We are looking forward to great second year event with a pretty stacked field:
Some of the stats from this season for our entrants: (by my last count)
- 6 Regional Winners
- 3 Engineering Inspiration Awards
- 1 Chairman’s Award
- 1 Rookie All Star Award
Plus 11 other teams already won awards this season.
Two out of three of our 2017 Winners are back, as well as
last year’s Chairman’s Award winner.
This regional is going to be crazy! This year robots are constantly improving every week, meaning week 6 robots will be way better than when teams won a few weeks ago. Also, there are so many possible wild card spots. Can’t wait to compete with/against you all tomorrow!
P.S. Please make sure my team gets the whole Wisconsin experience, I am the only Minnesota/Wisconsin/Michigan person on the team and can’t wait to see my teammates understand the wonders of the Upper Midwest!
Uh, wait a minute please. We can do without the Winter part of the full Wisconsin experience. The team has already had to sleep in the bus (in a Walmart parking lot) on the way home from a tournament in 2014; no need to repeat that. 
I’d just as soon have clear roads upon which to travel. 
Wisconsin hospitality & friendliness, sure. We loved that when were were there last year. We’re looking forward to being back; it was a well-run tournament in a fine facility. And the volunteer food was excellent!
Wisconsin is happy to provide the full experience without the Winter effects. If people have not checked the weather La Crosse is receiving somewhere between 4-10 inches of snow today ending about 4 am tomorrow morning.
Lucky to have chilly but clear weather for the actual event, per current forecasts.
The inaugural Seven Rivers Regional was wonderful last year. Looking forward to be back.
How exactly is “4-10 inches of snow” NOT a “winter effect” ? :eek: You’ve got a small invading army from down here in MO coming; some of these folks may not have ever seen 10 inches of snow at one time. At least you up there actually have snow plows & know how to use them, so if the snow really ends at 4am I’m sure the roads will be fine by the time we get there. And hopefully the parking lot & loading area for the convention center.
4-10 inches is nothing, especially in above 0 degree weather! Come in January next time and you’ll get the full experience
All seriousness, road crews are pretty good, it should be taken care of before the regional, looking forward to seeing everyone there again! We had a great time last year 
Lookin forward to it! We’ve seen about 11" around central Illinois since spring started, so we’ll feel right at home!
Also, yes, this regional will be stacked. Should be a great time!
On behalf of our wonderful alliance, 2826 and 2830, thanks everyone for an incredible regional experience!
Seriously. This is the most fun intense and fun regional I have seen so far, hands down!
7RR is a great indicator of how things will shake out during the divisional play-offs at both split-champs. There were so many great teams at this event - and so many that got bogged down in quals. But after watching this, Colorado, and Iowa, it seems apparent that divisions at champs may not be dominated solely by the #1 alliances if they don’t think outside of the box.
I knew this regional would be absolutely crazy but no idea it would ever be like this! A 8 vs 6 finals match certainly doesn’t occur very often and watching a #8 alliance win is something I can cross of my bucket list.
Congrats to 1736, 2826 and 2830 on an excellent win and congrats to 6237, 4655 and 2169 on playing your hearts out in finals. Congrats to 2169 for winning chairman’s; from knowing your team for only 3 days I can see why you won and how special your team is. To 7021, to play with a rookie team like you is a dream, can’t wait to see what you do at world’s and next year. Finally to 1986: congratulations on your EI win, I guess we are 2018 Kansas City EI buddies (1730 as well).
I so wish that this event was still going on and sad that 1775 won’t play/see many of you at worlds as we are heading to Houston while many of you are heading to Detroit. The venue and play (as well as views) at this competition was great and (if the lottery system permits) hope to be at WILA 2019!
Thanks so much! It was such a joy to be a part of this regional - so many amazing teams and robots and some crazy good matches.
Hope to see you guys next year!
Thank you to all of the tournament organizers and volunteers. My thing has nothing but positive things to say about this event.
A huge thank you to teams 2826 and 1736 for picking us and sticking with us through our issues in the semifinals. Through 10 years in FRC and 4 winning alliances, I can honestly say that this has been my favorite alliance to be a part of. Especially this year, winning a regional from the eighth seed is nearly impossible, and it took a very special group of teams to pull that off.
To the finalist alliance of teams 6237, 4655 and 2169, you guys were an incredibly strong alliance and I can’t wait to see what you can do at Champs.
Lastly, the reactions and congratulations we got from some of the teams that we beat out along the way, specifically from 1756 and 930 reminded me a lot of why I love FIRST. When I think about what Gracious Professionalism is, this is an almost perfect example.
We (FRC 1986) normally don’t travel to the same location in consecutive seasons. We just couldn’t stay away. Our 2nd trip reinforced how awesome the town, volunteers, teams, and event space are. This was a cool experience to be a part of, and we’re glad we came.
Walking in we felt like the event was stacked enough to provide great scalers deep into the draft, and that seeding #1 would not be necessary to win. We still wanted that #1 seed however, and worked our tails off in the pit helping alliance partners rebuild mechanisms, or develop autonomous programs, as well as brainstorming strategies to feature everyone’s strengths. A big thank you to each of our qual partners for all the sweat that went into that achievement.
We went with the climb strategy that didn’t require any special features for a partner to help secure the “Face the Boss” ranking point, but super impressed with the large number of teams that where able to climb independently in tandem with each other. I think the “Face the Boss” bonus was earned 27 times. When your region is this strong you can depend on a significant number of alliance partners to come through for you. (Team Scream’s, FRC 4255, Buddy Bar was also well suited to this regions style of play. Well done.)
Thank you to Argos (FRC 1756) for accepting our invitation to the #1 alliance, and for all your scouting and strategy collaboration. A classy team with a great tradition of excellence. Also wanted to give some props to our other partner, F.U.N (FRC 6630). Loved the details in the wiring system, robust drive, and consistent production on the field. We played it close, coming within a climb in the first match, and within the margin of penalties in the second. Thanks for leaving it all out on the field.
#8 is no Cinderella. 1736, 2826, and 2830 were all excellent robots all weekend, and an overwhelming force together. Wave saved their best matches of the tournament for Elim play, Casserole did a marvelous job switching roles between vault and scale responsibilities, and Riverside kept a steady supply of cubes coming to the scale. This alliance kept a clean stack most matches allowing them to go 3 cubes high on a losing scale when necessary. With great respect I tip my cap to this winning alliance.
Thank you KING TeC for inviting us to spaghetti dinner, and helping to establish some great friendships between our two teams. You helped make this a very fun weekend, and the RCA was well deserved.
We were honored to receive the Regional Engineering Inspiration Award. Both the prestige of having our culture changing efforts recognized, and the accompanying grant from NASA will help push us to new heights and opportunities. Looking forward to seeing what our kids accomplish next.
Thank you so much! As first-time attendees of the 7 Rivers Regional, we were absolutely in love with the regional as a whole. The staff was excellent, the pits were organized and near the field, the practice field was the best one I’ve seen at a regional, concessions and nearby food was excellent, I could go on for hours about it, so a huge shoutout to the 7 Rivers Committee.
Furthermore, the community of teams at the regional was unmatched. I did not have a single unpleasant encounter with another team. Everybody was kind and supportive, everybody helped everybody, and laughs were shared. An Argos mentor was willing to spend some time answering some of my questions about encoders, Stateline lent us zipties, the list goes on. I just hope we were able to return the favor :o ! I have never seen such a glowing example of GP in my FIRST history.
A huge shoutout to 1986 and 6630 to agreeing to meet us for our various team dinners throughout the weekend. They were excellent experiences and we definitely plan on coordinating more of those in the future!
The 1736, 2826, 2830 alliance was incredible and played a great series of matches with us in finals, and kept their sense of humor throughout the whole thing! I remember joking around with Wave’s HP in the Portal right before Finals 3. That takes a special person to laugh with the finalist alliance right before the match, so huge shoutout to him.
Without a doubt, the RCA was a huge honor, and I would like to thank the FIRST community as a whole for giving us the grounds in which to change our culture the way we have. Thank you to everybody involved for everything you have done.
Overall, we couldn’t have been more pleased with 7 Rivers. It was an excellent event and we hope to see more of it in the future! Thank you to everybody involved.
It was truly our pleasure! It was a blast getting to know your team, and work with you on and off the field! Hope to be playing with you again soon!
This is a wonderful compliment, especially coming from a team with your history and caliber! Thank you so much!
The GP we experienced with every alliance partner and opponent throughout was truly exceptional. Wave and Argos both provided invaluable strategy input throughout the process, we are greatly indebted to them. And yes, all three robots kept a very consistent output, peaking at just the right time to make wonderful things happen. No round was won without a good fight! I know very well how heated competition can get, and I’m so thankful that throughout how well everyone responded. King Tec, your enthusiasm and cheering is something our pit crew is going to remember for a long time -a beautiful example of what this competition is all about. Our students have taken away so much from this experience - I’m so glad they have seen hard work pay off in this way. Like I said, truly couldn’t have asked for anything better. Once in a lifetime!
I single out the teams I remember interacting with personally. But it takes every team to make the regional as good as it was. Thank you all so much for being there, and competing with the utmost grace! I hope we can return soon!
I have to say, I absolutely loved Robot Casserole’s style. The way way you all are so into your theme really inspired me to try to come up with something good for us. We currently don’t really have a “thing”… too much other stuff to worry about as a rookie team
Thanks to everyone there for helping make this an awesome regional. We loved every second of it, and we’re looking forward to coming back next year.
Can’t wait to see some of you at worlds!
It was never planned, to be honest. So our internal legend goes, it was 11:00PM on the night that the application to form the team was due, and no one had any good ideas. Finally some student blurts out “My teacher told us that Peoria IL has the highest per-capita consumption of green bean casserole!”. And so it started.
We’ve really grown into it over the years - a few key students and mentors over the years add bits and pieces to the overall brand. It’s fun to teach students about it every year, and to show how you turn the theme into something recognizable, which the team stands for!
And yes! I’ll be dropping by your pit for sure! Maybe even see ya on the fields, we shall see
This is our second season at Seven Rivers and we will be back. I just wish the weather was a bit warmer this time. :eek:
One of your mentors came up to us and mentioned that he was a 1990 graduate of Kiel High School, which is where our team is based. I just wish I could remember his name.
Also both our teams had the Dean’s List finalists, which I thought was pretty cool.
Looking at the web cast on TBA you cant truly see how crazy the regional was.
Here are all of the quad view videos we have