We almost did this my senior year as a driver for 364. We were planning on going to some regional in Ohio after losing Bayou by “a noodle throw” in the finals. Unfortunately the idea got shot down by the school administration, and the seniors decided to go volunteer at worlds. Was an awesome experience.
That said, yeah. I’d keep an eye on the team list for the Rocket City regional… 
2481 will be a popular team mentioned and they are extremely deserving of the mentions. According to our scouting data at St. Louis, they were just 3.3 points/match behind 1756 and .2 behind 1706 (and 6.5 points more than the next most)-- both of which are probably within the margin of error for scouting data and randomness associated with the small sample of qualification matches.
I’ve had a lot of history with them while on 1732 – we faced off in the playoffs in 2010, 2012, 2013, 2016, 2018 and won Wisconsin together in 2014. I’m a huge fan of their team and a part of me was hoping we could pair up and help them qualify but the rankings didn’t allow it.
I know they mentioned the remote possibility of signing up for another regional to pull a 1477 (or a 1625 from 2008), so hopefully there is still some hope we see their robot that was built for the triple traversal and the highest levels of play compete at the championship.
No doubt 4728 will be a miss at Champs this year. They have built one of the best robots in Minnesota this year and yet suffered a similar fate as my team - we competed in two highly competitive regionals (LSR and GNR). The scorched earth that happened at GNR sealed both of our fates at that regional; I would have loved to play alongside ROCORI in the playoffs. This team has been on an upward trajectory since 2017 qualifying for Detroit Champs in 2019 and '20 (RIP). The MN State Championship will be a better field with them in it. I would love to go into the making of this team and how it has become the team it is - but it is not my story to tell.
Another team here in MN - and another CMNRH team - that has yet to qualify for Champs is 7028. They were the #4 seed at GNR that paired with the #2 5913 in the playoffs. This robot is by far their best to date. STMA’s Binary Battalion has another shot at 10k Lakes Week 6. However, this field is starting to stack up as perennial powerhouse 2052 will also be competing at this event. Along with KnightKrawler, BEAST (2022) coming off their WI Regional win is also at 10kLR. As are 2823 (SF at NLR), 3630 (QF at GNR), Iowa’s perennial powerhouse 525 (QF at IAR), and the darkhorse 2502 (Winner of NLR) - something tells me they have more things to showcase at 10kLR. 7028 has something to prove and my money is on them to push for a blue banner at 10kLR.
There are a lot of good robots that didn’t qualify from Israel this year, I don’t want to say the numbers because Im going to miss some of them.
Lets just say that in the DCMP, the 34th ranked robot had 2 avg rp, out of 40 robots.
Some good traversal climb robots didn’t even get picked in this event.
Not one of the best team to miss championships but it is noteworthy that this will be the first time in the history that 191 has not made it to the championship. They have been to every one (not including the pandemic years, of course).
I wonder what other legacy teams will be on the outside looking in come April 20th.
I suggest 930 also as they have improved every event this year.
190 is locked out of NE DCMP, and so will not be able to qualify out of NE, and they lost their regional so they won’t be competing at champs this year.
Two sets of FRC Judges have only seen Creativity when they looked at 2481. I see Engineering Inspiration. The engineering process 2481 used to integrate a highly imaginative climb with top-tier performance in all other areas of their robot is not simply creative. It is inspiring.
I think EI is too often treated by Judge panels as “2nd place Chairmans”.
I would describe that as a robot deserving Excellence in Engineering - unless we’re just going by the name of awards and not what FIRST has defined the description of the award to be
Yeah, I really wish there’d been wild cards for San Diego. Would’ve got us into the champs. Thanks for noticing us though 
(I’m the 3255 driver this year btw)
EI is not really about having “super awesome robot”. It “Celebrates outstanding success in advancing respect and appreciation for engineering within a team’s school or organization and community.” So, it is similar to Chairmans.
There isn’t really a “super awesome robot” award. There are several awards that celebrate aspects of that (Autonomous, Creativity, Excellence in Engineering, Industrial Design, Innovation in Controls, Quality), but no real overall award.
I guess they assume that “super awesome robot” wins the competition.
I expect Judges to look behind the robot and see the process. Yes, EI is not about the robot.
Definitely agree 2481 deserves a spot at worlds. They have an awesome robot. Hope they find a way to get there!
Thanks all for the kind words. We’re looking into our options, and hopefully our 2022 season isn’t over yet.
Both would’ve made with the finalist wildcards in play. But if you want to be the best you got to beat who’s in front of you. Wildcards are tough this year as well at some events.
Israel had a bunch of great robots this year (way more than the 9 that will be in Houston), but IMO the best team not advancing is is 7845 8BIT. They were finalists at both of their districts (including the extremely stacked ISR3) and captains of the 6th alliance at ISCMP. Unfortunately they got knocked out in quarterfinals by the eventual finalist alliance, meaning they just missed out on advancing.
Fusion is stout. Hopefully they can find a way in somehow.
So 1477 in 2013 just continued to go to regionals until they finally won one. I was on 3937 during 2013 and they were at 2 events we were at including the Razorback regional. If I remember correctly this was the only time that regional was in Fayetteville. Arkansas regional is now held in Searcy, hosted by 3937.