2008 Boston Regional

[darkorbit]

Well at 4:22pm 3-28-08 the Ranks were:
1: Team 20
2: Team 157
3: Team 88
4: Team 61
5: Team 69
6: Team 1100
7: Team 1768
8: Team 1699
9: Team 40
10: Team 578

[andrew348]

The best part of the regional so far I think was in Match 12 when 1100 by accident swung from the bar and andy Grady siad "That move was so 2004"

[Greg Marra]

Did anyone see the Blue Man Group performance? That was absolutely amazing!

[alex1699]

Originally Posted by darkorbit

Well at 4:22pm 3-28-08 the Ranks were:
1: Team 20
2: Team 157
3: Team 88
4: Team 61
5: Team 69
6: Team 1100
7: Team 1768
8: Team 1699
9: Team 40
10: Team 578

#8 wooooot three losses and a tie made use in 15 or the same a 5th from what i herd...

[Mark1153]

Team 1153 would like to THANK team 61 for picking us in the playoffs, being a great alliance partner, and leading us to the finals, and team 97 for being a great partner.

Congratulations to a great winning alliance of 20, 40 and 1474 who showed great competitive spirit and gracious professionalism throughout. After our 2nd match in the finals when we were tied 1-1, we had a broken elevator lift fork and no timeouts remaining. We think the alliance of 20,40,1474 went above and beyond - in the best tradion of FIRST to use their timeout, and give us the time to fix our robot, so we could be competitive in the final match. I personally, team 1153 as a whole, and our alliance partners 61 & 97 greatly appreciate your gracious professionalism and competitve spirit.

To everyone involved in the Boston Regional Team [board, staff, volunteers, referees, judges, teams] - a great big THANK YOU. You ran a great event, the kids - mentors - parents and spectators had a great time, saw some great robotics, listened to some great music, saw many acts of gracious professionalism. Having over 7,000 people come to the afternoon session to see the BLUE MAN group and the playoffs was amazing.

Mark Gallivan - Team 1153 Mentor - Walpole High School

[ZZII 527]

The Boston Regional has been great since it began in 2006, but I think this year really set a new standard for showcasing FIRST at a regional event. It was officially the most attended regional in history (7,000+). It was an amazing display of art and technology with the Blue Man Group, Woodie's entrance, the LED curtains, the field lighting, and the numerous displays like the MIT DARPA Urban Challenge vehicle and the Bluefin underwater autonomous vehicle. Thank you to the event organizers who did a tremendous job setting all this up and having it run so smoothly.

Team 97 thanks 61 and 1153 for drafting us into a great alliance. We made an awesome team and put on a great show in the playoffs. Congratulations to 20, 40, and 1474 on a well-deserved win and an excellent display of sportsmanship. And congratulations to 839 on your Chairman's Award win. Good luck to all in Atlanta!

[AmoryG]

Congrats to team 20, 40, and 1474! You guys had an amazing alliance, but I still enjoyed the finals. Great win by the blue alliance in the second match. I can't say I wasn't slightly disapointed we couldn't get into the finals, but I still had a great time playing in the qualifying matches and watching the finals!! And I'm very happy with our unexpected rookie allstars award! Hopefully we will be seeing you guys in Atlanta (if we get the money).

[Nuttyman54]

Video of Woodie rappelling has been uploaded here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNsScJwXAJY

[Cleinhun]

Originally Posted by ZZII 527

The Boston Regional has been great since it began in 2006, but I think this year really set a new standard for showcasing FIRST at a regional event. It was officially the most attended regional in history (7,000+). It was an amazing display of art and technology with the Blue Man Group, Woodie's entrance, the LED curtains, the field lighting, and the numerous displays like the MIT DARPA Urban Challenge vehicle and the Bluefin underwater autonomous vehicle. Thank you to the event organizers who did a tremendous job setting all this up and having it run so smoothly.

So when do we get something like this on the west coast? I wish I had been there.

[raceteen48]

I thought Boston was an awesome regional, a lot of younger teams there than Manchester, I know we sure did a lot better, we got it all figured out in time for Boston i felt, and had a good time. thanks to 69 for picking us in the Selections, and thanks to 2084 for being a great alliance partner, i think we had a great alliance out there.

