which regional do you think will be the hardest to win in 2011?
San Diego deserves a mention.
I would say the same for Florida. Also for a mention, even as a 1st year regional, Smokey Mountain has an amazing list of teams. Florida has 79, 86, 103, 179, 233, 341 1251, 1902 and SMR has 34, 48, 71, 79, 234, 931, 1024, 2775
I’ll second that…the BBQ rating for San Diego should be impressive!
Michigan State Championship doesn’t count.
Midwest is HUGE. Top tier: 16, 45, 71, 111, 118, 1625, 1732. Second tier: 135, 2041, 2410, 2704, 2826, 2949. Depth few regionals could match and one of the few where the bottom half of the bracket might be an actual advantage.
San Diego is strong. 254, 399, 968, 973, 987, 1388, 1538, 1622, 1717 is one hell of a top tier.
Michigan State Championship. No explanation needed.
Toronto. There’s a reason I didn’t specify which Toronto event. (Well, two reasons, actually, one per event. Both have respected numbers. Both were on Einstein last year.)
Vegas will also be a battle to win, with 359 jumping in late to join 987, 60, 1726, 399, 1266, 4, and 166.
Under that logic wouldn’t Waterloo be the harder event to win?
Midwest is consistently one of the most competitive regionals. And with it falling in Week 4 this year several of the major players will already have a regional under their belts.
One thing that is interesting is the number of teams that are doing Wisconsin and Midwest this year. I guess it helps that they are 2 weeks apart this year.
Midwest/Wisconsin overlap teams:
111
1091
1625
1675
1732
1781
2022
2041
2826
3197
With those two teams separated, it’s wider open, making it harder (but that is a relative term) for either to win. By that token, they’ll fight harder. Makes it tougher on all the other teams.
In Waterloo, the way to win is to be above them in seeding, or to be better than one of them to the other one, who is hopefully higher in the standings. Not so terribly difficult, now, is it? 
Hardest Event to win… MSC… 64 top teams… yes its all michigan teams… yes you have to quailify, but still to win it, its tough… Good teams are left out of elims every year…
Hardest Regional to win Midwest…
TECHNICALLY MSC is a regional. It just sends way more teams to the CMP than any other.
Anyway, it’s the only regional for which it takes more than fingers and toes to count all the really good teams. How was 2834 the final pick in eliminations last year? First and 2nd overall picks at ATL divisions were ranked 8th and 9th at MSC (respectively). Multiple other proofs here.
Besides, MSC (and districts, a few of which are loaded as well), I’d have to agree that Midwest is again very strong. San Diego is powerful as well. Those are two regionals I’ll have to watch.
Sure it does, don’t hate on us.
Absolutely agree with your post. Midwest will be very interesting to keep tabs on. As for San Diego, one of the reasons we wanted to attend this event was for the sheer amount of top tier teams that are attending. Each of these teams has regional, division or world championships under their belts. This will definitely be a regional to watch (as MSC always is :P).
The reason the MI State Championship doesn’t count is because it’s a championship, not a regional. If the MI teams are going to take MSC as a regional, then I’ll go ahead and take the Archimedes, Curie, Galileo, Newton, and Einstein–especially Einstein–“regionals” as toughest.
Oh? You have a problem with including events that you have to qualify to get into as regionals? Well, then, MSC is not a regional.
The MI districts are tough, though. I think those should be counted as regionals; they’re as large as or larger than some of the smaller regionals, and the competition level is as high or higher, especially once you get past the first event for some teams.
Definitely San Diego. While Midwest is always strong, the San Diego teams try to one-up their level each year. Especially in the case of teams like 973, 1538, and 1717 who dramatically improve each year.
Hardest to Win: Waterloo
Toughest: Midwest or San Diego
Yes there is a difference between which are the hardest to win and which ones have the toughest competition 
Midwest.
Midwest Elims are a great look at what you should expect in St. Louis.
If 359 was going to San Diego that might have tipped it though.
Only being absolutely technical is MSC a regional. It just has a much more difficult registration process. Divisions don’t count because they’re officially part of the CMP.
Anyway, if we’re doing districts, then Kettering and Traverse City take the cake.
Kettering has two-time defending world champ 67 and divisional alliance captains 33. As for divisional first-round picks, we have 27, 51, 67, 70, and 2337. These are just those teams that excelled at the CMP. How about MSC Champs 2834, or alliance captains of their upset district 1243? Plenty of other teams deserving recognition, like 494, 70’s twin, or 3450, the remake of 397.
11 of last year’s 24 MSC elimination teams came from Kettering.
By BBQ, it was the toughest week 1 event by far.
This year, due to space restriction, a few strong out-of-area teams were forced to move elsewhere, making Traverse City another strong location.
MSC Champs as captains 1918, Archimedes 2nd overall pick 201, and Newton 3rd pick and Kettering Champs 910 headline this event, but there’s several other strong contenders. 830 and 2009 CMP champs 247 seek to come back from uncharacteristic lows last year. Sophomores 3357 are coming off an Einstein appearance. Newton and MSC first-round picks, twice district finalists (as captains no less), 2619 is hungry after coming up short time and time again in 2010. 2771 broke out last season, alliance captain at MSC.
Note that these are the best of the Michigan teams. Many other teams would be major contenders at most out-of-state events, but the teams I’ve mentioned are the ones that make it in the toughest place to play: Michigan. Some of the other Michigan events are more than loaded compared to most regionals, but Traverse City and Kettering are the toughest of the 9.
All right, I’ll take the entire CMP. 340+ teams, 4 fields, option for open registration (and then qualifying anyway), definitely a tough regional.
Actually, on second thought, I’ll take IRI…:p:D Only 80 picked teams compete there, what’s not to like? Oh, wait, not an official event
I’d say that any “compete-to-qualify-to-enter” event should be excluded from consideration for toughest regional. If you’re there, it’s because you’re good anyway. Those events get their own category: Toughest of the Tough Events. (Eligible: MSC, CMP, IRI, other qualification/selection-based entry events I’m not aware of.) Of those, it’s a tossup between MSC and IRI, but I’ll take IRI (more teams, larger area that they hail from, and the insane amount of elimination ties last year). MSC for official event, with Einstein Field at CMP being tougher but not quite large enough for its own event.