NEforecast 2017: Week 2 WPI

FIRST General Forum
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NEforecast: Worcester Polytechnic Institute District Event, March 8 - March 10, 2017
https://www.thebluealliance.com/event/2017mawor
Webcast: https://twitch.tv/nefirst_blue

The first New England event of Week 2 will be hosted on Wednesday at the WPI Harrington Auditorium in Worcester, MA. This is the location of the 2014 and 2016 WPI districts and 2015 New England District Championship, as well as BattleCry in the offseason. The melting pot is strong this weekend with at least one team coming from every New England state including Vermont, Rhode Island, and Maine.

After week 1 we saw what New England was capable of with multiple gear focused robots up north at the Granite State District and a more fuel focused strategy at Waterbury. WPI is a great mix of north and south with several gear focused teams such as 1153 as well as some more fuel-literate machines in 1519 and 5813. With a more diverse mix of teams comes a more diverse strategy, and we will almost surely see more fuel in the boilers this weekend (that is, if it can count correctly). With an extra half-week to perfect their gear mechanisms after seeing a weekend’s worth of competition, teams will be looking to lock into four-rotor three-climb matches, which will begin to require the use of fuel to edge out the win. Regardless, there is no doubt that the WPI district event will have a strong field with lots of diverse teams from around the region, and should bring a new perspective to an already interesting Steamworks season.

Top Teams:

**1519 - **Back at WPI for the first time since their blowout victory at the New England District Championship in 2015, Mechanical Mayhem is sure to give a show. One of New England’s strongest competitors, 1519 is keeping it simple this year. With their passive gear intake and drop off system, as well as their lack of a floor intake for fuel, 1519 is attempting to show everyone just how effective passive collection mechanisms can be. Everyone should keep an eye on the mayhem 1519 will cause as they make a run for the blue banner.

**1153 - **Known for their out of the box thinking, this Massachusetts team is also looking for an early start to Steamworks. While they usually suffer from a slow start at their first event, this year seems to signal a change for 1153 - if they can carry their momentum from their strong performance at Week 0, they should make a strong run into eliminations. We’re excited to see if this bunch of rebels can fuel up their airships, start their rotors, and take flight early this season.

**1768 - **An up-and-coming New England team, the RoboChiefs won two district events in Stronghold, and continue to improve and refine their winning abilities. After a change of pace in 2015, 1768 has been producing competitive works of art - few teams in New England can match the level of detail that is present in 1768’s CNCed aluminum build style. 1768 will surely wow the competition at WPI with both their robot’s performance and impressive mechanisms.

**166 - **Whether it comes to building bikes or building robots, Chop Shop is the team to call. After demonstrating their competitive abilities with their first Finalist finish at Pine Tree last year, 166 is definitely looking to convert their recent success into a Winner’s blue banner. Expect Chop Shop to shift into high gear and earn a lot of wins.

**2877 - **A common face at the WPI district events, 2877 comes back year after year to show off their impressive machines. Not afraid to trying something new, the Ligerbots pioneered the usage of Tank Chain in Stronghold, as well as producing some impressive 3D printed mechanisms to boost their collecting and shooting abilities. With their extensive experience with vision tracking, don’t be surprised to see 2877 automatically track the boiler or gear peg and score a whole lot of points.

**5813 - **The rookie sensation that captured the hearts of many New England teams last season, 5813 demonstrated that you don’t need years of experience to build elegant robots. This year they have a 3-wide shooter and hopper combo that piles the boilers with fuel as well as a passive gear system. Their performance in Steamworks will solidify them as one of NE’s top up-and-coming teams - you can expect them to bring the drive and determination to earn their first blue banner.

Honorable Mentions:

**126 - **How could we not mention one of FRC’s oldest competing teams? As always, Gael Force produces competitive robots with effective strategies in mind, making them another force to be reckoned with at this strong event,

**246 - **If creative designs is the game, Overclocked is the name! Another very strong Massachusetts team, 246 never ceases to separated themselves from the competition with their innovative, and sometimes wacky, solutions. Expect them to clock some time in the elimination rounds of WPI.

**1735 - **One of Worcester’s hometown heroes, the Green Reapers are sure to compete hard, and maybe creep you out a little bit in the process. With their always-competitive robots, 1735 will definitely reap some success on Friday.

**2370 - **Coming from the great state of Vermont, 2370 is working hard to make a good name for their state, which only has four FRC teams. After building an adorable little robot last year and finding great success in its simplicity, the IBOTs will definitely come this year with the hopes to win their first blue banner since 2011.

**4905 - **Andromeda One is one of NE’s most well-rounded teams - in their three years of competing, they already have three District Championship appearances and two Chairman’s Awards! With the experience they gained competing at Week 0, Andromeda One will show up to WPI and create quite the storm of scoring on the field.

Chairman’s Top Teams:

**1519: **With their outstanding FLL outreach and multitudes of demonstrations, and as one of the only teams with a recent Regional CA under their belt, (2016 NEDCMP) and an EI award in 2014 & 2016, 1519 is one of the top contenders for the CA Award at UNH.

**166: **With their first District Chairman’s Award win in 2015, 166 continues to expand their outreach adding FIRST Helps now! available to FIRST teams around the world, as well as continuing their offseason event, lego camps, and much more. FRC 166 could bring home the Chairman’s Award.

**Chairman’s Dark Horses: **

**2877: **Winning the NEDCMP Chairman’s Award in 2015 and Entrepreneurship in 2016 at the WPI District, 2877 is a role model team for the Chairman’s Award.

