The Regional Wars

[Eric O]

Originally Posted by Karthik

I think I've spent more time in the States over the past month and a half than I have in Canada. Canadian teams are always travelling down south. This summer I invite all the American teams who've never come up north, (or haven't since 2002, hint hint 229) for the Wonderland challenge. You might just like up here.

Why wouldn't you guys come, you wouldn't be scared of some little Canadian robots, would ya?

Trash talking across borders. Yee-haw.

Funny you say NORTH Karthik considering that the Toronto area is actually south of Potsdam. May we will venture back over the border someday to win one with you guys on your home turf. (or beat you, either way it doesn’t matter much to us )
We will see what we can do about getting over there, sometimes border crossing is a little tight "We have this robot, and all these electronics...oh, and a bunch of batteries to power it with, please let us cross" usually doesn't go over to well.

Eric

[Travis Hoffman]

Originally Posted by Karthik

I think I've spent more time in the States over the past month and a half than I have in Canada. Canadian teams are always travelling down south. This summer I invite all the American teams who've never come up north, (or haven't since 2002, hint hint 229) for the Wonderland challenge. You might just like up here.

So three year veterans of the Canadian-American Wars aren't invited? Does that mean Team 48 can stay home and sleep? Or better yet, ignore you guys entirely and just go to IRI?

[Tom Bottiglieri]

Originally Posted by JVN

Off seasons.
229 + 126 vs ANYBODY.

You up for it?
It's freakin' unbeatable man.

JV

Or, how about you guys come down to CT for a little bit of 716 and 195
I'm sure that would be a fun match up

[Chris Fultz]

Originally Posted by JVN

Off seasons.
229 + 126 vs ANYBODY.

You up for it?
It's freakin' unbeatable man.

JV

Instead of Kickin your a** with full-up Indiana teams (pick two, any two),

we probably have several Lego teams that would make it a more fair fight.

Think you can you handle the 6th graders, JVN?

[Ben Lauer]

Yeah, I agree with Chris. I have a hard time thinking of a team in Indiana that is bad. My team didn't go to Nationals, (I mean the Championship for you Canadians) but I think that us and any other Indiana team could take you!

[Andy Grady]

Originally Posted by Chris Fultz

Instead of Kickin your a** with full-up Indiana teams (pick two, any two),

we probably have several Lego teams that would make it a more fair fight.

Think you can you handle the 6th graders, JVN?

Hey, some of those little Lego bots are tough! Especially considering that 100% of them have an autonomous mode!

[JVN]

Originally Posted by Chris Fultz

Instead of Kickin your a** with full-up Indiana teams (pick two, any two),

we probably have several Lego teams that would make it a more fair fight.

Think you can you handle the 6th graders, JVN?

Probably not Chris.
I'm certainly more scared of your 6th graders than of your "pros".
Those kids still know how to play.

[Chris Fultz]

Sorry I can't reply just now, I am busy crossing some names off of my
"FIRST paricipants to try and recruit to Rolls-Royce" list.

[David Kelly]

Originally Posted by Chris Fultz

Sorry I can't reply just now, I am busy crossing some names off of my
"FIRST paricipants to try and recruit to Rolls-Royce" list.

OUCH!! you going to take that from old man fultz, jvn???

[Karthik]

Originally Posted by Chris Hibner

Granted, I think I may have missed a couple in 1999 and 2000, but it appears the midwest has the edge. Hey Andy, thanks for getting the ball rolling on the trash-talking thing.

To fill in some of the blanks...

The 2000 National Finalists were Teams 126, 131 and 102, all from the Northeast

The 1999 National Champions included Team 48, from the Midwest.

[Ken Leung]

Originally Posted by Chris Hibner

2000 Champions: 25 (northeast)
2000 Finalists: 111 (midwest), 126 (northeast)
(sorry, my memory is pretty fuzzy from 2000 and 1999)

Granted, I think I may have missed a couple in 1999 and 2000, but it appears the midwest has the edge. Hey Andy, thanks for getting the ball rolling on the trash-talking thing.

And how convenient that you "forgot" about the other 2 year 2000 champions, Team 255 and 232, both from California. I keep telling people, we are due to have a west coast champion sooner or later, you guys just watch out. Soon as the divisions work out the way they should ;-).

[Bill Moore]

Originally Posted by David Bridge

Just for example, 177s alliance won the philly regional, but since then one team that stands out in my mind that improved A LOT was MOE... for that reason we picked them to be on our galileo alliance.

The reason MOE had so much improvement from Trenton to Philly to Atlanta is because our Competition and Autonomous Team literally spent every day working on controlling the robot better. The number of hours spent by those two teams was tremendous, and it showed by how well the robot improved through each of the competitions we attended. Even now, the Autonomous Team is still tweaking code for our off-season activities. Look out for us at PARC!

Originally Posted by shawny963

Obviously this wont represent all the great bots, or even the best bots of each regional. But it is the best representation of what it takes to win a given regional.

Another thing, last year Wildstang really didn't become what everyone now remembers until late Friday of the Championships....same thing with 469 this year....they didnt make the elim at GLR, they were quarterfinalists at Midwest and then they were finalists in atlanta....

[Pin Man]

Originally Posted by Andy Grady

Atlanta was very cool for me because for the first time in 3 years, I was able to meet and have some excelent discussions with some of my midwestern counterparts. During these discussions, I came to one big conclusion....what happened to the northeast this year? Sure we had a couple of teams make a good run at it, but the finals were a Michigan and Indiana dominated set of matches! Over the years I think that there has been a definate split in FIRST reguarding the game style and teams in the region...i separate them into 4 major groups.

Northeast: Primarly a defensive region. Great past national champions such as Gael Force, Tigerbolt, Raider Robotix, and Rage and Aces High among others. A very competitive region where everyone is out for blood at the regionals and offseason competitions.

Midwest: Has quickly become the powerhouse region. Primarily an offensive oriented region, with champions like Beatty and Hammond (4 times over), the Technokats, Wildstang, Sunny Delight (now extinct), and Juggernauts among others. From the outside, seems to be quite a tight knit group...very competitive on the inside.

South: A good mix of offensive and defensive robots. Teams like Baxter Bomb Squad, Heatwave, Cortez High School, Space Coast, and other oldies make for an excelent competitiveness.

West: Another strong offensive division with a few very solid defensive teams. Home of the Cheesy Poofs, Kingman, GRT, among others. Region thus far has been pretty much dominated by the Poofs and Kingman, but other teams are starting to show some good strength.

You can almost see the rivalry forming between the regions. I know that in the northeast, very often we talk of knocking the midwest off the pedistil (sp?.) that they have been sitting on as of late...makes for some very exciting matches and great trash talking

Now, the question I pose to everyone is this...

What do you think of an event that would bring teams together from each of these regions to decide who is the "King" of regions. Very similar to the Ryder Cup in golf? I think it would be very cool if you could manage to get all those teams in one place for something like that.

I never looked at it like that but now that I think of it you're right... hmmm... That would be cool to have some sort of competition and for the northeast to take it all back!!!

[Solace]

Originally Posted by Andy Grady

Northeast: Primarly a defensive region. Great past national champions such as Gael Force, Tigerbolt, Raider Robotix, and Rage and Aces High among others. A very competitive region where everyone is out for blood at the regionals and offseason competitions.

out for blood? That's putting it a bit mildly, if you ask me.