Week 1 Recap - A Plethora of Penalties
Penalties again proved to be a major part of Week 1 events, with several teams falling victim to a G6 red card for throwing a hatch cover. Teams with arms and elevators should take care to avoid letting go of covers too early, as any greater than normal flight can be a target for a card.
In Haymarket, threat of snow compressed the Sunday schedule resulting in the last round of qualification catches being cut. Qualifications saw liberal usage of cargo as the primary point mechanism, followed up by L3 HAB points. Eliminations had plenty of drama, with a few yellow cards, 1 red card for forceful ejection of a hatch from the field, plenty of defense, and several matches decided by just 1 point. In Semifinals #4505 and #5549 turned up the heat with impressive driving and defending against the two dominant scorers of their respective opposing alliances, taking each SF set to 3 matches. Finals came down to two sets of scoring powerhouses that used different strategies: 1 seed 612/2363/1731 vs 2 seed 614/1418/6543. The 2nd seed sent a defender to harass the lowest-scoring bot of the other alliance, effectively making Finals a contest between the 4 top-scoring bots at the event. Ultimately victory was decided by just 1 point in both F-2 and F-3, including 1731âs last-second placement of cargo and full send to HAB Level 1 in F-3.
Meanwhile in Deep Run, the normal players took control of the show with 4 of the 6 (7?) finalist teams correctly predicted by the CHS Platter. As expected for Week 1, Qualifications scores were dominated by Hab points. This event did feature one full Rocket and 4RP Unicorn qualification match put on by 1262 and 1610, one of only 19 such matches during all of Week 1. #346 ran away with the 1 seed gaining 12 extra RP by having their Hab 3 climb working early and often. The winning alliance of 346/1262/539/6882 seemed to breeze through the playoffs even after a snafu in the quarterfinals gained the entire alliance a yellow card and calling a backup bot in (6882 replaced 539) before semifinals. The finalist alliance of 384/1610/3359 had a tougher road to the finals from the 3 seed, having to get past strong 6 and 2 alliances. Both finalist alliances implemented strategies of 2 offense and 1 defense bot but with Sparkyâs climber broken their alliance was no match for the offensive power of 346/1262.
Interesting CHSy Facts:
- Between both events, the only elims upset happened when 3 seed upset 2 seed in Richmond.
- This was the first time that 2363 and 1731 ever paired up in the elimination rounds
- 1262 has been a Finalist or Winner at least once every season since the switch to Districts.
- 1 full rocket resulting in 1 Unicorn match so far in CHS.
CHS Platter - Week 2 - Rising Crust
While Bethesda may be the weakest event on paper in the district this season, it features the top team in CHS along with some rising stars. The record low CHSyness score is likely to lead to some interesting dynamics between the top teams and the rest of the field, with Alliance 1 likely to be one of the few finalists able to avoid a third match on the way to the banner. MDBET also managed to lose a few points of CHSyness during Week 1, dropping this event even lower in the table. This is also the first event for all but three teams, adding to the CHSy mess.
What exactly is CHSyness? Weâre glad you asked. CHSyness is based off elimination selection position and elimination round participation over all district/regional events over the past 3 seasons (including this season).
Bethesda:
Number of Registered Teams: 36
TBA page: https://www.thebluealliance.com/event/2019mdbet
PeachPits: http://2019mdbet.firstchesapeake.org
Livestream: Primary, Quad View
CHSyness: 6.04
Extra Sharp Prediction:
Winning alliance of 1885, 4472, and 2912
The Favorites:
1885 (22.17) - In 2017 ILITE decided they were done with their Event Winner drought. Theyâve gone on to win ž of their district events and topped it off with a District Championship win last season. If last year is any indication, ILITE will come out of the gate slow and steady, then ramp up intensity as the event progresses. Rumored to have many photos of a non-purple bot, we expect âthat purple teamâ to come into Week 2 with a full-feature machine and plenty of drive practice.
4472 (17.50) - 25th > 13th > 4th. Over the past 3 seasons SuperNOVAâs average rank at district events has done nothing but improve. This year they sport a robot that can address almost every game challenge, including one of the only compliant hatch mechanisms weâve seen thus far. With an event win in each of the past two seasons, and one of the better reveal videos weâve seen for CHS so far, we expect these rising stars to be in position to captain an alliance on Sunday and push for their 3rd district win.
Others to watch for:
5115 (15.83) - Regional ranks (42, 56); District ranks (8, 8, 7, 7, 17, 16). We think itâs safe to say the Knight Riders have embraced the district format. They have promised a release video but weâve yet to see anything.
5587 (15.00) - Titan Robotics has had a very positive winning record for two straight years, and are hungry to make it further than ever into the season. Their 2019 robot looks like a pretty solid hatch specialist, and the drivers look to have had plenty of practice. After seeing how dominant cargo was in Week 1, we will see if Titan adapts to the game or finds partners to fill in their gaps. Theyâve been able to grab the 1 rank 3 times previously but have not been able to bring home a win, theyâll have their chance at this event.
2537 (13.00) - Boasting what is quite possibly the largest sprocket ever seen in FRC and a magnet gripper that is sure to attract some attention, the Space RAIDers have quietly ranked high at their district events over the years but have only been able to pull in one win over the past 3 years. They did top off their season last year with a trip to the finals at the DCMP and with what appears to be the intent to climb theyâll be hoping to climb the ranks this week.
Hot takes from reveal videos and other inside info:
This data was gathered from social media, ChiefDelphi, and other publicly-available means. The Platter appreciates that these videos were mostly business and some fun - without all of the fluff from shaky-cam âhighlightâ nonsense that plagues reveal videos these days. These are in numerical order.
449 (10.83) - A duck bill gripper should help them quackly grab and deploy Hatch Panels. Thankfully, this Blair Robot Project machine is tall enough to not escape through the field border.
1389 (6.83) - ÂŻ_(ă)_/ÂŻ Just wait until you see it, youâll understand. Weâre not sure what The Body Electric is up to.
1727 (6.17) - We see a low Hatch placer, a Cargo mechanism capable of scoring in the Cargo Ship, and a lift cylinder to get REX to Hab 2. Donât count this archetype out - it was the dominant scoring style in Haymarket.
5945 (11.67) - 4 LARGE cylinders, do you even lift, bro? Weâre not quite sure exactly how Absolute Control will control the Cargo.
Season Platter Prediction Results:
- There will be an average of 73 pizza boxes brought into events each week. (Current average: 74.011899889991197253 PB/Event/Week)
- There will be 3 new CHS District prediction accounts this season, and a corresponding increase in cheese puns. (One down, two to go)
- VAHAY - 1731, 2363, and
339 - VAGLE -
384, 1262, and1793
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Want to see your team mentioned in the coming weeks? Make sure to upload a robot photo to TBA so we can check you out!
