Traditions/Superstitions

[MARS_James]

So I am curious as to some traditions or superstitions that other teams have that they feel are unique. I am interested in more than "we name our robot ______ every year then a number".

For example:
Every year since 1902 Exploding Bacon has had their "squishy pigs" we have attached them to our robot in some form.
A graduating senior of 4 years always receives some part of their final robot as a gift. (2007's Unused Ramp, 2010's shattered wheel, 2011's minibot launcher, etc.)
And here is one that some members of my own team don't know about. Every year somewhere on our bot is "Thank You 179" since without them our team would not have survived our rookie season

[Jared Russell]

Garden gnomes. We always keep one around for good luck. Unless things are going poorly, in which case we...sacrifice...the gnome and get another one. Some years, we go through a lot of gnomes.

[joelg236]

This year when we were practising shooting, our team captain complained at how bad the shooter was. Somehow it began to perform way better after he said that. It continued to shoot well when we complained, and shoot badly when we stopped complaining. That led us to always complain whenever we wanted the shooter to work well. Other teams looked at me funny when we were in queue yelling "Our robot is SO bad. The shooter sucks soooo much!"

It's worked eerily well.

[vhcook]

We always have a stuffed toy killer rabbit on the robot. The one year it was taken off for weight (2007) is the worst year we've ever had.

This year it turned out to be functional, since it helps deflect slightly off-target frisbees into the hopper when we're loading.

[EricS-Team180]

"The robot shall have no painted parts"
S.P.A.M's first robot became known as "Kenny". The actual name remains unspoken to this day. Painted in S.P.A.M colors, it was lucky to move in a match. I understand many motors and speed controllers gave up their magic smoke, during competition. In the darkest corners of S.P.A.M lore, it is said that "Kenny" was dismembered at the end of our first season, and all evidence of it's existence scattered. To avoid the "Kenny" curse, no painted parts have, since, been allowed on a S.P.A.M robot.

Lately, as M.A.R.S. does, we also include an Exploding Bacon pig on our 'bot for good luck. :)

[ATH1RSTYM00SE]

Before every match me (the driver) and our coach rub the human players head. Last year we also started the tradition that the coach always grabs the robot from the side with the main breaker. I convinced him this was out of superstition but in reality that was the more uncomfortable side to hold and i didnt want to do it. We still follow that rule today.

[Lil' Lavery]

JVN plush dolls brings 1712 robots bad luck, so we keep them as far away as possible.

[IceStorm]

We made sure to "pet" the robot before every match.

[karomata]

A new tradition on 1511 is every year we take a game piece from that years game, draw and color in an awesome face on it, and name it Wilson. So far we have a basketball and disc (http://media.penfieldrobotics.com/2012-2013FIRSTRobotics/Competition-Season/Finger-Lakes-Regional-2013/28249408_kBdPLD#!i=2396970727&k=9CmvKBg&lb=1&s=L) named Wilson.

[bearbot]

Since our team began we have had the tradition of all members signing a part of the robot which has brought some luck.

[Mr. B 2851]

We have several traditions on 2851.

Our robots are always named after something in greek mythology. Usually a god or goddess that fits the character of the robot or the game being played.

Our practice robot is always named Tartarus for obvious reasons if you know your mythology.

We have the fur from a large pillow that we began using 2010 on Cerberus. We try to incorporate it into our design somewhere. 2011 - Hermes has armpit hair under the tube lifting arm. 2012 - Iris has a mohawk. 2013 - Discobolus has a magnificent handlebar moustache.

We also have a giant pancake/egg/bacon breakfast every Saturday morning of the build season.

Mr. B

[lgphoneeric]

We always have a stuffed toy killer rabbit on the robot. The one year it was taken off for weight (2007) is the worst year we've ever had.

This year it turned out to be functional, since it helps deflect slightly off-target frisbees into the hopper when we're loading.

Team 2996 for the past couple years has had one of the Kuh-nig-its stick on fuzzies on our robot as a good luck measure.

[Sam390250]

One tradition 930 has followed the first few years (which admittedly, is a bit creepy) relates to a clown.

We work out of the basement of a church, and one day back in 2011 we found this weird Clown in a cone type puppet. (Like one shown below, but less decorated... wish I could find a picture of ours)

http://www.toyday.co.uk/shop/images/uploads/clownpuppet.jpg

When we were crating the robot up for championships that year, someone put it in the crate and it was a pretty funny surprise when we opened it up a few weeks later (having forgotten that we had put it in there).

