Re: The Capital Clash
 

007 would like to thank Teams 1111 and 341 for being such wonderful alliances. It was great working with you all; let's hope we end up together again soon!

And thank you to all the volunteers and teams that put this competition together. It was one of the best off-seasons I've been to!

Re: The Capital Clash
 

It was a blast--I just got back home, and I'm so worn out I'm surprised I'm even typing this out tonight. (By the way, this also means you'll just have to wait until later today for the caption contest. You'll live.)

I've got to thank a few people...
Mike Wade, for the ever-so-great NASA field that worked almost flawlessly all weekend
Jeff Wetzel and his family, who put me up (and put up with me) for the whole weekend
Jenny and Dee, for if it weren't for them, this would've been another boring weekend in Columbia.
All of 116, who opened up and welcomed a functional stranger (well, except for those who read CD) into their camp for a few nights
The mentors, who put up with my cheesy mentor round emceeing
Jeff Seaton, whose emceeing rocked the house for two straight days
All the other volunteers and all the teams, who made for a great competition and a darn good time.

And no matter what you read in the caption contest, there is no video of me snoring.

Re: The Capital Clash
 

Thats what he thinks...

I had fun. The best part for me was seeing a team in the pits that got it. It put a smile on my face that wouldn't go away. :D
That and getting to drive the robot for three matches after the competition ended.

Wetzel

Re: The Capital Clash
 

Maybe it was just because I had no brain synapses left to fire, but those mentors-only-driving-the-robots rounds made me laugh so hard, I was crying. I hope someone was taking pics because it was quite a sight seeing all those mentors lined up. I look over and it appears that Dave Lavery sacrificed his youngest as she is the human player, next to Wayne Cokely. Heidi assured me that Dave gave the ok.

For those of you who weren't there, this weekend was a "show" as well as a competition. The awards ended (because we were asked to do them at 4) but we still had to keep the show going. So we played games.

Re: The Capital Clash
 

Just as a thought, wouldn't Dave's daughter violate the basis of the mentor round? I mean, it's pretty rare for someone that young to be anything but a precollege student.

I guess, however, that after reading Dave's page on FIRSTwiki, she could be classified as a tor-mentor, and would thus be eligible.

(Hmm...an elementary/middle school match at an offseason. Yikes.)

Re: The Capital Clash
 

I think Dave was tired after, instead of playing with VEX bots in the garage, played with VEX bots with 30,000 people asking him VEX bot questions for 16 hours. He kept muttering something about "eviscerating" someone....

Heidi seemed to be doing most of the talking. Actually, after talking with 29,000 people, I think she lost her voice. Or maybe Dave "eviscerated" it....

Re: The Capital Clash
 

Poor Dave... he seemed to be quite tense at times, I think 116 had unexplained drive issues, possibly due to faulty radio equipment, something a few teams reported on the rightmost red playstation. At one point 116 was spinning about it's center at an impressive speed, whilst the drivers (appropriately, given the proximity of the audience) freaked out.


When it was working (practically the whole time) it was a site to behold. "Lil Lavery" (what is his real name?) gave me a rundown on that amazing drive train, and it's even more impressive in real life.

Re: The Capital Clash
 

Team 116 was having some problems with the drive train and would have to reset during the match. We were paired with them for the elimination rounds and they did pretty well. Thanks Teams 1629 and 116 for all the help.

Re: The Capital Clash
 

To all the Capital Clash teams and volunteers:

NBC4 is looking for additional footage from The Capital Clash. This could be footage from the field, or from the pits. If you have footage you would like to contribute, contact Mike Wade at:

Michael Wade

NASA - GSFC

Bld 5 Rm C26 Code 547

Greenbelt rd.

Greenbelt, Md. 20771

E-Mail Michael.Wade@nasa.gov

Ph 301-286-9101

Cell Ph 443-983-0279

Re: The Capital Clash
 

Contrary to the protestations of some of my team mates I don't demand human sacrifices...... I just look mean I guess?

WC :cool:

Re: The Capital Clash
 

I think me and Greg Needel did pretty good driving the 25 bot for the first mentor round, but when we went up again, and i got Paul Kloberg to drive our robot, it was a little scary although I should thank Dee, Jenny and Karen for trying to put that tetra on our robot from the auto loader for us :-p

Re: The Capital Clash
 

to fill in the other side of the story i got "thrown" off of 25 and went to 116 which made the fact that we beat them in that match so much sweeter.....

Re: The Capital Clash
 

I just uploaded a bunch of pics in the Picture Gallery from the Capital Clash (also known as the NBC4 Digital Expo - look there.) My apologies to JENNY, as I called her JEANNIE in the caption (I was rushing to upload these on my lunch break; rushing => errors)

The pictures are rather MOEcentric, as I was taking shots for the team's use, but got nice ones of the other teams there as well.

Re: The Capital Clash
 

Eric and I have finally gone through most of our summer photos, and have posted them here.

These photos include the Capital Clash and IRI competitions. My photos from the Capital Clash mainly deal with the VEX table, while Eric's covers the rest.

Heidi

Re: The Capital Clash
 

I just flipped through the galleries for the Clash. I'm so glad that Eric got a good number of pictures of the mentor match. I mean, who can resist caption contest material a great picture like this:

http://www.invisiblerobot.com/roboti.../p8284225.html

...although now I'll have to tell my mom that her camera is famous in 116 circles. (I lost the link to that one. Drat.)