I was looking at regional team lists to see which events I should watch on the stream. This year the Robowranglers are going to Waterloo which puts several “powerhouses”;1114, 2056, 148 and 610 along with other high quality teams such as 865, 1241, 1285 and 4039. This raised the question, what is the most stacked regional ever? Im not going to count district championships or off-season events because MSC and IRI would be on the list every year.
My first guess would be Midwest 2008 (16,33,48,71,111,503,1024,1114,1625).
Are there any regionals that have been more stacked?
True. I would say most regionals from 2003, 2005, and 2015 were more stacked than competitions from other years. The robots were pretty well stacked in 2007 as well.
I’d have to say that '99 takes the cake for most diverse stacking, though. For all the young’uns out there: First, you stack doughnut-shaped, foam-peanut-filled game pieces known as “floppies” in and on your robot. Then you stack your robot on this large mobile platform called the “puck” (and hope that the “puck” is in the right place to give you a 2x multiplier). Then you put the “floppies” in your robot as high up as you can put them (or rather, taller than the head ref’s measuring pole)–and keep them there until after the refs figure out the score. tl;dr: stack your robot on the puck, stack game pieces on top of your very tall robot.
2016 Waterloo isn’t all that different from 2014 Waterloo. Waterloo regardless of year is always top 5 regional quality. If not 1 often. Midwest used to be super stacked every year, ans SVR has been great for ages too. There was a CD paper awhile ago comparing regional strength by average OPR or something. (I know right? OPR bandwagon) But it’s a decent general trend indicator.
Anyways Stacked Divisions are the most interesting to me. Far higher quality of play.
EDIT: Also you are missing like half the fabulous teams at Waterloo. Missing 3683 and 4039 should practically be a crime
865 has been putting out better robots sequentially, and I expect them to have their best season yet in 2016. 1360 is 1334 breakoff. (I think?) 4678 and 5406 also tend to put out crazy awesome robots. Not to mention some of the wildcards like 3161 or 4917.
EDIT2: Also any texas regional with the usual 118/624/148/1477 etc etc
Your correct, 1360 has basically the same setup as 1334 had in 2013 during the teacher strike (we work out of a college tool and die shop) except that the majority of students are rookies. We should be at least as good as 865 ;).
The NYC regional is an awesome experience in a huge facility with a large international presence. It is not however, “Stacked”.
The highest OPR was 49.24 from team 3419
second was 694 with 47.41
and third was 3171 with 35.69
If you compare that to Waterloo you see the dramatic difference.
The highest OPR was 118.76 from team 1114
second was 2056 with 112.52
and third was 5406 with 77.26
6th seed at Waterloo would have been 1st seed at NYC and 9th seed at Waterloo could
have been 3rd seed at NYC
The 2014 NYC regional was a slightly better with 4039 in the mix. 4039 was 1st seed at NYC and third at Waterloo. Although it still does not compare to the powerhouse regionals.
Pre 2014 I didn’t do FRC so I cant really say whether the NYC regional could be considered stacked.
I did however compete in the 2014 NYC regional and spectated the 2015 NYC regional and I can tell you they were not stacked.
We will be competing in the 2016 NYC regional and some pre scouting shows that it will most likely be the least stacked in the last 3 years. There is a crazy amount of rookie international teams so its hard to say for sure. Also 4481 is making a visit which should be fun.
I think if you look at a regional based on being stacked for that 1 year. 2012 Orlando may be one of the best. What I mean is based on good robots for that year, 2012 Orlando had 2 of the 3 Einstein Winners (180, 25), and the Alliance Captain of the Einstein Finalist Alliance (233).
2005 Sacramento was exceptionally good in that regard as well. 2 Einstein Semi-finalists (245, 766), 2 Einstein finalists (254, 56), one Einstein Champion (330). More impressively, iirc this was a ~35 team event.
I know that it isn’t a regional, but check out Waterford District in 2016.
33, 51, 67, 201, 245, 1023…
I count 11/31 teams who made it into the World Championships eliminations.
[33, 51, 67, 201, 245, 1023, 1718, 2137, 3098, 4003, 5048].
Looks to me like it should be a pretty competitive district event. Am I correct that you only get credit for your first two district events and this is week one?
Yes. Basically, if you go to 3 or more districts, the third, fourth (and so on) are just practice events - they don’t count toward your district points. Just ask 125 in 2014.
