It’s crazy to think how fast the Regional/District regular season has come and gone. We’ve seen nearly 10,000 matches played and each one of them help write the story of the Final Top 25 of the season.
Tonight, at 9PM EST we will be counting down the FINAL Top 25 of the season. We had nearly 200 voters this week and the list is an impressive snapshot of some of the best teams to have played Aerial Assist.
We we also spend some time talking about the upcoming District Championships and discussing some of the trending topics in the FRC community. If you’d like us to talk about something in particular, post in thie thread or shoot us an email and we’ll be happy to discuss it.
Mike and I are really looking forward to the show tonight and we hope you are too. If you could help us out by spreading the word on Facebook, Twitter and among your teammates we would appreciate that.
It’s amazing how fast things go by. I can’t believe that championships are in two weeks. This year is not over yet, but it’s been really fun this year. I know for a fact my team has worked so hard and all of our hard work has payed off. I also know that other teams have worked extremely hard as well. It’s unbelievable how great FRC ROBOTICS is. I can’t wait to leave for championships!!!:]
You guys really missed a lot of teams in the PNW. 1425 was one of the only 2 teams to win 2 districts in the PNW this year. 4911 did amazingly this year, and won EI as a rookie, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen before. If you run down the list of rankings we have ALOT of new up and coming 1st, 2nd and 3rd year teams in the PNW, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a decent chunk of them do well at worlds this year. 6 of the top 12 teams in our rankings are 1-3 year old teams, with a few chairmans and EI’s among those teams.
I know you’re not saying anything because you don’t want to toot your own horn, but 4488 ShockWave leads the PNW district in points, and it is not by accident. They came out strong and only got better, winning two district events and a District Chairman’s Award as a second year team. I would say with confidence that they’re the best robot going into the PNWDCMP.
FRCTop25 does have a documented East Coast bias, but I don’t think they control voting. However, I think yo ucould say any bias comes from the fact that they are from the upstate NY area and therefore know more and that could influence viewership.
Mike and Justin have said plenty of times the rankings are based on who votes and regional bias will happen based on who votes. It seems to me that more people vote who live in Canada or watch more Canadian events as evidenced by the fact that 8 of the 25 teams are Canadians. All of these Canadian teams (and more) are amazing this year and can hold their own but unless more teams from your area vote the more other biases will be present.
In the past I know New England hasn’t been well represented but I am so excited to see 125 finish out an amazing season as a member of the Top 25 club! I wish we could have seen 195 & 177 up there as well!
All in all, there are just too many good teams to justify who makes the Top 25 and who doesn’t.
I think a lot of the reasons we miss these teams are very similar to the reasons we have been called out in the past for missing MAR teams.
First it is very hard for us or nearly impossible to look at a list of teams and know who everyone is. Without seeing them perform all season I couldn’t tell you the difference between a Dozer bot and the next 2056. Numbers are just numbers sure I can look at who has the most points but that doesn’t tell a good story.
Second there is a lack of video footage in a viewable location. MAR seems to have the same issue. I went looking for some match videos to see what teams had done, and simply couldn’t find any, this may totally be my fault for not looking in the right location. There is nothing better than being able to watch what a team did on the field and it makes it much easier to speak too. FiM has knocked this out of the park with their instant YouTube upload.
Third as PayneTrain pointed out we know the east coast teams better. At some point in our careers we have competed with them or against them. This gives us some better insight into how they function.
We are always looking to help better covering these west coast teams. If you have insights or videos we should be watching drop us an email. We are always hoping to better cover each region but need some more help in doing so.
^ Just for future reference, MAR matches are actually pretty well documented by Team 1676 on their Youtube. They have full match footage of all of the matches from Mt. Olive, Clifton, and Bridgewater, as well as the MAR Championship this weekend probably. Full archived streams of Hatboro and Chestnut Hill can also be found on Mid-Atlantic Robotics youtube. I don’t know if Lenape was archived or not by anybody.
1676 will be posting all of our MAR Championship match footage closely following the event. We try to archive all of the competitions that we go to, since we know that lack of footage in MAR has been a problem in the past. (Perhaps putting the team numbers in the description box would make it easier to find?) Lenape-Seneca footage can be found here, on the Iron Devils (1647) Fans’ page. For future reference, most of this footage can be found by searching the event name on YouTube.
^ What they said . You’ll be able to find our full-field match footage (and also videos of Alliance Selections and the Awards Ceremonies) from the 2014 MAR Champs after the event on 1676’s YouTube Channel here: http://www.youtube.com/user/Team1676.
It took a few weeks, but currently most of the week 4,5 and 6 matches are posted on Washington First Robotics’s youtube channel located here https://www.youtube.com/user/FIRSTWAVideo
I believe the PNW Championship will be posted there as well.
. You’ll be able to find our full-field match footage (and also videos of Alliance Selections and the Awards Ceremonies) from the 2014 MAR Champs after the event on 1676’s YouTube Channel here: