What happened at IRI?
 

I need to know what happened at IRI today. Who's looking good, who broke, and all that happened. Since we weren't able to come i need to know what went on.

Man do we have a story for you!


The finals allience

111, 71, and 93

Vs

201, 469, 998 (The Truck Town Thunder Girls Team using the practice bot)


Match 1 went to the 201 allience by DQ for carpet tearing

Match 2 went to the Wildstang allience

Match 3 ooo this is good I cant remember all the details so ill let one of the referees post their story...basically the 71 machine was tangled up with 201...71 was DQ'd and the 201 allience took the IRI championship

The Top 6 Quallifiers

1. 201 ------- Selected 469 and 998

2. 111 ------- Selected 71 and 93

3. 65 ------- Selected 308 and 47

4. 68 ------- Selected 288 and 27

5. 45 ------- Selected 269 and 217

6. 868 ------- Selected 33 and 892 (? Im pretty sure thats who it was)


Thats the start...whoever else continue and add some stuff

Sounds like a good time. Wish I could have been there :( . I'm just hopping the matches make there way to Soap 108's web site.

It was a tough call for refs. it didn't seem right to end the comp under a controversey, but you've got to make the correct calls and make them consistantly


Thanks everyone for making the successful. Thanks Andy Baker, Dan Green, Joe Johnson, Nate Smith and all the other crews for all their hard work. Awesome job everyone!!

IRI
 

It was a great competition right down to the crazy end, but I thought the judges were right on with their calls, even if it did end with a D.Q.

What's up with this "Chilly Cow Ice Cream"? Is it Ice Cream straight from the cow???

Thanks to all the teams, especially 45 and 393 for helping us out.

Yo.


So many things to say about IRI.



What the heck was up with the carpet guys?

Beatty really won ;)

What's the deal with frosty cows?

Our whole drive team ditched us, making a amazing team, crap.

Why isn't my school clean like that?

Why didn't I get to ride a segway?

Did any teams modify their designs after the FIRST season?

By the end of the game I think the carpet was around 10 % tape.

It looked so purdy, all the colors BUT grey seemed to be on the carpet.

I think the real winner of IRI was indeed, the carpet.



[edit]merged two posts into one[/edit]

I forget who said it, but one of the Perry Meridian guys said "hey lets auction the carpet off....opening bid $1.88"



I think 1.88 would be too much :D

Indeed $1.88 is too much. That's more than a Chilly Cow.

That liquid pork, prooved to be very interesting. Indiana is a crazy state, what's up with GAS CITY and BALL STATE UNIVERSITY?

Indiana also has Peru, Mexico, Brazil, and Atlanta

Those were some crazy eliminations, 2 DQs and 1 match replay, but it was a fun weekend, and some excellent competiton, and you cant forget all the cool people you get to meet, All in all the drive was worth it! :D

2 DQ's alone in the final match. I took some pictures of the finishing positions of some of the matches... but other than that... think a team member was recording video of our matches, I'll have to see if I can get my hands on it.

There were TONS MORE DQs in the previous matches.

Such as when 288 lifted up 71 using their wedge. They got called for some rule I forget... I think they pinned them too long (>10 seconds). Also when 288 intentionally lifted a goal from the bottom during one of their finals matches, using their wedge again.

All in all, it was a great weekend. We were just as happy to be on the 111/71 alliance as any other alliance. Great people. Tough refs tho, but accurate calls.

Now, if we had the Nationals/Regionals refs... we would've won no doubt. :D :p

Baker was a good ref. He stuck to the rule book well.

For those that still are complaining:

In any event, IRI was a very, very fun competition. Even though our team had its own problems, we still got selected by a promising alliance and are thankful for that in general.

Congrats to the winners, 201, 469, and 998.

Thanks again 111 and 71. :)



BIG thanks to team 68 for lending me their Innovation FIRST robot controller specs. I really needed them to get our 'bot functioning.

Actually our first DQ was for carpet damage. We had a damaged cleat on our treads that caught a snag while we were giving 71 a wedgie.
The 2nd DQ was kind of strange b/c it wasn't really "intentional." The goal got pulled on us, but since it happened so many times and we didn't really do anything to pull out we got DQ'd.

Question...
 

