2 amazing alliances, from 2 fantastic championships. But this is first robotics competition, so… who will win?
California.
California wins.
#wcbc
Edit: SWOOPED EVERY TIME!
NorCal!
I could see it going either way.
On one hand, the Houston alliance is incredible. 973 is very, very accurate in auto, and was hitting 40 on Einstein. Plus, their alliance tended to get the fourth rotor very quickly thanks to the gear running capabilities of 1011, 2928, and 5499. Finally, they played solid defense that made the difference in some of their matches. I could see them winning.
On the other hand, the St. Louis alliance is also incredible. 2767 is an incredible all-around robot, being very proficient in both fuel and gears. Not to mention that they consistently got the two-rotor autonomous with their partners 254, 862, and 1676, and that’s very difficult to beat. They’re also very fast at getting the four rotors and having two fuel robots means that they could outshoot 973 if they played it right. I could see them winning.
I honestly cannot pick a favorite to win in New Hampshire in July. I’m thrilled to see what happens.
Of course, this assumes that all members of both alliances go to the Festival of Champions. If they don’t, the dynamic changes.
St. Louis all the way. A semi-consistent 2 rotor auto with two good shooting robots spells disaster for any other opposing alliance over the course of multiple matches.
Unfortunately, they cannot work on their robots to improve them 
. I will say that I am rooting for 254 to win, but 973 definitely will be tough to beat, so, erm, I don’t know. Either way, California wins.
The rules explicitly laid out that teams cannot change their robots between now and the Festival of Champions, with the exception of code changes.
That means 973 has from now until FoC to work on a gear+hopper auto, and 1011 and 2928 can also perfect theirs. Perhaps we’ll see very good auto modes on both sides at the FoC.
Also, it kind of depends on how seriously the alliances take the FoC, and whether any teams decline to go. Switching out an alliance partner can seriously change the dynamic of an alliance.
Both are already winners in my book. 
When counting the number of world championships won by a team, will it still count if they lose the FoC.
I **definitely **understand that both alliances are world champions and deserve to be world champions, I’m just wondering how it will be handled in places such as TBA insights.
I think it will all depend on how official FIRST makes it. The initial FoC announcement made it sound pretty casual, but then the team update added a bunch of rules (no modifications, how replacement teams are chosen) that make it seem more official.
Personally, even if FIRST makes the FoC super official and hands out blue banners/awards, I’m a little hesitant on not counting half champ wins on TBA because teams may not be at their peak performance due to students graduating, alliances changing, not being warmed up from competition, etc. I’m leaning towards renaming “Most World Championship Wins” to “Most Championship Wins” on TBA and count FoC towards a blue banner (if they’re handed out), but not as a “Championship Win”. Open to opinions.
“Most World Championship Wins” is already inaccurate if you go by what the event itself is named.
If 2champs continues, I’d like to see a separate categories for the FOC winners and Championship winners.
That is probably the right way to go since the FoC isn’t really a championship, it is more of an All Star Game of FRC. I would be surprised if they give out Blue Banners at the FoC but if they do I don’t know if they should count towards blue banners on TBA. Instead you could count them like All Star MVP trophies in the NBA. Just have a separate stat that says FoC Wins.
Yeah, if they played next weekend, I think North takes it easily. But given a summer to work on code? Could go either way.
I am going to root for the Roebling alliance, then again they are playing the Chezy Poofs, so I think it will come down to who can score more fuel.
I’m going to assume that with ~2 months to work on code, Poof’s and Stryke Force will have that 2 rotor auto down to a science. In my opinion it will come down to if 973 can run a similar auto to the Poof’s current side gear plus ~40 kpa. If they can’t, they will have to out gear run Poof’s and Stryke Force or keep them from closing to an under 20 point gap, not likely considering it will be 2 high accuracy and rate of fire shooters against one. Not to mention beating the Daly alliance to 4 rotors will be almost impossible.
I just wanna see Newton play Darwin
I honestly believe St Louis will win. I am a die hard fan of 254, and after being on the Einstein floor next to them, they have a really impressive auton. I am also slightly bias due to 2767 being a friend of ours, but they are an amazing team. After talking to their team for awhile at previous events for this season, I could see them dialing in more autos and just perfecting every detail you can think of. They are one team that pays very close attention to details.
I’m not sure how fast Roebling will be able to reach 4 rotors or how easily they can be defended against, but having watched all of Daly Division and having handed 254 their second loss of the season in a qual match, I can definitely say that the path to defeating Daly lies in defending 254 and preventing 4 rotors (similar to what Archimedes was able to do in the round robin). In terms of weaknesses, 254 has a very bulky robot, is slow at maneuvering around defense, has only a 2 CIM drive train, and was dropping gears after being hit. Looking at the Daly alliances during elims, I personally would have preferred to face the champions with our defense heavy semifinal alliance before the 3rd seed due to how easily 4 rotors can be stopped against them, despite their strength in fuel shooting. I only “saw” Roebling on Einstein (which wasn’t much for visibility), so I can’t speak for how they fare against defense.