Each year since then, we have always packed the clown in the robot bag, and then proceed to have it up somewhere in our pit to keep an eye on things during the competition. It is an incredibly weird tradition, but team members just keep on doing it.

[CalTran]

Wielding rod. Team 2410 always has to have unused wielding rod on the robot somewhere. This year was the first year we didn't have it as a pin somewhere and it went poorly. Obviously there is a direct correlation between the two.

Also, we've named the robot after a horse, and have been shifting over to geeky horse names. Trigger, Shadowfax, Epona, and Pegasus (the robot "flew" up the pyramid.). Also, we're looking for an excuse for an 8WD so we can name the robot Sleipnir...

[coalhot]

This year, the kids on 3929 put a sticker on our robot to honor and playfully jest at one of our founding mentors, Akash Rastogi

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/599098_10200709584372042_1833795218_n.jpg

It got pulled off when the robot wasn't doing too well at Chestnut Hill, but a second one was put on at Mt Olive. :D

[Grim Tuesday]

At least one member of the usual pit crew (when we're doing well) has to stay in the pit during our matches because there is a clear correlation between them being in the pit and us winning.

[c_hartman_00]

We have the superstition to not let our drive team members know where we are ranked. It is less superstition, and more not wanting our drive team to worry about anything except for the match we are about to play.

[Andrew Schreiber]

There's a running joke on 79 that my parents (who still live in Michigan) coming to our regionals helps us win... well that and picking a team from Brazil. But hey, it's the only time I get to see my parents from January until May so I'm not complaining that they like traveling to our regionals.

[Maldridge422]

For the past few years, our team has always gone to at least one regional that requires us to stay in a hotel.

A few years ago a senior member of the team took the hotel's complementary bar of soap and bit a chunk out of it. A note was then left for the hotel staff with the mutilated soap placed next to it. The note read "Sorry, but your cookies are not very delicious."

A team member has been required to preform this ritual soap procedure every year since. Although we forgot it this year at the Washington DC regional, getting off the waitlist for St.Louis has ensured that we will be able to carry on this honored tradition.

[Lil' Lavery]

2013 - Discobolus has a magnificent handlebar moustache.

"Magnificent" is the only appropriate adjective for a handlebar moustache. Kudos.

[Mark Sheridan]

This is a superstition of mine that began when I was a student on 766. Back in 2004, we had a robot where no one could agree on a name so the robot had few names written on it. Students kept asking the announcer to use the name they chose for the robot. I didn't care but everyone kept arguing over it. Sadly, that robot was by far the worst robot I help build.

The 2005 robot, I nominated that the robot should be nameless, and a name never stuck. It won our first blue banner. To this day I have a superstition that if my team's robot has a name, we won't win a blue banner that year. So far it has held up true.


Also, I think having decorative lights curses my team's robots.

Lastly, I never use set screws to transfer torque. Something about evil spirits or whatever.

[Christopher149]

Maybe about 5 years ago (not at all sure about this), one of the team members made a duct-tape flower (green stem and leaves, pink petals) that has been on our robot every year since.

[Andy Baker]

Lastly, I never use set screws to transfer torque. Something about evil spirits or whatever.

They are truly pure evil.

In 1999, our human player on 45 would drink a bunch of water as we got ready for our match. I asked him "what are you doing?" He said that every time that we had a match and he had to pee, we would win. We made it all the way to the finals on Einstein. I guess he ran out of water during that last match.

Andy B.

[Steven Donow]

I've been waiting for the appropriate venue in which to post this video, but in what is (probably) embarrassment, before a few of our matches at the Bridgewater-Raritan District this year, Nate "The Motivator" Knauss gave our robot/robot cart some motivation. This one was caught on tape:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyW4-XCG4m8

I apologize for my Vertical Video Syndrome, as well as my high pitched laughter.

[Billfred]

When 2815 went to Peachtree 2011, I got out of the shower on Thursday morning and realized "Crap, I left my deodorant in Columbia!"

Since we were at a reputable hotel, I went to the front desk and asked if they had any. They did...but upon checking, all they had was Lady Speed Stick. The kids were busting me pretty hard that trip, so I took it, snuck into the lobby bathroom, and put it on.

After going through hell and high water in quals, we got picked last there. For the first time in 2815's history (and mine across two other teams too), we won!

Palmetto was the next week, so I didn't even really unpack my bag. We got picked last there, and we won!

The same stick went to St. Louis...okay, so I guess it only works at regionals.

----------------------------

For 2012, I went ought and bought a stick (gel, not solid). We went to Peachtree, and we got picked last AGAIN (three in a row!)...and we were out in quarters. Meh, can't win them all.

We then went to Palmetto...and we didn't get picked at all! But we were the #1 backup, got called in, and we won!

----------------------------

This year, determined to get the two-banner type and not the one-banner type, I went out and found a solid Lady Speed Stick. For the first time in our five-year history, we left without hardware and without playing in eliminations at either regional.

Time for a new superstition. (https://vine.co/v/bIqQ2JJT7Vx)

[holygrail]

Team 2996 for the past couple years has had one of the Kuh-nig-its stick on fuzzies on our robot as a good luck measure.

We will be sure to have plenty of little stick-on bunnies for any teams who wish to take advantage of their "luck-enhancing" qualities. Don't let the googly eyes fool you though, they are surprisingly ill-tempered.

[Joseph Smith]

This year our robot is named Consuela, and one of our drivers got in the habit of talking dirty to the robot before matches. He insults her and implies that she exchanges favors for cash, so to speak. He didn't do this at our first competition, which went poorly for us. After he started doing this, everything started to work great. As a member of the pit crew, I was on the field during semis and finals at MSC. I started copying this habit, and I guess it works, because we won!
I'm doing this from now on.

[M.Wong]

Big tradition we had during Worlds involved food. Back when Worlds was held in Atlanta, we would always go to Cheesecake Factory as a team. It was a fantastic way to celebrate our success and bond as a team. Some of my best memories of FIRST came from those dinners at the Cheesecake Factory.

Not sure if that tradition was continued after I graduated in 2011.

[AlexH]

[QUOTE=Andrew Schreiber;1266421]There's a running joke on 79 that my parents (who still live in Michigan) coming to our regionals helps us win... /QUOTE]

i think i had the exact opposite issue. whenever i drove the robot and my dad was in the stands the robots game piece manipulator wouldn't work... but when he wasn't there the robot worked fine.

[Woolly]

We will be sure to have plenty of little stick-on bunnies for any teams who wish to take advantage of their "luck-enhancing" qualities. Don't let the googly eyes fool you though, they are surprisingly ill-tempered.

Googly eyes must be the secret to success! Just look at the "ducks" on our climber!

But wait! If they're ducks, and ducks float on water... then team 1806's climbing hooks are made of wood... and therefore... WITCHES!

[Big Ideas]

Team Paradox has had 3 years of robots that did not work well until a particular BLUE C CLAMP was used to fix one problem or another. Sometimes the last day of build but sometimes in competition.

This year, the design team was doing a great job; so, no BLUE CLAMP was needed and the mentors started to get worried that something was going to require the clamp to work. To stave off disaster, a mentor and student created a laser cut "BLUE CLAMP" tiki to mount on the robot. Our robot stayed mechanically sound thru 2 regionals.

[PVCpirate]

My team has a pirate rubber duck(can't find a picture but it's a black duck with an eyepatch) that we always keep around for luck. It's lucky because we have lost it several times, but we always find it again. No one recently on the team really knows where it came from.

[OZ_341]

A less consistent but fun tradition we have had over the years is that a mentor must wear the Daisy Pot Mascot costume if we ever win a blue banner.
I had to wear it in 2007 Philly and 2010 NYC. I know Jared had to wear it in Philly 2010. I also jokingly told the kids in 2010 that if we won the WCCA that I would wear the Daisy Pot for a full day in school. I was very sorry that I made that promise. :)

[coalhot]

Googly eyes must be the secret to success! Just look at the "ducks" on our climber!

But wait! If they're ducks, and ducks float on water... then team 1806's climbing hooks are made of wood... and therefore... WITCHES!

I know 2495 had the best giant googly eyes on a robot ever. And they won their first district ever, and went to MAR!

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/577534_154146794749493_1374889882_n.jpg

[Matt_Boehm_329]

I cant say if it is good luck or bad luck, but 329 has had a piece for fruit cake on one of the I beams in the ceiling since either 2006 or 2007 which no one dares to remove. Clearly it is there for a reason and we shouldn't touch it.

