PARC VII Results!

[Ashley Weed]

Congratulations 222, 284, and 145 on winning PARC VII!
A well fought battle by the finalists 341, 175, and 357!

.... today was an excellent show!

[henryBsick]

I must say today was a great day for the PARC series. The comp. ran smoothly, the food was great (I liked it anyway), and the shirts sold like hotcakes. The competion was amazing and the field was stacked. I love a great PARC rumble! Thanks to everyone who showed up, I love the crowds! Can't wait for next year!(I can't believe I am thinking about next year already.)
Also great job to the finalists. You gave us a run for the money. 357, 175, 341. :)

[MOEmaniac]

Sadly I wasn't able to attend today. Does anyone know how MOE did?

[OneAngryDaisy]

Wow.. what a way to go out.. we moved our battery from the back to the front and it cleared all of our woes, I'd like to thank 175 and 357 for an awesome run to the end, stinks how the balls didn't drop in the first round and three balls fell out the second.. before that I thought the stars were aligned correctly, us being 10-0 up to the point. 175, we knew you had an scary machine, seeing you in einstein and all, it was wonderful to watch buzz work once again.. and 357, what a way you've come from drexel, glad that little tussle in the qualifications didn't hurt you at all..

major props to 222 for holding this event, having the pits in your cafeteria was great and there was absolutely no delay between matches, it couldn't have been more well run-

[/edit] I believe Moe was picked 7th by Chuck and they lost a tough match against 522's 2nd seeded alliance [edit]

[Brandon Holley]

Team 11 didnt quite do what we wanted to (26th out of 28)... We ended up having a string of bad luck followed by our robot deciding to extend its pistons directly into itself. We had to remove the hanger, leaving us with just a drive train (2 drills, 2 CIMs). We figured we wouldnt get picked, but 25 and 1403 picked us!!. We played 222's alliance in the quarters. (Oh and 25 also didnt have a hanger and was just a drive train).. You would think that 2 robots that can do anything but drive wouldnt do to hot. But we def gave them a run for their money ;) .. THANK YOU 222, for putting on such an excellently run event!....Like said above, cant wait til next year!

[George A.]

Just to reiterate what everyone else seems to be saying, kudos to 222 for yet another awesome PARC! This is one of the few off season competitions that had on schedule, especially considering the number of teams that attended. On another note I'd like to thank all of the members of 222 and the officials for letting me get my chance at doing the play by play, I had a blast and I know now what the announcers have to go through, except I did it for 1/3 the time.

[Corey Balint]

Sadly I wasn't able to attend today. Does anyone know how MOE did?

You dont want to hear what happened the one round. But since i did it, i think ill break it to ya.

So we are up vs. you, i go to knock u guys off the movable goal, i hit ya, go back in again, then you flip on to us. And they are stuck. Sorry to all of MOE, had no intention of getting hooked on, it just happened, and we needed the win. Past that you guys did pretty good.


Past that, with 1403 and 11, we actually won a match with 2 broken hangers, was pretty funny, and a lot of fun.

All in all, it was a great comp. Run very smoothly, no real delays, refs made great judgement calls.

And congrats on the great set upof the comp and then winning it 222! Simply amazing.

[camtunkpa]

You gave us a run for the money. 134, 175, 341. :)

that's 357 henry....not 134

[Rich Kressly]

Thanks, as always, 222 for a great PARC, and to 134 and 834 for being great alliance partners. Special congrats and thanks to 222's leader Fred Harding for his eight years of dedication to FIRST.

[Ashley Weed]

[/edit] I believe Moe was picked 7th by Chuck and they lost a tough match against 522's 2nd seeded alliance [edit]

Chuck was seeded 7th for alliance selections and chose MOE and (1302? someone correct me please, big scissor lift). The alliance lost to the #2 seeded alliance of 134, 103, and 834 in the quarterfinals.

Congrats to 134 - A long trip to PA, and a long endured event.

[Greg Perkins]

You dont want to hear what happened the one round. But since i did it, i think ill break it to ya.

So we are up vs. you, i go to knock u guys off the movable goal, i hit ya, go back in again, then you flip on to us. So as i try to pull away, we hook on to you. Stuck. We start to spin and do everything we can to get off so we can go get a ball, since we are down by 1. So i start to drag you guys, from the wall halfway down the field until you fall off, it wasnt a pretty site, but i did wat i had to do. And to the rest of moe, im sooooooo sorry about that. we needed the win to get ranked.


Past that, with 1403 and 11, we actually won a match with 2 broken hangers, was pretty funny, and a lot of fun. All in all, it was a great comp. The only small problem was the blue side of the field wouldnt go down, so when we tried to jump up, it would pop the tread. But theres nothing you can do, since that field has been through so much already.

Congrats on the great set up and win 222! Simply amazing.

Boohdah,
This is what I was hoping would not happen. Being a Ref. we discussed this manuever. There is no need to revist issues that were allready finalized on the feild.

Anywho,


Congratulations to the alliance of 222, 284, and 145. Also, an amazing effort by 341, 175, and 357. Personally, I would like to compliment my team as they made a 7 hour drive to PA. for this event. Through the first match there was a lot of issues, HOWEVER, they fixed it and went on to seed 2nd. CONGRATS!!!

222 It was an honor to be a Ref. at your event, I hope I will be invited back next year to return to the Ref. staff.

[MOEmaniac]

Well since I personally know boodah, I know that he would never have any malicious intent and he always practices great sportsmenship. So whats done is done and I don't hold a grudge against him. I'm just anxious to see the extent of the damages.

[Dave_222]

I had to leave early, arround 3:30, could someone please post who won what awards?

Thanks,
Dave

[OZ_341]

Congratulations to Fred Harding and the Tigertrons Crew!!!

A great event and a great win!! Congratulations 222, 284, and 145.

This year's event was the best run ever!!

PARC was the inspiration for our Ramp Riot event and Fred has always been a huge help. He will be sincerely missed.

And finally, thank you to 175 and 357, fierce competitors and true partners. We tried hard to spoil Fred's retirement party but it just wasn't in the cards.

See everyone in the Fall!!

Al Ostrow
Coach, Team 341

[Pat Roche]

Thanks, as always, 222 for a great PARC, and to 134 and 834 for being great alliance partners. Special congrats and thanks to 222's leader Fred Harding for his eight years of dedication to FIRST.

Thanks 103 and 834 for joining up with us. We wouldnt of had it any other way. Congrats to 222, 145 and 284 on their victory and thanks 222 for the awesome competion. One of the best we've been to.

-Pat

[Ashley Weed]

Well since I personally know boodah, I know that he would never have any malicious intent and he always practices great sportsmenship. So whats done is done and I don't hold a grudge against him. I'm just anxious to see the extent of the damages.


Greg Perkins -
From what i could tell from my vantage point, they hooked on your angled supports with their hook for hanging. When they tried to free themselves, they dragged you over on your side. As they were valiantly trying to freethemselves I believe they damaged more of themselves than you MOE.
~ Greg

[Joe3]

Oh boy...that was one heck of a day.

We start off unloading the robot and tools at about 8:00. And wait a minute...oops. I guess we forgot our OI. Thanks to the Tigertrons(222) for sharing theirs with us for the morning. And also thanks to Pat, on of our mentors, who turned around 1/2 way into a 3 hour drive to go get them and then drive all the way back up to PARC.

I think we ran on one motor drive for 4 of our 6 matches, and were still able to cap the stationary goal in most of them...

Two bosch motors later, thanks to Chuck (84) for picking us and 1302 for being a great alliance partner. Sorry we let you guys down. When we went to go grab the 2x ball out of the mobile goal there, the 1/2" steel shaft we have the arm on just sheared clean. The arm collapsed and got tangeled up in the rest of the robot.

But, despite all of the things that went wrong, I had a good time. Thanks to 222 for hosting another great event.

[Shu Song]

That was a great competition. It was my first time driving for the team. Got my first dose of real competition, and boy is it tough out there to concentrate and to be absolutely chill. I dunno how the rest of you guys do it.

