WOW…someone should post a preview here, or something.
48 is excited, etc. etc. etc. you know the drill. This is a deep, diverse event. Let’s talk it up.
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Lots of stuff to talk about at this one.
i think one of the most interesting alliances that can come of buckeye is a 4028 / 5254 alliance
4028 is a perennial WOW powerhouse that comes in and out every year with astonishing robots, but just like 5254, they are on the verge of having a historical finalist streak of their own (6 finalist awards in the last 4 years… my goodness!)
as far as outsiders go there’s a few well-known new yorker teams coming in - 1126 SPARX, who actually happened to team up with 5254 at Finger Lakes (to inevitably lose in the semifinals), 1507 (QFs at Finger Lakes) and 1559 (ALSO QFs at finger lakes).
we’ve seen those 3 new york teams pretty consistently down at buckeye in the last few years and they’ve always had a good showing
now this is a week 5 event so a decent majority of the teams are coming in with at least 1 event of experience under their belt and a decent amount of improvement in iteration
we saw 48 and 379 improve some of their mechanisms at GPR, mainly floor intakes for cargo which seemed to help them in the long run. 48 could be looking at a whopping three (3!!!) regional wins if they play their cards right, although this event is looking to be as deep and or deeper than their previous events, Midwest and GPR.
another interesting team to peek at is 3641 “The Flying Toasters,” a Michigan team that’s already gone to the finals twice and won one of them at the Detroit district event. They boast some pretty great cycle times and impressive driving, and it’ll be interesting to see if Michigan teams can come down and win 2 seperate WOW events in the same year (with 302 coming in and dominating at MVR).
Finally, the dark horses at the regional have to be the ones that have been (comparably) quiet throughout the first half of the season - 5413, 2252, 4145, 1014, 120. These bots have all shown formidable cycle times when their mechanisms work well. With all of them having had an entire event under their belt, it’ll be interesting to see what a bit of driver practice between those events will do for their overall stats.
Overall I think Buckeye is probably the deepest WOW event of this year with a lot of stories and lots of interesting strategies. I’ll personally be rooting for Ohio teams to protect home turf!
Edit 1: formatting
Edit 2: minor fact corrections
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Thank you, “someone”. 
Y’all better watch out for 7043, I heard they’re pretty good… (post brought to you by 7043’s team captain, come say hi pls)
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Very excited for Buckeye, along with the rest of Team 695. I’ve been scouting teams prior to competition, and the depth is outstanding. There are a multitude of good cyclers, defenders, and climbers. Friday and Saturday are going to feature some really good matches, and I’m excited to be watching from behind the bot cart.
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By the way, this logo makes for the BEST. TROPHIES. EVER. because those pointy lightning bolts can be used for home defense in a pinch:
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Looking through recent history, teams seemed to get 9-10 qualification matches normally. Is there any reason this year there’s only 8?
EDIT: Max clarified below, TBA was glitching and the 9th match didn’t show up on our schedule page. They do show up on frc-events, so check there for the correct schedule.
https://frc-events.firstinspires.org/
Matches 1, 28, 49, 51, 58, and 86 are missing from the blue alliance so we didn’t see our 9th at first. I’d recommend the FIRST official site for a bit until that’s fixed
What’s up with all the yellow cards? It feels like the last five matches have all had at least one team with a prior yellow card. That’s not normal right?
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It’s been a lot of instances of G20, all day.
From what I can gather the referee crew is applying a particularly strict interpretation of G20 without effectively communicating their intent to do so to teams, which one event official actually admitted to.
It is causing quite a bit of consternation to the teams that are being affected by it to the point where several have filed some very passionate NMIR forms in protest.
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How can one make it ugly when they’re constantly getting called for the smallest of contact inside frame perimeter?
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“G20. Stay out of other ROBOTS. Initiating deliberate or damaging contact with an opponent ROBOT on or inside the vertical extension of its FRAME PERIMETER, including transitively through a GAME PIECE, is not allowed.
Violation: TECH FOUL and YELLOW CARD.
