I always loved that name, Chicken Bot Pie 
See you in the pits at 10K, I’ll be pit announcer most of Thursday and all day Friday
Team 2502 is excited to be at 10,000 lakes again this year! We’ve been working really hard making improvements to our robot since Duluth. Robot reliability has been our biggest focus, because we had a little trouble with that in the qualifying matches in Duluth. Can’t wait to see all the great robots this weekend!
Good luck to everyone!
Seeing as we had some real trouble fielding enough volunteers for our 4 regionals this year (it’s really been a headache for some reason), I doubt we’ll be looking to try to fill out 12 district events (we’ve done the math - that’s how many we would need) any time soon!
Thanks! I can’t wait to see 2052’s robot in action this year in person! I hope we will have the chance to play with you guys this year too. good luck!
Agreed. I think we’d see a fifth regional before districts. Plus, who wants to leave 525 out (again)?
While I’d like to see districts (more matches, more events), I don’t think it’s feasible. One thing areas with districts have over us is they’ve had area-wide participation in FRC for a while (I at least know this is true for Michigan and out East - not 100% certain on PNW). As far as I know, the oldest still-active team in MN is eight years old. Anyone care to fact-check me?
Point is, they’ve had years of students who’ve graduated, gone off to college, and come back to volunteer. Minnesota doesn’t really have that. Our biggest assets as a region have been growth and sustainability - I haven’t seen (looking at usfirst.org) many MN teams fold, and growth was huge in the late 2000s and early 2010s. Hopefully, as more kids graduate and come back to volunteer, we’ll have enough volunteers to make more regionals or districts work.
Ideally, I’d like to see a district that includes several Midwest states (the Dakotas, Iowa, Wisconsin, for instance), even if it’s temporary - just to allow for and encourage growth in the Dakotas and Iowa. I don’t think we should be making districts that exclude these areas until they have their own regional, at the very least.
My $0.03 (since that was longer than intended).
Anyway, very excited for this regional. My birthday is actually tomorrow, and this regional is going to be enough celebration for me.
It’s just Minnesota without access to PSEO, and with public finance laws that Tax Increment Finance coordinators complain to their children about. 
We love you, Wisconsin/East Minnesota teams.
After missing last year because my California Team was competing, I am so happy to be back as your Game Announcer. As everyone knows, defense IS an integral part of the game and will make scoring tough. One thing I would like to suggest is that teams avoid playing hard defense during practice matches on Thursday. Thursday is meant as a day for teams to practice, perfect strategies, scoring, fine tune their robots and some teams just learning how to drive their robot. We don’t do game announcing on Thursdays because it seems to add a competitive feel to the practices.
So as you set your robots on the field, talk with the opposing alliance and think about no defense Thursdays to help teams with the basics. Just a thought.
Looking forward to seeing all the teams.
I think the best place for this 5th Minnesota Regional would logically be Mankato. There are a bunch of FRC teams in southern Minnesota who have to go up to either Minneapolis, Duluth or out of state, spend money on lodging and travel there, and have no real alternatives in the area. Mankato is centrally located and has the Verizon Wireless Center downtown with a large hockey rink area. It is much like Mariucci with just a little less seating in its crowd set-up. It also has ballrooms connected to it if pits could not just be behind the hockey floor space. Plus, up the hill, Minnesota State University has a beautiful basketball arena with a lot of space near it, including Minnesota’s largest indoor field house connected to it just down the hall. MSU has been doing well in their winter sports lately, so scheduling before mid to late March in either location may be an issue if they continue the trend. However, if you are really looking to do something in Minnesota, those are my suggestions. Thanks, and good luck!
Congrats to our old partner in Duluth, 2052, and our final’s opponent there, 3313, along with 2227! It was a fun finals to watch, as soon as I figured out where to find it on-line. I know 3313 had not ever made it to St. Louis as a team before, so 3018 looks forward to seeing you there for your first appearance. Maybe they’ll put all us Minnesota teams in one of the four divisions - that would be pretty fun. Great job!
