CHS Platter
Week 2 Recap: Interestingly enough, fuel nearly made a difference. The week 2 DC event gave us some of the most nail biting, exciting, and interesting finals of the season. Teams continue to have a problem with snapping ropes, and this isn’t going to change until teams find the right ropes that won’t get cut by the sharp and unfinished field. For this week, spectators will continue to enjoy an endgame that is a bit more interesting than FIRST originally intended.
Interesting CHSy Fact: Despite not winning an event until 2017, Team 1885 ILITE Robotics has only missed CMP once since 2006. #thecurseisbroken #interesting
CHS Platter - Week Three - An Interesting Week
With the two events this week being the softest of the schedule, don’t expect an increase in play quality over last week. Fuel won’t be much of an x-factor, as finding consistent climbers up and down the serpentine drafts will determine how interesting the fights to 305 could be. At an already small event, 16 of the 30 teams competing in Hampton Roads are making their 2017 premiere. Those with experience will earn an early lead in the first rounds of matches and hopefully educate fellow alliance pilots well enough to result in fewer interesting disqualification chances of teams and alliances. Some Chesapeake teams have run into difficulty getting through inspection early on in their first events, having to cheese away their weight and features to get onto the field. A potential for early 2v3 contests on Saturday morning could result in some interesting rankings on Sunday afternoon.
Extra Interesting Prediction: CHScake finally makes eliminations interesting this week, but bonus RPs/Playoff points will still be impossible to come by.
Hampton Roads
Number of Registered Teams: 30
TBA page: https://www.thebluealliance.com/event/2017vapor
Livestream: https://livestream.com/LeeHartman/HRVAEvent
CHSyness: 40(-4)
The Favorites:
2363 (91) - Triple Helix joined previous partners Cougar Robotics and RTR Team Robotics in an interesting push into the finals at Haymarket in Week 1. There is talk of a shooter redesign and some improvements to their climber. If they can maintain consistent gear manipulation in Finals, they’re the clear favorites to win their home event.
**401 (84) **- After a down year in 2015, Copperhead Robotics had a strong comeback in 2016. This season looks to be continuing that trend. We see some strong fiber in the interesting CAD work they have completed since Blacksburg. Don’t be surprised to see 401 and 2363 team up to storm through the playoffs on Sunday.
435 (78) - A past perennial powerhouse of NC is climbing back to their old ways. The Robodogs are sure to stink up the standings and make district points interesting for the local teams.
1610 (74) - After going to the Championship every year since 2013, missing it in 2016 was interesting. With an improved active gear intake and faster climb, Blackwater looks to scoop up the points they need to qualify for the DCMP and hopefully stack up a few extra for a CMP qualification.
Others to watch for:
5546 (71) - Defending champions of this event, ART is a young team with a successful, if short, history. Making their 2017 debut without their old coach, they’re bringing an interesting looking bot with all the right features from Petersburg.
3258 (65) - A reliable center gear autonomous, passive gear mechanism, and climber will prove to be competitive again this week, though the the MADawgs driving style at Blacksburg was… interesting. Having already earned 47 district ranking points in week 1, this team is already close to securing an invitation to the DCMP.
3359 (45) - The host team has been racking up the medals in the district format. Winners last year at Doswell and Finalists in week 1 at Blacksburg, Royal Robotics is defending their home turf. Their climb is good and low goal dumper gets one consistent Fuel point, just enough to break match ties and make Playoffs interesting.
5804 (53) - Team TORCH is ready to light up the field at their first event of the season. Although they have not competed yet this season, 5804 won’t find themselves underprepared relative to the other competitors; TORCH understands what it takes to play at all levels of the FRC game and in their second season we expect them to come out of the gate on fire. One of the strongest teams yet to make their season debut, we’re sure their performance here will make the district’s season rankings very interesting.
Northern Maryland
Number of Registered Teams: 40
TBA page: https://www.thebluealliance.com/event/2017mdowi
Livestream: https://livestream.com/LeeHartman/NMDEvent
CHSyness: 40(-4)
The Favorites:
623 (79) - 9, 10, 4, 4… Those numbers are Cougar Robotics ranks at the end of qualifying rounds at their last 4 district and regional events. Given that they have already captained an alliance into the finals this season expect them to claw their way into another captain position this week. Having probably earned enough points to qualify them for the DCMP they can use this event to look towards interesting improvements for Week 6.
836 (87) - The PowerBees didn’t sting as hard in their first event as they did last season. After ranking 5th, they captained the #4 alliance which was knocked out in the SFs after 2 interesting matches with only 2 rotors started.
1629 (87) - Even with excellent drivers, GaCo has kept things interesting by choosing mecanum drive this year. Their gear manipulation is above average compared to other un-defended robots in the district, and their autonomous gear placement is solid. Since they already have a bid to District Championships due to a DCA win, will they be the difference-maker in Northern Maryland by spending time to tune and shoot fuel?
Others to watch for:
1111 (72) - The PowerBirds of Gryffindor fly into this event sporting the highest OPR of the teams in attendance. Last week 1111 continued their trend of ranking in the middle of the pack but got snatched up as the 1st pick of the #3 alliance.1111’s penchant for waiting in the wings during alliance selection can lead to interesting selections up and down the elimination bracket.
1895 (84) - With one of the faster and more reliable ‘passive’ gear placements in CHS, 1895 put up consistent gears and climbs in their Week 1 debut. While an event win has eluded them so far, look for Lambda-Corps to partner up and initiate Operation Interesting Crowbar on their opponents’ chances for victory.
4638 (75) - The Jagbots captained an alliance last week but had an early exit from the playoffs. This robot tops off the second tier of teams at this event, but they may be able to break into the top 5 if one of the favorites has an interesting event and falters. With another playoff appearance they will lock in a bid for the DCMP.
1418 (88) - Vae Victus’s week 1 debut showed one of the only reliable ground pickups at the event. Rumor has it they had to take it easy on their swerve in traffic due to bending axles and grinding gears. Combined with a climber that needs almost the full 30 seconds to capture and climb, look for Vae Victus to put forth a most monumentally-interesting effort to regain their dominance of last year.
