Re: 2012 Northeast Utilities Connecticut Regional
 

Congratulations to 195, 181, 20 for winning!

That second final was close.

Re: 2012 Northeast Utilities Connecticut Regional
 

I'd also like to know what happened here... I've heard various things from those at CT - but nothing conclusive. It's really a travesty that the semis weren't replayed...

Re: 2012 Northeast Utilities Connecticut Regional
 

I talked with some people on who were on the field during elims today, and actually, many of the problems were caused by robots and not the field. I can't tell you which specific events, nor what the specific problems were, but I can say, that multiple people on the field told me some of the problems were not due to the field.

It seems the issue was cRIOs rebooting midmach, which the FMS can't control. The FMS only talks to the driver station, not the robots themselves. The stumping part is how some wifi packets can cause cRIOs to reboot. There just weren't the diagnostic tools to figure it out well, so nobody really knows what happened.

Re: 2012 Northeast Utilities Connecticut Regional
 

What an awesome regional! The heat of this competition was intense to say the least.

Id like to extend a massive thank you to the GaelHawks(230) and of course Stuypulse(694), you guys were great partners (and captains) and our strategy was nearly airtight... Gus' alliance was a powerhouse, so I knew the quarterfinals would be rough.
Congrats to the winners! Those were some great finals matches to watch.

Re: 2012 Northeast Utilities Connecticut Regional
 

Congrats to Rolling Thunder (1511) on snagging the Engineering Inspiration Award!! Another great team is St. Louis bound!

Re: 2012 Northeast Utilities Connecticut Regional
 

Congratulations to regional winners 195, 181 and 20 and to all the other award winners at the CT Regional. We had an amazing time working with our friends at Team Max, 1071, and our friends and scouting partners Apple Pi, 2067. Being able to play so far and so well with teams we so like and respect made the journey all that much more enjoyable, and more satisfying. It's not every alliance captain that will agree to take the less glamorous role of playing defense, but 1071 you did it willingly and did it well. And Apple Pi, it was a pleasure to play with our scouting buddies at CT instead of against them, like we had to at WPI LOL. We wish you the best of luck in St. Louis!

I also want to say that this was an extremely deep regional, with some great robots that weren't fortunate enough to make eliminations. To name just a few: 1124, 839, 1511 (so glad you won EI!) So many amazing machines, and, as always, an extremely competitive event.

Re: 2012 Northeast Utilities Connecticut Regional
 

I'm sure that 118 can give a more detailed answer for their specific issue, however I want to clarify some of the dead robot scenarios. There were 3 consecutive matches in which a robot(s) was/were dead for all or part of the match. (Not including finals.)

SF2 for 1 seed - 118 - Red Alliance station 3 - Dead whole match
SF2 for 2 seed - 177 - Red Alliance station 3 - Dead whole match
SF2 for 2 seed - 228 - Red Alliance station 2 - Dead part of match
SF3 for 1 seed - 118 - Red Alliance Station 2 - Dead whole match

While FIRST says the issue was on the robot end, I find it hard to believe that in three consecutive matches, robots that worked fine previously, suddenly did not work. I find it unfortunate that the MC announced to the audience that the teams were at fault for the issue, particularly when the FTA said after the regional that he had no idea what was causing the problems. I can also say that 118 worked in the pits both before and after the match using a tether.

Moving on to the rest of the regional. Our driver station refused to connect to the field on Friday morning and we spent 4 matches working with the FTA trying to correct the issue. We would really like to thank him for being patient and working with us to solve all of those issues with us, even staying through lunch to help us troubleshoot, we appreciate it, even though it never ended up working. Your spare classmate saved our regional.

Then on Saturday morning, the drive motor issues from BAE resurfaced. It took all morning to troubleshoot the issue, and we finally put the robot together after sitting dead for our first three matches on Saturday. I will come back and elaborate more on the issues so we can troubleshoot the issue more, but we ended up replacing almost every component on our electronics board before the morning was through. We would like to thank the FTA again, another volunteer named Oliver, and two mentors from 1511 for helping us troubleshoot the issue all morning. You made our eliminations possible.

I would also like to say to 177, 6 years on Einstein was a fantastic run and it's unfortunate it had to come to an end because of control system issues. It's a feat likely never to be seen again.