Wow. That’s all I’ve got to say (not completely true). Great refs, great volunteers, great game. 4536 went out and did great, and I am so proud of all of them. We decided to forgo any kind of shooter on day 2 of build, and instead build an awesome picker-upper/passer/assister/catcher/low goal scorer, and we succeeded at this. We ended up tying 2052 for total ASSIST points (400).
We had a spectacular alliance that realistically could have beaten out the 2-seed had 3202 not broken down. Still though, it was a blast. 2705 was an absolutely amazing high goal scorer. I think I only saw them miss one ball the entire eliminations, and that was because someone hit them right as they were shooting. I was pleasantly surprised that they were still around for the 4th pick, and again surprised when they actually accepted our invitation. 2705 has come so close to winning so many times now, I really hope they get the recognition they deserve in the near future. 3202 was an awesome second pick. They consistently caught the ball in their net, and pushed it out without issue every time. In the downtime, they played great D in our near zone.
My biggest surprise of the entire event was finding out that 2502 was picked 14th overall. 14th! Seriously, they were one of the top 5 shooters without a doubt, and their drive train blew everyone’s mind. We didn’t even put 2502 on our list because we were so sure that someone would pick them. Lesson learned there (since we could have had them as the 12th pick).
We are currently scrambling to see if we can afford to go to champs, since we qualified from 2052’s wildcard. I hope we can go. Either way, we should be able to go to the state championship (assuming we qualify), which will be a ton of fun.
Shout out to Logan Mildenberger, one of the Dean’s List Finalists. Logan is absolutely the best, and he has helped 2052 to continue to succeed even after they had major brain-drain last year.
That’s all for now, but I might post another whole page later. :o
inkling16, yes the MinuteBots along with your whole alliance was very good and gave the 2nd seed alliance some tough competition. I too am impressed with 2705’s bot this year. WE Robot is consistently very good, I’m quite certain they are on the threshold of taking the next step.
WOW! What a Regional.
I’m scared to even list out all of the thank you’s that I would need to because I know I would miss someone. But here goes something…
I could write a book about how amazing knightkrawler 2052 as a group has been to us this year. Troy and the other coaches were always so kind and friendly. Logan is an amazing team member and a wonderful person. The entire cheering section was great too.
10,000 Lakes was definitely more of a struggle for our team, robot competition wise, than Lake Superior. Our drive train blew out in the semifinals. Knightkrawler’s wonderful pick up system saved the day for our alliance for sure.
2227 was great to work with as well. They’re team members were super nice and always had a positive attitude.
It’s super special to me that our alliance won by basically doing 3 assists and 1 pt goals (with a last second truss mixed in of course). I think that’s the sort of thing that the GDC had in mind with this game. Not the defensive WAR OF ATTRITION that Lake Superior was but the cooperation and passing and, well, assisting that 10,000 Lakes showed.
So many teams at 10,000 Lakes have been an inspiration to us in so many different ways. Our West Central friends of 2538 and 3244 were fun to talk to between matches. 2508 stopped by our pit to chat as well, they were great partners. I spoke a lot with 2500 and am super happy they won EI. We loved eating dinner with 3184 and 2470 on Friday night. There are a ton more that I’m just not thinking of right now but it was all great.
I’ll never forget my first Regional there in 2011. We built an enormous scissor lift with mecanums. I kid you not. We also spray painted our bumpers outside the arena in the wind. Then we spent 2 matches in a row with the numbers upside down. Seeing the engineering and presentations that teams put on definitely inspired me and the team members to do better the next year. I don’t know where I’m going with this except that a lot can change in 3 years.
Thank you to all the teams who competed so hard. Thank you to all the INCREDIBLE volunteers who helped put it on. The FTA, Chris, was fantastic.
We are so excited for St. Louis. We hope to see everyone at 10K next year!