I do however have a question about certain penalties that I am confused about.
in one of our QF matches 69 got called for "Impeding a Hurdle" on team 125, which i was kind of confused about, because they are a launcher robot, and therefore i asked a referee later what the definition of "Hurdling" is, and he said "Hurdling is when the ball is just off the floor, now that seemed wrong to me, and when i got home i saw this on the First forums.

"The act of completing a HURDLE. To be considered in the process of HURDLING, the ROBOT must:

* be in its own HOME STRETCH, and
* be in POSSESSION of a TRACKBALL, and
* be moving toward the OVERPASS and/or elevating the TRACKBALL so that the top of the TRACKBALL is higher than the LANE DIVIDER."

now to me, that says that the robot has to have the ball ABOVE the lane divider, so therefore, a shooter robot should hypothetically never get a penalty called against someone else for impeding them in hurdling.

we also had one point in a match where we were hurdling, and a robot hit us, they never got called, we asked Benge and he said "it was incidental Contact" now i never saw anywhere in the rules where it specified whether it was incidental or not made a difference, especially when we were the only robot on that side and they could have gone left or right of us.

also, how does the "Contact outside the bumper zone" work? In SF2 Match 2, in like the last 5 seconds of the match, we were trying to take the Red ball down from the overpass, and 1153's arm got caught in our robot, actually holding onto our battery cable. we were then unable to knock the ball off, and as i understood it, if you have an attachment outside the starting size limitations, and it hits/interferes with another robot especially being INSIDE their robot, you should get a ten point penalty, and yet they didn't, Benge even had to step OVER their arm to leave the circle of judges, and then i even pointed it out to a ref, who responded with "We already gave them a penalty for something" then they posted the score, and he said "still want that penalty" and then they took the score down, and changed it, and they actually won, so we argued with Benge and he just said "we call it as we see it guys" and i walked over to the ref i had talked to earlier and said "ya, i want it called now" and he just said that he talked to Benge and Benge made up his mind but he would talk to him again. i do not know if he did or not, i was really upset about this, since they never gave us a reason other than "they already called them for a penalty (which was impeding a hurdle btw). since when can a team only get called one penalty against them? even if wouldn't effect the match outcome? I feel that we really missed out on a third match that should have been played, and might have changed the outcome of the whole regional.

[afi419]

Is there a team social?

[Steve Howland]

Originally Posted by afi419

Is there a team social?

There will be two organized social events for the FIRST teams this year. On Thursday, an Ice Cream social will be held nearby the arena for a limited number of members per team. It will run from 4 to 7.

On Friday night, all teams will be given free access to the Boston Museum of Science. Unless teams have already arranged getting a spot for a bus, public transportation is probably best. There is a food court if teams don't have other dinner arrangements.

[Roger]

If you want something a bit higher than Taco Bell (~shudder~) there is the Sunset Cantina* across the street. It does takeout or eat-in and the portions are big and good. My boss goes there for lunch all the time, and it's where we have our "office parties", but only because it's right outside our back door.

*Don't worry about the "Restaurant Closed" on the website -- it means it opens at 11:30am.

[Brandon Holley]

Originally Posted by Roger

If you want something a bit higher than Taco Bell (~shudder~) there is the Sunset Cantina* across the street. It does takeout or eat-in and the portions are big and good. My boss goes there for lunch all the time, and it's where we have our "office parties", but only because it's right outside our back door.

*Don't worry about the "Restaurant Closed" on the website -- it means it opens at 11:30am.

Just ate their a few days ago...good stuff!

[Roger]

Originally Posted by Brandon Holley

Just ate their a few days ago...good stuff!

Food is so good, they come up from New Jersey to eat there!

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

Do any train lines go out to the arena?

See post #7. The "T" (MBTA) has the Boston College "B" line of the Green line goes out Comm Ave. If you're coming from Amtrak you can get off at Back Bay and walk up to Copley OUTBOUND and catch the trolley from there. From South Station you take the Red Line up to Park Street and transfer to the Green Line. Make sure it's the "B" trolley OUTBOUND. Not to Government Center.

If you do get off at Back Bay, you'll walk past the park with The Hint (42.349905, -71.076072, 342,242026) in front of Trinity Church.

By the way, the trolley is the "public transportation" to get to the Science Museum, but if your coming from the competition, you'll have to transfer at Govt Center to the E line, which is the only one that continues to the museum stop. (Or at least, that was the way it was the last time I took it a couple years ago.)