Texas 2013

[robotman]

I have heard that it was Becandorf First, and Riverwood Second.

[harryk]

It looks like Clements got First, and Seven Lakes got the number two spot for texas. This is new.

Yes, very new indeed. Everyone was expecting Texas to have two nationally competitive teams this year, but now we have three. And not to brag or anything but we still walked away with the biggest trophy Which we got because on Friday we volunteered to move some 20 odd tables and several huge stacks of chairs for them.

[iwonder]

Beckendorff.

[cupcakegirl]

Congrats to everyone at state!
Division B:
1. Beckendorff
2. Riverwood
3. Cinco Ranch
4. Kealing

Division C:
1. Clements
2. Seven Lakes
3. LASA
4. Cyfalls (?)

[ptkid]

Point totals were:

Division B:
1. Beckendorff - 62
2. Riverwood - 85
3. Cinco Rancg - ~140

Division C
1. Clements - 62
2. Seven Lakes - 74
3. LASA - 81

I heard that Clements and Riverwood substituted some national events for Texas state events. LASA, Seven Lakes, and Beckendorff didn't.

[harryk]

I heard that Clements and Riverwood substituted some national events for Texas state events. LASA, Seven Lakes, and Beckendorff didn't.

Clements did many trial events. LASA did all the national events, but Seven Lakes did WGYN rather than WIDI.

[GeoChamp96]

Did anyone else think that some of the Friday events weren't run very well? I mean, the MagLev test was a copy of an Invitational (from this site, no less), and I think there may have been a faulty setup in Boomilever. Some teams (including ours) tested their boomilevers on the block on the far right, and many of them broke under the weight of the bucket alone. Since our team had built an identical one that held about 2/3 of the weight a few days earlier, I thought this was a bit fishy...

Also, does anyone in B Division know how many teams were placed in tier 2 in Mousetrap Vehicle? Ours got 23rd out of 30 after staying inside the lines the whole time, which our team thought was strange after hearing that half or more of the teams in some previous competitions had gone outside the lines and supposedly been placed in tier 2.

[blakinator8]

Did anyone else think that some of the Friday events weren't run very well? I mean, the MagLev test was a copy of an Invitational (from this site, no less), and I think there may have been a faulty setup in Boomilever. Some teams (including ours) tested their boomilevers on the block on the far right, and many of them broke under the weight of the bucket alone. Since our team had built an identical one that held about 2/3 of the weight a few days earlier, I thought this was a bit fishy...

Also, does anyone in B Division know how many teams were placed in tier 2 in Mousetrap Vehicle? Ours got 23rd out of 30 after staying inside the lines the whole time, which our team thought was strange after hearing that half or more of the teams in some previous competitions had gone outside the lines and supposedly been placed in tier 2.

Yeah. For maglev, they gave people a varying starting distance before the photogates, letting the vehicle accelerate before the timed portion. While this certainly helped our vehicle score, it probably gave some teams an unfair advantage and our time prediction went out the window. I don't know if the 15 foot ceiling for gliders was announced beforehand, but that might have screwed some teams over as well.

[GeoChamp96]

Did anyone else think that some of the Friday events weren't run very well? I mean, the MagLev test was a copy of an Invitational (from this site, no less), and I think there may have been a faulty setup in Boomilever. Some teams (including ours) tested their boomilevers on the block on the far right, and many of them broke under the weight of the bucket alone. Since our team had built an identical one that held about 2/3 of the weight a few days earlier, I thought this was a bit fishy...

Also, does anyone in B Division know how many teams were placed in tier 2 in Mousetrap Vehicle? Ours got 23rd out of 30 after staying inside the lines the whole time, which our team thought was strange after hearing that half or more of the teams in some previous competitions had gone outside the lines and supposedly been placed in tier 2.

Yeah. For maglev, they gave people a varying starting distance before the photogates, letting the vehicle accelerate before the timed portion. While this certainly helped our vehicle score, it probably gave some teams an unfair advantage and our time prediction went out the window. I don't know if the 15 foot ceiling for gliders was announced beforehand, but that might have screwed some teams over as well.

Yeah, we had planned on that since it didn't say anywhere in the rules that the car had to be timed from a dead stop. But I think it's something that should be cleared up next year. It really favors people with 8-ft tracks.

I also heard that Picture This used words out of an English Dictionary... I certainly hope that isn't true...

Why on Earth did they do Storm the Castle outside in the gusting winds? I think there was plenty of room to do it inside and not screw up so many teams.

There are also some Saturday events that need some work too... It might be just me, but this might have been the least-organized State competition in a while.

[FawnOnyx]

Yeah, we had planned on that since it didn't say anywhere in the rules that the car had to be timed from a dead stop. But I think it's something that should be cleared up next year. It really favors people with 8-ft tracks.

Well section 5.a.iii of the national rules state that "Competitors must place their vehicle on the track directly before the start line of the timed portion.
They must place a pencil in front of their vehicle to keep it from moving." That makes it pretty clear the vehicle can't accelerate before the timed interval.

Also section 4.a says "On longer tracks, a 4-foot (1.22 m) segment must be marked for the competition," so an 8 foot track shouldn't make a difference.