Re: 2012 Mid-Atlantic Robotics - Chestnut Hill FIRST Robotics District Competition
 

Thanks again to 1218 and 2559!

1218 - What else is there to say? Our bots work together beautifully. Our robot may put up a high volume of balls, but you guys never miss with what is in my opinion THE most accurate shooter in FRC. You are the sniper rifle to our machinegun. A perfect match.

2559 - You guys really came through for us, helping to starve our opponent, bravely attempt the triple balance, and playing incredible defense in Finals Match 2. Congratulations on the win!

More thanks and congrats:

222 - What a great machine! You guys really pushed us in the Finals, and made sure the crowd got their money's worth. My favorite feature of your machine: that it sounds like you are firing an elephant gun with every shot you make :D

365 - It is a shame that our robots never got to be on the field together (weird, considering it was a 37-team field with 12 rounds per team...) I guess we'll have to wait until Philly to find out what happens when our auto modes meet at midfield :) As usual, your mobile pit crew was busy making sure all of the teams got everything they needed to compete. A true Hall of Fame team.

The Rookies - I have been extremely impressed with the crop of rookies at the first two MAR District events. 4342, alliance captain and Finalist, you guys are extremely impressive. 4373 is one of the nicest teams I have ever worked with behind the glass, and your bot played a big role in a lot of matches. 4035, also an extremely gracious team to work with. 3974, another great bot. 3929, what an unbelievably professional looking machine. It's a shame you only got to play in one playoff round!

All Volunteers - MAR is now 2 for 2 at the events that I have attended! Despite the new venue and lots of new faces, outside of a network-related delay on Friday afternoon we had very smooth sailing! I am very quickly being converted into a MAR believer :)

Re: 2012 Mid-Atlantic Robotics - Chestnut Hill FIRST Robotics District Competition
 

Are there any videos of the finals matches?

Re: 2012 Mid-Atlantic Robotics - Chestnut Hill FIRST Robotics District Competition
 

We could be on the field together and NOT have to have our autonomous routines meet at midfield, you know. :D

All the best in Boston. See you later this season!

Re: 2012 Mid-Atlantic Robotics - Chestnut Hill FIRST Robotics District Competition
 

Chestnut Hill was run beautifully, even despite insanely quick back-to-back matches, you managed to have impressive turn around times. Joe Troy and others were very patient and helpful with field issues as well. A few teams to greatly thank and congratulate:

357: You are such a generous team to us and I love being able to work with you every chance I get. This group of mentors is amazing.

341: Your dominance on the field is astounding and I hope to see it continue as you head to Boston.

1218: Thank you for hosting a great event and congratulations to you as well on the win. At Hatboro you were slightly behind 341 in performance but you are now, IMO, equally matched.

222: What an incredible run to the finals, and the most adrenaline pumping matches I have seen in a long time.

4342: You are a very very skilled rookie team and I wish you the best of luck. Your design is very intelligent.

2729: Thanks for joining our alliance, you were on ours and 484's list.

We were incredibly disappointed to be pulled by our alliance captain after the 1st eliminations match and then later found out that our station had a coms issue. We knew there was nothing wrong with our robot that match and would have loved to continue. Despite your lack of faith in us, our driveteam continued the day by spending a few hours on the practice field balancing and tweaking autonomous. They are now more determined to prove themselves to everyone who doubted us.

I am incredibly proud of my team after this weekend. Thank you to the judges for selecting us for Rookie All Star over some very tough competition.

Expect us to play at Mount Olive with full force. We've got major bugs worked out, now comes modifications and tweaking. We are hungry this season.

-Akash

Best innovation I've seen in 13 years of FIRST
 

Using the large basketball scoreboards to display the current match number and the queuing match number. No need to wonder if that last garbled noise was your match being queued or a team looking for a part. I've always wondered why something like this hasn't been standard practice.

Thanks SCH for putting on a great event.

Re: Best innovation I've seen in 13 years of FIRST
 

This was in fact a great idea by the event organizers. After working all weekend with them and all of the volunteers, they are a great bunch. You would never have known that this was the second long weekend in a row running a competition for many of them.

There were numerous times this weekend where people came up to me and asked about what was going on. They had never heard of FIRST and had just stopped in to see what the commotion was.

To anyone I asked to move out of the narrow walkway behind the red alliance station, out of the robot pathway nearby, or to not sit in the stairwell on the bleachers, thanks for your understanding and cooperation. Things got a little crowded at times but we made the best of it.

Re: 2012 Mid-Atlantic Robotics - Chestnut Hill FIRST Robotics District Competition
 

First off I'd like to say thanks for 1218 for hosting this event. We know 1218 is a class act and the event was nothing less then we would expect from such a great team!

4342 You guys started the season as rookies, but you are now officially veterans. You designed a machine that our team seriously thought about during the build season. I'm glad to see a consistent 2 point dunker almost go all the way. As a long time veteran I was extremely impressed with your game play and your willingness to improve and adapt. Keep it up 4342 and you'll have that gold before you know it!

2180 you were truly a diamond in the rough! I can't believe you lasted long enough for our alliance to snatch you up. Your willingness to do whatever it took really made this alliance work. Your hybrid mode was very consistent and your match play was very well thought out and orchestrated.

To 341, 1218 and 2559 you guys played hard. As soon as this alliance got together everyone knew winning was going to be HUGE uphill battle. You pushed our alliance to the limits and got the well deserved win! I can't wait to see how you all keep improving throughout the season!

Also a shout out to 365 for their consistently fast autonomous routines and great game play! I guess we shouldn't have shown you guys our fast bridge autonomous in the qualifications ;) You all are a great group!

Lastly, thanks to all the volunteers that helped make the event run smoothly. Good luck to everyone in the coming weeks.

Re: 2012 Mid-Atlantic Robotics - Chestnut Hill FIRST Robotics District Competition
 

Where to begin, this was another great district event. Aside from the field delay on Friday, everything ran smoothly. A big thanks to 1218 for hosting the event and putting on a great show.

Thanks to 708 for drafting us. Our robot was having a lot of issues on Friday and some plain bad luck throughout the competition. We were grateful to work with you guys again and alongside 816. 816 played some great ball control defense, we just couldn't capitalize on it and make our shots it seemed. Congrats to 225, 834 & 423 for beating us and advancing to the semi finals.

341, 1218 & 2559 - the triple balance attempts were awesome. Hopefully we will see it happen at the MAR championship in April.

3929 - our team was pulling for you all and I'm glad you had a successful first event. Good luck at your next district event!

Re: 2012 Mid-Atlantic Robotics - Chestnut Hill FIRST Robotics District Competition
 

222 definitely had a great time at our first FIRST District Event. It was definitely a change from standard Regional Events. A hybrid between Regional and off-season events. Things ran smoothly except for the long delay over the field issue, but I'm sure most teams needed the break anyway! We sure didn't mind it!

Coming to this District we had a good understanding of who was clearly going to be in the rankings and alliance pairings! ;) We knew who was going to put up the fight and they sure did! It was a bit disappointing we didn't see 341 in any matches prior to the finals, but hey at least we got to play against you and rattle your flower pots at the same time!

We definitely worked our tails off to get as far as we did! As usual we got the luck of the 2's, but that doesn't let us down. :ahh:

I was happy and I'm know the rest of our team was happy with bringing home two trophies to add to our collection. One of which is now on my desk for overseeing our control system used for shooting.

Next up: Mount Olive

Thanks to everyone who made this event happen!


Last but not least does anyone have any video of the final matches? I know our alliance captain 4342 (and us) are looking for some video! I'm sure a bunch of others are as well.

Re: 2012 Mid-Atlantic Robotics - Chestnut Hill FIRST Robotics District Competition
 

Storm Robotics would like to thank the event coordinators (Rob and Peter) and volunteers at Chestnut Hill and FRC1218 for putting on a class event. Everyone was so friendly and willing to help make our experience as wonderful as it could be and we are thoroughly grateful!

Thank you to 341 and 365 for your team recognition awards for Team Spirit. That certainly livened our team heading into the rest of the afternoon after receiving that award from two teams who exemplify the spirit of FIRST.

To our alliance captain, 484, and fellow partners 3929 and 2191 we're sorry things did work out but we certainly all learned a lot. Congrats to 486, 2229, and 365 on a well executed game plan and strategy during those quarterfinal matches.

Wow is all I can say to 1218, 341, 2559, 222, 4342, and 2180 after that finals performance. Those were the best matches I've seen during this season by far. Congrats to 1218, 341, and 2559 on the win, you were a fun alliance to watch.

We're looking forward to hopefully heading back to Chestnut Hill next year and having just as much fun as this year.

We'll see many of you at our next competition at Lenape. Looking forward to it!

Re: 2012 Mid-Atlantic Robotics - Chestnut Hill FIRST Robotics District Competition
 

Where to begin? After a good night’s sleep, I can finally begin to see through the haze of a perfect weekend. Kudos to all. Thanks to all the volunteers from MAR and SCH Academy who were the real heroes of this weekend. We simply could not have contemplated hosting an event of this magnitude without hundreds of dedicated volunteers.

Thanks also to all the teams that brought their Gracious Professionalism to the Field House and the challenges of the weekend from parking to food court congestion. We promise more space for next year.

