MadTown ThrowDown 2013 Info/Registration

Copy and Pate from Email Blast #1

Hi Teams,

Another year for our annual offseason hosted by Team 1323 and hopefully 1671!

The event will be held on November 8-10. This year we are giving teams the option of going either Friday - Saturday or Friday - Sunday. Friday is still not mandatory, we highly encourage it as teams can get up to 10-20 practice matches in for new and existing drivers. We will have the competition field open around 3 till about 7 pm.

We are looking at doing either:

Saturday - Half day qualifications with half day eliminations OR

Saturday - Start around 9 or 10 and go full day qualifications till 6-8 pm (TBD). Sunday - Half day quals and then elims starting at 1 pm. You must show up both days with this option.

A few teams have shared with us that they would like the extra matches. Regardless of choice, pricing for registration will be the same. This year’s registration fee is $200 for one robot and $250 for 2 or more robots. We do reserve the right to remove practice bots if there are teams on the waiting list.

Robot Weight Limit: 130 lbs
Maximum Slots: 32

Event Location: Madera High School North Campus on 200 South “L” Street - Madera, CA
Date: November 8th - 10th.
Payment is Due by: October 25th
Please mail to:

Attention: Alan Hollman - ET School of Engineering and Technology
200 South “L” Street
Madera, CA 93637

A paypal option is available as well, please email for more info.

Rule Changes:

We are not looking at any rule changes. The only thing we will most likely do is add in “Pink” or “Yellow” Frisbee to support cancer. We can’t thank you guys enough. Last year we raised $2-3,000 dollars and supported a young child with brain cancer. We appreciate the generous support from the FRC community. The painted/decorated Frisbee will be worth an extra few points in the game.


Volunteers:

We would like to thank Austin Schuh and Team 971 for helping us run the WPA booth last year and helping us unload the field. We extremely appreciate the help. Along with Andrew Nabors and Team 1671 for FTA’n the event and providing an enormous amount of volunteers not only for the ThrowDown but for the CVR Regional as well!

We would appreciate any volunteers for this event!

Live Scoring:

I hope teams enjoyed the live scoring last year. We’ll be doing an online rankings page that refreshes after every match along with Live scoring. I know teams had an issues being able to see the projector/live scores at times. We are looking into putting some form of a tablet at each driver station that has live time + scores (Looking at your Andrew!). Each Driver station alliance wall will have a power strip so your more than welcome to plug your PC there to charge during the match.

Please feel free to email me suggestions/concerns about the live scoring.

To Register - Must fill out form to be able to compete:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1llb34xP-JCd2Fa3hNy5SYaBr0kcacTxxO2KiA3XKUrA/viewform

Please share this email with any team you think that would be interested. Spots are first come, first serve. So far we have registered 15/32 robots (Team (# of Robots)):

1323(2)
973(3)
295(1)
2135(1)
3859(2)
3482(1)
256(1)
3309(1)
2073(1)
4543(1)

and one pre rookie! Registration just opened yesterday but it will fill up quickly.

Thanks!

-R.C.

Can’t wait for our first Throwdown. This is gonna be an awesome event.

This will be awesome if it’s a friday load in, then saturday and sunday event.

Allows teams a crazy value in terms of matches per dollar, and also allows teams to get more valuable scouting experience (with a nighttime scouting meeting!) than a single day event.

RC, that list of teams adds to 12 :wink:

Adam, what’s this 3rd bot 973 will bring? Is it a rebuild for rookie students?

The 2nd and 3rd bot are both new. One has a butterfly drive, the other is a really, really, really simple to manufacture 6wd based off of vexpro’s product line. Both have the same frame dimensions and perimeter so they will share common superstructures. I assisted with the design of the drives, but after that it’s on them so it’s up to the students if they want to post details.

Aside from comparing the two drive options, it’s more a lesson in process management to the students than anything else.

I’ve provided design review, but fundraising, scheduling shop, managing fab, managing workflow, assembly, etc… has been on the kids. They’ve been doing a solid job so far.

They’re competing sep 14 in sacramento, oct 12 in san diego, and at this event.

He may be counting the pre-rookie in his total. Not sure if the pre-rookie is registered under one of the duplicates from 973, 1323 etc. though.

You’re likely correct. Thank you.

I’ll be there, looking forward to attending my first West Coast event.

RC, post a tentative team list in here?

It’s the best offseason on the west coast! Good choice.

Awesome! Hella Stoked!

Currently at 36 Robots!

  1. 100
  2. 254
  3. 256
  4. 295
  5. 604
  6. 846
  7. 852 - 2 Robots
  8. 971 - 3 Robots
  9. 973 - 2 Robots
  10. 1323 - 2 Robots
  11. 1671
  12. 1678
  13. 1868
  14. 2073
  15. 2135
  16. 2473 - 2 Robots
  17. 2813
  18. 3022
  19. 3303 - 2 Robots
  20. 3309
  21. 3482
  22. 3495
  23. 3859 - 2 Robots
  24. 3970
  25. 4498
  26. 4543 - 2 Robots
  27. 4973

-RC

Can you Post official numbering for 2nd bots? I assume it would be;

9852 (852)
8971 (971)
8973 (973)
9303 (3303)
9473 (2473)
9543 (4543)
9859 (3859)
9971 (971)
9973 (973)

Those are correct, will email those pbot team numbers out this week. Thanks Adam!

-RC

100’s super stoked to be going! I’m glad we’ve signed up for the first time in the team’s history, it looks like there’s a great crew of teams going (plus Aren Hill!). Maybe we can just start calling it NorCal Champs…

RC, wouldn’t 973 be 3 bots, 1 comp and 2 offseason?

Haha, we are** very very** fortunate we get amazing/top notch teams to come out to our event!

973 is just two offseason robots, no comp bot for this event.

-RC

We decided not to compete with 973 so that we can field an entire scouting team.

Although, he might make an appearance to replay the disputed powerhouse pwnage finals.

Disputed?

It’s too bad that we won’t see much of Hurricane, it was really the gold standard for linear fed shooters. Of course, those two tiny offseason bots were on fire for PP, so I’m excited to see them play (and maybe play with them) again.

If you rewatch final match 2 and count all the points scored, it seems pretty likely that blue actually won it.

There were a lot of “rejected” disks on the Blue goal during that match. That might have made it confusing for the scorers to keep track.
Watching the video closely reveals… you may have a point there.

This is where having the full blow field scoring system, with all it’s idiosyncrasies, may have actually helped prevent this “dispute”.

Ah hindsight! I guess it’s a good thing instant replay shouldn’t be used. We would have field reset times in the 10’s of minutes every time someone disagreed with the outcome of a match.

I don’t think anybody is really upset about it, it’d just be fun to replay at Madtown as all 6 teams will be there.

Can we make it happen RC? Last match of the day Saturday?

I’m down, as long as Brian is still driving 9973 :slight_smile: