Re: Rumble in the Roads - 2014
 

Y'all were taking some significant hits in the later elimination rounds. I know we had a hit hard enough at the end of the day to jiggle loose our bridge and cRIO ethernet ports.

Re: Rumble in the Roads - 2014
 

dang it! I forgot something. Thanks to 422 for making a second robot so we could have a full field of 24. You guys rock!

Re: Rumble in the Roads - 2014
 

Like eating a KFC Double Down or driving a car for hundreds of miles after the check engine light comes on, it was a learning experience in that we learned we will never do that again :D

Re: Rumble in the Roads - 2014
 

I can't speak for the whole team but i think those who attended from 1610 had a great time. It was like being at a regional but with half the teams and a smaller venue. Many of the field crew members from Va. First were there along with Lisa and some of her folks and Jeff, Patrict and Justin added to it to give it the feel of a regional event.

Congratulations are in order for 2363 for not only being awarded the "Captains Award" which they deserve...but for pulling this off and doing it so well. They have a lot of support and it showed. It wouldn't surprise me if they end up being
"Chairman's Award" winners someplace in the future. They are that good of a team. Va. First may already have some places in mind for when they go to districts...but i think Menchville could hold a district event in the Hampton Roads area if they could.

With this being the first time it had been done i was surprised at how well it went. There were a couple of things though that i though could be improved upon (cuing areas being one) but over all it was very well run.

I think our team came away from this learning a few things. For one this year we built a practice robot which benefitted us greatly during build season. If your team can afford to build one i recommend it. But entering a second robot in an off season event is not for the feint hearted. It was like being in the finals of a regional with the matches coming fast and often with almost no time to recover.

Now 1610 has a very small team...We have very few students to draw from for robotics but small teams can run two robots, but unless you have the student support to cover them its very hard to do. We actually had to put two of our newest rookies in there to drive "610" almost not knowing anything about driving and competing. They did well considering.

I think we'd do it again next year...but i don't think you'll see another "610" again.

Re: Rumble in the Roads - 2014
 

Sparky 384 had a really fun time at the Rumble in the Roads on Saturday. We would like to thank teams 2363, 1610, 1793 and all of the volunteers for running one of the smoothest and most well planned off-season events we have participated in to date!

While there were a ton of quality teams there, we decided that team 900's truss pass to the human player from the inbound station was the perfect compliment to our robot, and 3168 played some great defense.

We are happy we got to play against some of the local Richmond area teams in 346 and 1086 in the finals, even though 1086 had some bad luck with connection issues. Along with 4969, you all played some great matches in the eliminations.

We are already excited to attend the 2nd Rumble in the Roads next year!

EDIT:
It looks like 2363 is uploading match videos to their YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/TripleHelix2363

Re: Rumble in the Roads - 2014
 

Do you realize, you have the first win with the new control system on board.

Re: Rumble in the Roads - 2014
 

I don't believe that. There must be another team testing who has won an off-season event before now with the new controller. If that's true though then that's quite a feather in our zebra-striped caps. It would not have been possible without some great alliance partners and the hard work of our students heading up our beta testing program.

Re: Rumble in the Roads - 2014
 

There were actually 2 Beta systems on the winning alliance. Both 900 and 384 were running the new control system, someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Re: Rumble in the Roads - 2014
 

We [384] weren't running the new control system on our bot, but had the electrical board laid out on plywood in our pit for teams to come check it out. :)

Thanks

Re: Rumble in the Roads - 2014
 

Yep, 384 weren't running theirs. We talked with their mentors for a while about it. They were fantastic alliance partners even with the older control system though.

Re: Rumble in the Roads - 2014
 

Yeah. Sadly, we ran into some issues with the C++ development support about two weeks before IROC, and by the time we resolved them we haven't had enough time between any events to comfortably swap the two out.

Re: Rumble in the Roads - 2014
 

Yeah, connection issues can really put a damper on finals. We only ever had connection issues last year in the finals of rumble and it wasn't a lot of fun.

Re: Rumble in the Roads - 2014
 

2363's video playlist covers all of the qualification rounds and QF1 - QF3. Does anyone else have match videos of the Semis or Final rounds?

Re: Rumble in the Roads - 2014
 

I just chatted with the mentors for 2363. They assured me they would be up soon.

Re: Rumble in the Roads - 2014
 

For anybody interested in getting notifications when the 2015 registration opens up for teams and volunteers please sign up for our email blasts.

Anybody that attended the event that would like to leave feedback please do, it will help us run an even better event next year!

We look forward to seeing everybody during the upcoming season and we hope to see you next year at the 2015 Rumble in the Roads!