I noticed something during the competition that kinda seemed odd to me... With all the super powerful robots moving the carpet around and everything... the carpet was actualy stretched and moved thus making the lines in a different place.
Then when at the end of the match they got out the straight edge to see if the goal was across the line it seemed odd since the line had moved about 3 or 4 inches during the match...
Isn't the tape just a marker for where the line should be and the actual line is a distance... or is the line where ever the tape is when the match is over.

Prolly a dumb question but just something i was wondering about....

From team 461 congrats to everyone for an awsome 2 days of competition. I thought there were matches at IRI this year that were better then any of the matches from a spectators perspective then alot of the matches at the 3 regionals our team made it to..

also thankyou to Technokats and cyber blue for putting it on and making it such a great time.

Cant wait till next year:)


Josh
(the guy with the mohawk)

But anyways... as for the Final matches. 998 is Truck Town Lady Thunder, which is team 68's other bot.

Match 1 (111 & 71 vs 201 & 469): Heroicly fought. 71 grabbed all 3 goals. 469 grabbed the right 2 goals and pushed back, while 201 pushed from the side of Beatty. Beatty has the file card stuff on their hind wheels so that tore the carpet. 111 spent it's time opposing 469.

Had there been no DQs... 201 and 469 would still have won... 14 vs 20 I think.

Match 2 (71 & 93 vs 469 & 998): Crowd was wild. 71 grabbed 2 goals off the bat. 469 opposed them from the front I believe, and shut off. So then 93 helped push Beatty into scoring positon from the rear, but then 998 took it one step further and pushed Beatty all the way into the robot scoring position. Due to their arms, 1 goal was still in scoring position. Then, 93 moved the remaining goal in scoring position, and then returned home with 30 seconds left. 998 was under confusion and hesitantly decided (or maybe they had problems?) to push the goal out of scoring position, into the neutral zone, but didn't make it back home in time (heh - they should have just kept pushing to score).

In the end, 71 and 93 won, 20 to 21. 1 human player ball made it into beatty's goal.

Match 3 (111 & 71 vs 201 & 469): Beatty only grabbed 1 goal, because 201 and 469 went in between the goals in a daring move and intercepted their arms. Unfortunately 201 was driving with their grabber out and got stuck on the cables that 71 uses to reel in their grabbers. They were caught for about a minute and eventually became untangled. 201 was able to send-home at the end. 111 spent its time occupied with 469... I forget how they did tho... too busy watching 201.

Score I forget what it would've been. I know 71 and 111 would have won score-wise, but the entanglement was accurately called, so 201 and 469 won.

lol... a wedgie.

One time the goal got pulled up on you by 469. Baker explained he didn't call you for that. But soon after you guys drove into the goal and that one he called you for. That's what I meant by intentional. I know they were probabaly aiming for 469, but I guess they missed.

WOW thats exciting
 

sounds like it was a lot of fun and really interesting, maybe almost as interesting as battlecry, i still think thats the best but maybe i'll change my mind when i see the videos. nice job 469, i wish it could have happened in nationals, you guys have an awesome goal bot! i can't wait till the maryland state fair, there should be a lot of good matches!

Except that 71 was actually disabled during the match, which prevented them from moving forward with the other goal and/or deploying their tounge. Had they not been DQed they wouldn't have been disabled either and likely the score would have been different.

IRI
 

The final match was a wild one! Though I felt bad that it had to end that way, I thought that the refs decision was accurate.

As someone said earlier, if this was at a regional or national competition, the refs would have let it go. WHY IS THAT??? :confused:

Thanks to the Beach Bots for traveling all the way from CA!!!

Good job to all that came to the IRI! And thanks again to Lawrence North and McKenzie for letting us use their gym!

Did anybody have problems with their robots at IRI?

We sure did. We have three wheels, each powered by their own drill motor, with a solenoid shifting system for low/high gear. One of our wheels was stuck in low the whole time, so we had to run the whole robot in low gear the whole time. We also had a match where our robot was bugging out, I've never seen our team use the "robot reset" button so much!

Re: IRI
 

Haha... that was me. I was referring to the first match where they were DQ'ed for ripping the carpet. They were so lenient at nationals.

IRI
 

I uploaded some pictures from IRI to the gallery here.

Overall IRI was great, although the ending was some what odd and the amount of DQ's was really odd, even though most if not all were right calls (carpet damage; man our carpet is messed up
;) )

You werent the only team having robot problems, i think our treads fell off about 4 times (which never happened @ regionals/nationals).

Haha... yeah, our robot was having lots of problems with the controls. We got the robot driving normally by our first match, and we finally got the switchbox working by our third match I think... so we were fully functioning then, but we still did poor because we didn't have our actual driver from the competitions driving the bot, since he didn't come and since the rule is at IRI... "anyone who wants to drive can drive"... the rest was up to the students. However, the students did agree among themselves to have the best driver drive the finals matches...

Yeah. IRI was a really good time. Thanks to the host teams for having us! I think they should invest in better carpet for next year though!




P.S.


I met a lot of the CD users without even realizing it. . . Jnadke. . .I was the arm operator on 247 ( filling in for an absent drive team is hard! ) you told me about your robot when we were paired together. And I said hi to DJ Fluck, but he was busy running around in his cape!

Teams that were in the Final Round at the IRI....
 

Teams that were in the Final Round at the IRI, were on local news last night. I am not sure if we can get copies yet, but email me and i will get back with you on that. Even with the close calls made at the end, the IRI was very exciting. If you were'nt there, you sure missed a great competetion. Congradulations to the Championship Teams!!!

(If interested in next years IRI, email me at, Cooolj2005@aol.com)

IRI rocked, although we were not in our ideal alliance, (sorry Ricky and D.J.) it was a good time.My only regret is having a solid robot.(knock on wood) Nothing will ever go wrong with it mechically so that i can fix it. I hate having nothing to do. Besides that it was a good opportunity for our team members to try their hand at a little driving. There was a lot of good competition, hits the spot for a FIRST addict. For those who weren't able to go, only 5 monthes til kick off.Good Luck!

Did anybody have problems at the IRI
 

We were having problems most of the day. We would have a good run and then not so good and then good. One side would just stop or not go everyonce in a while. We couldn't figure out the problem. Then in our last match, before we took off, our shaft coming out of the atwood motor snapped. So we sat there the whole time. We didn't know the problem until we got back to the pits and took it apart. We still had a lot of fun.

I'm on team 68 and I would like to say congrats to our girls for winning the IRI. But also a thanks to our pit crew for fixing both robots

Thank You from 469
 

Team 469 would like to extend a huge thank you to all of the teams at IRI. Once again, we had a great time and feel very fortunate we could participate in the competition.

We would especially like to thank the 71-111-93 alliance for their gracious professionallism in the final match.

Also a special thank you to our alliance partners teams 201 (The FEDS) and 998 (The Lady Thunder). We have teamed up with the FEDS before, and they always make a great alliance partner. The Lady Thunder did an awesome job and were incredible under the pressure of their first competition ever. They have a great career ahead of them.

Thank you to all who participated at the Indiana Robotics Invitiational!

Team 469

PS With all this talk of robot problems, I can't help but feel greatful for the time we were given to fix our robot before the final matches. Hacksaws in hand, we looked on to the field at the end of the semi-finals in horror, hearing whispers of "hey, I don't think the gripper is supposed to bend that way." So, thank you for letting us play.

Thanks
 

In my opinion the 111-71-93 alliance were the true winners in their gracious proffesionallism. I think they really cared about getting out there and having a fun, exciting match, and giving everybody what they came for, a lot more then they cared about winning. Had it not been for there amazing FIRST spirits, we would likely not had even the opportunity to play in the final matches. Though nobody is happy with way things ended, and I'm sure many people on our team would rather have lost as opposed to winning in such a contraversial way, I also want to say that Andy Baker and the other refs had the toughest jobs in the entire building, and I have a great deal of respect for that they made the tough calls when they had to, and followed the letter of the rules.

A reply to many posts
 

Wildstang had its share of problems, starting from the first match. Because the IRI balls were inflated more than the FIRST balls we (and a few other teams) had problems with balls jamming on Friday. We removed some spacers and the field crew let some air out of the balls and our jamming problem was solved by Saturday morning. In our match against 308 we had a violent collision with something (probably another bot) that broke the pot that senses our wheel position, so we were unable to turn for most of the match. In our final qual match against Beatty the wire that powers our ball shooter came loose when we initially hit the goal and we couldn't score any balls.

Despite all the problems we caught a few breaks and had some high scores on Saturday and ended up 2nd seed.

