Good morning! It is totally the morning on the west coast, where we, faceless but secretly prominent west-coasters, live.
Given the outgrowth of shameless, half-hearted attempts to inform a largely fictional audience of the grand feats of certain regions, of FRC, we decided to finally pull back the curtain on all of the hidden gems of competitive teams in California.
Sure, you may be wondering why an account called “WestCoastBestCoast” is only covering the state of California, but as we all know the FRC community had massive east coast bias, compounded by GameSense, whose east coast bias stretches all the way out to Washington and Oregon.
A note about districts in the state of California:
Looking Backward:
We’re a little behind on pimping all of the great teams that you’ve never heard of in California, so let’s start with looking backward to the three regionals in the state of California. Wow, can you believe it? 3 regionals! That’s three more regionals than Michigan will have all season, as illustrated by this graph below:
http://i.imgur.com/lVA5faw.png
Why do people think Michigan is so great again?
What a wild week first two weeks in the state of California! Did you know that California is home to one of the only outdoor FRC events in the world? That’s right! In San Diego their Del Mar Arena quickly turns from a pony showcase to a robot rumble. Why are there no outdoor events in Florida? Someone should try having one of those in Orlando. Analyzing the action, a great upset storyline appeared: the team that finished first in OPR, 3255, lost in the semifinals and the team that finished second in OPR, 3021, won in the finals after knocking off the team that was third in OPR, 821, in the semis! What a wild turn of events worthy of deeper analysis. Let’s look at some match video to find out more:
Wow! Take that, PNW!
Obviously, we’d be remiss to not bring up all of the great talent that headlined one of California’s Week 2 events. The Los Angeles Regional really proved that these robots can stand strong in the Hollywood Hills of Long Beach, CA.
[strike] 2015 Hall of Fame team[/strike] 987 took home the gold in another stunning upset. As we analyzed early in the season, 90% of all teams wanted to go under the low bar. If we extrapolate that data, we know for sure that exactly 2823.3 teams will be able to go under the low bar, but only 4 teams can win a world championship! While their chances will double in 2017, the odds are still rough. Even with the data definitely against 987, they were able to pull off the miracle against a very tall 330. How did they do it? It probably helps that they were paired up with 1197, a team that needs no introduction, and 5012, a team that needs introduction despite the fact that they won a championship last year! [http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1504947#post1504947 At least 1197 was tall, so they knew what they were doing. Congrats to all 3 of the winners, including honorary Californian 987.
It was very surprising to see long standing powerhouse, Code Orange, 3476, miss semifinals with their tall R2D2 imitation. Will triwheels help put this team back on top or was the missing orange and turquoise paint the key to victory that slipped from their fingers? Look to the aptly named Orange County Regional at the hallowed halls of Valencia High School in Week 5 to find out.
One event that really surprised us at WestCoastBestCoast was the Central Valley Regional. Plucky underdog 254 came out with a machine that wowed many people across the FRC community, and seeing 1678’s two ball auto in action on the field was a surprising sight. On the surface, it surprised a lot of people when the Citrus Circuits passed on the hometown heroes of 1323 and went for the slowly growing group of rebels from Bellarmine College Prep. However, a closer look at the data reveals a different picture:
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/mz40tsg.png
Looks like the 1678’s legendary scouting system made the right call.
Let’s not overlook the accomplishments of other underappreciated teams who competed in Madera, like 1671’s return to action after leading their alliance to a World Championship in 2015. They finished out in the quarterfinals to a rising star 5817, a team that is famous for having absolutely no relationship to that bird team that shall not be named, guys. [Editor’s note: joke about a bench grinder should go here, the kids love those jokes]
Also, shout out to Adam Heard on 973, who was finally recognized for incredible accomplishments in not hitting alliance partners with his WFFA win this week.
Looking Forward:
Finally, the good stuff! Let’s look forward to all of the action in California for Week 3:
See you in Week 4!