I drove our first and only match in eliminations, and when it came time to hang, i just couldn't get up to the second platform. I've been able to do it tons of times in the pat, just not this time, when it really counted. :(

This was a really great experience. Thanks for hold PARC, I think we'll be back next year.

[Bharat Nain]

Congractulations to all the winning alliance, and to all those attended. This was a simply awesome event, and went extremely well. Thanks 222 for hosting this. On another note, apologies to those whose robots we caused damage etc., it was totally unintentional. We try to be as gentle on the controls as we can, but sometimes its just uncontrolable.

[Wayne C.]

Boohdah,
This is what I was hoping would not happen. Being a Ref. we discussed this manuever. There is no need to revist issues that were allready finalized on the feild.

Anywho,


Congratulations to the alliance of 222, 284, and 145. Also, an amazing effort by 341, 175, and 357. Personally, I would like to compliment my team as they made a 7 hour drive to PA. for this event. Through the first match there was a lot of issues, HOWEVER, they fixed it and went on to seed 2nd. CONGRATS!!!

222 It was an honor to be a Ref. at your event, I hope I will be invited back next year to return to the Ref. staff.

A little additional to add to this- the round has been eating at me all night too,

In the earlier round where our machine was trying to hang with Miss Daisy and the two hanging robots got entangled our arm's electrical system somehow got crimped, shorted out and melted the entire lead system. As a result we only had two ranges of motion- vertical twist and the shoulder lift arc- no elbow to close the angle joint. And with time flying between rounds we made the decision to leave the immobile joint as an L and try to use it to uncap the goals and the base to run interference as much as possible. It may have appeared that we were playing with a "weapon of death" but that really wasn't the intention. Frankly, it never occurred to us until later that a few zip ties across the hook would make it "weedless"
Anyway, in the aforementioned round, the robots came out and our machine got into the fray with Gizmoe over the rolling goal and big ball. In the excitement that hook just angled into an edge of the frame and when the EM moved, Gizmoe landed on top of it, mangling the hook inextricably from the mass. Invisible from the driver station, the drivers tried all manner of turning and pulling but the machines wouldn't separate.
I'm (we're) sorry if this was misunderstood as an effort to destroy other robots or anything unsportsmanlike. It was simply an attempt of a team with a grossly damaged robot to stay in the game and do the best they could with what was left of their machine. With only a drive base and a broken arm there really wasn't much more a team could do except push balls and run interference.

In any case, our apologies to 365 and any others we angered. Hopefully we can leave any bad feelings on the field and move on. I know my guys love the Miracle Workers team and wouldn't deliberately do anything to hurt them.

WC

[fred]

A little additional to add to this- the round has been eating at me all night too,

In the earlier round where our machine was trying to hang with Miss Daisy and the two hanging robots got entangled our arm's electrical system somehow got crimped, shorted out and melted the entire lead system. As a result we only had two ranges of motion- vertical twist and the shoulder lift arc- no elbow to close the angle joint. And with time flying between rounds we made the decision to leave the immobile joint as an L and try to use it to uncap the goals and the base to run interference as much as possible. It may have appeared that we were playing with a "weapon of death" but that really wasn't the intention. Frankly, it never occurred to us until later that a few zip ties across the hook would make it "weedless"
Anyway, in the aforementioned round, the robots came out and our machine got into the fray with Gizmoe over the rolling goal and big ball. In the excitement that hook just angled into an edge of the frame and when the EM moved, Gizmoe landed on top of it, mangling the hook inextricably from the mass. Invisible from the driver station, the drivers tried all manner of turning and pulling but the machines wouldn't separate.
I'm (we're) sorry if this was misunderstood as an effort to destroy other robots or anything unsportsmanlike. It was simply an attempt of a team with a grossly damaged robot to stay in the game and do the best they could with what was left of their machine. With only a drive base and a broken arm there really wasn't much more a team could do except push balls and run interference.

In any case, our apologies to 365 and any others we angered. Hopefully we can leave any bad feelings on the field and move on. I know my guys love the Miracle Workers team and wouldn't deliberately do anything to hurt them.

