I saw the midwest webcasts and thought no regional could top it; I was wrong. The SD finals were that good. 4 Elite level teams and the matches being decided in the last seconds by clinch moves? Cmon, can’t beat that.
Nothing will compare with the finals matches at Midwest. There you had Wildstang on one alliance (111, 1243, 1504) facing a 2nd year team from Chicago with my son and Raul’s son mentoring on the other alliance (1024, 1114, 2041). The tension was excruciating. Who do you cheer for??!? Which side of the field to stand on? Who are you going to celebrate with? Which alliance are you going to watch? How many matches will it take to decide?? Well it only took two, the son’s alliance won. That alliance really was a great collection of robots and drivers. Now they qualify for the Championship in Atlanta and just need to raise the money.
If you weren’t there in San Diego to view the finals, you missed a treat. By far the BEST finals I have ever seen! I thought Team 987 The High Rollers had the BEST designed robot. Going undefeated is difficult and they did just that. Great team, great coaches, players and members! I haven’t viewed the Midwest finals so I can’t vote for them. I feel that going the 3 matches to determine the win was a great drama builder. You could feel the stress, tension, and drama. We had just about every team down by the rail cheering! I mean Cheering VERY loud! “Blue Alliance!!!” It was very cool to see the teams rallying on their alliance. Oh…and how about those dancers? Team 1671 “The Blizzard” had some nice dancers. Did you see them on the jumbo screen?
It was a great final! I will treasure the memory forever.
I’m not quite sure what to take from Travis’ evil laugh on page 1… Is there a top secret 2056-48 alliance going on that we don’t know about?
Heck, no. I did trade them a 108:1 42mm Banebots transmission. Hardly top secret.
I attended San Diego Regional and watched the Midwest Regional webcast.
I actually thought the MWR Semi-Final 2 (1114, 1024, 2041) vs (1625, 16, 648) was more exciting that the MWR Final. There were four fast, excellent hurdling robots involved and it took three matches to decide the semis.
The SD Regional was a crazy shootout in the first two matches and a total brawl in the rubber match. The extended “zebra conference” after the third match added to the tension. San Diego was the “da bomb”!
-q
For people who say the MWR was the most exciting final (although the father/son rivalry does make it interesting) and haven’t seen the SD Finals… you should watch:
http://www.travisusd.k12.ca.us/vanden/clubs/robotics/Sitefor07-08/New07-08/MEDIAhomepage.html
Navigate to “videos” and the 2008 SD Finals
I saw Midwest, NJ, and San Diego.
San Diego was by far the best finals.
I agree with David that MWR SF with 1024 1114 1625 and 16 was much better than the MWR finals.
wow :eek: I just watched the finals in SD, hands down the best matches of the year so far… and people said Overdrive couldn’t be exciting, watching four amazing hurdlers in 330, 987 vs. 968, 1717 go at it is very exciting. Atlanta is certainly going to be interesting this year!
Johnathan, link please? Or are the matches being uploaded to TBA?
wow…all i can say is wow. That third san diego final… Blue lap bot kept one of the two red hurdlers in that quadrant for about 1:07. During that time the other red hurdler only made 3 hurdles and the two blue hurdlers only made 3 hurdles also because one got stuck between the two stuck bots and the red lap bot, and the other looks like it got stuck on the bumps near the centerstructure…
wow
Basically what happened in FM3 of SD is 330 turned around and went back to obtain a trackball with their ball arms open. 294 was rounding the corner and the 2 robots plowed into each other. One of 330’s highly powerful ball corralling arms got jammed into 294’s lift system and they became entangled. Fortunately they were able to break apart near the end.
294 went on to keep 330 from getting a trackball to place and then got in front of 987, sent up their lift, to make sure they could not place.
Upon closer inspection after the match, it was discovered that we had actually sustained a bit of damage from the entanglement. The 3rd stage of our lift became dislodged and there were scrapes of yellow paint inside o_0. Luckily, this was repaired before recrating so 294 should be ready to swing when LA comes around. This time, we hope to prove the functionality of our lift hurdling during practice and qualifications so that we end up being seeded and not 47th. Also look for us to be testing out new autonomous.
We hope that 330 and 294 get to compete or even get to be allied together at LA. We also look forward to seeing our partners again: 1717 in LA and 968 in Atlanta.
HANDS DOWN SD WAS BY FAR WAS THE BEST FINALS THIS YEAR TO DATE. GREAT JOB TO ALL!!!
check out this link for now: http://www.travisusd.k12.ca.us/vanden/clubs/robotics/Sitefor07-08/New07-08/MEDIAhomepage.html
click on video gallery and go down to 2008.
I thought it was pretty incredible when our [2102’s] motors on the inside our our left transmission came loose, and in 8 minutes we managed to take off the transmission, open it up, tighten the motors, put it all back together, and drive beautifully.
That was semi-final match 2; 2102, 1138, and 1572 VS. 968, 1717, and 294. We ended up losing that match, and the match after, but I think the crowd was very impressed seeing only us students working on our robot, and managing to fix it, and have it running for the next two matches.
Does Week 3 compare? I know the scores at SVR were close…
SVR compares. They were close… and reminiscent of L.A. finals 2006.
Close, yes. But the same caliber as SD? A quick look at the scores says no:
San Diego:
106 - 108
122 - 94
60 - 64
SVR:
76 - 34
30 - 36
66 - 58 (and this is one of great debate…)
Bitter about LA-2006? That was a really exciting regional final too