FIM Week 4 Event Preview - Lakeview 2

Competition District Events
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1

There are 6 Michigan districts this week and I hope to do a preview for each event. I would rank the events but since two of the events are offset I have just a random order. This is Event 6 for 2023 Week 4, Lakeview 2.

Lakeview 2 District

This Event Preview does not tell the full story, as some of the teams competing at Lakeview 2 are also competing at Lakeview 1, and since I have to release these in a timely manner I do not have access to that information.

Last Year Winners (2767-1188-1940) Lakeview

Favorites: Want to start with the two favorites that formed an alliance together back in Week 2, 2767-Stryke Force and 6002-ZooBOTix. 6002 was the number 1 rank at St.Joseph and selected 2767 as their partner, but failed to win after losing to the 3 Seed in three games. If you think you have read this fact once before this week, you have, as 6002 are also competing at Lakeview 1. They will be competing in literal back to back events, so I don’t have all the knowledge about how they competed or did, but if it is anywhere close to their performance at St. Joseph, they should still be here in the upper echelon. Now 2767 on the other hand is a team that I think underperformed, despite still being on my Top 25, but as my number 1 team going into the season, they really need a win here to prove they still belong at the top of my internal list of best teams in Michigan. Now I may have listed these two teams first, but the true favorite is 4381-Twisted Devils. As the resident hater of 4381 on Chief Delphi, I can’t deny that they should be the ones to continue their win streak here at Lakeview 2. They won at Jackson with 302 and won at Muskegon just last week 3538; the only question will be who they choose to win with here, the number 1 at St. Joseph, 6002 or last year’s Lakeview winner, 2767. (Since there was only 1 Lakeview Event last year)

Contenders: Now if you see Twisted Devils at an event, you should know that 4422-Twisted Angels isn’t far behind. If the Twisted Devils were the sure bet for first, the Twisted Angels seem like a sure bet for 3rd, as at both Jackson and Muskegon, that is where they finished. Their goal should be to try and win over the left out Favorite, for a real chance at the Finals, they would just have to beat out the other Contenders, who are not going to go down without a fight. The top of that list is the winning 3 Seed Captain at St. Joseph, 3620-Average Joes. Average Joes was able to defeat two of my Favorites, 6002 and 2767, with the help of 5712. I still believe they didn’t have a better robot than either, but results are results. We’ll just have to see if that happens twice, or was that all thanks to the home field advantage that they no longer have. My last Contender is another team on their 3rd event, just like 4381 and 4422, Team 503-Frog Force. 503 has been just a step behind at there 2 events this season, a third place finish at Milford and a Finalist at Detroit just last week. The only question is if they are trying to get their first win of the season or are they just trying some new things out before MSC? With a field this top loaded, they may want to lean towards the latter, but if things turn for the better, they could end up with the former.

Dark Horses:
4327-Q Branch-(Competing a Lakeview 1, but it hasn’t happened yet)
4216-Blue Ops Robotics-5 at Jackson, 4 Seed Captain, 4th
4384-Benzene Bots

Playoff Teams to Make a Jump:
6078-RoboRams-17 at Lansing, 6 Seed Pick 1, 4th
4325-RoboRangers-15 at St. Joseph, 7 Seed Pick 1, 7th
4956-Robosharks-16 at Muskegon, 7 Seed Pick 2, 5th

Going For Two:
5843-Flurb-18 at St. Joseph, 3 Seed Pick 2, Winner

Prediction:
1 Seed 4381-2767 v 2 Seed 6002-3620

Next up is the Week 4 Recap that will probably come out in 2 parts, one half for the Friday and Saturday events, then another to cover Troy 1 and Lakeview 2. Top 25 will be skipped this week, as I am diving deep into analysis of teams for the Final Pre-MSC Top Teams List of the Season coming out Post Week 5.

2) Troy 1
3) West Michigan
4) Midland
5) Lakeview 1
6) LSSU

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Watch out for any 4381/6002 matches if you want to see what the first 15 seconds of MSC will look like.

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Wow never thought I’d see the day Jess would put them in favorites. jkjk gonna be a fun event to watch even though Sunday/Monday events just seem wrong. Can’t wait to see the MSC preview coming soon!

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Yeah I don’t like Sunday Monday either, especially the teams who decided to do both Lakeviews. That would be hard.

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SIX of them. Good luck teams… I can’t imagine I’d have anything left in the tank after 4 days!

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Several volunteers are doing back to back as well. I wish them all well.

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This weekend is going to be a blast! Thanks for the writeup, I think you’re pretty much spot on. I foresee some very, very close playoff matches. Good luck to all this weekend!

