Waterford appears to be THE competition to watch this weekend in Michigan. With numerous teams already having wins under their belt this season, it’ll be interesting to see who manages to come out on top of this stacked district.
Teams to watch out for:
67
HOT is known around the state as one of the best teams in Michigan, producing amazing machines every year. And this year is no different. 67 is coming in hot already having 1 blue banner this season. Their ability to shoot fast and from both sides secured them the #1 and win at Howell, and they’ll be looking to earn their second win of the season this weekend. - 68
T3 is running a 4 weekend in a row season, earning their win last weekend at Midland, coming up from the #7 alliance after having their alliance captain replaced. Primarily playing defense the past weekend during the elims, expect them to come in trucking with a new and improved shooter. - 302
The Dragons have already completed their two main districts this year, being knocked out in the QF’s both time, but that doesn’t mean that aren’t coming to Waterford with firey passion. Improving their robot after every competition thus far, expect them to field a strong robot capable of holding it’s own against the likes of 67. - 469
Another Michigan powerhouse team, Las Guerrillas is coming in with a blue banner already under their belt from Howell. With fast shooting and great catching skills, they’re a top contender for the #1 spot with their two ball auton. - 573
The Mech Warriors got knocked out in the Semi’s at Southfield after seeding 4th, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have a strong bot. Expect them to flex their mechanical abilities this weekend with their strong shooting and truss shots. - 1718
Anyone from the west side of the state knows the name The Fighting Pi. Coming off a disappointing QF’s elimination at Centerline, they’re ready to fight their way to the top the earn the coveted winners banner, looking to add it to the Chairman’s one they already have haning in their shop. - 2137
Being 1st seed when 33 as your competition is no easy task, but TORC managed to pull it off last weekend at Midland. Being knocked out in the Semi’s, look for them to seed high again and be a strong contender with their fast and accurate shooting. - 3098
The Captains had a tough first event at Southfield, getting knocked out in the Semi’s. Don’t take them lightly though, as their catching abilities are top tier. With their fast shooting and ball handling abilities, look for them to be the perfect complement to any alliance. - 3535
Galaktech Invaders came close to earning their blue banner at Kettering, but got knocked out in the finals. Even with all the top teams at Waterford, expect them to invade their way up to the top with their accurate shooting and fast ball pick-up. - 3539
The 2013 MSC Champs, Byting Bulldogs, haven’t had a competition yet this year, but they’ve yet to field a top tier robot since their rookie year in 2011, where they seeded 2nd on Archimedes. Look for them to bite and claw they’re way to the top.
With 16 rookies attending, it’ll be interesting to see if they can hang with the large number of powerhouse teams attending.
****Congratulations to 1718, 3098, and 3773 on their District Win!
These were some very tough and hard hitting matches. I believe 3098 knocked themselves out twice with some very hard hits. We were on our side for one match and tripped our main breaker in the last match playing defense on 1718. I think 1718 was limping around the last match in low gear by the end as well. Just four (one replay) very intense back and forth matches.
Congrats to 68 on the District Chairman’s award. As well as putting a huge scare into us when the #7 alliance came out swinging and dominated us in QF3-1. Always a blast playing against our GM brothers/sisters on Truck Town Thunder.
Thanks to 51 and 4994 for being great partners. We started rolling there for a couple of matches, but just came up a bit short of our goal. We will keep working to improve and eliminate our mistakes so we can overcome all these great MI teams.
Thanks to all our friends and volunteers for making this a great event!
Thanks Adam…The finals were 3 (actually 4) hard-hitting and intense matches! Definitely a hard-fought win that could have gone either way. Both sides were hobbling at the end…I’m wondering if either alliance could have played another match :ahh:
Thanks to 3098 and 3773 for being tremendous alliance partners. 3098 - your transitions from offense to defense were so smooth and the ability for us to trade rolls on the fly helped keep the defense (somewhat) away. 3773 - I love your inbounder! That ability to get the the 3rd assist on many of our cycles is what the made the difference in most of our matches.
2137 - I hope there are no hard feelings. You have a great machine and you definitely deserved the 1st seed. We had a long discussion on Friday night and Saturday morning about our strategy and who our top pick should be…declining your invitation was one of the hardest decisions we had to make and you almost made us pay for it. You along with 469 and 4998 were a scary alliance. Just like the finals, the semis against you were 3 (actually 4) hard-fought and intense matches that could have gone either way.
Congratulations to 68 on your Chairman’s Award.
I also want to congratulate 3539 on your Entrepreneurship Award and 5048 on winning Rookie Inspiration. It’s great to see teams that we had a hand in helping start receive awards.
Thanks to all the volunteers and organizers for putting on a great event.
Team 67 I saw the only match you lost in qualifications and I couldn’t really figure out what happened. It looked like at a few points throughout the match there were two balls in play. Do you know what the problem was that match?
The match was against 573, 3539, and 51. Our partner 3302 was inbounding for us, but they lost a chain on their intake and couldn’t get the ball out. We called dead ball and they went to go play defense. One of the human players on the alliance also got a G40 during that match.
On that note, I saw a ref this weekend leaning way into the field to watch the line while the human player threw the ball. This seems super counter intuitive to me. Why make a safety rule for the HP that the ref has to break to be able to enforce?
Great competition. The only thing we could say after alliance selection was that which ever alliance won was really going to deserve it. Well played to every one.
Thanks everyone for making Waterford a terrific event. The energy during the eliminations was electric.
There’s far too many teams that worked hard this weekend to single them out and congratulate them individually. Congrats to everyone, wether or not you went home with some hardware.
You’re 100% right on how tough the elimination matches were on the bots. We replaced 6 sets of wheels/treads throughout our 10 elim matches. The last match when we (67/3098) collided in the middle was rough, our battery connection completely pulled apart on impact. I think you could see the wear and tear on everyone’s robot in that last match. It was really fun playing against you, 51, and 4994 in the finals.
We’d like to give a big Thanks to 1718 to on picking us. We were very excited to join your alliance knowing that having two robots with very similar roles would be the key to success in this tough tournament. I’d also like to thank 3773 on playing great defense and being a great in-bounder, you guys did great every match!
Congrats to 68 on winning Chairman’s. Lastly, hats off to 2612 for putting on this event along with all the great volunteers who helped out.
Competition was intense and we learned a LOT at this competition. We solidified some great relationships with some awesome teams (TORC, Galactek, Trucktown, Tempest) and look forward to seeing them again at other venues.
Unfortunately the battle in the stands is where we lost. We have such a small team that when our bot goes to the pits our whole team, parents and all, goes to the pits. We tried to “save a seat” that we could come back to but our stuff got piled up in a stack before we got back and we got squeezed out. Eventually we gave up and sat over behind the screen where we could only see part of the match and none of the score. While I know and understand there is “no seat saving” allowed, the teams that squeezed us out not only took the seats but they made glaring faces and rude remarks to our team members and parents. They also had totes (yes, actual tote boxes sitting in the seat) and jackets spread everywhere eating up mucho seating area and thus “saving” their seats for them. I guess I do not know why their jackets/totes have more right to sit there, than our fleece blanket except for the rude people guarding over them.
This is our first year and we were ecstatic when our principal showed up and we wanted to show off our robot in competition, but we were unable to find him any seating where he could see so he left before we even got up on deck. This does not reflect well on FIRST, Waterford, or the fellow teams that DO work hard to make rookies feel welcome and promote gracious professionalism…
