Join us for Southern California Regional Robotics Forum’s annual off-season FIRST Robotics Competition, playing the 2009 FRC game challenge: Lunacy. The mission of the Fall Classic is to expand the awareness of FIRST Robotics Competition to students, teachers, sponsors and mentors from all across Southern California, as well as provide existing teams an opportunity to compete with their robotic creations once again. This year’s event is being hosted by FRC Teams 980 and 2404. The event is open and free to the public. 

Download the SCRRF 2009 Fall Classic Flyer

Teams

Results

The Fall Classic was held in two gymnasiums on the John Muir High School campus courtesy of the Pasadena Unified School District. PUSD superintendent Edwin Diaz was impressed at the effort put forth by the teams and the enthusiasm of the event. The game announcer, David Seidel (JPL) provided spectators with colorful descriptions of the teams and action on the field. Dan Swando served as our DJ and kept the energy level high throughout the event. The referee corps was led by Lauren Halatek (JPL), with AJ Yeckel (Energy Innovations), LeRoy Nelson (LA FLL coordinator) and Chris Gilmore (JPL) observing the action. The field was managed by Terry Wells (Xerox), operated by Ryan Epperson (WRRF), and assisted by queuing lead Ric Roberts (Raytheon). Co-hosts were Team 980 and 2404 with David Brinza (JPL) serving as event manager. Teams 980, 2404, 1323 and 2493 assisted in field set-up and tear-down. The field management system was provided by the WRRF. Finally SCRRF, led by Chris Husmann (Northrop Grumman), was the event sponsor, furnishing the field structure, pit power distribution and other logistics support. Thanks to all who participated and helped make the 2009 SCRRF Fall Classic most certainly a hot event!

We had 14 teams with 15 robots attending. We started with several 2v2 practice rounds to get everybody back into the swing of things. Practice rounds were first come first served so teams that were prepared ran several times while others who were having trouble getting going could fix whatever needed to be fixed. All robots took the field at least once during practice.

Around 11 am the Qualification rounds began and ran until about 4 pm. The competition was fierce with several rounds that scored over 100 points. Everybody got to play 8 matches. It was practically guaranteed that you would play with or against everybody at least once. Only one robot was damaged seriously. We were Beta testing WRRF’s Field Management System and it worked flawlessly. The biggest delay was for some field damage and lasted 4 minutes. Our announcer Dave Seidel, who announces for the Regional, kept up a constant stream of color commentary.

Eliminations began around 4:15 and were over by 5:30. Awards were done by 6pm and the field loaded on the truck by 7pm. Many thanks to the Torbots for helping get the field back into storage after the trip home. Your many hands indeed made light work.
Here are the results and various awards:

Alliances

1 - 973 968 1160
2 - 1538 399 980
3 - 597 330 1197
4 - 702 4973 2404

Backup: 1323, 1070, 2493

Matches

1 beats 4 in three matches 50-78, 96-40, 84-58

2 beats 3 in two matches 102-34, 77-62

2 beats 1 in finals in two matches 56-72, 56-66

Awards

Team Spirit = 2404
Most Creative Robot = 330
Highest Quality Robot = 968
Most Effective Design = 399
Peer Favorite Robot = 973
Judges' Award = 1538
Finalists: 973 968 1160
Champions: 1538 399 980

Acknowledgements

A thank you to Mark Epperson and his help in setting up the field control system. The Field
Management System provided by Western Region Robotics Forum (WRRF) was brought from the Bay Area by WRRF BOD members and Ryan Epperson, along with trailers and outposts from NASA.