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This is a pretty good prediction. I made a list myself a few days ago and ended up getting roughly the same thing with the big difference being that I have 3620 and 6002 swapped. I felt after St Joe that 3620 had a higher ceiling but I’d love to be proven wrong. My dream for this event would be 4381, 4422, 2767, and 6002 all in the finals but I think that’s just wishful thinking.

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Thanks! We will let you know the results of this experiment of sleep deprivation and extreme dehydration.

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Yeah, I had a similar issue where 6002 and 3620 swapping, I really wish I could have seen them at Lakeview 1 before I wrote this.

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4956 is ready for Lakeview with a new and improved intake and arm and perhaps a cone scoring autonomous mode we’ll see good luck to everyone competing

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Replying to myself for future reference. Any other event coordinators are welcome to reference this post as a quasi-scientific journal entry.

Hosting and Competing at a back-to-back event -
PROS
(1) The timing and transitions are definitely possible. We were able to end pretty well on predicted time (planned 3:30pm - actual was 4:15pm). The second event loaded in at 5:00pm and all first event teams were very helpful in getting pits, stands, and cafeteria cleaned enough for the next set of teams.
(2) Lots of robots. If you ever wanted an overload of incredible robotics action, this is the way to go. From Wednesday setup to Monday tear down, my day was wake up - robot - sleep. Wake up at 5:30am, get home around 10:00pm. I think the sun came out on most of those days.
(3) Huge impact on hotels in the area. I am pretty positive all hotels in the area were sold out of double queen bed hotel rooms during the event.
(4) Eliminated the need to set up another event. Less time spent setting up and tearing down. Less Gaff tape used for floor protection. Very cost effective solution.

CONS:
(1) Stretched volunteer resources to the max and beyond. Many volunteers who initially signed up for both were burned out after one.
(2) Host team stretched out to the max. Between volunteering, running the concessions, competing with a drive team, running our numbers crew, and scouting, we were all absolutely exhausted mentally and physically. We got super loopy during Lakeview 2 to the point where my programmers spent their time to provide power through the USB ports on the roboRIO purely to power a single 5V fan. We then asked the inspectors if our concoction of a battery, PDH, roboRIO and fan would pass inspection. They responded saying that we were outside our frame perimeter and had no bumpers. Fun, but very silly.
(3) Political capital and relationships with school were strained greatly. Displacing physical education teachers for two days and then spring sports coaches for five was less than ideal for everyone. There was no good solution to this, but asking a district to displace teachers and coaches is never going to go over well. Let alone for as long as we did. Big thanks to the district for making this solution possible, but certainly not a long term solution.
(4) Carpet repairs. After Lakeview 1, our FTAs discovered that the carpet was stretched by 1 inch between the charge station and the grid on both alliance zones. This required working with FIRST on a solution to fix this for Lakeview 2. I know they had to move the charge stations, cut some carpet, and re-tape the lines for the communities, but I do not know specifics.
(5) Complete physical and mental exhaustion on this Event Coordinator. Because I was the sole EC and also the head coach for my team competing at both, I logged over 40 miles of walking over the course of the two events. Muscle cramps, dehydration, and general fatigue wore me down to the point of looking like a zombie at the end. I am still recovering as I type this post.

In all seriousness, without the help of 503, 3658, 3875, and 4325, I do not think our program would have been able to clear out the event in a single night. Those teams were amazing superstars and made the event happen!

So to anyone who would consider this in the future, here are a few tips:
(1) Have two separate ECs. We had two separate VCs which helped in the run up to the event in coordinating and recruiting. There needs to be a separate person who is willing to answer the radio call about the behind-the-scenes activities which need to be solved.
(2) Do not compete at both unless you are NOT the EC/VC. Being away from my team for so long led to some lapses in communication and/or robot performance. My team is a superstar crew of students and mentors, but I was away from them for 80% of the event. That was less than ideal.
(3) Hire out a massage therapist for your volunteer room. Seriously. Even just a 30 minute physical therapy sessions would have gone a long way to help avoid the physical toll on those involved.
(4) Hold evening yoga sessions. This would help alleviate the mental and physical stress.

To anyone trying this in the future, I wish you luck. God speed.

With all that being said, I’m going to go take another nap.

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Honestly I thought just the accelerated schedule of Lakeview #1 was too much, with the breakneck pace of matches on Friday night. Wishing you a speedy recovery!

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Yeah, that tie and foghorn in finals ruined the whole timing.

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It ended at the perfect time in my opinion.

Yes I am biased.:grin:

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Thank you and I can’t believe you did all that. I slept 14 hours on Sunday after doing #1. I would probably keel over if I did back to back events.:crazy_face: