Philly Champions - 177, 381, & 284
 

Just got off the phone with the team in Philly: The Bobcats, with teams 381, and 284 have won the Philly Regional. Finals were 2 to 1 over 486, 222, & 651.

Great job guys! Thanks 381 and 284!

P.J.

Re: Philly Champions - 177, 381, & 284
 

You dont happen to know who won the Charimans award do you?

And congratulations to all the winners!!

Re: Philly Champions - 177, 381, & 284
 

Team 341, Wissahickon's Miss Daisy, won the Chairman's. Congratulations to everyone at Drexel and especially to the champions! It was a terrific regional and alot of fun as always.

Re: Philly Champions - 177, 381, & 284
 

357 won the Engineering Inspiration award, 1391 was the Rookie All-Star, and "Action" Joe Perrotto from team 365 (w00t) recieved the WFA nomination. The total list of awards can be found here

Re: Philly Champions - 177, 381, & 284
 

did 177 finally stop tipping over? sounds like it.

Re: Philly Champions - 177, 381, & 284
 

Congrats PJ and the rest of the Bobcats!!
I heard you had some trouble at UTC, but it’s good to hear that you guys got things working. It’s good to hear that you guys produced another strong robot. I wish I could have been there to see the win.

Does this win mean a Nationals (The Championship) appearance?

Eric

Re: Philly Champions - 177, 381, & 284
 

Tipping was solved by removing the arm. It's hard for me to think about a Bobcat with no arm that handles small balls well, but I guess that's what we have now.

As for Atlanta, I don't know. I guess it'll get sorted out this week.

I wish I had been there too, Eric. Paternity leave has been great, but I really miss being with the team at competitions. I must have driven Sully nuts with all of my phone calls the last two days!

Re: Philly Champions - 177, 381, & 284
 

congrats to team 177 you all were a good team at UTC when u weren't flipped. Hope to see you all at nationals!!!

Re: Philly Champions - 177, 381, & 284
 

Speaking of tipping...

GizMOE didn't tip today! Not once. Came pretty close though but he didn't tip...I'm proud of my team for that!

Congrats to everyone who won an award today and yesterday and to the winners of the regional. You guys all worked hard to get where you are now. For those who didn't do as well as others...don't let it get to you. My team has this thing...when we don't win a match, we don't write L for lose...we write L for learning experience. Learn from the mistakes you make now so you can be the best you can be later. (Robotics as well as in life this works).

Re: Philly Champions - 177, 381, & 284
 

Congrats also for the second year in a row

Re: Philly Champions - 177, 381, & 284
 

Wow, I am still trying to sort all of this out in my mind. First of all, HUGE congratulations to 177,381, and 284. You guys beat us in the playoffs and the competition was very fierce. Great robot, I remember seeing your video up on that wall and thinking "that is a real nice robot," our whole pit was really impressed and even more impressed with the actual thing. Also congrats to the alliance of 486, 222, and 651. That final was a great one to watch.

Miss Daisy did win Drexel Regional Chairmans for the 2nd year in a row and we are so psyched and I'd like to thank all of the teams that helped us in many ways, shapes, and forms. Also, big-time congratulations to our friends at Upper Darby for their Engineering Inspiration Award.

Other thoughts that I had. 272 (Lansdale Catholic) had a really great robot. I also loved the drive system on CHA-bots (1218). After some problems at Chesapeake, it really came together for you guys at Drexel. Also thanks to 1218 and 204 for being in an alliance with us. I felt that we were very, very competitive in our playoff rounds and without a penalty and then a mechanical malfunction (i.e. infernal bad luck) who knows where we might have gone.

BTW, those last comments are not taking anything away from the alliance that beat us, 177, 381, and 284 were fantastic and they certainly deserved to win. Well, that's just what I have to say, I thought that this regional was the best out of the three that I went to and I hope to see everyone at Nats.

Re: Philly Champions - 177, 381, & 284
 

Wow congrats to all.......another close one with 222 and miss daisy winning another chairmens...... cant wait to see everyone at PARC.

-Pat

Re: Philly Champions - 177, 381, & 284
 

Hat's off to 177,381,&284, Truely amazing showing, you guys fought us tooth and nail every inch of the way and WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You guys should truely be proud of yourselves, you played the game in excellant form. Special recognition to 284 OUR SISTER TEAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hope to see you guys at natts, were proud of you guys, same with 1143, congratts on your first finals ;-)

Re: Philly Champions - 177, 381, & 284
 

Royal Assault would like to congratulate teams 177, and 284, 381, and 486, 222, and 651 for putting on a phenomenal final round. The competition started with a bang and sure ended with one. Also we would like to congratulate and wish luck to Miss Daisy, what else can be said about you guys other than your a fantastic team and we are honored to come in second place to you guys. Maybe at nationals we will be in the same division and we will tear the competition up!!

