New York 2009

[Sheogorath]

Hence why we are all glad it is only a trial event. It's a fun event, but one that doesn't deserve to be an actual one.

[Flavorflav]

Hmm, got back from the NY Metro (the NYC region) regionals. Don't remember all the results, except for the ones pertinent to my team:
1. Townsend Harris Team A
2. Stuyvesant Team B
3. Stuyvesant Team C
...
9. Stuyvesant Team A

I got first in EV, third in Sumo Bots, and I'm going to states, so I'm satisfied with the results, but not ecstatic. Interesting thing about Sumo Bots is that I beat the 2nd place team, but had the same win/loss record and was in a lower bracket, and was ranked lower. I also beat the first-place Sumo Bot twice before I was eliminated. Finally, the robot was a backup design from two years ago that I built in a single night, so I never even expected it to do well. Overall, it was nice for me, not so great for my team.

The lower bracket shouldn't matter. The tie breaker is supposed to be losing time.

I agree that the head-to-head thing seems wrong, but there isn't much we could do about it. At a large tournament it would take forever to rank the teams if you had to compare head-to-head records for all of them.

Was Stuy A supposed to be your 1st team?

[Flavorflav]

State teams from E.L.I:
1. Half Hollow Hills East: 85
2. Ward Melville: 121
3. Brentwood: 142
4. Bayport-Blue Point: 147
5. Smithtwon West: 192
6. Port Jefferson: 194

The last time Hills East won the region was in 1999, which I believe was also the last time WM did not win.

[gh]

Stuy C was supposed to be the best team, though that was mostly on merit of having the most seniors (seven). :|

The idea was that people expect Stuy to win at regionals (heheh...heh. :\) so when they announced that Stuy A had gotten ninth during the top ten announcement, the whole auditorium "ooo"ed since they thought we weren't even going to states.

I was on C team. The A and B teams didn't enter (decent) building events, so I guess my scoring in EV and Sumo actually helped the C team a bit (Sumo counts at our regionals).

I have to agree that Sumo Bots is a crappy event in its own merit in terms of actual educational value, but it's actually a fairly decent benchmark for top teams. It serves as an indicator that a team has well-funded, experienced builders (at least at states). It's seen as a lesser event, so if a team has a good Sumo entry, it tends have the other building events well-handled. Plus it's a terrific spectacle event for all the teams to watch.

[gneissisnice]

State teams from E.L.I:
1. Half Hollow Hills East: 85
2. Ward Melville: 121
3. Brentwood: 142
4. Bayport-Blue Point: 147
5. Smithtwon West: 192
6. Port Jefferson: 194

The last time Hills East won the region was in 1999, which I believe was also the last time WM did not win.

Yeah....thats depressing =(. For me at least (Im from Melville, if you couldnt guess).
But we actually didnt do terribly, only the building events were a bit weak. And write it do it.
I wanna steal some builders from Brentwood, thatd be good =).

[htmlfreak]

from eastern LI our sumo guy came from a late event. i think he made it within the two minutes. actually i have a question tho. do they start penalizing if you don't show up during the two minutes or after it? cuz i remember making an event very close to the starting time...so do they penalize u, even a little bit?

[TwoplusTwoEqualsFive]

I'm reporting for the Western Long Island Regional yesterday. It was so crazy. Besides your usual top contenders Kellenburg, Syosset, etc. things were all over the place. Team 3's for schools were placing in the top three and by the time they announced the top 10 (the top 7 going to states) things we're definately shuffled around. The seven teams going are:

1. Chaminade
2. Kellenburg
3. Syosset
4. Schreiber
5. Bellmore JFK
6. Hicksville
7. DIVISION AVENUE!!!!! - my team if you didn't know

[ScienceIsMyLife]

congrats to all the WLI teams going to states (I know I said that on a diff post but whatever).

gneissisnice, it looks like i will not be seeing you at states (see list on post above--my team? not up there)

[JBoyd-NY]

Regarding the rankings for Sumo Bots: college football illustrated why you can't rank teams based on head to head competition. At the end of the year, Oklahoma was ranked #1. Texas argued that since they beat Oklahoma in their only meeting, they should be ranked #1. Texas A & M said if Texas is ranked ahead of Oklahoma because they beat them, then we should be ranked ahead of Texas because we beat Texas. Oklahoma said if Texas A & M is ranked first, then we should be ahead of them because we beat A & M. And the circle goes on and on.

The team that emerges from a double-elimination tournament with no losses or only one loss is the winner, no matter how many wins they have (they won the tournament!). The team they beat in the final match is the 2nd place team - they made it all the way to the final match. All the rest of the teams are ranked by the number of wins, as that is an indication of how well they did in the tournament. Using the losing times as a tie-breaker rewards teams that lasted the longest in their losing matches.

I know that the system isn't the best - a team that meets the eventual winner and the eventual 2nd place team early in the tournament will have a low ranking, while a team that doesn't face good competition until later in the rounds will have a higher ranking. There simply isn't time to rank teams before the competition to determine a "seeding" process. And while a double-elimination tournament isn't always fair, no competition that stretches out over the entire day is ever really fair (what if the best team in egg-o-naut has to launch during a pouring rainstorm while competitors later in the day have perfect conditions? In Wright Stuff I know that teams are always trying to determine the best time to fly and sign up for that time, meaning some teams will have to fly in less than ideal circumstances).

[EastStroudsburg13]

How do you decide who goes on which team for the schools that have more than one? Is it just based on skill, like varsity and JV?