Predictions for Championship

What are everyones predictions for who will take home the ever wanted title of 2004 FIRST National Champion?

There are some criteria to this question though…

  1. Have you been to a regional with this team?
  2. How are they as alliance partners?
  3. How are they as Opponents?
  4. What do you think is special about this team that would help them to victory?
  5. Any Special Circumstances

My Answer…

My pick for national champs would have to be my local favorite this year, 716

  1. We have been to 2 regionals with 716, NJ and UTC. They did amazingly great in NJ, and really well at UTC.
  2. They are by far our favorite team to be allianced with. They are very open to different strategies, and can apapt very well to what your robot does. Also, they have the COOLEST/NICEST drive team ever.
  3. 716 puts up a fight in every match… just look at their #3 seed in NJ
  4. Theyre hanging arm is so great. They can hang in seconds and do it every time. They are extremely fast and can power over any robot (i believe i saw a pic of their tranny on here) Also, the are able to push robots OFF the top platform while hanging.
  5. Well, this year has been great for CT teams. Mens UCONN winning the championship. Women are going to win it tonight. I think this good luck spree will spread to a FIRST team as well.

Looking over the list of qualifiers for National Chairman’s Award…this year I can guarantee it will go to a very deserving team…no matter who wins.

Good Luck Everybody.

I’m not sure what exact time will win the championships this year but I know have a good hunch on how it will be won. I believe the alliance that will win will be an alliance comprised of one partner hanging and blocking the bar while the other alliance partner caps and then hangs. Got any ideas of who those people are??

I like 16 this year. I watched them at SLR.
They do everything faster than any team I’ve seen so far. They have good knowlege of strategy and are consistent in what they do. And they have been in two winning alliances so far. I see a third coming. They are just too good to count out. They are great as alliance partners. In St. Louis every elim match they played they won. They can do enough things well and FAST enough that they are a hard opponent. I mean de-cap a 2x ball and hang in the 20 second range fast.

yeah i ahve to agree 16 is a great bot, i’m not sure if they will win nationals but i bet a team like it sure will.
The winning alliance will have two hangers and be able to control the 2x balls other than that its pretty much up to driver compitance.

Good luck to all!!!

P.S. i’m sensing an underdog win this year

My prediction for winner is my favorite robot: Buzz9 by Team 33 the Killer Bees… There is a reason they were my first pick in Canada.

Their robot proves that small balls can win over any hangers. Getting 100+ points by themselves by small balls is just amazing. Now they can also HANG, adding another 50 points to that total. The way they pick up balls and the skill of their human player (whooooooo) is so amazing that it will be a shame if they don’t at least win their division.

I wish 639 could come watch, but we’re not coming to Championships this year.

I haven’t seen anyone mention 71, 111,47, or if i might say 11. 71 caps while hanging. 111 hangs in autonomous mode. And from what i hear 47 caps quick and hangs quick. I don’t want to brag but i have seen over 160 robots from our 3 regionals and of those i’d say we are in the top 3 robots there. I maybe wouldn’t pick us to win, but division…very possible

I’m gonna go with team 233.

  1. Have you been to a regional with this team?

  2. How are they as alliance partners?

  3. How are they as Opponents?

  4. What do you think is special about this team that would help them to victory?

  5. Any Special Circumstances

  6. I saw them at the Central FL regional. Their radio broke in the last match of the finals, otherwise I think they would have won it.

  7. Never was paired with them but hope to be in ATL :slight_smile:

  8. They never give up on a match. They can easily remove the 2x ball from any goal.

  9. They can hang extremely fast and have great drivers.

  10. Nothing I haven’t already said.

not to burst your bubble, but i believe you were ranked like 40th in NJ…

Hey Tomm,
Team 11 was against us (237) in the finals at NJ… remember that crazy wait for the hanging judgement of team 11 against us??
Yeah, and then team 11 went on to win a regional this past weekend, forgot which one.

I would just like to add to this thread that Archimedes has a lot of strong teams and would like to predict that Archimedes is going to win it all.
Who in Archimdes is goin to take it all is up to debate though… :smiley:

Team 122 would be willing to oblige :wink:

If you ask me, (or if you don’t, I suppose), the perfect aliance is one that can cap, hang and herd. We can cap and hang; if we get together with a great ball herder that can hang also, I think it would be a great combination. Of course, I imagine there’ll be other good robots out there with quite a different idea of who should win! To see, to see …

sorry, i wasnt trying to bash 11… i thought they did great when they were working correctly. I still remember talking to them about picking them. And if you do remember Elgin, we were the team that picked team 11 as our alliance partner, which caused that little skirmish.

I really don’t know, but by past experience, I’m sure that at least ONE of them was at the Chicago Regional. Last year, I think all 3 were.

The best alliance would be like the top two robots concieved by our team (and probably many MANY others) at the beginning of the season (one of which got picked, but I’m sure the other one is out there).

  1. Knocks 10 pt ball, then autonomous hang, can manipulate 2x ball (switch b’tween big goals, guard bar)

  2. Picks up small balls, drags small goals, manipulates 2x.

An alliance between the two would be AWESOME, and would so win.

Another 3rd winning type was one which most of us unfortunately overlooked completely. It is the bot that stays below the ball drop and “nets” all the small balls.

  1. Have you been to a regional with this team?
  2. How are they as alliance partners?
  3. How are they as Opponents?
  4. What do you think is special about this team that would help them to victory?
  5. Any Special Circumstances

I’m guessing that Team 254, the Cheesy Poofs, are going to control Championship this year.

  1. Yes, they outperformed us at Sacramento and Silicon Valley Regionals.
  2. Very powerful, in fact it seems they don’t need a partner to do anything except hang.
  3. Unstoppable and requires defensive play. There is no hope for anyone trying to outscore them directly.
  4. They do everything and their driver is like a machine (I mean this in the best possible way… I have yet to see him make an error other than trying to pick up a 2x ball off the ground, which the bot can’t do properly anyways)
  5. Nope

All you do is cap the net and they are done for the match so I dont think that type of bot will go far. unless…they can also pick up the balls

we were in 43rd at the NJ regional but then went to the UTC and came in second in the qualifiers and went on to win the competition

I would definitely keep an eye on 303 who won at NJ and was a finalist at Chesapeake if memory serves. They and 177 were the best small ball machines that I have seen and if 177 gets that hook working, than they will be even more difficult, they won at Philly.

The statistical analysis shows that small ball machines win in the playoffs, so if either one of these teams can get together with someone that can hang consistently, look out.

233 is a great team. Playing for the FL championship was fun. I think anybody can be beat with the right game plan. I hope we meet 233 as partners in our group. I just like their robot paint job.

The robot that wins is going to be the robot least worked on. If you have to keep fixing your robot it will be hard to move on.

I will wait to make my prediction on who will win. But right now I like the odd’s of the winner coming out of Curie.

After seeing 3 regionals I had my winner picked out, and then saw that they weren’t going to the Championship! I thought Hyper (69) had a very strong machine for this years game and would be a contender if they went. They won the very tough NH regional after seeding 2nd. I would have liked to go up against them at some point, or allied with them.

I understand u not wanting to “bash” us, but every team has problems. We went 6-1 at Chesapeake and finished 5th. We also went 6-2 at Palmetto finished 4th and went on to win the regional. We’ve fixed every problem and things have CHANGED since u guyz saw us at NJ. And when we were there we did pretty good in the eliminations, (close one huh 237?).