out of the ones in the southeast UCF, Peachtree, and Palmetto I attended all three
palmetto was by far the most exciting, though on the webcast it seems as if those guys from jersey have a great time…
Because I only went to one regional which was Boston, i have to say the last match of Boston was amazing. One reason could be that my team was in it, another reason was in the last seconds team 69 has their ramps down and then team 125 got up with 0 time on the clock. I know that this might not have been the most exciting regional but it was the third match in the final and came down to the wire.
Out of all the regionals i went to and all the regionals i viewed online… i have to say Buckeye was the most intense and the most energetic regional…
I have to agree, Buckeye was VERY intense - especially the eliminations!
That keeper was great! It gave us a head start and much-needed confidence. We did pull through on the last match with a score of 128 to 64.
At Palmetto the #1 alliance outscored the #8 in the first elimnation round 240-0 including 8 ringers on the second spider leg in the first 90 seconds. That alliance (without a ramp-bot) made it all the way to the finals, but lost in the 3rd final round.
All the bots at Palmetto were competitive. Weonly had 3 no-shows through 75 matches. Everyone won somematches and only two teams had only 2 wins.
But I would have to agree that going 5 rounds in the finals woudl be the most exciting ending. Whatever regional that was must have been awesome.
I want to shake that driver’s hand.
West Michigan, Vegas, Great Lakes, St. Louis , Lone Star ,
detroit was by far the most intense if u saw that regional u were on the edge of your seat that was defense in its purest form i just wish they had videos of that regional
I attended four regionals this year and watched another, and I would have to say West Michigan was the best I saw. Each match in the elimination rounds was a battle. The scores were so close and the teams were so good. I think six of the eight alliances that competed probably could have won any other regional (Except GTR). While it was not the highest scoring, the quality of teams were probably as good if not better than any other regional. WildStang was the sixth pick, when does that happen. These teams were all great and very competitive. The next best I saw was Detroit. The defensive matches and parity of the alliances made it great to see.
Lone Star regional takes my vote. Some matches were decided by a penalty and the final elimination match only had 2 points difference between 1st and 2nd place.
It is a testament to the game design and the growth of the FIRST program that there are so many well supported arguments for most exciting. As little as four years ago, this subject could easily be discussed among maybe five undisputed “Most Exciting” regionals. Obviously, other regions have caught up with the early regionals. While I think West Michigan continued it’s seven year tradition of having some of the most exciting matches anywhere, it seems the gap has shrunk considerably.
I really didn’t see all that many matches this year, so I can’t pass judgment, but why limit the excitement criteria to the playing field? At Arizona, many new teams showed up with inoperable or illegal robots. By Friday morning all of them were on the field thanks to help from established teams. It seems there was lots of excitement in those pits that day. Every award ceremony has it’s share of excitement. This year the Arizona mentor thank you and West Ottawa’s announcement of the State Senate’s declaration of March as Michigan FIRST Robotics Month come immediately to mind. I will forever remember last year’s WMR Woodie Flowers Award.
The thrills of a heroic repair, a well deserved award, a compliment on our efforts, the growth of our team members, making new friends… These can make a memorable and exciting FIRST regional as much as a close match.
I had ring side seats for VCU, Peachtree and Palmetto. I have to say the intensity grew as the season progressed. My vote would be Palmetto. As covered is some other threads even the Refs were challenged. But, based on the trend I saw, the Championship is going to be much more extreme!
guys … yall forgot VCU
I would deffinatly go for Davis. I attended SVR and eventhough there was an upset or two, no super thrilling matches. At Davis its shinning moment was the first QF that everyone is talking about. Match number one was the best Ringer bot, the best lift bot, and a great Ringer bot, against a ramp bot, a rookie ringere bot, and a ringer bot that mostly stuck to defence. Ofcourse we (Team #1) went into thinking it would be an easy win. Not a chance: here are my 2 favorite.
Match #1 about 20 seconds in 997 get tipped, you blink and oyu missed it. Then everyone is thinking stratagy: How many ringers do we need to make up for lack of lift?, should we try to box out thier bots from reaching home zone? and before you even knew what happened, team 100 gets a tube on their flag! this means out lift bot is out, and our score bot cant touch a ringer! We had to decide the best action, and went with removing the ringer from 100. This wasn’t easy do to defence and correct positioning. with about 30 seconds left in the match we remove the ringer. Now we had to score like crazy and home that their ramp fails. Before 100 scores once, they flip. This was detramental. Our morale was shot, and we felt like we didn’t have a chance. We go into the second match with a revised stratagy on avoiding flips, and are holding onto to the last bit of destroyed confidence we had.
Match 3 starts just as the first, great defence by #8 with the rookie team doing what they can to score. Thing were going fine, 3 ringers on each side and both teams trying to get the all important 5er. As team 100 approches the Rack to score a 4th the defender that knoked both over last time start blocking 100. They move tward the Rack and OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO tipping!!!.. feew, back down, they approach again and OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO tipping!!!.. feew, back down. This repeats then finnally the defender focuses on us and 100 can score. it is now a line of 4 for us against a line of 4+a line of 2 for them. both teams go back to their zones for the lift. We skid over to 997, who hit the lift button withh maybe 2 seconds to go, and their pneumatic system is able to finish the lift after the bell. While thier team’s electric system falls at they bell and one bot rolls off.
Im youtubing the quater finals as we speak, ill post a link
match 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CWHYF1BwSo
match 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ci0QMpVgQQ
I was impressed with Kansas City, because I thought it was well run for a rookie regional. That being said I liked the competition at Houston the best out of the two we attended.
my most exciting one was Southern California Regional
WHAT REGIONAL OR FIRST EVENT ISN’T EXCITING!!!
THEY ALL EQUALLY ARE!!!
i personally loved the GSR because of the teams and kids. NOWHERE else have i met a better group of teams out there to have a good time. I also loved socal because a lot of good robots come out of there and that makes it great. Teams like 126, 190, 175, 40… the list goes on of teams that do well every year at our little regional and by the end of my four years of being there i have met the regulars and met friends from all the teams and i suppose that is what makes any regional great!
Our team went to the Boilermaker Regional and Long Island. BMR was ABSOLUTELY AWESOME, partly because it was the first competition I had ever been to as a part of my team, and it had a lot of great robots.
Of course, our team had never been to Long Island before either, therefore that regional was FABULOUS, because it was a totally new experience.
EVERY REGIONAL IS EXCITING. THAT’S WHAT FIRST IS ALL ABOUT!