**4905: **With their annual Tech Kid nights, CAD and Robotics Fun patches, numerous outreach events, FLL teams, and inspiring their school to have more STEM classes, this team has proven they have the potential to take home the 2017 Chairman’s Award at WPI.

Special Rookie Shoutout to teams **6329 **The Bucks’ Wrath, **6337 **Maine Central Institute Robotics, **6367 **The ElectroLights, and team **6723 **Mt. Greylock Robotics Team.

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Looking forward to a great event!

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Fuel rules the day:)

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If by “the day” you mean April 15, 22, or 29, I might agree with you. Otherwise, I wouldn’t bet on it. That’s not to say WPI isn’t a good event; it usually is. But Week 2 will hardly provide more shooters than Week 1 did.

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Question about the WPI event:

TBA is saying that the #1 alliance is 3623-2370-1991, with 2370 as first pick and 1991 as second pick. Was 1991 actually the first pick? They were ranked 12th with the highest overall touchpad score after quals, and scored 15 kPa in teleop in Finals 1 to outscore 1519’s 13 kPa from autonomous. Just wondering because TBA usually gets this right.

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According to a friend on 1991, they were a 2nd pick.

Edit: While im here might as well congratulate the 1 alliance on their win at WPI. Some intense final matches for sure.

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How in the world did they drop to the last pick of the draft? They had the most consistent climber and best shooter at the event. 1519 couldn’t keep up.

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That I dont know. Maybe they thought shooting wasnt worth it?

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1991 was hands down the steal of that draft.

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Add me to the growing list of people that just cannot believe 1991 was allowed to fall that far. They have been getting consistently more competitive every year, and this event win was long overdue for them.

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1991 didn’t have a qual that allowed them to focus on fuel. And all but the first and last 2 qualifying matches for 1991 were done with a broken climber.

Moral of the story, fuel matters.

12

Our climber broke during the first match after getting sideswiped by an opposing robot mid climb. We managed to use the broken climber most of the competition until another finger broke.

We could not have gotten where we are without the help of the amazing guys in the WPI machine shop. One of our students worked with them all day yesterday to 3D cad and cnc a brand new climber that was lighter, stronger, and more effective. Those guys were a life saver.

I had a ton of fun working with our alliance partners 2370 and 3623. 1519, 190, and 1740 were so equally matched with our alliance which made for some intense finals matches.

Congrats to 4905 on Chairmans

Thanks for all the support.

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In the finals, fuel was the tie-breaker and there’s no way we could have won without 1991. The second finals match came down to 2 points. But the Terror Bots knew you also had to have 2 gear runners and climbers ( we ended 17/19 climbs). Auto gear was also required, and between IBOTS and Terror Bots one got done just about every match.

We had a match with 3623 earlier and everything just clicked - I don’t know how else to explain it but we had great chemistry. Can’t thank them enough for looking past the rank and picking us. It took a lot of chutzpah to be the #1 qualifier and pick a #21 rank team believing that we could make it work.

Thanks to our alliance partners 3623 & 1991 for being awesome, and for 1519, 190, and 1740 for some unbelievable final matches. We had a lot of new students this year and this kind of dedication and intense gameplay is pretty inspiring. There’s no better recruiting tool for FIRST than the WPI district event.

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Having played with 3623 in the past I can confirm that they are fantastic to work with. It amazes me to see them going from not even being picked in 2016 to the first seed alliance captain and winner in 2017. That kind of improvement doesn’t happen by accident, so hats off to their team.

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Fantastic job to the #1 seeded alliance that worked hard to earn the win at WPI! They were a strong alliance that had a good strategy based on their skills and the skills of the available robots (3 rotors and 3 climbs, plus every way possible to maximize points via 1 auto rotor and 1991 focusing on fuel). You guys executed the strategy very well.

We did not have our shooter dialed in well (for some reason there was a big discrepancy between our HG shooting on the practice field, compared to the Red Boiler or particularly the Blue Boiler) and couldn’t attain the 4 rotors. We fell short, particularly in that final match.

A tremendous thank you to our partners, 190 and 1740. You guys were a joy to work with! 190 is an extraordinary gear-placing robot and very quick climber. 8 of 8 in auto gears placed and climbs in our elim matches. 1740 was also a strong gear placer and climbed in every match, except for QF3-1.

We were delighted to see 4905 win an extremely well-deserved Chairman’s award! They’re a young team that has risen very quickly to make a tremendous impact in FIRST and their community. A model team for all of FIRST and a true class act.

Perhaps the biggest thank you should go to the WPI event organizers and volunteers. After the various week 1 woes, we were bracing for the worst, but were continuously impressed by the WPI event volunteers. They managed to not only get the field together and operational on Day 0 for practice, but also kept it working as well as could be expected. There were still some field faults, but with a field this complex and only one week of events, I couldn’t have possibly expected more.

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If you guys think our shooting was good for this event, just wait until we actually have vision processing on our robot. :smiley: We fried our Raspberry Pi on load in day when we plugged it in to 12V!

Huge thanks to 3623 and 2370 for picking us, hats off to 1519, 190, and 1740 for some amazing finals matches, and I can’t wait to see how this game evolves.

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**2370 - **Coming from the great state of Vermont, 2370 is working hard to make a good name for their state, which only has four FRC teams. After building an adorable little robot last year and finding great success in its simplicity, the IBOTs will definitely come this year with the hopes to win their first blue banner since 2011.

Who you calling adorable? :wink:

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Absolutely savage…

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Aw, you made that just for us? We’re blushing :slight_smile: <3

It’s still a cute robot, though :stuck_out_tongue:

20

Touche!