Posted by Mike Kulibaba, Student on team #88, TJ², from Bridgewater-Raynham Regional and Johnson and Johnson.
Posted on 2/27/99 8:05 PM MST
I was just wondering if a team that came in the top 8 could tell me how you went about picking a partner for the elimination rounds, did you pick the high seed that didn’t make it? Did you pick a team you knew? or did you pick a team that you knew was good even though they didn’t show it in the qualifying rounds. I would also like to say, it looks like the first two regionals went very well and I"m sure that the others will be just as exciting.
Posted by Jason, Coach on team #252/254, Bay Bombers/Cheesy Poofs, from Broadway High and NASA Ames.
Posted on 2/28/99 12:01 AM MST
In Reply to: How did teams go about picking an alliance? posted by Mike Kulibaba on 2/27/99 8:05 PM MST:
Mike,
I am actually part of two teams which competed in the playoffs
today, so I’ll tell you how we picked. Our team - 252
Broadway High/Bay Bombers finished 5th I think or 6th. The team
we picked did happen to be 9th. We picked them because they could play
good defense while we were really strong at offense and we felt they
matched up well with us. It seemed teams went by team reputations and
conceived ability for pairings rather than how high teams finished.
The other team I am part of which is a
partnership between Broadway & Blackford High Schools, Team # 254
the Cheesy Poofs with robot Cartman was another story.
Cartman was a really good design, but was totally broken down the
first half of the first day of qualifying. We were in 26th after 3
rounds, got a few of the problems fixed and got up to 22 by the end
of the day. We worked all day, night, and morning to fix everything.
We did really well in the 4 matches this morning and moved up to #12.
I think I can speak for Woodside High (seeded # 4) in that they picked
us not because of our place/seeding in the qualifying matches, but
because of what they knew our robot could do if it was working correctly.
They took a gamble and bet that we could get everything fixed in time for
the playoffs instead of picking a higher seeded and fully functional team
We did get Cartman fixed (with their help) and we ended up being
a really great team which worked great together and really communicated
well. They are really a neat team with some great coaches and really fun,
happy, energetic students. Thank God they didn’t just go by the seedings
and took into account our ability, potential, and results in the later
part of the qualifying. It paid off for both of us. There were some
great teams in the playoffs, and I don’t know if either of us could
have advanced so far in the playoffs with a different partner.
So there are two examples of how alliances were chosen. Good luck in
your regional and the National.
Jason
Posted by Nate Smith, Student on team #74, Holland FIRST Robotics, from Holland High School and Haworth, Inc…
Posted on 2/28/99 7:39 AM MST
In Reply to: How did teams go about picking an alliance? posted by Mike Kulibaba on 2/27/99 8:05 PM MST:
We weren’t in the top 8 ourselves, but I can tell you what I saw:
Almost all of the top 8 teams were running from pit to pit during about the last 5 or 6 seeding rounds, asking questions about the various machines. Unlike the rumors that were flying around about pre-arranged alliances and everything else, it seemed to be more the case that teams picked an ally that complimented their machine the best, a machine that was strong where their own was weak. In Chicago, rankings seemed to be VERY small of an issue, since team #45, who was in last place for almost the entire competition, was picked by the #8 team as an ally.
: I was just wondering if a team that came in the top 8 could tell me how you went about picking a partner for the elimination rounds, did you pick the high seed that didn’t make it? Did you pick a team you knew? or did you pick a team that you knew was good even though they didn’t show it in the qualifying rounds. I would also like to say, it looks like the first two regionals went very well and I"m sure that the others will be just as exciting.
Posted by Matt Young, Student on team #217, Team Macomb, from MMSTC and Ford.
Posted on 2/28/99 7:01 PM MST
In Reply to: How did teams go about picking an alliance? posted by Mike Kulibaba on 2/27/99 8:05 PM MST:
Hi, I’m from team 217 and we are the rookie team that qualified at fourth in the motorola regional.
From what I saw the best way to go about is to pick the robot that best complimented your own and you had a good experience with during the qualification rounds.
Unfortunately i believe a couple of teams were more interested in the rankings and were not able to go as far because the higher ranking robot they picked did not compliment their own robot.
I suggest to everyone, look for someone that does things your robot does not have the ability to do or at least does not do well.
Posted by David, Student on team #269, BruQuest, from Oconomowoc High School and Quest .
Posted on 2/28/99 7:57 PM MST
In Reply to: How did teams go about picking an alliance? posted by Mike Kulibaba on 2/27/99 8:05 PM MST:
Hi
We finished 7th and picked Chief Delphi as our alliance. I was the driver
of our robot (Gizzmo - Team 269 - BruQuest) and I had thought about our
possible partner a lot.
I can just say that ranking should absolutely play NO ROLE in whom you pick.
You need a partner who fits your needs. A partner who can do what you can’t
do.
That’s what we did. We were ranked 7th and picked Chiefdelphi who were 22nd
I think. We beat the No 2 ranked team with their ally in the quarterfinals.
So don’t pick after ranks but pick a good partner!
CYA
David
Posted by Raul, Engineer on team #111, Wildstang, from Rolling Meadows & Wheeling HS and Motorola.
Posted on 3/3/99 12:05 PM MST
In Reply to: How did teams go about picking an alliance? posted by Mike Kulibaba on 2/27/99 8:05 PM MST:
Yes, we picked the last seeded team as our partners. Why - they complimented our robot’s capabilities very well.
So how did we do? We had to go up against the Beatty alliance and unfortunately we did not give them much of a match. We had some unfortunate luck in both our matches. In the first match, our partner blew a speed controller in the opening seconds. In the second match, one of our drive wheels got entangled with a floppy, which had not happened to us before. All I can say is it is not very easy to play one on two, especially against such good teams.
If I had to do it all over again, I would not change my mind - I would still pick them. I would just hope for better luck. In conclusion, I suggest you choose you partner based on WHAT they do well, not how well they did. This will take a little more work (scouting) by the most mechanically knowledgeable folks on your team.
Raul