Here are our predictions for Week 6, including the first three district championships of 2016. We’d like to give a shoutout to Liam Fay from 2485 for writing the Arizona West and Silicon Valley predictions – thanks, Liam! While we’re wrapping up the 2016 season, we’d still love to hear from you if you have any tips for us, so send them to one of us if you have any juicy tidbits!
Every PNW DCMP so far has seen 1540 and 1983 walk away with Chairman’s blue banners, and both teams are hoping to continue this streak in the third year of PNW districts. 1540 won DCA at Wilsonville, their first event, but 1983 took two events to win DCA, getting the award at Central Washington. When combined with the Skunks’ 2015 Chairman’s season, needing a third district to win DCA, a group of younger teams is looking to end the 1540/1983 streak and grab one of three Chairman’s trophies available from the PNW championship. These teams include 2557 (DCMP RCA winners last year), 4911 (2 DCA wins in 2 years of eligibility), and 4125 (3 straight DCA wins). The other eligible teams are 3574, 1510, 2471, and 2980, and while these teams haven’t shown quite as much Chairman’s firepower as the others competing in Portland, don’t rule any of them out – PNW judges historically don’t like streaks.
NC DCMP is interesting as far as district championships go, since there are only four teams competing (less than most regionals), and there’s no clear favorite. 2655 has the most Chairman’s blue banners of any team competing (with three wins in nine years), but 2642 and 3506 are close behind with two apiece. Don’t count 3737 out, either – they’re fresh off a DCA win at the Campbell University/Johnston Community College event last week, so they’re hoping to continue their momentum with a win at DCMP.
The clear favorites heading into CHS DCMP are 1086, 1885, 1629, and 384. Each of these teams has 5 or 6 Chairman’s wins, giving each of them more wins than 116, 2363, and 4945 combined. Two of these teams will come home with Chairman’s banners, and although it might seem easy to count the latter three teams out due to their relative lack of Chairman’s wins, CHS judges are notorious for disliking streaks, so it’s very possible that one (or even two) of this latter group could win the RCA here.
Arizona West has a list of historically stellar Chairman’s teams (2468, 987, 1538) that are all ineligible. The current favorite is 2375, who won it here last year, though to do so they’ll have to prevent 4841 from upgrading the EI they won here last year. Another team to watch is 5539, whose RI award last year sets them up to be a successful team in the future. Hoping to revive their EI successes of years past is 2403, who have yet to win an RCA.
The Silicon Valley Regional is looking surprisingly open amongst teams that have not already won an RCA this year (those being 604 and 1868). The front runner seems to be 1700, coming off of an EI this year and last year. Other teams to watch include 2035 and 4159, who could revive the EI magic they found in 2014.
With 525 having already taken home an RCA at their home regional and 1816 forgoing their usual Twin Cities event, Minnesota 10,000 Lakes is looking almost as open as it was in 2012 for Chairman’s. This will open up some great opportunities for some of Minnesota’s rising teams to get their chance at the limelight. One of those teams is 3630, who took home an RCA here in 2012 and an Engineering Inspiration Award a couple weeks ago in Iowa. They’ll be going up against some great teams though, like 2502, who has upped their Chairman’s game dramatically in recent years and brought back an Engineering Inspiration award from their first outing in Duluth. We could also see a team such as 2052, who is traditionally more robot-focused, win the award.
Minnesota North Star looks to mostly be a duel between two fantastic teams: 2826 and 2169. Neither have qualified for the Championship event already, which means both will be looking to put on the best possible performance both on and off the field. There’s also a slightly less likely shot here for some teams that have been hunting the award recently-- 2177 and 2175, but the safe money is on one of the first two.
There are two teams who have already won the Chairman’s Award at this year’s Lone Star Regional, but you’ll have to go back to 2014 to find the last time another team won the award. Those two teams ar 3847, who won it here in 2014, and 624, who brought it back from the Alamo regional that same year. Aside from those two impressive teams, there’s an entire crop who either hasn’t won the award in the last four years or has only won Engineering Inspiration that are no doubt itching to win the it. Those teams include a one of this year’s Engineering Inspiration winners, 2881 and a couple of last year’s-- 3103 and 4731. Texas’s last regional of the season sure will be interesting.
The favorite at Windsor Essex Great Lakes is 771, the defending RCA winners with a three-year RCA streak. They’ve been really solid recently with the culture change awards, winning three EIs (including one divisional EI at Champs) and five Entrepreneurship Awards in the past five years. They’re up against a field including 772, 2014 RCA winners here, 1305, 6-time RCA winners at their last event of the year, and 1334, 2014 Waterloo RCA winners. Despite our prediction of 771 being the favorite, this is a very competitive regional for Chairman’s, and any of these teams could easily come away with a Chairman’s trophy.