Team 4814, Reflections on our 2013 Season
 

We are Team 4814, a rookie team from London Ontario, Canada. We have come a long way from almost not having a team due to the Ontario Teacher Strike.

This is Our Story.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K57NxXjyYpw

[If you need a reason to watch]


Our success would not have been possible without the support of our Sponsors and Parents. There are also a few teams we would like to thank for helping us have an absolutely stellar rookie season.

1114 – Ever since the start of the season, we tried to emulate our team like you guys, striving for excellence and gracious professionalism, both on and off the field. You guys were extremely friendly at GTR West (Karthik, you’re the best!). We were rooting for you guys at Champs, and were really hoping for you guys to win it all again on Einstein. Even after your climber had issues, we were amazed by how close you guys were able to keep the score. We look forward to competing with you guys at IRI and the upcoming season!

2056 – Words still cannot describe how happy we felt when we got picked by you and 1114. It was truly an unbelievable moment. We learned a lot from you guys playing together in the elimination matches at GTR West. Play smart and play to your strengths – we really took this to heart. When we realized you were also in Curie, thoughts of pairing up with you guys were already running through heads. During the elimination matches, we were cheering for you, hoping we could meet again in the final matches of Curie. We wish you guys the best of luck at IRI and the upcoming season!

67- When the list of teams in Curie were released we quickly established you and 2056 as the main contenders for the 1st alliance, we joked about how amazing it would be if once again we were the 3rd pick for the 1st alliance. Going from that mindset to being in a position to pick you was just CRAZY. I calmly called your number but on the inside I freaking out at the fact that we, a rookie team, just asked a Hall of Fame team to join our alliance. It was incredible. Our elimination run with you and 1918 was surreal. Thanks so much for carrying our alliance to the finals in Curie, we were so close to making it onto Einstein.

1918 – We were shocked that you were left that late in the draft, easily the steal of the second round at Curie. We watched a few of your matches at MSC before going to St. Louis and were awestruck at how you were able to do every single part of the game extremely well (floor pickup, shoot, less than 30sec 30 pt climb and dump). Probably one of the most inspirational moments for me was seeing you guys work so hard to maintain your robot after those 2 falls. Those falls from the pyramid would have been season ending for any other team!

1310 – Coopetition at its best. Thank you for helping us out with scouting and strategy for Curie. As a rookie team we underestimated the value of scouting (who would’ve thought we would go 8-0?), but you were there to help us, even though it was against your best interest.

3756 – It was a pleasure to work with you this year. This season has made us into one big family. It was really easy for us to forget that we were two teams! Our time together at GTR West and Champs was amazing, thank you for being such an amazing mentor team. Feel the heat!

I would also like to thank our main sponsor Western Engineering. WE FIRST is a FIRST robotics mentorship club started up at Western University Canada to help mentor FIRST teams in the area. This year, due to the entire teacher labor dispute in Ontario, they took a leap of faith and founded a community based FRC team. We only had one mentor over the age of 23, with 7 mentors being university students. They’ve sacrificed a lot for us to have a team this season, and have taught us so much. We will always be grateful for their help this season and for many seasons to come.

Team 4814, will be the only rookie team competing at IRI! Make sure to come and say hi!

Re: Team 4814, Reflections on our 2013 Season
 

Great job guys. I'm always happy seeing rookie teams do well.

Re: Team 4814, Reflections on our 2013 Season
 

WOW! Connecting post-secondary institutions with FIRST teams does wonders.
EDIT: I totally know that "seeing our robots next to 1114 and 2056" feeling.

Re: Team 4814, Reflections on our 2013 Season
 

The video is awesome. The story is inspiring. The team is amazing.

The whole time watching I was just like "Woah, these guys get it. They get it on so many levels." Even without the end results being quite so awesome, the effort your team put into absolutely everything (scouting, strategy, persevering, etc.) would've been awe inspiring on its own.

Re: Team 4814, Reflections on our 2013 Season
 

Nice job documenting your season and a well produced season recap video! Just goes to show how important it is to be able to change game plans or designs to adapt to circumstances as needed.

Re: Team 4814, Reflections on our 2013 Season
 

What's the credits song by the way?

Re: Team 4814, Reflections on our 2013 Season
 

The song is Hummer by Reaktor Production, www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDMZvdZlb7w

Re: Team 4814, Reflections on our 2013 Season
 

You guys really had a killer rookie season, during our final curie elimination match I was happy we were against you because I thought you guys would take Einstein if you beat us. I really can't explain how impressed I am with your team.

Re: Team 4814, Reflections on our 2013 Season
 

The whole time, the word inspirational was all that could come to mind. I took so many lessons out of your video. It was so worth the time watching the whole video.

Re: Team 4814, Reflections on our 2013 Season
 

Exceptional video and team! Hope to hang out a bit at IRI.

Re: Team 4814, Reflections on our 2013 Season
 

Amazing video, I'm really looking forward to meeting your team next year. I know that starting a team(s) through a University has unique challenges and opportunities, with all the success you've had this year your program is on the right track and will only grow from here.

