The Rah Cha Cha Ruckus is an annual off season competition event held at the Main St. Armory in Rochester, NY. This event offers the look and feel of an in-season regional event, while allowing new and returning members a chance to practice driving the robot in a competition setting. The event takes place on Saturday, October 17th 2015 at the the Rochester Main Street Armory
Students interested in attending the event should contact Sue Vasko in order to be placed on the list of students attending. Students planning on traveling to the event MUST have turned in their travel consent and medical forms prior to Saturday the 17th. No exceptions!
The team is leaving the High School parking lot (outside the tech wing) at 6am. The driver’s meeting begins at 7:45am, and the building opens to teams at 7am. The event is scheduled to run until 6:30pm, so plan on being there until ~7pm. We should arrive at home at the high school around 9pm. Concession stands will be open throughout the event.
For more information on the event itself, visit their website at: ruckus.penfieldrobotics.com
BRNY Cup Presentation
The Warlocks passed on the BRNY Cup to Team 5254, The Robot Raiders, from Trumansburg, NY. They were ranked #1 at the end of Qualification matches.
The BRNY – or Buckeye Regional New York – Cup predates the Fingerlakes Regional and was a tradition started when many New York teams traveled to the Buckeye Regional in Cleveland each year. It was a way to recognize the best team from our area. The tradition continued on after the Fingerlakes Regional was started.
The Warlocks have held the trophy at least three times in their history, and many of the teams we meet on the field have also been the winner of it.
Part of the tradition of the trophy is that each team adds a piece to the trophy before they pass it on to the next winner. The award has grown over the years!
It was a long day at the Fingerlakes Regional at RIT for the Warlocks. In a semi-final series that the alliance of 1126, 1507 and 3838 put up the high score of the finals round at 196 points, it still wasn’t enough to bring up our average after a disappointing 94 point first match. Our semi-final average of 147.33 only put us in third place, just shy of the final round.
The three match semi-final series sends the alliance with the highest average score on to the final round. Our valiant effort to bring up the scores in the last two matches wasn’t enough to overcome the match where 1126 broke and dropped a potentially winning stack of totes.
We were chosen to the #2 alliance by Rochester’s Sparx, Team 1126 and joined by third team 3838, Roc City Robotics, also from Rochester. It looked like a strong team and we all were very happy. Only bad luck stopped us.
But we didn’t go home empty-handed. The Warlocks, Team 1507, were awarded the Innovation in Control Award, sponsored by Rockwell Automation by the judges. The award recognized our point-scoring autonomous routine that picked up a bin and three yellow totes and took them into the autonomous zone, all in the first 15 seconds without the drivers intervention. The judges were so impressed, that the award was presented in the form of an “interpretive dance” where MC Angry Eric played the robot, knocking over the extra bins. It was a highlight of the awards ceremony.
The warlocks seeded 3rd in the qualification rounds with over a 108 qualification average. We were invited to join the second alliance, led by team 1126 from Webster, NY. Our alliance also selected team 3838 from Rochester, NY to complete our alliance. The playoff matches begin at 1:30 pm. The results can be viewed here: frc-events.usfirst.org/2015/NYRO/playoffs
As of the end of matches Friday, the Warlocks are ranked 2nd place. With three more matches tomorrow, we need to keep up the scores to maintain that average of 109.62.
Our last match today helped matters a lot with our score of 178. That was the highest match of the regional so far and really helped move us up in the rankings. We were paired with Rochester’s X-Cats, Team 191, and Newfane’s Circuit Stompers, Team 378.
Tomorrows matches are match 62, 75, and 80 at 9:14am, 10:45am, and 11:20am on the schedule.
After four matches today, the Warlocks are still ranked 4th at a 108 point average.
There are 4 more matches this afternoon and 3 tomorrow morning. The average score after all 11 matches are complete will determine our final rank and how we enter into the final alliance choosing.
Saturday afternoon will have the final matches that determine the winners of the regional.
The event can be seen at: http://www.wasapi.com/event.php?id=16
The field is being set up for the 2015 Fingerlakes Regional at RIT March 26-28 (Photo courtesy FIRST Rochester)
The field is set and teams are loading in for this weekend’s FIRST Robotics Competition at RIT in Rochester. This is the closest competition for Buffalo area teams. The competition features teams in the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) which is the highest level of competition offered by FIRST with High School aged students and their 120 lb. robots. Besides seeing which robots designs excel at the game, which is different each year, the students are recognized with awards for many areas, such as engineering, safety, team spirit, and overall team quality including their business plan and community service. They also have an opportunity to meet college recruiters and receive scholarship information. This is the 11th annual Fingerlakes event and 45 teams from Ontario, Maryland, and all parts of New York, will compete for the honors and an opportunity to go to the Championship event in St. Louis in April. The exciting competition is open to the public and free. You can watch the matches and tour the pits and see teams working on keeping their robots running. The event is held at the Gordon Field House on the RIT campus. The event’s web site has full details. It’s worth the drive to see, but if you can’t make it, it is being telecast on the internet. The direct link to the video is http://www.wasapi.com/event.php?id=16 or can be found at the hub for all FRC videos: The Blue Alliance.
The Lockport High School robotics team #1507, the Warlocks, placed 3rd overall at the Pittsburgh regional this past weekend. The Warlocks competed against 54 other high school teams from across the region over the course of three days.
During the qualifying rounds, each team played a total of 9 matches, and were paired with random alliance partners and opponents. Team 1507 performed well, achieving a qualification match high score of 155 points. At the conclusion of the qualification matches, the Warlocks earned a qualification average of 61 points and seeded in the 8th position.
During alliance selection, Team 1507 was drafted by the number 3 seed, Team 3015 from Spencerport, NY. Team 3260 was also drafted, in order to form the 3 team alliance that will continue to compete in the elimination rounds.
The Warlocks achieved an average alliance score of 109 points in the quarter finals, which advanced the alliance to the semi finals. After suffering a breakdown in the first semi final match, Team 1507, 3015, and 3260 were still able to earn an average score of 91 points. Unfortunately, this wasn’t enough to advance to the finals, where 1629, 144, and 337 eventually won the event.
The Warlocks are currently making improvements to their robot for their next competition, which takes at the Rochester Institute of Technology from March 26th through the 28th.
The webcast for the Greater Pittsburgh regional will be available on the blue alliance, along with many other websites (a list that seems on growing larger and larger each year). Thebluealliance.com is probably the most reliable source, and the direct link is listed below.
thebluealliance.com/gameday
There are many different sources for match schedules and results, but the only official source is from FIRST themselves. FIRST has overhauled there event pages dramatically this year, and they can be accessed at the links below. Like anything new, FIRST experienced some technical difficulties with populating these brand new pages with match data this past weekend. Those issues should be fixed, but it is possible that these pages won’t be working as expected this coming weekend. If that happens, make sure to check our website for updates on our progress throughout the day.
Practice Match Schedule
Qualification Schedule (and results)
Rankings
Playoff Alliances, Schedule, and Results
Awards
The Warlocks will be competing in the Greater Pittsburgh regional from March 5th-7th. This is the first of two regional events that the team will be competing for a spot at the World Championship in St. Louis.
The event is located here:
Convocation Center
California University of Pennsylvania
California, PA 15419
March 4-7, 2015
Travel Itinerary
Our Itinerary for the trip and any other important info can be found here.
Match Schedule and Results
Match Schedule
Match Results
Standings
Awards
*Note* Links may not be active before the event starts