Unofficial Rankings: Div. C

[varunscs11]

It's really difficult to predict who will be in the Top 10 since there are so many amazing teams but I would wager the Top 10 to be....
Solon
Seven Lakes
Fayetteville
Mounds View
Troy
Mira Loma
LASA (if we make it)
Harriton
And this is in no particular order

[c-trast]

So Columbia's solid.

[blhab]

Top 10:
1. Mounds View - 37 at states, wow. And they barely placed individually last year yet had no bombs but I think they will have many more medals and no bombs.
2. Troy - Sort of hesitant putting them here due to 'weak' MIT performance but last year's National Champions.
3. Harriton - Similar performance at regionals, we'll see how they perform at State (usually the same as their power region in PA)
4. Mira Loma - Really no clue, I've heard they are doing well
5. Solon - Decent performances throughout the year
6. Seven Lakes - Performed well in Texas Invitationals and well at MIT
7. Munster - Wow @ Wright State Performance
8. Acton Boxborough - Wow @ MIT Performance, seems much better than their national placing from last year
9. LASA - despite winning both MIT and Wright State, I feel that they may not feel completely at home after missing out on Nationals the last two years, they could possibly beat Seven Lakes at State but reverse at nats
10. Columbia - Won New York States, and most of the time NY places a C Division Team in the top 10

I feel that after the top 3 or 4 teams this year maybe somewhat close and after that there will be a lot of close teams from 5 - 14

[John Richardsim]

2. Troy - Sort of hesitant putting them here due to 'weak' MIT performance but last year's National Champions.
8. Acton Boxborough - Wow @ MIT Performance, seems much better than their national placing from last year

I think using the MIT invite to base your predictions for nationals in this manner is a bit flawed, because, well, let me direct your attention to a map of the continental US:

[blhab]

Point 1:
Troy MIT Results:
Air Trajectory - 4
Bridge Building - 4
Bungee Drop - 3
Compound - 6
It's about Time - 1
Mission Possible - 35 (maybe, if someone from Troy could confirm, the brought a worse device, or it just screwed up)
Scrambler - 19 (Likely due to their error in reaching the desired point)
Wright Stuff - 20 (Multitude of reasons could explain this)

Troy did well in all of their events that had some building portion and lost to both LASA (hasn't been to nationals in two years and traveled a far distance as well and Solon)

Second Point:
I don't completely understand how distance should affect that much, seeing how nationals is in a different location each year that many teams have to fly to. Secondly, Seven Lakes won Wright State last year and LASA has won both Wright State and MIT this year so what are you trying to say about distance?

Third Point:
Acton Boxborough did extremely well. They placed two teams in many of the events at MIT and placed overall 4 and 6. That leads me to believe that they had split their people among the two teams and, therefore, when "stacked," they will do very, very well.

So, I know I'm attacking your logic, but assuming I don't know the distance was a comment seemed to belittle me so I had to respond. Please let me know why you believe distance is such a big factor so that I can understand better.

[John Richardsim]

Yes, I do believe distance is always something to consider for every competition. Yes, long travels are a great time to focus on improvement (mainly for study events), but it also can be a bit burdensome. Whereas distance is not always a big factor for nationals, it certainly seems like it would be for invitationals (granted, it was the MIT invitational, but still, at the end of the day it was just that, an invitational).

Also something to consider is that it was held at MIT; how many competitors there were less focused on the competition and more focused on observing a potential institution for them to continue their education in the future? (And that brings another question of distance, seeing as it is generally harder for someone across the nation to visit a certain campus as opposed to one in their own state). Not saying this definitely is a factor directly influencing the results, but it certainly is a potential consideration.

Additionally, the MIT invite was back in January. It is now March. A whole lot can happen in two months. Heck, none of these teams have even have had their state competition yet (well, I guess MA C is currently underway). Even trying to predict who will be coming from Texas is difficult to predict with the 23/28 system.

[samlan16]

2. Troy - Sort of hesitant putting them here due to 'weak' MIT performance but last year's National Champions.
8. Acton Boxborough - Wow @ MIT Performance, seems much better than their national placing from last year

I think using the MIT invite to base your predictions for nationals in this manner is a bit flawed, because, well, let me direct your attention to a map of the continental US:

I apologize for the digression but this is so great. XD

[chinesesushi]

someone from Troy

hi.
first off, i would like to say that the results at the MIT invite are heavily distorted because of the reason John Richardsim pointed out.

held at MIT; how many competitors there were less focused on the competition and more focused on observing a potential institution for them to continue their education in the future?

Thus, in reality, our building events were a lot worse than represented here. The ones that look bad are actually worse, and the ones that look good are in actuality worse than good (so bad).
second off, as John Richardsim also pointed out, mit INVITE != nationals. the way we do nationals is different than the way we do invites, even such a significant one (because of the school administration).
third off, temperature in CA around that time was a chilly 65 degrees Fahrenheit. in MA, it was an absolute -10 degrees Fahrenheit.
fourth off, if you do vector subtraction on the image provided by John, we can see that the vector displacement from CA to MA is at least 1.5x the vector from TX to MA.

conclusion: we suck, don't worry about us.

[Dhruvster]

I hear Texas had an "Unexpected Journey"

[Crazy Puny Man]

I hear Texas had an "Unexpected Journey"

Oh?