To teams 341 and 2559, wow what an alliance. To win in your own house is beyond comparison. Thank you for making it possible.

222, 365, 257: you epitomize the coopetition - powerful on the field and supportive beyond belief in the pits.

To all the rookies: 4342, an alliance captain; 4373, a rookie to be reckoned with in the weeks to come; you are the future of FIRST, press onward.

Thank you all.

Re: 2012 Mid-Atlantic Robotics - Chestnut Hill FIRST Robotics District Competition
 

As team captain of 2559, I would also like to thank 1218, Vulcan Robotics, for hosting such a GREAT event! I would also like to thank Ms. Daisy as well as Vulcan for choosing us as their alliance partners. This really means a lot to myself as well as my team members. I am sure many of the normal Philadelphia regional teams remember us as a box on wheels in 2009, but we definitely have come a long way. Our victory at the Chestnut Hill District Event could not have been possible without the help of two extremely awesome teams. My team and I never would have dreamed of being selected to play with the more well known and seasoned teams, in comparison to us, and will never forget what happened this past Saturday.

In the last round, those 70 some odd points would not have been scored without the help of your teams. You guys have great teams, awesome mentors, and phenomenal robots.

Thank you again for selecting us as your alliance partners, we will also be at the Lenepe District Event next Saturday. We look forward to working with both teams, both on and off the field, again in the future.

Re: 2012 Mid-Atlantic Robotics - Chestnut Hill FIRST Robotics District Competition
 

To all of you who have said thank you to the volunteers: You're welcome. :-)

Seeing what happened this past weekend is the reason that I keep getting involved with FIRST. As the Volunteer Coordinator, I want to thank all the teams that made this an amazing event. (Team 2539, I'm still waiting to see those videos of me dancing at H-H.)

I've already emailed everyone whose email address I have in VIMS, but to the volunteers who I could not email directly, thank you for your help this past weekend. Your time, dedication, and commitment is what makes the event run so smoothly. The number of compliments I've received is astounding, and that's directly because of your efforts. Thank you.

I want to share with you all two items from SCH. For those teams that were there or watching, you know that we had a delay on Friday due to some issue with the field area. (I still don't know exactly what happened, and I don't really care.) I was approached by several people after the fact that told me they had no idea there was a major stoppage! Everything else continued to run smoothly while the field personnel worked on the problem. To me, that's a major tribute to the volunteers and event staff to keep everything running so smoothly.

Second, I happened across several students this weekend (when I had free time to go in the pits) that truly get the concept of Gracious Professionalism. This is why I keep volunteering. When I see a student helping another team, doing what is right over what is more fun at the moment, working to make others' FIRST experience better, I am willed with an incredible sense of pride. Thank you to the students of 1218, 708, 2729, and the myriad other teams I know I'm forgetting who helped me see that what we're doing as mentors and volunteers is paying off. (A special thanks to one particular student of 365 who, after we spoke, made me cry out of happiness. You know who you are.)

To those of you continuing on to other districts, regionals, and championships, I wish you the best of luck. For those of you who are done, be proud of what you've accomplished. One person, one team, one event at a time, you are changing the world for the better. I know because I've seen it first hand.

-Tom

Thomas Wexler
Volunteer Coordinator
Chestnut Hill FIRST Robotics District Competition

Re: 2012 Mid-Atlantic Robotics - Chestnut Hill FIRST Robotics District Competition
 

Wow, we're happy rookies here at 4373.

There's not enough thanks to go around: 1218. Everything. Was. Amazing. Including being schooled in the first finals round.

One of our team drivers about 341: "They're so nice, it's SCARY."

MOE/365: I'm still impressed at your gracious professionalism after not being able to run in one match. The rookies almost carried that match...almost...

We're happy to be a part of this. I keep thinking that I have a tiger by the tail in mentoring a FIRST team. Sure do, but it's an awfully exciting ride.

--DP

Re: 2012 Mid-Atlantic Robotics - Chestnut Hill FIRST Robotics District Competition
 

FIRST team 433 would like to congratulate everyone who participated at this event! We had tons of fun and we're looking forward to seeing most of you at MAR champs (keep an eye out for a post about the annual Firebirds Fiesta at MAR Champs. All MAR teams are invited!)!

Special thanks go out to the volunteers and all the folks on 1218. This was a great event and it was incredibly well organized.

Also, thanks to all the teams who helped us out over the course of the competition. We arrived 1.2 pounds overweight thanks to our faulty scale and were immediately surrounded by teams offering saws and other helpful tools. During our elimination matches with our wonderful alliance partners 2234 and 3974, we were having some trouble with our bridge tipper. 3151 noticed this and literally offered us the tipper off of their robot. Thank you everyone!!