Good job everyone and Good Luck everyone in their quests.

Re: Philly Champions - 177, 381, & 284
 

i swear 121 has a curse this year...

first at BAE 126 couldnt hang, but we did fairly well and lost in the semis, then at UTC they beat us and made it to the finals...

then at UTC 177 did an alright job, but we eneded up loosing in the quaterfinals AGAINST 126, and now 177 wins the philly regional... AAAHHH!!!! but congrats! =P

Re: Philly Champions - 177, 381, & 284
 

Maybe... working with 121 is what made these teams perform so well! Both 126 and 177 are excellent teams, who learn and adapt as the weeks go on. After working with you Rhode Islanders, they learned to turn their strengths into weaknesses and come back strong. (Much like you boys did after BAE). ;)

*Shrug*
Paradigm shift...

John

Re: Philly Champions - 177, 381, & 284
 

Just got back from Philly and wanted to throw out our thanks and appreciation to teams 284 & 381 for being on our alliance. I also wanted to thank 222, 486 & 651 for being such a strong allianceand putting on such a great final match with us. Also we have to thank the Judges for the Xerox creativity award.

I have to ask, Does anyone know whether or not another small ball team has been a winning alliance captian yet? Just curious.

Thanks again to everyone who helped make the Philly regional happen.

Pete

Re: Philly Champions - 177, 381, & 284
 

I would also like to extend Pete's thanks, and state that all of team 177 is greatful for the amazing show that the teams put on at Philly. All the bots there were excellent and they were great competition.

I'd like to thank our alliance partners for helping us make it. 381 & 284, thanks for the hard work and good strategies. I'd also like to thank all the teams we competed against. Particularly, I'd like to thank 222,486, and 651 for the great show they helped put on. I thought all three robots were excellent and I wish you guys the best of luck on your future endeavours.

Also, i'd like to make an out of place thanks here; perhaps i'll make a new proper thread for it later because it well deserves it. Thank you TechnoKats for your great designs for the gearbox and omniwheels. While we modified both in various ways to fit our needs, I will not deny that those white papers you did were incredibly useful. The gearbox allowed us to push and run, and undoubtedly helped us significantly. Thanks guys, i'm sure many teams in FIRST have you to thank. Of course, the mechanical guys would know more so than me, but I just want to thank you for what i saw in action.

Congrats to all the teams who won awards, I look forward to seeing you all again at nationals.

Re: Philly Champions - 177, 381, & 284
 

You're welcome, and congrats! Double-congrats go to cousin PJ. :) Way to go Bobcats!

Andy B.

Re: Philly Champions - 177, 381, & 284
 

Wow, this is so exciting. It's nice to see our little area of northern Pennsylvania staying strong. Congratulations to both of our sister teams - 284, 222 - on an excellent job, well done. I can't wait to see the actioned packed matches at PARC this year!

Re: Philly Champions - 177, 381, & 284
 

Panther robotics (303) AKA the fridge won at Trenton and went to finals at Chesapeake. I forget if they were an alliance captain, but they were a great small ball machine and also did great with the 2x ball. 177 and 303 best small ball machines that I have seen so far.

Re: Philly Champions - 177, 381, & 284
 

Congratulations to the champions and to everyone else.

177 and 1370 (I think...) were the two best ball handlers I had seen before. Which is why we tried to shut 177 down ;-) it kinda worked :) (If you don't know what I'm talking about I'll try to get a picture of what happened).

Re: Philly Champions - 177, 381, & 284
 

Yep, 177 was a beast. We faced them in the first round of eliminations and spent maybe 30 mins strategizing about what to do. Basically, we stuffed both ball chutes and hit 177 just as the balls fell. It worked perfectly, except someone on our side stepped over a line :( ... congrats to 177 still, you guys were the only ball catcher i have seen so far that could actually deliver ALL of the balls.

Re: Philly Champions - 177, 381, & 284
 

Thanks a lot. It's nice to know that the robot you worked on is sort of feared. :D I liked your robot, and it was nice to be able to face you in the finals. Congrats on your chairman's award.

