2005 Palmetto Regional

Originally Posted by R81Honda

Well our scout team did an amazing job so I know for a fact that we picked our alliances based on thier performance.

It is clear from the picks that the seedings were not a strong indicator of when or if you would get picked.

The teams went in this order (the number indicates seeding)
Clearly alliances 5 and 8 (team 845, 1026) were convinced that seeding was not important. Alliance 5 made it to the semis.
-1---2---3---4---5---6---7---8
-5--15--24--10--36--11--18--21
25--28--13--12--35--22--19--38

Seeds 14, 16(r), 17(r), 20(r), 23, and 26 were not selected. (r=rookie)
The 3 remaining rookie teams were not selected even though they were in the top 20. Does that say more about experience, reputation, or performance?

Based on what I saw, 2 of the rookies were basic driving boxes that got some lucky wins, but gained valuable experience. They were thrilled to go home in the top 20.

[Collmandoman]

What my driver means... is their individual performance. Many people look at the FIRST rankings and think those are actually the best teams. Everyone must remember that the qual matches are selected randomly...so it is possible for you to have a killer robot and go 5-5 easily. This year with penalties.. and 3on3.. one robot can not do it all. So scouting is more important than it has ever been. Our first pick (179) did an outstanding job on its own and was very unfortunate to receive as many penalties as they did. 1051 was an outstanding robot that lost a lot of close matches that were in no way its fault. I'm confident our team selected the best teams...and I don't mean the best available ones.

[Swampdude]

I didn't realize nobody picked from the top 8. I was surprised 157 didn't get picked. They were awesome, but had a little bad luck. In the match against us they capped about 5-6 I think.
During the end of the alliance selections it almost seemed like whoever yelled the loudest would get picked, heh.
The 845 alliance was excellent, I had my eye on them the whole time. 845 did a great job this year. We faced them in the finals at UCF also.

[Corey Balint]

Originally Posted by Swampdude

I didn't realize nobody picked from the top 8. I was surprised 157 didn't get picked. They were awesome, but had a little bad luck. In the match against us they capped about 5-6 I think.
During the end of the alliance selections it almost seemed like whoever yelled the loudest would get picked, heh.
The 845 alliance was excellent, I had my eye on them the whole time. 845 did a great job this year. We faced them in the finals at UCF also.

Note-We were the #5 seed and we were picked by 1251 1st overall.

Alliance selections did go about how i thought they would. After we first met with 1251 we tried to solve who would go when. We knew 179 was going to go right after, followed closely by 343. Then we kind of drew a blank from there on out, we had certain ideas of where each would go, but nothing definite. The 2nd round of selections was alot different from what we had expected. We were thinking of 301, 1051, and 157. We were also incredibly suprised when 157 was not picked up. We had them tied with 301. We were also greatly suprised to see Spam go mid 2nd round.

All in all, this was a great event. If we are able to schedule it right, we will see y'all again next year.

[Collmandoman]

I think also those numebrs you posted show great scouting
or alot of 'friend-picking'

[MikeGriffith]

Originally Posted by team1102a

It is clear from the picks that the seedings were not a strong indicator of when or if you would get picked.

The teams went in this order (the number indicates seeding)
Clearly alliances 5 and 8 (team 845, 1026) were convinced that seeding was not important. Alliance 5 made it to the semis.
-1---2---3---4---5---6---7---8
-5--15--24--10--36--11--18--21
25--28--13--12--35--22--19--38

I totally agree that rankings isn't the only thing that matters for a good alliance. Team 845 picked 1102 and 342 not because of ranking but because a.) they were from South Carolina b.) We knew that these teams were made up of great people. As you saw at Palmetto the #36th and #35th ranked teams beat the #10th and #12th ranked teams, and we still had a blast working with them. Also Swampdude, thanks for the compliment you guys did awesome at both regionals, it was great facing you guys at UCF. 845 had a blast and can't wait to see everyone at nationals!
-Mike Griffith (dude with once blue but now green spikey hair)

"Everything that counts can't always be counted, and everythings that can be counted doesn't always count"
-Albert Einstein

Originally Posted by MikeGriffith

I totally agree that rankings isn't the only thing that matters for a good alliance. Team 845 picked 1102 and 342 not because of ranking but because a.) they were from South Carolina b.) We knew that these teams were made up of great people.

Thanks Mike. I think what you are saying it you'd rather go into the afternoon with somebody you know. I recall that 1102 and 845 go back as far as the pre-ship scrimmage this year. We helped each other with repairs in Greer. I thought the all SC alliance was a nice touch in Columbia. Thanks for the opportunity.

As for the winners, I'll bet 1051 is still floating on air. A real Cinderella story. 1466 and 179 did great by picking them!

One other note. I think all 3 teams in the finalist alliance were already going to the championship. 1466 and 1051 got a trip because of their win. 179 won FLA and was already going. Now we have 2 more teams (and friends) at the Championships.

[Collmandoman]

The two adults I met on 845 were amazing people. =) thanks for the good times
and yes the win was very important to the team, because there is little support for them on the schoolboard side, and the president(of the private school) promised to pay for nationals if we made it. A very wonderful story. I HOPE 1051 gets to make it, they told me right after the competition they had pretty much exausted all funds, but they also said some man came over and said he might be able to help since they were the only team from SC to win.

[R81Honda]

Here is a small video which one of our team members made! Its quite nice!


here

[Collmandoman]

this kids name is REYNOR and is only in middle school.. he is modest .. so we won't say his name much REYNOR
anyway~ he's a video god..
but mp4 is bad

[R81Honda]

Yeah I should have said his name so he can get his credits where credit is due!!