High speed accidental collisions may occur during the MATCH and are expected. Generally, ROBOTS extend elements outside of the FRAME PERIMETER at their own risk. A ROBOT with an element outside its FRAME PERIMETER may be penalized under G20 if it appears they are using that element to purposefully contact another ROBOT inside its FRAME PERIMETER.”
G20 is not a common penalty. It’s not often that a robot deliberately spears into the unprotected component of another robot. It’s not often that a robot gets damaged (significantly) by defensive collisions. The manual even states an exception for high speed, accidental collisions, which is what 695 has gotten penalized for. I can’t say that I’m happy with the head referees rulings on G20, that’s for sure.
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Inside the frame perimeter? Try simply, “on”.
“Make it ugly” - to play, hard passionate, LEGAL defense within the boundaries of the rules. To not fear contact or public admonishment from those who would have the FIRST Robotics Competition turn into a demo or exhibition. To CONTINUE to advocate for and play said defense and defend the right to play it.
Today, the Buckeye referee crew decided that a team would get a G20 (tech foul/yellow card) if any form of bumper to bumper defense caused contact, no matter how slight, to the outside surface of an exposed frame member unprotected by bumper material. This is the most strict application of “on” the vertical extension of its frame perimeter and additionally presumes that any robot doing this is “deliberately” trying to miss the other robot’s bumpers and enter that area. It also ignores any aspect of the blue box discussing “accidental collisions”. It also vastly diverges from what I and other teams have experienced in our previous competitions this season. In the words of another mentor, “I haven’t seen this rule called this way in my XX years of participating in FRC”.
This ruling essentially makes a robot with 4 short corner bumpers the most indefensible robot in the history of FRC. Maybe my team will be making some alterations before Detroit!
Now I will say one team showed me extensive damage inside their frame perimeter (dented 1.5" bore cylinder body, blown gauge and fittings), and a robot was flagged for it. Of course, damage caused by a robot INSIDE another robot’s frame perimeter should always be punished. But incidental contact with an exposed frame member in the course of normal, close-quarters, bumper zone interactions?
Another time, similar damage went unpenalized because the referees “didn’t see it”. Well maybe if you weren’t spending so much time looking to send Joe Everybot down the river for trying to contribute to an alliance with normal, typical pushing defense, you’d be able to discern and catch more egregious violations of G20 - which is WHY THE RULE EXISTS IN THE FIRST PLACE.
But do not lament - defensive robots of the world unite (this is all ironic because all we’ve done today is play offense). Adapt and overcome, my people - not all frames are exposed. Usually the sides and rear of the robot are enclosed - take aim with all legal forms of passionate defense you can muster. Never let the ugly die!
And in the meantime, if you were directly impacted by a call, you may elect to let FIRST know through official channels that you do not appreciate a sudden policy change being foisted upon you at the last minute in a nonexistently-communicated fashion.
Disclaimer - my team has not directly received a G20 penalty, nor has a team defending us received one (or not received one they should have based upon the current crazy rule interpretation - try injecting that into my reality and see how I react, folks - fun times). Therefore, I have not personally submitted the above form (presumably to report adverse behavior by the head referee). I just know plenty of people have. And I didn’t even suggest they do it!
When I am not the angriest person involved in the matter, you know the situation is screwy.
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Honestly it’d be pretty cool to see the main three teams who are always a powerhouse on the field in WOW get together as an alliance, 48, 4028, 5254
If only 5254 was WOW.
There are quite a few robots playing very well here (albeit due in part to relaxed defense because of the I’m sure very temporary fears of teams about retribution for making it ugly). WOW and otherwise. It should be an interesting playoffs.
Yeah if only they were, we gotta get a WOW alliance out there to dominate.
I’ve just heard that complaints about very similar matters have occurred at SBPLI and Utah, at a minimum, so it appears this is not an isolated incident. Connecting dots, perhaps referees are being commanded to adjust their methods based on behind the scenes “examples” related to G20 being delivered from on high??? Sure would be nice if someone could inform the teams, ya know? 
Hmmm this one’s gonna get SPICY, methinks.
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They’re letting the truly-guilty hide among the innocent, cheapening the impact of the yellow cards by handing them out like candy for nonviolent, legal actions.
That is one thing that is TRULY ugly.