Hardest Regionals?

[DivideByZero]

Originally Posted by tkwetzel

Edit: Billfred: I'm holding you to the egg-cracking bit.

Agreed. I'd buy that for a dollar.

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by Billfred

If Boilermaker proves to be a bust, I'll crack eggs on my forehead in Atlanta. A dozen, Grade A Large.

There'll be no egg on your face this time.

[Karthik]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

Past success does not guarantee future results....

Agreed, but I think there is a strong correlation between past success and future results. For example, based on what I've seen over the past 7 years, I don't think I'm going out on too much of a limb by saying that Teams 71 and 254 will be pretty good this year.

This by no means precludes any upstart team from entering the class of elite teams. But, I just think that going into the season there's certain teams out there that we know to expect great things from. To me it's sort of like Vegas setting the early lines on who's going to win the 2006 Rose Bowl. There's a good chance that USC, the favourite will come through, but just because they're favoured doesn't mean that Ohio State (Go Bucks!!) won't be in the big dance.

All that being said I think the "tougher" regionals this year will be Boilermaker and Western Michigan But heed Ed's comment, all early lines are subject to change upon the release of robot pictures in weeks 4-6.

[Captain Rich]

Sacramento, Grand Rapids, and Detroit.

Why? 245 will be there.

[mizscience]

The UCF Regionals are challenging because you have temas like Think Pink, Swamp Thing, S.P.A.M., SigmaC@t, etc....

[Kyle Love]

I think all regionals are tough...I mean every regional will have a few "powerhouse" teams in it...but if I have to choose one it would be Midwest because there is a mix of teams from all over the world and teams like 71, 111 and 108 will be there...I'm sure it will be exciting!

[Validius]

GLR is the hardest. We have the Big 3 sponsoring every other team and we have teams like 1(Juggernaughts), 66(Flyers), 67(HOT) and of course, 1547 :-D

[Heretic121]

UTC... usual teams...

121, 69, 157, 237, 236, 126, 20, 173, 176, 175, 195, 571, 716, 177...

sorry if i forgot anyone...

but that right there is the usually the big teams that is also about 1/3 of the competition...

[nobrakes8]

The New England, Atlantic, and eastern midwest United States is where the top teams are located. With so many compeitions it seems like all the regionals have lost some power teams to the newer regionals. UTC, NJ, and NH are probably still some of the most loaded regionals with excellent teams, just fewer than in the past. The midwest also used to have some loaded regionals but just reading this post and some other posts, it seems like their top 2-3 regionals are loseing teams to newer places as well.

With so many regionals, I bet the invitationals in the northeast are going to be extremely fun to watch. I mean this year's UTC missed a few noticeible teams like Buzz and Sie-H20-bots, I'm willing to bet those guys as well as many of the NJ, NY, UTC, NH teams are going to be at the same invitationals makeing some memorible moments. WPI, Beantown Blitz, bash @ the beach, PARC (assumeing those invitationals are going to happen again) are going to have awsome teams signed up. Realisticly if the top Northeast teams show up to the same place, it will be harder to make elmination rounds at these invitationals than most regionals in the country.

[Ali Ahmed]

Originally Posted by nobrakes8

The New England, Atlantic, and eastern midwest United States is where the top teams are located. With so many compeitions it seems like all the regionals have lost some power teams to the newer regionals. UTC, NJ, and NH are probably still some of the most loaded regionals with excellent teams, just fewer than in the past. The midwest also used to have some loaded regionals but just reading this post and some other posts, it seems like their top 2-3 regionals are loseing teams to newer places as well.

With so many regionals, I bet the invitationals in the northeast are going to be extremely fun to watch. I mean this year's UTC missed a few noticeible teams like Buzz and Sie-H20-bots, I'm willing to bet those guys as well as many of the NJ, NY, UTC, NH teams are going to be at the same invitationals makeing some memorible moments. WPI, Beantown Blitz, bash @ the beach, PARC (assumeing those invitationals are going to happen again) are going to have awsome teams signed up. Realisticly if the Northeast teams show up, it will be harder to make elmination rounds at these invitationals than most regionals in the country.