Re: Philly Champions - 177, 381, & 284
 

Yes, daisy was definately one of the robots i was worried about during the finals... We played our first match with you guys and you werent 100% so we werent worried when we had a match against you... Then all of the sudden you came flying onto your side of the field during autonomous and i was highly impressed. As far as I am concerned you had the best defensive strategy against us. Luckily our robot was built to be robust and manuverable so it wasnt hard for our base driver to dislodge the goal from our chute. Not to burst any bubbles, but even though your defensive strategy was well executed, if I remember correctly we still would have won without the penalties for trying to kill our amazing human player. ;)

Re: Philly Champions - 177, 381, & 284
 

316 wants to thank 272 and 224 so very much for choosing us for the elimination rounds!!! You guys were great, what an awesome bot!

Philly is always a blast!

Congratulations to all of the teams!!!!!

Re: Philly Champions - 177, 381, & 284
 

I'm pretty sure we lost by 10 points, 60-70, or something like that- and the penalty was one of a 10 point sort. What makes this even more bittersweet for us is the fact that while we were delivering balls one trickled out undetected from our partner's ball chute and was never shot. You guys really dictated how these matches were gonna be played, we just couldn't ignore how many balls your robot delivered and the fact that 99% of the balls found their target. teh insanity.

On a side note, while we were pushing you under the ball chute I noticed that both of our bar hooks were knocked off- but I don't recall you hanging later during any playoff rounds, could/did you guys hang? Plus, I noticed in some previous pics y'all had a 2x ball geabber, I'm guessing you swapped that for the bar hanger?


Congrats on building an impressive machine, we'll see you in atlanta-

[edit] Turns out a referee told our main driver we received 2 penalties- our first 2, coincidentally- one for going under the ball chute and one for stepping over a line. [/edit]

Re: Philly Champions - 177, 381, & 284
 

we originally had a huge arm that would allow us to manipulate 2 2x balls at the same time and hang... however even tho we made weight with it it still cause us to be too back heavy and we flipped over consistently... the hook that you saw dangling dangerously a few times was constructed in philly but never tested... We hope to build another one on our practice bot and figure our how we can refine it before nats... that would be a sweet addition to what many have concluded to be quite the beefy robot

Re: Philly Champions - 177, 381, & 284
 

Word just came from the higher ups... 177 will be at nationals now. For those who saw us at UTC, you'll notice the arm missing as many have said, so who knows, things could turn out different :)

By the way P.J., Sully mentioned that you had called like three times over the course of an hour or so. He seemed more amused than aggravated, so you're in good hands. But I can't vouch for you if you don't make it to Atlanta with the team. I mean, after all, Springer made it to Philly and George made it to Hartford.

Re: Philly Champions - 177, 381, & 284
 

It will be good to see 177 at nationals again. Just to clarify about that penalty. I believe that we were penalized because our coach stepped across one of those white lines. Guess that is just the way the cookie crumbles.

Re: Philly Champions - 177, 381, & 284
 

We actually were the allience captain with 303 and 291 in annapolis, and we thank them both a great deal. Both were great machines and both did a great job.

And another huge thanks to our allience in philly, you guys were great.

Re: Philly Champions - 177, 381, & 284
 

It looks like I will be in Atlanta (as a spectator for the most part) with my wife Maura and baby daughter Natalie.

Re: Philly Champions - 177, 381, & 284
 

PJ,
Swing by the 229 pit!
The arm may have fallen off the Bobcat this year... but the Clarkson bot picked it up again. I'm sure Eric would love a chance to show off how 177's designs and his experiences on the Bobkittens have influenced and inspired us this season.

John

Re: Philly Champions - 177, 381, & 284
 

I can't wait to see 229's robot! Each of us won a regional individually, who knows what we could do if we were in the same division. Hopefully we will be putting our grappling hook to use by nats... that would make our teams a very strong alliance. I didn't think a better arm could be made than what we had in 2001, but I'm sure you guys did an awesome job adapting it to this years game. I'm very excited to see it! :D

Re: Philly Champions - 177, 381, & 284
 

I would be delighted to give you a tour of R2. So sad to see the arm go, but it’s awesome that you guys did well without it. Your drive base looks solid and it sounds like your ball collector is working well, I can’t wait to see it in action.

PJ, excellent to hear that you will be in Atlanta! I will have meet little Natalie. Does she color yet ;) ?

Eric

Re: Philly Champions - 177, 381, & 284
 

Here's a photo of when we capped 177.
177 did a nice job of countering this in subsequent matches by keeping the top closed until just before the balls dropped and by moving back & forth under the drop.