Lastly, I would like to thanks 2168 and 118 for picking us for eliminations. We know you took a huge leap of faith in doing so, but we were able to triple balance twice on the practice field and twice in matches and it was a lot of fun. We're disappointed that control system issues on 118 ended the regional for us, especially after control issues cost us BAE and 2168 NYC. We wish 118 luck next week in trying to qualify for championship. That robot is a work of art and it would be a loss for it not to be in St. Louis. I am also amazed we won the Creativity award for our drive train and you did not win that award for your innovative coopertition balancing system. That was totally cool.

Re: 2012 Northeast Utilities Connecticut Regional
 

Congratulations to 195, 181, and 20 you guys fought hard and 195 worked really hard all weekend and played amazingly.

Congratulations 694 on winning Chairmans and 1511's EI you are two well rounded teams with amazing programs!

Many thanks to those who organized this regional it was my first time in CT and the event overall was top-notch! The venue, food, and pit room was great and the volunteers were awesome!

I recorded all the matches (minus matches 1-31 as they somehow were corrupted) so those should circulate on TBA soon (sooner if someone would like me to send them the files to parse them up and label them!

I wanted to quickly congratulate our students who really pulled through all around over the past three days in every aspect as a team. Getting to see a top notch scout team come together at this event, our drivers perfoming well beyond my expecations (hitting two auto, five top teleop and balancing), and a team who made a robot that never broke down in the two events it has competed in just blows my mind!!! These kids are amazing to work with and the quality award was well deserved on their part. It wasn't quite the finish we were hoping for but we learned a lot and had a blast!! We thouroughly enjoyed the regional and hope to see many teams during the off-season where we hope to take our robot to a finals match!

Re: 2012 Northeast Utilities Connecticut Regional
 

I had such a great time talking to the teams at the regional throughout the weekend and watching you play - you guys are all amazing, and I wish there were more awards to recognize you for your efforts. The CT Regional always has teams with a lot of history and deep field, this year more so than ever. There was an amazing volunteer crew as well. Thank you so much to all of the volunteers that made the event happen, you were so much fun to work with!

I hope everyone enjoyed the team social and the alumni events. Let me know if you have any suggestions for next year and stay tuned for some new CTFAN opportunities. :)

Re: 2012 Northeast Utilities Connecticut Regional
 

Hi Jack,

I am one of the two mentors from 1511 --- you and your team are most welcome. We were happy to see you guys up and running again, playing out on the field the rest of the morning and through the afternoon! Best of luck to you and your team :)

Re: 2012 Northeast Utilities Connecticut Regional
 

What a fantastic weekend. Seems like every year CT is just more and more fun.

Before I get into thanking everyone who made this weekend so amazing for us I want to give a shout out to team 2168. You guys were absolutely awesome at NY and were robbed of a chance to play your alliance's full game in the elims, for the same thing to happen in CT is abosluetly heartbreaking. You guys are without a doubt one of the best teams who aren't going to be at championship. 2168 is going to be a team to watch rise up into the top tier of team's over the next year or two. Your robot was great but the way you guys run your team is even better. Also thank you again for your advice at the end of NY, it really helped us come alive at CT.

To our partners:
230, you were awesome all weekend and really started scoring like crazy on saturday morning. We were so happy that you were still on the board when we were picking as the 7th seed. I love your team and I'm glad we finally got to play together.
1559, we thought in the position we were in you would likely be our first round pick. we were so happy you guys were there for us to pickup. You were great all weekend and did not question the strategy in the elims no matter how crazy and different it was for you guys, not every team can make a transition like that so easily and you did a trully great job.

I would also like to throw a very quick thank you to GUS for hooking us up with a pneumatic piston replacement for one of our stingers, we never ended up needing to put it on but it definitely made us feel safer for the elimination rounds. Also congrats to dave for becoming a dean's list finalist. We played one match with you guys and from that I could already tell that you were a great leader and smart student.

Congratulations to the winning alliance of 195, 181, and 20. 195 you are just one of my favorite teams and we had a great time with you guys in the stands and during your team dinner. You were just the most deadly scorer and I'm happy you were able to punch your ticket to the championship. 181, your auton was just plain old deadly. Every single match it hit 2 or possibly more off of the bridge, nuff said. 20, your clearing strategy was great and it was awesome to see you guys pull out the win.

Also congratulations to 1511 for winning engineering inspiration, I love how your team runs almost as much as I love your utility vests and I have admired your team for years, it was great to see you come to CT this year and hopefully you will be back again in the future.

