This really more a bash on the game then anything else...

The final match at the BAE regional consisisted of one alliances robot being tipped over withing the first 30 seconds never to recover. The match was a two on one for the vast majority of the 2 minutes. Yet, the hindered alliance still won. Shouldn't this shed some light on the game? And that maybe there is just too much dumb luck involved in it.

There is a bit more luck involved then I would like but that is somewaht unavoidable.

As for robots getting flipped. It happened to us at least three times. Mostly it's our fault. We should have designed better. I think that most teams did not anticipate how easy it would be to get flipped on the ramps. We have no one to blame for that but ourselves. Oh sure there were robots who helped others flip but that's all in the game.

We thought that flipping over was going to happen, thats why we made our arm able to flip us over at any angle.

We on 562 had some great matches, most notably with 213 and 358. In one of our last matches, 213 stole a stack of 4 (created by an opponent human player) and we owned the ramp, finishing us up with 216 QP's. :)

We finished 9 out of our 10 matches on top of the ramp, which was our primary goal this year.. and we seeded 18th out of 44. We can't believe we didn't get drafted for the finals! There's always Battlecry and Mayhem on the Merrimack...

when buzz flipped in that match we really thoght we had a chance. Going into the last match, us on 121 had only one working side of a drive train. 241 only had 3 motors working on theirs. it was literally 236 vs. 3/4 of team 241. if all teams in the last allaince were at 100% i think it would have been an extremely exciting match to watch.

Sadly, we don't have the money and didn't send our robot to be shipped, and I don't think FIRST would let us ship now. This kills me, not having the money, if I had the money I'd pay for it, but alas I am only a student.

In response to the thing about finals at BAE:

In the first match of the finals team 58 broke it's right drive coming down the bridge, then broke it's torque boost gear box at the bottom, the announcer claimed 58 was playing "defensive" when it was really that we couldn't move, the ticks still overpowered that match. This was the reason you didn't see 58 in the final match.

58: Thanks again for bringing us into your alliance -- great job seeding #1 !! Awesome autonomous mode!

As far as Houston goes.... this is the fourth time that Buzz has won a regional with a team that could not afford to get to Nationals... and in all other cases, the team ended up there...... so here's some advice:

1) Do not touch/fix/repair/drive your robot -- all the other teams will trust your Gracious Professionalism to ship your robot in the exact state it was in when you left Manchester, if you get to go.

2) Houston is four weeks away... that is a long time -- a well organized fund-raising campaign can get you there -- you just need to start right now. You may not be able to get the whole team there, but the robot, drive team and human player is all that you need to win a National Championship! FIRST will be accomodating to any Regional Champion needing to get there... even if it is down to the wire.

3) Lastly -- Call FIRST Tuesday (before they head out to the next regionals) -- they may have some sponsors with cash who are looking to get involved and would send a Regional Champion to the Championship -- it has happened before!

Keep in touch and let us know how it's going -- if you need any details on fundraising ideas, don't hesitate to give a shout!

Houston won't be the same without ya!

:)

Here's the current deal:

We don't have the money, and we have roughly a week to aquire the money (somewhere close to 15k).

Yeah it sucks we can't go, but some sort of devine intervention could get us there, I don't know how, but maybe, somehow.

You can always dream