Similar to last week, expect the district predictions on Thursday.
Orange County is looking a bit thin for old-school Chairman’s favorites, but that just means more opportunities for someone new to step up-- someone like 2485, who is hoping to bring home a Chairman’s Award after winning EI at San Diego. To be sure they’re going up against 3476, who will be trying to make two years of Chairman’s wins into a streak, but it’ll be interesting to see if a new face comes out on top.
South Florida has a quite a few teams coming in from out of state that look ready to take home the Chairman’s Award, such as 11, who have been known to bring RCAs home from their out-of-district excursions. There’s also 694 coming down from New York, who took home an EI this year after a long dry spell since their 2010-12 streak. Stuypulse might be ready to come back in a big way. One of the Florida teams that might have a shot at the award is 3627, The Jungle Robotics, who brought home an RCA in 2013. As a final out of state candidate, **141 **is making the trip all the way from Michigan, and while they’ve only won DCAs recently, they might have a shot at bringing back their first RCA since 2004.
The frontrunners at the **Hawaii **regional are likely to be team 3880, Tiki Techs, who have the best Chairman’s and EI history of any team at this event outside the Hawaiian Kids, and 3008, Team Magma, who brought home a RCA from the inaugural Australia Regional last year. On the outside, we’ve got **2522 **visiting from Washington, who brought home an RCA at the first PNW Championship in 2014, but has had a bit of a dry spell since.
Only a couple of teams at our first **Idaho **regional have brought home RCA’s in the past few years. One of those is Idaho’s own 3562, LiveWire, who have brought home RCAs from California and Colorado in the past. Another is 399, who has a little more history, but otherwise essentially matches LiveWire’s record in the recent past. On the list of teams who have recently brought home EI awards and are looking to upgrade are 701, 1622, and 4009.
The 20th (!) **Midwest **Regional is going to have plenty of teams in the running for its Chairman’s Award, with especially great local talent. Last year, **2338 **and **2039 **both brought home RCAs from Illinois regionals, but neither has done so this year. Look for both to come out swinging at Midwest. An out of state team that might have a shot is 375, Robotics Plague, who took home the award at last year’s NYC Regional. On the outside, we’ve got a couple of teams that are looking to bring home an RCA to match their EIs-- **4329 **and 379.
The far and away favorite at Las Vegas has to be 987, who may have found a rhythm after their first win outside of Las Vegas last year. Going up against them will be 1515, who has brought home a few RCA and EI awards for the last few years. On the outside we have 60, who brought home EI at this event last year and is no doubt looking for an RCA win now.
Long Island is an interesting regional for Chairman’s-- very few teams that win Chairman’s here win it again at the same event. One of the few teams that has broken that trend is 329, who has only brought home EI recently, but might be a solid contender. 353, POBots, last won RCA in 2014 at the NYC regional, and are likely to be looking for another award. Another 2014 winner, 527, will also likely be looking for an RCA win. Last year’s winners, 1156, will also be making a return trip looking for a repeat.
Most of the competitors at Queen City are a few years out from their last RCA or DCA win-- except for 3504, who won an RCA at last year’s Buckeye regional, and 245, who took home a DCA at Traverse City. Outside of them, we have a whole bunch of teams that won in ‘14 or ‘13-- including 128, 337, 1939, **2016 **all fit that bill. It’ll be interesting to see if the Girls of Steel can make a streak against the strong field.
With two teams already having won an RCA this season, **Waterloo **is looking like a duel between **2056 **and **4039 **for the Chairman’s Award-- both are excellent teams that took one home last year, but only one team can walk away with the Waterloo RCA.
Festival de Robotique FRC a Montreal has quite a few recent winners that will be taking a shot at the RCA-- but none that took one home last year. **1334 **took home the award in Waterloo in ‘14, while **3158 **took home on in Mexico City the same year, and **3386 **took home an RCA at this event as well that year. Bubbling under the last few years is 3990, who has already taken home EI this year and will be looking for Chairman’s at their home event. Only slightly further removed is 296, who won RCA here in ‘13.
Knoxville’s biggest competition for the Smoky Mountains Chairman’s Award seems to come from out of state-- **1710 **is coming in hot off a wins at their events for the last four (!) years, but they’ll have some competition from 1912, looking to revive their 2010-13 streak, and 1986, who won it at Central Illinois back in 2014.
Hub City has some great in-state teams competing for the Chairman’s Award, but most of them haven’t actually won an RCA in a while. **418 **however has been taking home a couple of EI awards recently, which might prime them for an RCA win, and while **1817 **didn’t bring anything home at Alamo, they’ve been known to perform better at Hub City, which is their home regional. Another team that’s been performing well recently is 1987– they last won an RCA back in 2012, but they’ve still been performing well in other categories.