If anyone has the video of the third simifinal match between alliance 1 and alliance 4 I would love to see it! Thanks
As usual, another awesome MN event! A huge thanks to all of the volunteers “behind the scenes” who make it happen day in and day out (and in the case of the “fashionably late” North Star field … night out).
Congratulations to all teams for completing this year’s tough challenge. All the robots continued to improve throughout the weekend and, as far as I know, our only explosion was when 3313’s cart spontaneously popped a tire on the field.
We continue to be inspired by the amazing things teams bring to the table, not just in their creative robots but also in their mascots, carts, pit set ups, and never-ending enthusiasm and drive. I hope that all participants went home having learned something new.
Congrats to all deserving award winners, especially Chairman’s winners 3313 Mechatronics. You guys have redefined what it means to be FIRST in MN and we are in awe of what you do. We wanted you to get that ticket to your first Champs, but you never needed our help. 2500 Herobotics, congrats on the EI and to your Dean’s List Finalist Emelia Skagen. Your team continues to be an inspiration to us all. We had some impressive rookies yet again, with Rookie Inspiration winner 5271 bringing an effective robot and awesome mascot well beyond their years, and Rookie All-Star/Highest Rookie Seed 5019 adding to the impressive array of teams from the LaCrosse area. A special shout-out to one of our hub teams, 2846 Firebears, on the Imagery Award. Your creativity, construction, and of course LED light show are always impressive. We were honored and humbled to be presented the Gracious Professionalism Award. We can only begin to try to emulate the teams who have earned it before and from whom we have received so much help over the years.
All of the elimination matches were great, and the finals were an exciting showdown of two great alliances playing the game strategically, as designed. It’s too bad that all robots weren’t fully functional for all matches, as it would have been fun to see what they could really do.
Finally, congrats to our own Logan Mildenberger on the much deserved Dean’s List Finalist selection. KnightKrawler will miss him next year, but I expect FIRST will continue to benefit from his contributions. He has big shoes to fill since our other two past Dean’s List Finalists between them have already become mentors, inspectors, safety glasses advisor, FTAA, field supervisor, GoFIRST officer, and Finalist drive coach. No pressure Logan. 
Unfortunately my team had to leave early as the first alternate because we didn’t eat lunch thinking we would be drafted as 14th seed. Who ended up winning the elimination tournament?
You can always look it up on http://thebluealliance.com but here is the results of all of the alliances.
1.) 2181, 2498, 3082 (SF)
2.) 2052, 3313, 2227 (W)
3.) 3038, 3007, 2502 (SF)
4.) 4536, 2705, 3202 (F)
5.) 3299, 2987, 2232 (QF)
6.) 2508, 5019, 3244 (QF)
7.) 3745, 2855, 2823 (QF)
8.) 3751, 2529, 3407 (QF)
Thanks for the website link.
No problem if you haven’t heard of the blue alliance you are in for a treat
Our media person recorded this match, and I have asked him for all of the raw match footage, so I will post this video when I get it (hopefully sometime in the next few days). I personally really want to see this match as well. After the match, our alliance was a little confused because the score shown seemed lower than it should have been. The head referee came to our alliance after discussing with the other refs and said that they had not scored one of our cycles real-time, and that the score shown before the screen went blank was still shorting us these points. I really hope that this didn’t effect your alliance’s strategy during play.
The 1 seed was an awesome competitor. 2498 and 2181 were great teams (we got the qualification high score with them) and 3082 rounded that alliance well. As a testament to 3082’s good defense, the 2705 driver was somewhat frustrated after match 1 because 3082 played such good defense on him. In the next matches, our team tried to counter your defense (with varying success).
We would love to see the video of the last semi-final match as well. Would it be possible for you to post it on thebluealliance? Congrats on your performance! You guys had an awesome bot and it was fun to be in the qualification high score match with you. Hopefully we will get to work together again at State (assuming we qualify).