously competed, and 17 teams from 10K Lakes have competed. Amazingly, there won’t be a single wildcard brought into North Star, as NOT A SINGLE TEAM HAS PREVIOISULY QUALIFIED FOR CHAMPS!!! 10K Lakes is a different story with 4 wild card generating teams including: 525, 2052, 2502, and 3630. Infer what you will about the competitiveness of each event.

North Star:

167 Children of the Corn
967 Iron Lions
2129 Ultraviolet
2143 Team Tobor
2169 KING TeC
2175 The Fighting Calculators
2177 The Robettes
2194 Fondy Fire
2207 Bright Bears
2225 R.U.S.T
2239 Technocrats
2450 Raiderbots
2472 Centurions
2491 No Mythic
2525 The pHalcons
2531 RoboHawks
2549 Millerbots
2574 RoboHuskie
2606 Irish Robotics
2654 Rams
2667 Knights of the Valley
2826 Wave Robotics
3023 STARK Industries
3026 Orange Crush
3042 Cobalt Catalysts
3090 Ramhawks
3122 The Alluminators
3130 the ERRORS
3134 The Accelerators
3206 Royal T-Wrecks
3275 The Regulators
3277 ProDigi
3610 Islanders
3633 Catalyst
3691 RoboRaiders
3848 Bots in Shining Armour
3871 Worthington Trojans
3883 Data Bits
3926 MPArors
3928 Team Neutrino
4215 Tritons
4225 RoboCats
4239 WARPSPEED
4277 Thingamajiggers
4480 UC-Botics
4607 C.I.S.
4632 Monti-Pythons
4648 Techno-Tech
4663 Cyber Tigers
4674 Robojacks
4687 Spartans
4778 Stormbots
5275 T.I.M.E.-Bots
5339 Hurricanes
5541 Shakopee Robotics
5576 Team Terminator
5626 Nu-matic Ninjas
5826 Avis Automata
5914 Caledonia Robotic Warriors
5991 One Stones

[Scouting Link]

North Star, despite having no team pre-qualified for champs, doesn’t lack for high quality teams. There are seven quarter finalists, and four semifinalists competing including three alliance captains, three 1st round picks, and five 2nd round picks. Unlike in 2015 when there were two teams that were far superior to the rest of the competition (2826 and 3130), this year the top teams all seem to be of a similar quality. Last year’s winners, 3130 and 2826 will be two of the top teams again this year. Both have a lot of room for improvement after their last event. Another great team is 2169, they have a soft batter shot that was decently consistent at central Illinois, they can also breach with the best of them, very precise driving. 2574 reminds me a lot of 3102 who just won the Wisconsin Regional. They are a fast low goal scorer who can breach very quickly. 3042 is another team with a lot of potential, they have high goal potential (with better accuracy), but would be served very well by the low goal. I’ll also shamelessly plug 4607, fast breacher if they choose to do so, can’t hit the broad side of the tower when aiming for the high goal, but very fast and accurate when scoring in the low goal. Also one of the few teams that can climb at North Star. Of all the teams who have yet to compete, 4778 is my prediction to do the best, they are very practiced, and have a fast low goal scoring robot.

Given the parity of the top robots, and the lack of a truly dominate team, North Star looks to be wide open. I predict there will be very, very few captures during qualifications leaving the top seeds open to breacher robots. This can make things interesting because breaching doesn’t cut it in the playoffs. It will take captures to win in the playoffs. In my opinion, there are very, very few teams at North Star who are better served by the high goal, than the low goal. With that said, I think North Star will play out similarly to how Wisconsin did. 3102 won Wisconsin by being the best breacher, seeding high, selecting the best scoring robot followed by the best available defensive robot, and then consistently capturing in the playoffs. I believe this will be the winning formula at North Star as well.

10,000 Lakes

525 Swartdogs
2052 KnightKrawler
2181 G.E.A.R.s
2232 Deus ex Machina
2470 Team BJORG
2480 Teddies
2498 BearBotics
2501 Bionic Polars
2502 Talon Robotics
2508 Armada
2509 Tigerbots
2511 Cougars
2513 T.E.R.T.O.L.A.
2515 TigerBots
2518 Spartans
2529 Robohawks
2532 FLASH Power
2545 Quantum Mechanics
2705 WE ROBOT
2823 The Automatons
2825 Roc Robotics
2846 FireBears
2847 The MegaHertz
2855 BEASTBOT
2879 Orange Thunder
3007 Robotitans
3018 Nordic Storm
3036 DROBA Warriors
3038 ICE
3058 AnnDroids
3081 RoboEagles
3100 Lightning Turtles
3184 Blaze Robotics
3197 HexHounds
3202 KnightBots
3244 Granite City Gear Heads
3278 QWERTY Robotics
3292 The Aluminum Falcon
3299 Warehouse Crew
3300 Midwest WARRIORS
3407 Mustybots
3454 Z Bots
3630 The Stampede
3745 Govies
3751 Tower View Robotics
3765 The TerraBots
3839 Bees?
4198 RoboCats
4207 PyroBotics
4229 Magnetech
4260 BEAR Bucs
4506 PioNerds
4511 Power Amplified
4536 MinuteBots
4549 Iron Bulls
4664 Butler Bots
5271 Open Circuits
5278 Los Clasicos
5290 Mechanical Howl
5340 FAIRBotics
5434 Falcon Robotics
5637 Titanium Polars
5996 R.U.R.

[Scouting Link]

10,000 Lakes has some elite teams, and is much more top heavy than North Star. 525, 2052, and 2502, are superior teams. One of them will probably seed 1st, and pick one of the others. This number 1 alliance will be very hard to beat. If a different team can sneak ahead of these three, it will make things much more interesting. Because of the lack of depth, I think capturing during quals will be rare, making breaching more valuable. This does open the door for another team to seed first. Interestingly, only 525 was in the position to be an alliance captain at their first regional.

Edit: I messed up! 2194 Fondy Fire is one of the top teams going to North Star and I completely forgot to mention them.