Re: Team 4814, Reflections on our 2013 Season
 

What a phenomenal season! Not only did you tear it up on the field, but it is obvious that you all (students and mentors alike) were inspired, learned a lot about yourselves, and picked up some useful STEM experience as well. Great video, too.

It was a real honor to play with you and 67 on Curie. We all gave it our best and almost made it to Einstein. Our poor old robot still isn't all the way back together, but it should be at 100% for the off season. The floor is a long way from the top of the tower.

Good luck at IRI, and we hope to join you on the field again sometime.

Re: Team 4814, Reflections on our 2013 Season
 

Congratulations to all of Team 4814 for putting together one of the most epic rookie seasons in FIRST history. 4334 set the bar pretty high last year, but you wrote a pretty amazing story yourselves. I've always had a lot of close ties and fond memories attached to Western University, so it's great to see how they've stepped up and supported FIRST in the London area.

To the entire FIRST community, you need to watch some of the videos that 4814 has put together. These guys totally know how to promote FIRST and "Make It Loud". The production quality of what they've put out is amazing; I can't wait to see what they make next!

Re: Team 4814, Reflections on our 2013 Season
 

Great job you guys! I loved watching you guys throughout Champs, and it was definitely an amazing rookie run!

Re: Team 4814, Reflections on our 2013 Season
 

I'd love to watch it but youtube is blocked at my school right now..

Re: Team 4814, Reflections on our 2013 Season
 

Hahaha happens to us all ;)

Re: Team 4814, Reflections on our 2013 Season
 

WOW! Congratulations 4814 on an incredible season. Thank you for putting this video together and documenting your season.

This video was very inspiring to me, not just from robotic perspective, but on a personal level. To see the emotion and effect on the students and mentors was really powerful.

After participating in the program for this many year, I sometimes forget what it's like to feel that emotional about a result that isn't winning the entire thing. This video helped restore some of that.

To be honest at the time of alliance selection, we were not very happy that we were the team that was "stuck" playing with the defensive rookie team that lucked it's way into an easy schedule and was 8-0 at Champs. Embarassingly, we were actively hoping and lobbying that they would not pick us and let us fall to 2056.

But, after experiencing their defense, with and against us, and looking back at their qualification schedule (played against 1503, 67, 1310, and 2056) they really deserved to be ranked in the #3 position.

In the end, 4814 proved to be very deserving of their rank. Shutting down any team that we put them on (1717, 1983, 3539, 148...). I am very happy that we were selected by them and had a chance to participate in their amazing season.

I didn't get to talk with you guys much in St. Louis during our run together, hopefully I will be able to at IRI.

Congratulations and good luck in the future!

-Adam

Re: Team 4814, Reflections on our 2013 Season
 

Great video!

It was an absolute pleasure watching your team this season. I was able to see everything unfold at both GTRW and at Champs.

4814 played some of the most tactically smart matches I've seen, and they did so in every match they played.

I had a chance to speak with two of their leads prior to alliance selections, and boy did they REALLY understand how FRC worked. I was bombarded with questions and very insightful perspectives that many veteran teams wouldn't have given a second thought to. They knew exactly what it meant to be a rookie team that ranked very high (at times #1 overall), and who achieved this primarily by playing outstanding defense and employing sound strategies. This is NOT an easy position to be in, especially when you have many other high-profile teams in the top spots below you.

Picking becomes a very complicated process, and what teams say to you, and what you say to them can be easily lost in translation.

There'a a lot of pressure from a lot of different teams, including your own.

The "best" decision to make isn't so clear, and every choice seems to leave *someone* mad at you.

It was an awesome conversation to have with 4814, especially with this "rookie team" which really weren't operating like rookies at all.

And the best part of the conversation was that in the end, it seemed completely unnecessary.

These guys had already done their research, understood what everyone's intentions and motivations were, knew what they wanted to do, and understood how best to achieve it in the most gracious and professional way.

Just awesome...

P.S. Keep an eye on that Jethro fellow for us!

Re: Team 4814, Reflections on our 2013 Season
 

Don't worry, we'll keep two eyes on him :P

Thank you everyone for all the kind words! I'm glad all of you enjoyed hearing our team's story :D

Re: Team 4814, Reflections on our 2013 Season
 

What an amazing season you guys! I love the video and wish you the best of luck in the future!
~Jay

Re: Team 4814, Reflections on our 2013 Season
 

BTW I'm your team's biggest fan. :eek:

Re: Team 4814, Reflections on our 2013 Season
 

One of the highlights of this year for me was at the Championship when 4814 played defense from underneath their OPPONENT'S pyramid and did it without getting any penalties. Completely blew my mind, I couldn't believe it.

Congrats on the phenomenal season, and I hope you have many more to come.

Re: Team 4814, Reflections on our 2013 Season
 

I've always been someone who likes rooting for the underdog, so when I tuned into Curie and saw a rookie take down 2056 and 67, I was... awestruck.