Kettering Results from Week 2

[IKE]

Kettering threads have gotten a bit fragmented so I want to start a new thread for folks to post what they thought about the event. I would appreciate it if folks took the time to add both positives and negatives that way the "right things" get continued, and the "Wrong things" get addressed. I use the word addressed, because what 1 person sees as a wrong thing, many others may not.

First off congratulations to the winners: I believe it was 245, 70, 2619. What a great alliance. You fought some tough matches and had a lot of great competition.

Congrats to the finalists: 65, 2771 and 2586 (I think). This alliances really maximized there potential and showed what strategy and execution were all about.

Thank you to our partners. 548 and 862. It was a fun run to the semis.

Thanks 314 for all the support for the event. You guys did a fantastic job.

2771 thanks for the webcast, I know many enjoyed it.

The Event Itself:
Kettering was a great event. It was a ton of fun and really cool to see the close competition. Due to getting 12 events, the bots were all driving well on Saturday, and the competition was really close. 3 of the 4 QF events went to 3 matches, and almost every match was within a Super Cell (which were very much in play). What a great competition. I talked with some out of town teams that were at Midwest, and they were impressed by the strategy level and usage.
Some cool things about the event. Starting a new job, I did not have vacation time. Due to the FiM format, I was able to help get things set up thursday night, only missed 4 matches (of 12) and NO TIME OFF OF WORK. Normal regionals, I would have missed 2 days, and for this I would have only had to miss 1.

Kettering had an interesting feel to it. Very much an IRI feel. The set-up was a cross between an off season and a typical regional, but with all the teams there, the excitement level was way up.

One thing I did not like initially but actually liked later on was the above level track was for Scouts and Videographers only. While initially annoying having to show a badge, this made it a ton easier for the scouts to do their job. By the end I was really thankful for that.

Probably the biggest drawback was the lack of seating. They really needed at least 10-20% more seating (others will say more, but running the numbers 10% would have helped a bunch). I talked to the folks running it and they explained the limitations and plans to work around this next year.

The 7 people excepting awards was another thing I thought I wouldn't like, but ended up enjoying it. Results will likely be mixed on this.

One of the coolest things I saw was that at Kettering they brought all of the WFFA nominees down on the field. Usually there is a statement about so many great applications, and then a winner anounced. At Kettering every nominee who meant so much to their team got to come down and be recognized.

Last and certainly not least:
Oh and congrats to the students of TEAM 33 for winning Chairman's. It has been one heck of a ride.

Thanks to all of the volunteers and the folks at FIRST & FiM for making it possible. What a great event.

[nikeairmancurry]

From watching the webcast (Thanks 2771 Codered Robotics) I saw the level of competition go up from where it was last weekend at Traverse City. But with all the wellknown teams doing so well at the event, I'm afraid that w have seen some of the first teams, that we will not be seeing at the State Championship. I do hope that those teams who probably aren't gonna be selected aren't dissaproving of the format, but inbrace the oppertunity that was set before them.

Ike I hear you seating issue, but I do believe the rest of the venues do have the right amount seating. West Michigan, Detriot, Cass Tech, for sure have tons of seating ready. But, the resevered level for scouts is amazing, I have been to Kettering and been on that top level, its probably the best seat in the house to see everything.

Congrats to team 70, 245 and 2619, I almost counted the martians(70) out friday, when I didn't see much scoring, but you guys really improved and showed that you guys still win, when it matters. I'm also glad that you guys didnt have to go to a back robot before elimations started. 245 yuo guys have a great bot, you following what has been the dumper dominance of this years game. Your guys robot gives our team high hopes that are robot somewhat similar is in for big things. 2619 when I looked at this weeks Looking Forward thread, they pointed you guys out for needing a big week, you did not dissapoint. On the number 1 allaince a District regional win and a good amount of state points. I wouldn't be surpised to see you guys at the state champs.

Team 65, I was really rooting for you guys, since I golf with a couple of you, your bot is so good when being able to be filled up in auton. 2586, just like I said with 2619, you guys needed a big week and you got one, best wishes for you.

Congrats to all teams!

[RyanCesiel]

2619 was a HUGE reason why our alliance won Kettering. Our drive team recognized their defense early and knew they'd be a great asset in the eliminations.

[Chris Hibner]

Originally Posted by RyanCesiel

2619 was a HUGE reason why we won Kettering. Our drive team recognized their defense early and knew they'd be a great asset in the eliminations.

Yeah, we got SHUT DOWN in the finals. Now we know we got a bit of work to do to try and overcome that sort of thing. We'll be back better than ever in Detroit. I can't wait.

Other than the lack of seating, I thought Kettering went really well. It definitely had an IRI feel to it without the fancy lighting system and all, but I can deal without that if it means more competitions for everyone and less cost to the teams - everyone knows how important that is in this economy we're facing.

[Herodotus]

Originally Posted by RyanCesiel

2619 was a HUGE reason why our alliance won Kettering. Our drive team recognized their defense early and knew they'd be a great asset in the eliminations.

I saw this too. At first I assumed you guys would win simply because you would outscore everyone else by a wide margin, but actually the other alliances were able to keep up the scoring fairly well. 2619's defense was absolutely amazing. Several times they kept teams from scoring the whole match, and definitely won a few matches with that defense.

Congratulations to 70, 245, and 2619. You were an amazing alliance and definitely deserving of the win. Congrats to 65, 2771, and 2586 on being finalists as well. You put up a great fight. Congrats to 2771 especially, you guys are an amazing rookie team, and I think you will have many good years ahead of you.