[kelseysea]

On the first morning of our first competition, I and another member of 4531 sang a song to our team:
"Good morning to you! Good morning to you!
You look awfully drowsy, in fact you look lousy!
Is that any way to start a new day?"

It is now tradition for the whole team to sing it every morning on the bus from hotel to playing field.
(One of our mentors confessed to me that he even sings it to himself when he wakes up on regular days.)

[nlknauss]

I've been waiting for the appropriate venue in which to post this video, but in what is (probably) embarrassment, before a few of our matches at the Bridgewater-Raritan District this year, Nate "The Motivator" Knauss gave our robot/robot cart some motivation. This one was caught on tape:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyW4-XCG4m8

I apologize for my Vertical Video Syndrome, as well as my high pitched laughter.

Oh wow! Along with that cloth, I think I motivated a bucket that weekend too.

I'll be motivating 2729 and anyone else who needs it in Galileo this weekend!

Nate

[Ravage457]

In 2008, after a horrible '07 season because our team had drivetrain issue ( goodbye 4 wheel drive, hello 6 wheel drive) one of the mentors (childhood friend and Rival) tells me that i should bless our robot. Well i write on our robot "Jesus blessed this robot" and that year we had a good season, that year we came close to entering the Finals in Florida at the Orlando Regional as backups, and did pertty decent in our Division at World Championship. Ever since than i keep that little tradition going

[mcarobotics]

Our rookie team was given the use of an old rehab building for a build space. When we first moved in, it was a creepy old building with mice and mysterious noises. As we walked through, we turned a corner and found a 1 .5 foot long stuffed fish, complete with painted on teeth and creepy eyes, staring at us. After overcoming our shock, we decided to adopt it and "The Fish" became our lucky mascot. We brought it to competitions and demos and we like to hide it around the build room for others to stumble upon.
We hope to continue this tradition next year :D

[Jefferson]

As nod to our '96 rookie robot, our primary robot class in C++ is always named some version of TwoMinuteWarning or TMW, at least since my first involvement in 2010.

But now that I think about it... we used Robot Builder this year to generate the project. Our project is named TMW2013, but the primary class is Robot.cpp. Maybe this is the source of our lack-luster performance this season.

[Garrett.d.w]

Last year during the Spokane regional one of the parents jumped up and started cheering "Matthew Klockner, Matthew Klockner" really obnoxiously, which prompted the entire team to join in. After that we spent an incredible amount of time explaining to curious teams who this Matthew Klockner is (human player last year).
With his promotion to second driver this year we all decided to up the ante and made buttons that said "I know Matthew Klockner" in bold letters and a picture of his face in the center. Many a laugh was had over this and we ended up with a really successful regional. By the time we graduate we intend for him to be famous (maybe then we'll win a blue banner).

Anyway, our "robot tradition" is something that we do on our "bunnybot" scrimmage machines. We always try to incorporate a massive pigmouse into the design of the bot (think 20in wooden cube with all of the features of our logo). It doesn't make us do any better, we just have more fun with the bot. If there is no room for the wooden pigmouse, we do have a smaller "pilot" stuffed pigmouse that can take its place (it was our gunner last year).

[Chadfrom308]

We name our robot Audrey ___ each year... I dont know why, but we do

[lakstick]

Every year, our team goes and plays Whirlyball once or twice after our competitions, no matter how we do in the competition! If you don't know what Whirlyball is, it looks like this (http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whirlyball). Our team always has a blast, and most of the time, our night goes well into the next morning!

[Zuelu562]

During my first year with my current team, myself and another mentor ended up stopping at K-Mart looking for supplies to paint our robot, and we found a hula-girl dashboard ornament. We looked at each other and bought it. Attaching it to our driver station with velcro, we went on a run I thought we would never ever make.

Every single member of our alliances bumped the hula-girl, and even the queuing staff got in on the ritual. We ended up at 8-4, and the 7th alliance captain. Our alliance kept up the ritual, except for one student who did not, and we upset the #2 alliance. Going into the semi-finals, the director of the teen center bumped the hula-girl for the first time all event, which ruined the juju. We lost in 2 to the eventual champion.

Sadly, she snapped off her base almost immediately when we returned to the club. We tried to replace her on the driver station, but it didn't feel right. Turns out we would have preferred the natural habitat of the hula-girl; we got snow locked on friday, which prevented us from making the trip to our regional :(