WC

To team 25: Miss Daisy certainly did not mean to harm your bot in anyway and you guys were really understanding and nice about it. The nice part of the story is that 25 and 341 were paired together in the next round and Miss Daisy hung (with a little tomahawk action by myself if I may add :) ) while 25 did a fantastic job playing defense and pushing balls back to the human players. This is what FIRST is all about, competitors one match and a winning pair the next match. Kudos to Team 25.

The whole experience was incredible as things ran very smoothly. For Miss Daisy, who knew that a new joystick and a new hook would be 2 of the huge keys to our success as well as some great driving by a lot of people. I can't wait for PARC 2005!

[Joe3]

Wayne...no hard feelings from me towards 25. Vince(cocothemonkey) have been in the situation a few times this year, with the robot basicly out of sight on the other side of the field, and just trying to uncap a goal, or accomplish a task, getting tangled up with another robot in the process. After about 30 seconds of "OMG what are they doing" behind the drivers station, and a little time to cool down, I remembered that your drivers couldnt see what I could. I think everyone understands what went on, and we appreciate your appology. No hard feelings.

[DUCKIE]

In reference to the sheared shaft that pretty much put us out of commission... I should have a photo up momentarily... along with ~25 other photos from the event.... and not just MOE photos either.

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

As to team 25.... I too now understand your point of view and will hold NO grudge...

But I DO want you to know that I...

(As in "me", the 2 years as a student, 2 as a college mentor/returning alumni... also as in "I am not speaking for the team at this point")

… Pondered for a LONG TIME on the ride home (and after) the "sportsmanship" and "gracious professionalism" (or lack of) demonstrated by your drive team when they rammed repetitively into other robots... when the other robots…

(And I am not just alluding to any matches between 25 and GizMOE here… ) [I understood then that you were just trying to get untangled in that match.]

… were not even in possession of a mobile goal or 2x ball at the time.

I guess I was baffled if the aggressive and physical driving done by your drive team yesterday fit in with FIRST’s ideas of “Gracious Professionalism” and making your grandmother’s proud… even if it is in the heat of competition…

But that was yesterday… and it’s not like anything anyone does or says now can change the past.

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

I also understand your side a bit more, knowing what your specific robot damages were... and the reason for your "weapon of death" as you called it.

[camtunkpa]

Thanks also has to go out to all our volunteers from other teams. On our reffing crew, I must thank Aidan, Erin, Greg, Rob, and Sarah. On field reset, I'm not sure who all helped, but I know Andrea was helping all day, and at the scoring table was Paul. Thanks to all these people for helping our event run so smoothly....oh wait one more person, Jim, the MC can't forget Jim :yikes: ...Thanks to all the teams who make PARC sucha great competition every year!

Cliff
222 Alum.

[Wayne C.]

In reference to the sheared shaft that pretty much put us out of commission... I should have a photo up momentarily... along with ~25 other photos from the event.... and not just MOE photos either.

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

As to team 25.... I too now understand your point of view and will hold NO grudge...

But I DO want you to know that I...

(As in "me", the 2 years as a student, 2 as a college mentor/returning alumni... also as in "I am not speaking for the team at this point")

… Pondered for a LONG TIME on the ride home (and after) the "sportsmanship" and "gracious professionalism" (or lack of) demonstrated by your drive team when they rammed repetitively into other robots... when the other robots…

(And I am not just alluding to any matches between 25 and GizMOE here… ) [I understood then that you were just trying to get untangled in that match.]

… were not even in possession of a mobile goal or 2x ball at the time.

I guess I was baffled if the aggressive and physical driving done by your drive team yesterday fit in with FIRST’s ideas of “Gracious Professionalism” and making your grandmother’s proud… even if it is in the heat of competition…

But that was yesterday… and it’s not like anything anyone does or says now can change the past.

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

I also understand your side a bit more, knowing what your specific robot damages were... and the reason for your "weapon of death" as you called it.

The matter has been discussed and hopefully dealt with. As I told them- blocking and pushing is one thing, ramming another. They are rookies and need to learn.
WC

[Corey Balint]

What happened is done with, we made mistakes, they couldve been prevented, but it was the heat of the moment. None of the hitting was meant to cause damage or tipping of the robot. when we were dqd for tipping 222, we were preventing them from hanging and if im not mistaken they were going for/had a 2x ball, we were NOT trying to harm them in any way. 225 was going to hang, so we tried to block and tipped them by accident, so i state again, we were not trying to harm them.

