There are 5 Michigan districts this week and I’ll take a look at each event, as well as rank each event. This is Rank 2 for 2023 Week 3, Standish-Sterling.
Standish-Sterling District
Last Year Winners (N/A)
Favorites:Now here is an event that I am looking forward to, obviously not the most given it comes in at Rank 2 for the week, but with 4 teams who have been on my Top 25 list across the season, including two current top 10s, what’s not to love. Let’s start with the pairing that I see winning Standish-Sterling, 1506-Metal Muscle and 302-The Dragons. 1506 was the Rank 1 at Kettering 1, and finished with a near perfect 16-1 for the event. They put up an average of nearly 130 points in the playoffs, with the help of 5460 and 8728, and are looking to make it 2 banners and continue their absolute dominance in qualifying. 302 did not have as near of a perfect weekend, but still finished as the number 1 at Jackson. They did lose in the first round of playoffs to the 8 Seed, but fought back and met that very same 8 Seed in the Finals; which they won in two tightly contested games. Metal Muscle at Rank 6 and the Dragons at Rank 8, should be making a push for my personal top 5 in my end of week rankings, but who knows, they could even take a shot at the top spot. I had two more robots with good showings in 2023, but I’ve decided to go with a debut team, 4003-Trisonics. Trisonics won both of their districts last year, St.Joseph and West Michigan, but with two top 10 teams at Standish-Sterling, it is hard to see if they can beat the teams with proven success. However there is no doubt they could best both of them, with 2 Einstein trips and 1 MSC Championship in the past 3 Seasons.
Contenders: The top two Contenders have a lot of history this season, as they were the main components of the second alliance at Escanaba in week 1, we have the Captain 5505-V2-Volts Squared and their first pick, 4391-BraveBots. Both teams had great showings but failed to win, settling for the silver medal, unlike two of our Favorites. Between 5505’s floor pickup and 4391’s impressive high cone, cone possession and balance auto; they look to be towards the front of the pack, but another partnership might not be as favorable when considering the high ceiling of the favorites. My last Contender is a team I have been looking forward to, 3641-The Flying Toasters. The perennial Worlds competitor failed to win a single banner last season, but is definitely no stranger to them. Both Chairman’s and District Wins have them in the double digits of banner counts, so eyes will be on them to add two more to that collection on Saturday.
Dark Horses:
548-Robostangs-4 at Milford, 3 Seed Captain, 4th
7211-Hollywood
Playoff Teams to Make a Jump:
245-Adambots-7 at Kettering 1, 4 Seed Pick 1, 5th
5216-E-Ville Empire
7166-Red Thunder Robotics-12 at Jackson, 7 Seed Captain, 7th
3770-Blitzcreek
Prediction:
1 Seed 1506-302 v 2 Seed 4003-5505
Next up is Rank 1, Muskegon.
Coming Soon.