Re: Boston Regional 2013
 

So this was my first FIRST event as a volunteer and also my first Boston Regional. It was an awesome event! The atmosphere was great, the teams were all top quality, and I had a lot of fun! Congratulations to Team 125, I saw them in Orlando, and I'm happy they got a victory here, as they have a great robot!

Also, a huge congratulations to team 126 Gael Force! The Champions Chairman combo must be awesome! Second year in a row that Boston has had a Champion Chairman too. Job well done!

Re: Boston Regional 2013
 

I've attached 4 pictures of the excitement to this post -

23 in mid-climb
3173 being blocked in the semifinals (with 846 fending off two defenders)
88 at the top in the finals
4761 getting Rookie All Star

The whole Elimination series was great to watch. Thanks to MooreteP for the great description

Re: Boston Regional 2013
 

Thanks to everyone who has congratulated us on our win! We were really driven after our tough loss down in Orlando 2 weeks ago. This event was especially challenging for us with how involved our team was in other things happening at the regional (webcast, machine shop, team assistance, etc). On top of that, we had a backup drive team running through all of qualifications on Friday, and they did remarkably well.

A huge thank you to our partners, teams 126 and 1511. It was a huge joy for our team to win the event with our old friends on team 126. Being able to pick up 1511 with the last choice was a shock and pleasant surprise for our alliance. They complimented our alliance wonderfully, and were amazing against the fantastic 3173 alliance in the finals.

A massive tip of our cap to our opponents in the finals, teams 3173, 846 and 88 formed a great alliance and really made us work hard at the end. Playing against a deadly full court shooter like 3173 is not an easy task...


As always, we had a great time at the Boston Regional. We are scrambling the jets for a trip to St. Louis while we continue to rev up for the Maine Regional in 2 weeks!

-Brando

Re: Boston Regional 2013
 

What a fantastic weekend!

Admittedly, FRC 3780 was not at all expecting to be making eliminations when we first walked into Agganis Arena on Thursday. Our team has definitely had our ups and downs in the past years, and because our mentor lives in New Hampshire, Oliver Graff and myself have had to step up to the plate as co-captains in order to ensure that our team has moved in the right direction. So, it would be accurate to say that this year's regional introduced us to many unfamiliar aspects of FRC competition.

Nonetheless, it would additionally be accurate to say that many of those unfamiliar aspects made for an outstanding experience. Our favorable match-ups in the qualification round landed us in eliminations as the #5 seeded alliance, and although we didn't begin our scouting until a couple hours before eliminations, we were ecstatic to end up with teams 229 and 1153. BIG shout outs to teams 125 and 1511 for being incredibly helpful in quickly teaching us the basics in how to approach our scouting strategy. After 229 accepted our offer in a grateful (gracious) manner, we both were crossing our fingers that 1153 would remain available come our second pick. Working with both of your teams was the highlight of our week. You both have incredible talent, and we hope that you enjoyed being a part of the same alliance as much as we did. Additionally, you both were fantastic in how flexible you were with our "budget bot". Both of your teams, without complaint, were phenomenal in quickly working on and fixing up our bot before each match, whether it was a quick battery mount solution, or toying with the drive train. Thank you for being so graciously professional. I can speak for the entire team in saying that your support was inspiring and essential.

I also wanted to personally thank everyone for tolerating my flamboyant unicorn costume. It was interesting, to say the least, to witness some of your reactions, all of which were greatly appreciated. Thank you to the entire event staff, Boston University, all of the mentors, all of the sponsors, and everyone who made the event possible. We hope you all enjoyed the "super sparkly rainbow $wag", and hope to see you all soon at the event next year!

Re: Boston Regional 2013
 

I always feel pride when I read something such as this. Being a Volunteer/Mentor for 176, it feels great when I can look at where the students have gone over the years. It isn't just my team, it's all the teams out there that go on to better things in life, both within FIRST & outside of FIRST. They have learned valuable things in life that just isn't taught in school. As I've said before, this is why I volunteer.

Re: Boston Regional 2013
 

Team 846 had a wonderful time at the Boston Regional. Every year, we attend an away event (generally on the East Coast) and Silicon Valley Regional, which gives us a chance to travel to cool places and compete with different teams.

This event definitely ranks as the best in recent memory for us. Boston Regional was an incredibly well run event, and the volunteers, field staff, judges, and event coordinators were absolutely phenomenal. Especially the queue staff, who dealt with us always just barely slipping in on time; thank you for putting up with us. Also, the MC's made every match interesting, and we loved your introductions during the finals as well as those funny award poem (bunch of rhyming words) announcements. You guys are cool.

We felt welcomed by everyone both at the event as well as everywhere in Boston, and that was special. Thank you all so much.

Over the course of the event, we managed to go from a complete overhaul of our machine to scoring all of our autonomous discs and 3+ loads of four frisbees in the top goal by the end of the qualification matches. We were incredibly fortunate to be ranked 3rd and select our incredible alliance partners, 3173 and 88.

3173 is a monster scorer from the feeder station, and we were stoked to be able to pick you guys and planned to pick up whatever you missed on the floor and score those discs. We did not expect 88 to slip to us, but when they did we were incredibly happy to be able to select you, as an outstanding climber.

Of course, the eliminations did not play out as many people expected; here's the explanation. Our robot experienced significant electrical and CAN issues, which deprived us of the ability to use our ground pickup and eventually our shooter. We manage to smoke a drive CIM, which almost removed the last thing we had - our drivetrain, which is geared for 15.7 ft/sec. So, we switched to keeping 3173's path clear, countering the defense played by 1100 and 1511. We had never played defense before. In doing so, we played our first finals matches at a regional in our team's history, as 3173 just kept pumping those frisbees in and 88 got that spectacular 50 pt climb/dump on. Thank you guys for helping us get so far. Hopefully we will have our issues resolved by SVR; we ripped off the suspect components of our robot and are debugging as I type this.

We were also very honored that the judges acknowledged our efforts to generate excitement about FIRST with the Engineering Inspiration Award. Our web team wants to see even more views on BecauseRobots.org, so make sure to visit and possibly submit a photo of yourself for the banner telling us why you think robots are cool!

Thanks for a great time, Boston. Congratulations to 125, 126, and 1511 on a well deserved victory. We were honored to shake your hands and be on the other side of the glass. We hope to see you all in St. Louis, though we are still debating on whether we can attend.

Re: Boston Regional 2013
 

Posted some videos:
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...25#post1252025

Re: Boston Regional 2013
 

Hi everyone,

On behalf of the planning committee, I hope you all had an absolute blast, because we sure did. We put in a lot of effort starting in September to make this event happen, and seeing the energy, excitement, and flat out incredible robots reminds us why we do this. I was so impressed with the quality of play, the GP of every team, and the spirit you all showed. Well done, and thank you for helping to make Boston awesome!

Thanks also for your kind words on here. I always love to pass them along to our committee and volunteers. We really do appreciate feedback (good or bad!).

One quick thing, an email regarding lost and found went out from Steve Cremer this morning. There are a number of items missing and we would appreciate it if you could look through your packed up equipment to see if something mistakenly worked its way into your pit and home with you. In particular, one of our VIPs (a dean at BU) had someone accidentally take home his coat instead of their own, so we would really like to find out where that swap happened and get coats back to their rightful owners. Please, if anyone on here was or knows anyone who was at the VIP luncheon, double-check to make sure your coat is actually yours!

And on a personal note, as was announced Saturday afternoon, for personal logistical reasons involving a few upcoming intercontinental moves, this was my last year as part of the Boston Regional Planning Committee. I was a founding member of the committee in 2006 and have been President for five years. I admit that usually around early March each year I'm questioning why I volunteer to do this -- it becomes basically a second full time job for several months and by March I'm pretty stressed out -- but during this particular event, I had several very poignant reminders. As the opening chords of "Thunderstruck" started on Friday morning for opening ceremonies and everyone started yelling and cheering. As Eric relayed the GP tale of TJ^2's fall. The incredible excitement of the finals that had me jumping out of my seat behind the scoring table and screaming along with everyone else. The brilliant smiles (and sometimes tears!) on teams' faces as they came through the award lines. The outstanding group of volunteers that make Boston go, whom I have been privileged to get to know over the past years. It has been an incredible, rewarding, humbling experience to be a part of the Boston Regional, and I can't thank all of you enough for being a part of our event and making it worth every bit of stress. I will miss it.

Re: Boston Regional 2013
 

Mikell,
Thank you for all of your time and devotion.
You are going out on a high note.
Good Luck in your future endeavours.
Maybe a Regional in London? :-)

Re: Boston Regional 2013
 

I'm hoping she is the fuel that gets New Zealand started up.

Re: Boston Regional 2013
 

Gaaah, Ed, stop saying that out loud and giving people ideas! :eek:

Re: Boston Regional 2013
 

On behalf of the committee, and the other volunteers - we can't thank you enough for all that 125 does. We appreciate it, so much. Congrats on the win, Brando. :)

(Note: On top of all that 125 gives to Boston, I'd also like to thank 229 and 1511 for bringing out extra people just for the sake of volunteering - it was so great to have you all!)

Mikell, we will miss you so.
Please come back to visit us someday. Who else will I have to be snarky with behind the scorer's table? Nobody will ever match up to you. You have made my experience as a committee-member so welcoming and fun. I know I wouldn't still be here if it weren't for your encouragement and support.

--

This was my fifth year as Volunteer Coordinator here in Boston, and I'd just like to take a second to thank every single volunteer who came out to help. I have never been prouder of "my crew".

I got so much positive feedback about volunteers, both overall as a team, as well as specific names and actions - the GP was in full force this weekend at Boston and I appreciate it so much. Making this a good show for our teams is dependent almost entirely on the volunteers - you are the face of our event and we love how awesome you all are.

Thanks for coming out, and we hope to see you next year! :)

Re: Boston Regional 2013
 

As a college student, it's always fun when I'm able to meet up with my old team when they compete on the East Coast. Boston was a fantastic experience for 846 all around, but I was extremely impressed by all the volunteers and other teams who make this regional happen. Everyone in Boston was just so incredibly nice, gracious, accommodating, and hard-working! The energy at the competition was infectious - from the judges to the pit admin staff, from the MCs to the announcers, and all other volunteers in between, we were all grateful to compete at such an exciting event. Agganis was rocking every day, largely due to the quality of all teams there. Great display of the various strategies of play in this year's game, in addition to many different types of robots. Thanks again to everyone for welcoming the Funky Monkeys to such an awesome event!

Re: Boston Regional 2013
 

A time lapse of Friday and Saturday from the Team 23 pit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJEG9J69rGU

Re: Boston Regional 2013
 

Wow, that time lapse turned out better than I thought it would.