Here are some videos from the early season REX competition: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCvVtNDjdLlk8__4xagzakj6INwlV8yDK
I unfortunately wasn’t able to find the numbers for the qualifiers.
Unfortunately, I didn’t take any videos at the competition, I’m not sure how many teams did. Too bad, I can’t look over my team’s spectacular tip…
Awww, well there are a couple videos of you guys in there!
Thanks for posting these videos.
Here’s another video perspective on one of the same Finals matches you posted.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fy9pGV8Om94
An interesting variety of robot designs made their appearance that day. It will be interesting to see if there is significant design convergence in this new game. At first glance, it appears to me that SkyRise (compared to Toss Up) lends itself to a lot more different design solutions to the problem. I was surprised at how many robots had been built from scratch rather than being retrofitted Toss Up robots. I was also surprised at how many points some of the little pushbots and clawbots could rack up.
It was also a more intense competition than I had presumed it would be. I had guessed it would be mellow, easy-going, but the atmosphere there was one of the more intense I had ever witnessed. Maybe it had something to do with the heat? Or maybe the lure of getting qualified for States so early in the season in a supposedly lower-competitive environment paradoxically made teams more competitive? In any case, it was a fun day.
Lesson learned: when the final buzzer goes off, be sure your robot isn’t touching the scoring objects! 
It definitely had something to do with only having 25 teams - there seemed to be only 15 minutes in between matches. Out of the robots that placed in the top 5, I think all of them had different lifts - which is amazing variety.
One of my favorite reveals at Dulaney was the revolutionary Slinky Lift. I was surprised that several teams had independently developed this unique concept.
https://vexforum.com/gallery/files/8/1/4/0/1/7/_original.jpg
It looked to me like one of the teams had an exact copy of 1103’s round-up lift. It even had the high hanging hooks on it. It may have been just a very similiar lift, but it had a high resemblance. Except it used 4-393 motors, and not 6-269 motors. It also had a skyrise claw on the back.
Just an observation.
It’s behind the pole in the above picture.
That’s exactly what I was thinking as well. You could see it well in one of the videos, and it looks pretty much like an exact duplicate of 1103 (lift, base, etc.), with a claw kit stuck on the back.
5588C looks extremely similar to 1103 from round up, even the placement of the external sensors… the major design components seem effective for this game
They have a very effective hanging hook attached to their robot too -_-
Team 24 posted a heap of videos from this event. Strange, I don’t remember Team 24 competing that day. Is it possible their spies were sent out to discern how the invincible Slinky Lift works? 
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9vdjLnSOkDlitCkaGcX_WQ/videos
An old member from Super Sonic Sparks reffed one of the fields and his sister a current member attended the tournament with him.
[10 char]
A hipster drive with slinky lift, we’ve already come up with two great inventions perfect for this game. I wonder what else will be created?
Don’t forget the Forrest lift. Imagine the potential for a slinky lift made out of Forrest C-channels…
My slinky lift was incredible, it allowed us to stand nearly a foot to the right of a goal to score! Really useful when someone was trying to block.
It had to be your all-Keps-nuts construction that gave it that extra, highly-dramatic, anti-gravity action. I could literally feel the suspense in the crowd - the audience leaning to and fro in the bleachers as it went to score.
We actually had all locking nuts on our lift. Although we did have one game where a locking nut actually popped off and made our lift fall apart 
More evidence that my spy network is incompetent if not downright traitorous. 
For a day or so, they even had me believing that the Slinky Lift was merely an accident and not the technological wave of the future that I am now certain it will be.