2006 Most Competitive Regional

[Zoheb N]

well i thikn there have been some pretty competitive regionals and that the rest of the regionals will stay about the same, but nationals is another thing

[DjAlamose]

With the complexities of this years games strategy and robot wise, we have yet to see the best. With many teams competing in more than one regional this year we can only bet that these teams will get better and grow more competitive with time. While you may have a lot of veteran teams with good robots this year, we may see a rise in the amount of action in the game as new way to defeat these teams comes about.

My vote: The best is yet to come.

[bigboi146]

NYC is gonna b the best team 1660 is gonna b there

[Jim Schaddelee]

I believe there was a thread last year by Dr.Joe that showed that the west Michigan regional was toughest.I believe he is correct, mainly because it is one of the last regionals in very competitive area.
While I am writing about WMR ,I think I will throw in a quick prediction or two.My first prediction;that WMR will have the highest point average per match of all the regionals. And here is my homer prediction;that a west Michigan team will be in the winning alliance either team 141 ,85,74or 107 this is no disrespect to other west Michigan teams but I not seen them play.

Jim schadddelee

[Peter Matteson]

I'm a believer that due to the number of 10+ year teams that are located in there local areas that GLR, BAE, and UTC have to be considered some of the most competitive. They routinely have high numbers of veteran teams. I'm not sure what the west coast equivalent of these is but I'd complete the list with that one.

[Steve W]

Being non bias ( ) I will state the obvious:

GTR :
74 teams
4 2006 Aim High Regional Champions
2 2006 Aim High Regional Finalists

and there is still 1 more weekend before GTR

[379Robocat]

To tell you the truth I have been to two regionals and I was dissappointed. Buckeye was not at competitive as I had expected due to the fact that many teams did not attend because many other regionals around the area were hosting regionals the same weekend. Going up to Michigan where the teams are most competitive I feel, it did not impress me one bit. There were a hand full of good teams. Some to mention were 469 who might I add went 12-0 and won the regional without one loss the whole competition including q-f, s-f and finals. 703 and 123 were in Cleveland and also in detroit and 217 were just some of the good teams. I feel that Detroit had beat Cleveland but Detroit was not what I had expected seeing that we were the only team not from Michigan. I hope that Philly will beat those two regionals because I don't want the only decent competition this year to be nationals.

[Tomasz Bania]

Sadly, I think your right and wrong.
Beyond the top 6 teams (818,703,1602,469,217,1503?), It sadly wasn't that competitive. I have a lot of opinions about this regional, but a few of them would negatively impact my reputation, so I will not post them. Wierdly enough, the alliance selection went a little differently than normal. 1 did not pick 2 (even though I know they thought about it) and 2 tryed many times to have a top 8 partner, and the invite was accepted by the team in the 8th seed. We would have seeded higher, but when I was the driver for part of Friday, I "Broke" the Laws Of Physics, but thats another story....

Good luck and See you at the competition!

Tomasz Bania

[Mark Pierce]

Originally Posted by Jim Schaddelee

... west Michigan regional was toughest.I believe he is correct, mainly because it is one of the last regionals in very competitive area.
Jim schadddelee

I agree, but concede that all of the final week regionals will be tough. This seems to be the case every year. That being said. WMR again has an incredible lineup of winning teams this year. I see no reason we would break a tradition started in 2001 that the West Michigan Regional has an abundance of the highest scores, closest matches, and pure excitement.

[Tim Delles]

I would have to say what do you grade a regional on?

Defense?
Offense?
How many teams?
Automodes?

Their are so many things you have to look for at a regional. And to say that one is the best. Come on. just take a look at some of the regionals and some of the teams competing.

Boston:
40
69
121
157
233
571
1403

GTR
45
48
217
229
1006
1114
1503
1680

NJ
25
48
56

GLR
65
66
67
279
469
1114
1503
1680

UTC
20
173
177
230
236
237
571


Okay so here are some regionals that have already and will be taking place and some teams that came to mind when i thought of them. If you look at each one they have and will each be played differently. Each week the strategy you have to use to win changes, what worked the 1st week may not have worked the 2nd week. One regional stresses Defense, another one stresses Offense. How can you really judge which one is the most competitive?

But I do know that at each regional you are bound to have a great time. You are bound to have fun, and compete. And for those that aren't in FIRST it is just as amazing as other regionals.

[lukevanoort]

Most competitive, I don't know. Most interesting competition, VCU. Large, first week regional, so everybody is trying to figure out what works and what doesn't as well as getting a feel for this year's refereeing.

[Rick TYler]

Originally Posted by lukevanoort

Most competitive, I don't know. Most interesting competition, VCU. Large, first week regional, so everybody is trying to figure out what works and what doesn't as well as getting a feel for this year's refereeing.

I suppose VCU was OK if you weren't able to make it Portland the first weekend.

[Gearhead.]

I am very suprised and disappointed only three 'great' teams were listed for the NJ regional. It seems to be overlooked. This year was not as competitive as others, but the NJ regional is ALWAYS one of the top two most competitive. I guess a lot of you don't know anything about 2003. The top two robots in the nation were there. Team 102 and Team 25. Team 25 got second at nationals and had awful alliances - they would have won with better people in their division. Team 102 had to fight the parents and didn't have the money to attend nationals, but if you guys want to see pictures, I will try to get the reposted on our team site. This year, although it was not the most competitive year, veteran teams: 25, 11, 102, 103, 56, 87, 75 all attend the NJ regional. Plus, the team 25 and 103 tandem in the finals along with 1279 (my same-town catholic team rivals) were able to post over 80 pts. every finals match. The qualifying rounds were all high scoring, with a dozen over 50 pts. for each team with only a couple points difference. With 60 some teams, close matches like this proves it was a very good regional.

[Joel J]

GTR is going to be the best regional of 2006, IMO..

[Tomasz Bania]

I have to go with Detroit Hands Down

Tomasz Bania