Thank you to 1504 and 1025 for being great alliance partners. There were some tough alliances on that field, but I think we managed to put up a pretty good fight, and only fell short by a little bit. This was a much better start to our year than we usually have, so hopefully things will only get better.

Thank you to all of the volunteers and referees this weekend. There were very few problems, and I think the whole competition was run quite well. They only major issues were the problems at the start of the eliminations and the seating problem.

[RyanCesiel]

Just finished uploading pictures we took. We also have HD video we will be uploading along with every single match video of the whole competition (no sound do to lack of audio feed).

OUR PICTURES

[JackN]

Wow what a great competition. First off, I would like to say thank you to 910 and 1025, you guys were great partners in eliminations, we were so thankful to get a chance to work with your two amazing teams. Second, I would like to thank Eric Y. from 33 for all his help this weekend. I would like to congratulate 245, 70, and 2619 for winning the event (I graduate and 70 wins, of course), and 2586, 2771, and 65 for pulling some crazy upsets off. Also congrats to team 33 for winning the Chairman's Award, it could not have gone to a better group of people. I agree with IKE that they need to do something to the stands, either add more or to get bigger ones, but all in all a great competition.

[MattLi]

Originally Posted by Herodotus

I saw this too. At first I assumed you guys would win simply because you would outscore everyone else by a wide margin, but actually the other alliances were able to keep up the scoring fairly well. 2619's defense was absolutely amazing. Several times they kept teams from scoring the whole match, and definitely won a few matches with that defense.

Congratulations to 70, 245, and 2619. You were an amazing alliance and definitely deserving of the win. Congrats to 65, 2771, and 2586 on being finalists as well. You put up a great fight. Congrats to 2771 especially, you guys are an amazing rookie team, and I think you will have many good years ahead of you.

Thank you to 1504 and 1025 for being great alliance partners. There were some tough alliances on that field, but I think we managed to put up a pretty good fight, and only fell short by a little bit. This was a much better start to our year than we usually have, so hopefully things will only get better.

Thank you to all of the volunteers and referees this weekend. There were very few problems, and I think the whole competition was run quite well. They only major issues were the problems at the start of the eliminations and the seating problem.

Yeah there was absolutely no way that we have won without 2619 or 70 on our team. Even though our robot scored well and moved fast, if we were taken on by a defensive robot, our score would be cut in half. In order to win we had to have a another high scorer and a defensive robot. We got both.

[MrMatt]

As a mentor from 2619, I would like to thank teams 245 and 70 for a great showing at finals. Hope to see both of you at State!

[EricLeifermann]

Originally Posted by MrMatt

As a mentor from 2619, I would like to thank teams 245 and 70 for a great showing at finals. Hope to see both of you at State!

Congrats Matt, from an OLD friend. I was cheering you guys on the whole time.

[Not2B]

Well, that was fun. Glad 33 and 548 joined us. Thanks!

Here's my views on the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The good:
- Nice, small regional feel.
- Much smoother than I expected, the volunteers did a GREAT job.
- The volunteers were all so NICE too.
- The second screen in the cafe area was nice to have.
- Good judging. Good judge selection.

The bad (or at least, could be improved):
- Lack of seating. That was inconvenient.
- Lack of power. That was frustrating.
- The sound level was actually painful. We couldn't even talk to the person next to us.

The ugly:
- The number of teams that had trouble getting to the field. I could care less about how that affected the game. (Trust me, I really don't). But I could feel the frustration from the teams. I wish they had more time to prep. Maybe it's just growing pains.
- My team might noogie me for this, shaking more gray hairs loose (hence the ugly), but I like hearing from guest speakers. Please don't get rid of too many.
- You should SEE some of the pictures I got of my team when they were not looking. Talk about ugly. heh heh heh.

[IKE]

[quote=Not2B;833365]Well, that was fun. Glad 33 and 548 joined us.

The ugly:
- The number of teams that had trouble getting to the field. I could care less about how that affected the game. (Trust me, I really don't). But I could feel the frustration from the teams. I wish they had more time to prep. Maybe it's just growing pains.
QUOTE]

This is the downside of the 12 match/40 team format. There is not a lot of prep and fix-it time. All that aside, believe it or not, there were fewer No shows than at Midwest which had significantly longer times between matches.

This format reinforces the need for a robust robot and prepared pit crew.

[Tom Line]

It also reinforces the need for Labview to improve their build times. 5+ minutes to build means that teams utilizing labview are taking a big gamble trying to make a code change between rounds - one error compiling and you're in trouble.

C++ teams? Not so much.

[joeweber]

I agree with the slow down load time. Our programer had the program ready to down load, but it sure seemed to take for ever when they are calling you for second call and it is still loading!!!! Evrybodys saying hurry up but all you can do is watch the line get longer.

[Raumiester2010]

Originally Posted by IKE

This format reinforces the need for a robust robot and prepared pit crew.

ill agree with you on that one... we got lucky and our robot still hasn't suffered any major breakdowns (knock on wood) and we missed all the practice rounds because we did another one of our famous "change our strategy/robot on the first day of competition" like at Atlanta where we did a huge re-mod last year which, like in this instance, made us WAY more competitive than we would have.

oh ya, if anyone was wondering why we didn't move on the first match of quarter- finals, bad batts SUCK. we checked it with the volt meter and it read out 13 volts, when it went under a load it dropped to 9. couldn't move at all. i feel kinda bad because a lot of us thought it was the programmer's fault, thought it was bad code.

so, heads up to other teams about the tricky batteries. the only way we could check it was to run it for a second in the robot before the matches.
maybe you guys can come up with a better solution but thought i would give everyone a warning.

Good luck to everyone in the coming weeks and congrats to team 33 on chairmans