On the note of all the comms issues, starting SF1-2 I believe there was a comms issue in every single match until the end of the regional. I believe Finals match 3 didn't have issues which is good because that is the most important match to be decided purely by the bots on the field putting their all out there. The MC announced at some point that there was an issue with teams and that issue could not possibly be caused by the FMS and had to be the team's own faults. Now this could very well be a series of unfortunate events but I know from personal experience that them saying it isn't the FMS's fault doesn't always mean that, in 09 we were told this and found out after that it wasn't quite true but it was too little too late, the regional was long over and I really hope this does not happen here. I know that the FTA was doing everything in his power to figure out what happened and what the right call here was and I don't doubt his judgement, but I would hate to find out that FIRST found some errors that they were causing that robbed these alliances at their fair shake at the title. This statement is not intended to take away from the winning alliance because quite honestly I loved the winning alliance but it would have been great to see a the fully functional triple balancing alliances face off with the powerhouse ball scoring of the alliance that ultimately won.

I also want to thank all of the volunteers, judges, announcers, and the new MC who, as much as I loved Jack in the Hat, was absolutely awesome, constantly high energy with strong knowledge of all of the teams. I'd also like to thank all the teams that come to this event every year and make it just awesome with their presence, to name a few who I have not yet mentioned there is 175, 1124, 236, 177(sucks to see that streak end), 173, 126, and so many others.

I can't wait to see everyone at St. Louis, I am still kind of in disbelief that we qualified with the last possible award again and that we got to cut the net(#cutthenet), which was awesome. I had a blast at CT this year and cannot wait till next year.

Re: 2012 Northeast Utilities Connecticut Regional
 

Joe, Thanks, your words help a lot. Going from #1 seed, to knocked-out in the semis is a long way to fall. It happens, yes, but to have it happen twice in a row ... *tears*

There's no hard feelings against anyone: Robonauts: I love that machine, it was the finest robot on the field, hands down. Shaker: you are a cool group of people, and we all looked SO GOOD on that bridge together!

Cyber Knights, you are Connecticut's Team, you and your alliance deserve the win;
BoP, I'm looking forward to an "All-Raptor" alliance one day; Rocketeers, you were on the list ...

Now comes a short "Robot Vacation." The Fat Swan shall rise again at Battlecry and Beantown.

And Joe, adjust your signature!

Re: 2012 Northeast Utilities Connecticut Regional
 

I want to clarify something: we had no comms issues on the red alliance during any of the finals matches. During final 1, our robot went dead almost immediately after hybrid period. After the match, both our coach and the FTA rushed to the robot and immediately saw that all power was off. This told them that it was NOT a communication issue, but a power issue. We later determined that we had a faulty connector to the main breaker. Our alliance used its time out, and the problem was repaired. This was not a field issue, but a robot issue. Later, one of our alliance partners was stopped at the key for a time and not shooting. Again, this was not a comm issue; their shooter jammed and they were unable to score. Again, at no time during any of the final three matches did any robot on the red alliance have an issue with field communciation.

Re: 2012 Northeast Utilities Connecticut Regional
 

I know myself and the rest of Team 126 had a fantastic time. The last couple qualification matches and elims were some of the most intense and fun matches I've ever been a part of. We had some trouble with accuracy because of the new balls (we had calibrated our shooter based on the used balls in quals). All in all, what a great time. We did manage a 3 wide base robot triple balance on the practice field, and were a few seconds away from getting it on the field.



for anyone that didn't see it, 869 come across the ramp, turns sideways, 126 strafes with mecanum wheels, and 175 would push both sideways up the bridge. 869 has a slide on top of their bot to shift the weight, and Buzz has one heavy end, with a brake, to allow them to hang half the bot of the edge.

Re: 2012 Northeast Utilities Connecticut Regional
 

On behalf of team 4055 NRG we would like to sincerely and gratefully thank a few key people and teams that have helped us this our rookie season. Without witch our Rookie all star award would never have been possible. It is with great honor that we give our thanks. We tried very hard to gain the respect of these people and there teams. Words can not begin to say enough. Please just know this, team 4055 NRG walks in the shadow of your greatness and we place you on a pedestal.

Thank you Andy and the team 716 Who,sCTEKS

Thank you Charlie and the team 195 Cyber Knights

Thank you the entire team of 178 The Enforcers

Thank you the entire team of 1124 The UberBots

All the rest of the teams at the Hartford Regional. Thank you.

We will make you proud of all the help you have given us and return the generosity by helping the next years rookies in any way we can.
We will do this in your honor and in the sprite of FIRST and gracious professionalism.