If any of these incidents truely hurt you, i am deeply sorry, they were not meant to harm others, only to protect the chances of success. If there is anything we can do to make it up, please do not hesitate to tell me/the rest of the team. We will do whatever we can to clear this incident up.

[camtunkpa]

Team 25 don't sweat the small stuff. Teams know who you are, how you are, and how things happen out there on the field...you've apologized numerous times. I know I for one respect your manner in handling what happend by the apologies and all gracious professionals prolly will. So just let things be. You're a great competitive team!

[Charlie222]

I don't know if I'm speaking for my entire team or not (I think I am) but....
Everyone makes mistakes....In the heat of the moment things happen....
I know, I was there once.

The driving team I was a part of was known to be quite aggressive sometimes. Won't mention any names....Cliff ;)
While I feel that the refs made the right call...I spoke with 25's driver after the match and complimented him on his driving skills. (Also suggested he might want to consider BattleBots :p )

Anyway -- No hard feelings from me -- I was remembering the "King Of The Hill" match last year at PARC when we tipped you guys over. I guess this could be considered payback. :)

- Charlie - Team #222 - Tigertrons

P.S. PARC pics should be up soon

[henryBsick]

I don't know if I'm speaking for my entire team or not (I think I am) but....
Everyone makes mistakes....In the heat of the moment things happen....
I know, I was there once.

The driving team I was a part of was known to be quite aggressive sometimes. Won't mention any names....Cliff ;)
While I feel that the refs made the right call...I spoke with 25's driver after the match and complimented him on his driving skills. (Also suggested he might want to consider BattleBots :p )

Anyway -- No hard feelings from me -- I was remembering the "King Of The Hill" match last year at PARC when we tipped you guys over. I guess this could be considered payback. :)

- Charlie - Team #222 - Tigertrons

P.S. PARC pics should be up soon

Char, now that you say that......I guess I can call it even with 25. That is the nature of evil machine1.2 :)

[DUCKIE]

I hope i did not upset anyone with my post earlier... but as i said... i hold no ill-will towards 25... You are a great team... always noticeable (especially with the yellow and pink hawaiian shirts this year)... and always fast around the field (much to the dismay of many steralite bins last year)...

I just felt the need to share my opinion, if not for just a need to write it out to organize my own thoughts, then for a possible use as constructive criticism to prevent over agressiveness, when a team is truely overagressive w/out reason.

Hope to see you at the Duel.

-------------
Also.... I finally finished posting the better of the PARC pictures i have...
in the middle of a thunderstorm non-the-less.... i am going to post this and shut-down my computer before it electrocutes me or something.

-

[mtaman02]

All the teams deserve a congrads. I think out of all the Off-Season comps on the east USA, PARC has got to be the one with the top noch teams making the competition look like a regional. The amont of teams (28) out of the 3? something that had signed up did spectacular.

My Favorites from last year and this year
365 - FIRST said no more moe stix at a competition. They never said anything about the off-season events. Thanx for letting teams no that the Moe Stix will never dissappear.
25 - Fast as always. Very noticeable Hawiian shirts. Almost thought you guys were on vacation when i saw you guys. Guess not --- Hope to see u next year
175 - awesome machine. your probably the only team i know that can herd balls, have every single one of them shot by the HP successfully, and then cap to finish and win the match w/o hanging. Awesom job BBBBBBBUUUUUUUUZZZZZZZZZZ
1218 - I like the drive design of the robot. It makes for easy mobility no matter what, whether you get flipped or not ( haven't seen it happen yet either ) Awesome Commercial btw

Yes a couple of 1218's members got together and made a commercial advertising the "superbar". I won;t say what it is / how much is it that you gotta ask them yourselves hehe

[John Larock]

A few random comments on PARC...

