2011 FIRSTcast Championship Preview

FIRSTcast Championship Preview

Build season is done, the robots are on their way to the regional so lets talk about what is coming....

FIRSTcast Season 5 Episode 3

We will be discussing the new game and talking strategies.

FIRSTcast Season 5 Episode 1

Joining us this week on the show is Jeff Rodriguez from 173, Greg Needel from 2775, Karthik "Middle Name Removed" Kanagasabapathy from 1114, Andrew Morrison from 229 and Sean Lavery from 1712. Due to the length of the original recording, this episode has been split into two parts. This first past focuses on the last regionals and championship divisions. We've got a lengthy rundown of each division and give opinions on which robots to watch out for. I'd love to give you team numbers, but there are way too many to list here. Enjoy and thanks for listening!

Part two of our 1 hour 45 minute extravaganza!

A bunch of events have happened since our last show. We've got Madison Krass from team 488, Sean Lavery of team 1712, Pat McCarthy alumni of 67, a team-less Michele Celio, Greg Needel of team 2775 and Jeff Rodriguez of team 173. We're talking about Rochester, Oregon, Silicon Valley, Michigan events and Florida. What strategies worked well? How can you counter them? Is scoring in autonomous really beneficial? Those of us outside of Michigan want to know what the feel of a district event is. Pat has got some pictures to share to illustrate the atmosphere. So far, they seem to be running well and keeping on time. Pinning is rearing it's ugly head this year and Jeff thinks its boring. Regardless, pinning seems to be here to stay. How do you defeat it? Maybe the answer is with a couple of supercells.

This week we've got Greg and Jeff along with Rich Kressly from team 1712, Andy Grady from team 131, and Travis Hoffman from team 48. We're talking about some of the week one regionals including Washington DC, New Hampshire, Buckeye, Midwest and New Jersey. How easy is this game to follow from a spectator point of view? We don't think it's that easy. There's just too much going on for a casual audience member to follow. We're also talking about some field troubles and glitches that come with a new control system tested for the first time, including the problems that happened in New Hampshire. Being the first week, and the first time we've seen real matches played, we've got some observations about how the game plays out. How effective is pinning? Where did robots get pinned? How were the prolific scoring machines doing it? Did traction control actually make a difference? What ever happened to the fears of the withholding allowance? Was G14 that big a deal? Team 2753, Overdrive, also caught the attention of many in their rookie season. Not only are they rookies, but they we're number one seed and went on to win New Jersey. What do they have in store for us next?

What happened at the preShip events? We've got answers.