FIM Week 3 Event Preview - Traverse City

Competition District Events
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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 3 for 2023 Week 3, Traverse City.

Traverse City District

Last Year Winners (1711-5086-6963)

Favorites: I checked the weather forecast for Traverse City this afternoon, shockingly (not really) it’s still supposed to be snow. You might say that’s random, but I think the top favorite seems to be bringing the weather with them, 910-The Foley Freeze. 910 travels all the way up to Traverse City for their Michigan debut, after an adventure down in Indiana. The FIN Mishawaka event in week 1 was their true debut as they finished Rank 2, but finished just 1 game short of a blue banner, settling for a Finalist medal. 862 made their return after competing at Mishawaka, and were Lansing Finalists last week, and since 910 did much better in Indiana, it only makes sense that the Foley Freeze would come in as heavy favorites. Our next favorite is a team that appeared on my Michigan Top 25 after Week 1, but fell off of it this week, so they should hope to rejoin that list with a strong performance. I of course am talking about 3767-Titans. Most of the teams at Traverse City this week also competed at the Calvin University district in week 1, and the Titans were no different, finished second in qualifying and as the 2 Seed Captain finished in 3rd place. The better teams at Calvin that made 3767 medalless are not at Traverse City,3357-1918-2054, so this should open the lanes for them as they try and make a trip to the Finals, and possibly return to their old place at 17th on my top 25. My last favorite is team 7160-Ludington O-Bots, who seemed to get passed up in the alliance selection at Calvin University, as they fell to being part of a very competitive 8 Seed. Despite also finishing 25th in Qualifying, this team had a more than serviceable high cone and auto balancing autonomous as well as clean cycles that have them coming into this event with the highest EPA out of all participants.

Contenders: My first two Contenders also competed at Calvin University and were actually right across from each other at alliance selection, as we have the 4th Seed’s first pick, 3688-Norsemen, and the captain of the 5 Seed, 4377-Boyne City Blaze. The Boyne City Blaze may have a much better qualifying, 7th compared to 17th, but when it came to the playoffs the Norsemen would have the better weekend. The Norsemen would join the 4 Seed and finish 5th, whereas 4377 would be swept in two games, including a 21 point loss to that very same 4 Seed. I expect both of these teams to have much better events, not only joining a higher rated alliance, but going for medals rather than a quick out in the playoffs on Saturday. The last Contender for Traverse City is 4983-IronBots. IronBots was at Lansing last week, ranking 7th, joining the 3rd Seed and ultimately finishing 3rd for the weekend. As one of the few non Calvin University participants, it will be interesting how 4983 meshes with the group with lots of games against one another, which could go either way.

Dark Horses:
7790-Baywatch Robotics-30 at Kettering 1, 6 Seed Pick 1, 4th
5560-Central Lake Trobotics-6 at Lansing, 4 Seed Captain, 5th

Playoff Teams to Make a Jump:
5086-Cadillac Connectors-28 at Calvin University, 8 Seed Pick 2, 4th
3603-Cyber Coyotes-5 at Calvin University, 4 Seed Captain, 5th
2834-Bionic Black Hawks-21 at Jackson, 7 Seed Pick 1, 7th
3618-Petoskey Paladins-10 at Lansing, 6 Seed Captain, 4th

Might Have Trouble Repeating:
1711-RAPTORS-15 at Calvin University, 4 Seed Pick 2, 5th

New Teams to Make a Statement:
6087-Cybertronic Lancers
3537-Delta Force

Prediction:
1 Seed 910-3767 v 2 Seed 7160-3688

Next up is Rank 2, Standish-Sterling.
Coming Soon.

4) Belleville
5) Detroit

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Thanks for putting us in the favorite tier! I find it kind of funny how you thought that we had an auto balance because we definitely didn’t it was actually just telling the robot to go to certain positions on the field, but after one of our playoff matches (I think our 2nd) when the robot wasn’t level after auton we decided to create an auto-balance, so we will have it at this event. I just thought it was kind of funny how consistent our auton was that you thought it was auto-levelling.

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If you get 12, you get 12. An balance in Autonomous is still an ‘auto’-balance regardless of the method.

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I mean, “auto balancing” can mean either a closed-loop balancing routine, or just balancing in auto. Either way, congrats on the Favorite, and good luck!

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Thanks! I guess you’re right its just the way we did it is just based on the gyro and swerve encoders instead of Apriltags, so I never really considered it auto-balancing which now that I think about it your probably talking about balancing in auto not automatic balancing like I was.

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absolutely stoked to see 7160 in favorites, they were one of my favorite robots from Calvin University week 1, and I’m gonna be watching them play at TC whenever I’m not watching my own matches at Muskegon!!! also one of the nicest teams I’ve gotten to meet.

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Thank you so much!!! You are correct, we were overlooked, however as a cohesive team, we played our game with persistent team mates. Great crew to work with at Calvin- Alliance #8.
#7160 is looking forward to this weekend and Twist is ready too! It takes everyone on a team.

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So fun partnering with 7160 at calvin. We were such a strong alliance at #8 had it not been for a disconnected battery on our alliance captian we probably would have been in the finals. We will see you tonight at traverse city.

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Here we go our last match together at Calvin and our first match together at Traverse city.

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I am going to throw out my thoughts from calvin on the pile of bots from there in order of which I think they will succeed (get picked).

7160 - Ludington O Bots. Played a fantastic Calvin, slipped in the standings because of inconsistancy, hope they have that resolved. Similar EPA to the 3767, but were hitting higher scores at the end of quals, namely bouyed by their 21 point balance auto. They need to keep themselves upright and on, but they will otherwise be an attractive alliance partner to the top alliances.

3767 - Titans. Ranked high and played great. Incredibly conisistant especially with the Charge station RP, the reason they ranked so high. I am concerned that they are already close to their EPA ceiling. Will others catch them? what can they do to improve? The obvous one is add a Auto Grid score.

3688 - Norsemen. Fantastic Teleop bot, great example of how to take a concept from RI3D/open alliance and make it better. Lots of room to improve on the non teleop part of the game. I hope they spent their time there. Ranked lower than their EPA because of inability to balance in Auto. Will they get outmanuevered as a tank bot?

5086 - Cadillac Connectors. Good bot with a solid single station drop point. Could only do cubes (or opted to). They got their performance capped by lack of links completed. Can they add cones? if they can efficiently I could see them climbing the list to looking more like their near twin bot, Digital Dissocators.

4377 - Boyne City Blaze. Ended up ranked high without Charge Station Balancing Auto. Seemed to get a bit of schedule luck for a team not able to control their RP fate. Much of their EPA comes from endgame balancing as well. How much more can they do in tele as a tank bot? can they get more effective with the ground pickup?

3603 - Cyber Cyotes. Have consistancy issues as well. Had less polish than other teams onthe list, but with a swerve drive and a solid single feeder station plan they could break out here. Also played some nasty defense at oppurtunistic times. Will need to solidify thier scoring.

1711 - Raptors. Top team previously that may have just bit off too much for a week 1 event. if they can get their integration solved they can climb this ladder quickly in my opinion.