Texas 2013

[GeoChamp96]

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.

I read that part too, but I was told at the two Invitationals we attended that we could have a small amount of space between the vehicle and the start line. I don't know... We've never been penalized for it, and it increased our score by an amount large enough that we decided to keep it. Maybe that's something they need to enforce more strongly next year.

[iwonder]

I'm pretty sure the boomilever issue was just a coincidence, but I had my boom break way early and I used the setup to the far right... The maglev test was pretty fishy, pulling a test off the Internet for a state competition? Yeah... Gravity Vehicle had issues impounding, and they didn't tell us when they started the 8 minutes... Saturday went a lot better in my opinion. And I agree with storm the castle... Why in the world would they hold it outside with such huge winds...

[GeoChamp96]

I'm pretty sure the boomilever issue was just a coincidence, but I had my boom break way early and I used the setup to the far right... The maglev test was pretty fishy, pulling a test off the Internet for a state competition? Yeah... Gravity Vehicle had issues impounding, and they didn't tell us when they started the 8 minutes... Saturday went a lot better in my opinion. And I agree with storm the castle... Why in the world would they hold it outside with such huge winds...

I've wondered why they copied the MagLev test at all. I mean, how hard is it to write 40 questions or so? Our team appealed it, but we don't know what they did about it if anything.

Yes, Saturday was better... But I heard Dynamic Planet didn't go too well. I didn't do the event, but our DP team told me that they didn't have pictures on the test the way they were supposed to and used some sort of projector setup where they had a set amount of time to identify whatever was on the screen... Then they gave extra time to the teams that didn't identify the things in time.

[blakinator8]

After comparing this year's state results from last year, I noticed something interesting. This is the score sheet from last year: http://outreach.science.tamu.edu/tso/20 ... on2012.pdf Last year, the top three teams (C division) had point totals of 84, 97, and 188 points, respectively. This year, however, the scores were significantly different: http://outreach.science.tamu.edu/tso/20 ... esults.pdf The top three teams had 62, 74, and 81 points, respectively. LASA's 2013 team beat LASA's 2012 by three points, yet we dropped from first to third place. This shows that there is a widening gap between the top and bottom teams in the state. Other competitions, which don't offer state events, tend to have higher point totals and larger gaps between the top competitors.

[iwonder]

Yeah, Clements has kinda pushed into that group of really top teams with LASA and Seven Lakes, now we get to see if they'll stay there. I think it's going to become a group of teams that scores really well and a group that doesn't(with a huge gap between them) and inside the upper group it's anybody's game. Hopefully Falls can break the 100 barrier for state scores next year

[caseyotis]

I think that Beckondorff really has to step their game up with the building events if they want to make Top Ten at Nationals again this year. .-. But congratulations, everyone!

[Angstrom]

Hmm.



Which one of those graphs looks more plateau-y? I would say it's 2012. In 2012, you have two teams and a very long plateau. It's tempting to say the same of 2013, with three teams, but that's not true - the plateau starts at team #6. Teams 4 and 5 placed decidedly below teams 1, 2, and 3, but they're definitely in the top tier.

The main difference between the 2012 graph and the 2013 graph are the top and the bottom. 2013 had more teams (5) make the top tier than last year (2), and also saw the emergence of a bottom tier. That's what we should be worrying about - the bottom tier. It's becoming more and more of an open game at the top, making it fun and competitive for the better teams (at the expense of some predictability and stability, but who needs that) and in general a better State field. But because it's a zero-sum game, those points have to go somewhere - and rather than going towards all of the teams fairly equally, it looks like they all went to the bottom 6 or so. Which is a regrettable trend fun-wise, although I suppose relieving for middle-tier teams.

I suppose it'd be a good idea to do an r^2 on the two to see which is more linear, and to extend to even further back years. But I don't want to spend my entire afternoon on this.

[sofan]

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.

I didnt hear about picture this using words out of an english dictionary. But, the words were insane. Nobody on our team knew the words. If there is anyone from woodcreek that would like to share the amount of words the got correctly,I would apprectate it. Others can also share their stressful experience at state doing pic this. Thanks to everyone who shares!

[2win]

It might be just me, but this might have been the least-organized State competition in a while.

I wholeheartedly agree.

And like, this is minor in comparison to the wind problem for Storm the Castle, but one of their weights was actually >15cm tall, which kind of screwed my team over because the guys weren't prepared for that (although it was kind of the guys' fault for not leaving extra space.) But when we went to ask to measure the weight's height, the proctor took it and put it in the 15cm cube... diagonally... Not saying he was wrong and we were right, but really, that was just super cheesy.

And div. B should look out for Cinco, they look really good right now.

[GeoChamp96]

[/quote]I didnt hear about picture this using words out of an english dictionary. But, the words were insane. Nobody on our team knew the words. If there is anyone from woodcreek that would like to share the amount of words the got correctly,I would apprectate it. Others can also share their stressful experience at state doing pic this. Thanks to everyone who shares![/quote]

I could be wrong since I'm Division C and have never done Picture This, but I seem to recall hearing our Division B team for that event saying that they got 7 words, and they ended up getting 4th place. I also heard that a lot of teams were getting something like 3 words.

I'm glad the teams in both divisions seem to be more evenly spread out now. There seem to be multiple teams that could potentially have a shot at the top 2 next year (given enough work), whereas it was kind of a runaway for the top 2 teams or so last year.