My favorite memory from IRI was our first match of the semis: 111 & 71 vs 65 & 308. As expected, 308 & 71 attacked the goals, but 308 missed and their grabbers broke. 71 had all 3 goals and shuffled them into the scoring zone while 65 tried to stop the slow crawl. I'm not sure how it happened, but 308 got caught up in our front goal grabber and couldn't get away, so we lowered our tank and dragged them into our home zone. The drivers from 111 & 71 didn't touch their controls for the last 30 secs of the match while 65 & 308 struggled in vein to move 111 & 71. Final score 60-10.

I won't say much about the DQs because I won't change anyone's mind and no one will change mine. I thought there were too many and I think the last one was a bad call. But I respect Andy's decision and I accept it, even though it is hard.

Thanks SGopwani & JAlpert for your kind words, and thanks to Brett and others I talked to after the final decision.

Instead of faulting the refs at IRI, I think we should fault FIRST for not defining entanglement. I looked through the rules and couldn't find a good explination. The rules prohibit deliberate entanglement and there is a lengthy passage on extensions, but no robot-robot entanglement. If it was a black & white rule and not a judgement call for the refs, there would be no need for discussion. FIRST needs to fix this for next year.

On a lighter note, I am proud to say that I successfully stole Sean's flag, just as I promised. Now only if I kept it until after the finals were over, then we couldn't have been DQ'd :D

Mike

Mike....
 

My brother has one of Sean's flags, but i think he gave it to him...lol :D

All in all, a good competition
 

First and foremost, I want to thank everyone for attending and playing hard at the IRI. Thanks to Cyberblue, team 234, for leading the way and thanks to team 393, Full Metal Jackets for helping along side the TechnoKats in putting on a great comp.

There are many memories from this year's IRI. All are good, believe it or not.

As for the DQs and the entanglement call, the other 4 referees and I did our best. I'm not going to say much about this, except for these things:

1. There would still be controversy if the entanglement call of the last match was not made. Ideally, we all wish that 201 would have never gotten tangled up on 71's winch cord and all the refs had to do was tally the score.

2. Many suggestions were made at the time of the call to simply replay the match. I understand this mentality. However, FIRST has never re-ran a match in this sort of situation where people have disagreed with the referee's call. We made a decision and stuck with it.

3. Everyone who has given me feedback about the entanglement call has either supported the call or they have simply disagreed without getting personal. Everyone showed class and GP.

All in all, I totally agree with Mike Soukup about these two things:
There were too many DQs
This shows that FIRST really needs to define their rules better.

He is right about both, but if a rule is written, then we should follow it. Also, some of the rules definitely need better explaination. An entanglement to some was not entanglement to others, and it is up to interpretation. Stuff like this needs more specific details on what is allowed and not allowed.

It is good that the IRI took place only 10 days before the FIRST Forum, so that these issues of carpet damage and entanglement are fresh in our minds. We as a FIRST community should come up with positive suggestions and pose them to FIRST as possible solutions.

In my mind, I hope that this one unfortuneate incident of the last match entanglement is not the main thing remembered from the 2002 IRI. I hope that the teamwork shown between teams 393, 234 and 45 is what is remembered along with the spirit and inspiration is what lives on in each attending team.

Sincerely,
Andy B.

Just an FYI...
 

Just so everybody knows, unfortunately, there will be no posting of the event results from IRI from the scoring system. My hard drive had "issues" on the way home from Indianapolis, and I was forced to reformat to get things up and running again....I think it's just about time to retire my old 20GB drive...

Re: Just an FYI...
 

Does this mean IRI never really occured? It was a figment of my imagination? :confused:


Wow that was quite a nightmare :D

Re: Re: Just an FYI...
 

IRI?? What's this I-R-I you speak of?

I accept the calls made based on the explanations of rules interpretation and give credit to Andy for making a tough call and sticking with it. I felt worse for Andy that he had to make a call then I did that the call was made against us.

Anyway, the reason I took the time to write this is to say how good this competition was.
The thing I like the most was the set up of the field in relation to the pits. It was so cool to be able to work in the pits and at the last second run to the back side of the field (under the score board) to see the current match.
Also, in my opinion, the number of good robots at this competition made it more competitive than any other regional or division this year.

Finally, I cannot express how bad I felt that team 330 could not get their robot running properly the entire competition.

Raul