* Excellent event. Just the right number of teams. I was a bit concerned when I heard that as many as 36 teams were attending - mainly because it lengthens the day and potentially reduces the number of qualifying matches each team has. One of the many reasons for attending off-season events is to allow drivers to "play" with their machines more with (typically) less teams than would attend a regional. The more play the better. The PARC organizers made a great decision by scrapping all special rounds to allow more qualifying matches per team.

* Pits in the cafeteria were great!!! Although it was a longer walk, moving the pits from the hallways was a terrific decision. Plus, it got folks like myself (who could use the exercise) doing some pit-playing field laps after working off those chili dogs and pierogies.

* Speaking of food, the event had very good food (for a FIRST-related event) at very good prices. The cost of my lunch would have paid for a medium soda at Trenton (no offense NJ guys)!

* PARC always has a friendly, down-home feel to it. This year was no different. That is one of the factors that makes this event so special.

======
THANKS
======

* A HUGE thanks to the Tigertrons for loaning us their OI for the morning. As JOE3 mentioned, ours was inadvertently left in our workspace in Wilmington, Delaware and we did not realize it until about 8:15AM on Saturday. Fortunately, a carload of Miracle Workerz was en route and we pulled off an OI handoff of the Northeast Extension (thanks to Action Joe Perrotto - Woodie Flowers Award Winner - for letting leaving his pancake breakfast on Saturday to drive to obtain the OI and hand it off to Pat Grusenmeyer and his carload, who eventually delivered the goods right around noon.

Tigertrons - GizMOE would have been dead in the water without your help. Thanks much.

Brian Lucas, our programming mentor, was once again invaluable. He was writing code almost up to our first match so that we could map our functions to the Tigertrons controller. And it all worked the first time out!!!! Off-season is truly about adversity (partial pit crew, partial comp team, beat-up robots). It's always exciting.

* Thanks to Chuck, Team 84, for selecting us in the Elims. Also thanks to Team 1302, our third partner. We were having technical difficulties and could not compete up to our full potential, but we gave it our best shot.

* Regarding what I will call "the FLIP and PULL" incident - Wayne C. came up after the match to apologize to us on behalf of 25. No more words besides the fact that our teams are and will continue to be friends and competitors. No hard feelings. We look forward to tusseling again.

* Buzz, Team 175, was awesome to watch. In one of the elimination rounds with 341, they just filled up that goal and capped it. A sight to behold.

* Tigertons 222 competition team - beating the Daisy-Buzz-Royal Assault alliance was not an easy task. You guys were amazing. A truly great series of finals rounds. Also, congrats on capping that mobile goal during qualifying matches which was "brimming" with balls. It did not look possible. Good thing the LEXAN of the player station acted as a "sneeze guard" because I believe a stray sneeze would have dislodged that 2X multiplier.

Thanks to everyone who made this a terrific event. Good luck to all attending more off-season events in the coming months!

[Greg Perkins]

someone needs to teach Mr. Harding not to go over bumps at an angle on a segway ;) :p What an awesome event, thanks again!

[Charlie222]

PARC VII pictures are finally up!!!

300+ pictures.....

http://www.tigertrons.com/PARC/Pictures.htm
http://www.tigertrons.com/PARC/Pictures2.htm

Dial-Up people beware.............

(Well....Page 2 and 1/2 of page 1 is working - Be Patient ;) )

[Yan Wang]

Whooo! Thanks for posting up a bunch of pics of Team 639's "Red Tulip" in the mix! Really nice.

[Aaron]

First of all i would like to thank team 222 for hosting ( and winning) this great event). I really liked having the pits in the cafeteria instead of the halways.

I also would like to thank 25 and 1403 picking us. We really didn't think we would get picked because our hook arm broke. Any one in the pits watching the monitor when u guys picked us will agree that it was one of the most... unusual allience picking 'celebrations.' Anyways the quarterfinals were great and i loved the round that we won with out either robots' end effecters.
:yikes: Great competition, I can't wait for next year!!!! :D

[Corey Balint]

LOL!!!-That pit celebration was the funniest thing ever. That was an amazing match as well, we both played to our full defensive potential and our shooters did great. Nice to see some sort of parity in that 2 good robots, although broken, will still always have a chance against 2 fully functional robots.