Hey what about us here in the west. We got great teams like 60, 254, 980, 330, and 968 just to name a very few. Anyway, I think that Boilermaker and Midwest are probably the hardest.

[Jeff Waegelin]

Originally Posted by nobrakes8

The midwest also used to have some loaded regionals but just reading this post and some other posts, it seems like their top 2-3 regionals are loseing teams to newer places as well.

That is very true. 4 or 5 years ago, I would have said the 2 hardest regionals were Great Lakes and Midwest, bar none. They were the only two regionals in the area, so all the powerhouse teams of the Midwest were there. I'd have also probably given the nod to GLR, because at that time, there were nearly 70 teams competing. 70 teams + all the midwest "elites" = the hardest regional in the country.

Now, with a new regional being added every year since 2001 (West Michigan, Buckeye, Pittsburgh, Detroit, and Boilermaker, in that order), the field has been diluted a bit. Not that it's a terrible thing, because more teams get to play, and more teams get to win, but it does lower the level of competition slightly. For this year, I would say the Boilermaker Regional had the toughest field of teams, which is fairly typical of the trend I've seen since 2001. The new regional always attracts a lot of big teams in its first year, because people want to go to the new event. Then, after a year, it generally tends to even out with the others.

So, which one will be the hardest next year? Wherever they add an 8th (!) regional in the Midwest Barring that, I'd have to go with my perennial favorite, Great Lakes.

[Conor Ryan]

From experince, I can say that New Jersey was a tougher competition than Buckeye. But from what I've heard and the teams that i've seen that went there, GLR is where the competition is. I also have a feeling the the Boilermaker will eventually be a tough regional. But who cares whats the hardest? Atlanta is where you prove it.

[Justin]

I think that UTC and BAE are still the regionals to beat. UTC was rougher than anything else I have seen this season. That includes the Boilermaker and Mid-west regionals. Add to this the fact that the NE is FIRST and we remember what it was like to play games that involved this little concept called DEFENSE!

I'll just say that it has been at least a good 4 years since any of the mid-west stalwarts 111, 71, 16, 47, 45 (and others I'm forgetting)...have ventured east.



Justin

[nobrakes8]

Originally Posted by Justin

I think that UTC and BAE are still the regionals to beat. UTC was rougher than anything else I have seen this season. That includes the Boilermaker and Mid-west regionals. Add to this the fact that the NE is FIRST and we remember what it was like to play games that involved this little concept called DEFENSE!

AMEN to that.. I'm surprised this post hasn't gotten out of hand, this is like compareing the weak ACC to the powerful Big East conference in college basketball

[xzvrw2]

I have been to two regionals all three years I have been on the huskie brigade, Great Lakes and Midwest. In my opinion those two are the hardest regionals to comete at. Lets see here at Great Lakes we got teams 1,33,65,66,67,68,141,279,302,308,322,469,1023 and at Midwest we got teams 45,65,71,79,107,108,111,269,383,461,537,648,903,93 0. Yes i know that other teams at those regionals were really good but these teams here if you say their number in a convo about F.I.R.S.T. then you are going to be like "Man they are a good team." Now dont get me rong, Detroit, Western Michigan, and Boileemaker are all really hard regionals but you have to look at every team there and all of their acomplishments from the past. And I do know that past winnings don't mean much, 2003 national champs then lose to 71 and 494 in division quarter finals, but just take this for an example... when my teams robot didn't do to goot at GLR this year I talked to this mentor from team 1 and he said that he knows that we wernt good here but whwn we go to Midwest we will be a whole heck of alot better. He said that from past accomplishments. wow i realy got off track here. well i'm going to stop. i hope you enjoy reading my post. ha ha ha. And thanks Ken for giving me the chance to change the gripper.