Re: PNW 2006 -- The Pacific Northwest Regional in Portland
 

We actually didn't see you guys shoot from on top the platform, but rather wanted to keep it as a move we could save until we had to use it.

We started the competition with the ability to shoot from the base of the ramp, the top of the ramp, or ~26 feet away from the ramp. For the beginning of the competition, we were shooting from the base of the ramp only. On Saturday we found out our shooter was shooting faster than we had thought, and had to turn it down. By doing so we had to choose between the top of the ramp or the bottom, and after being completely smothered by 753 in two consecutive matches, we thought it would be much more advantageous to shoot from the top of the ramp.

Re: PNW 2006 -- The Pacific Northwest Regional in Portland
 

I know this is untrue. Shooting from the ramp is hardly a unique strategy.

Re: PNW 2006 -- The Pacific Northwest Regional in Portland
 

At the kickoff at TRC, a student and I walked onto the demo goal they had set up, looked straight up, and said -- practically at the same moment -- "you know, from here it's only a 3-foot shot." The idea has definitely been around since the kickoff.

Re: PNW 2006 -- The Pacific Northwest Regional in Portland
 

The robot was designed to be able to shoot from the top of the ramp from day one. Their choice to use that strategy was just a coincidence, as cory noted earlier.

You'll find out soon enough why I know this. Their robot wasn't quite shooting at 10 balls per second, but I think we all realize now that is not completely neccesary. ;)

Re: PNW 2006 -- The Pacific Northwest Regional in Portland
 

Now that I've had a bit of time to collect my thoughts and clean my apartment, I wanted to write a bit more about our experience in Portland this weekend. I'd written a bit on Friday evening about the challenges that we all faced throughout the day, what with the tempermental scoring and ranking system and all, and I wanted to revisit that and add to it.

The scoring system continued to be troubling through the qualifying matches and the ranking that determined the top seeds was incorrect, to the best of my knowledge, but in the end that is secondary to the amazing, exciting event that this turned out to be. Without elaborating, as it'll serve no purpose, I did want to mention that the information I had at my disposal indicated that the win-loss-tie records were incorrectly input into the ranking system for some teams. I don't know how it happened, but I do know that everyone at the event sincerely tried to make everything correct before moving on. When I brought my concern to Jason and the folks at the scoring table, they listened and worked to see if they could find the error I'd seen. That was reassuring.

I'm notorious among friends for really disliking these events. I hadn't really enjoyed myself at a FIRST event since 2002 or 2003, but I had a great time this weekend. Some highlights:

• Team 488 worked together better than almost any team I've ever worked with in the past seven seasons. The students all got along with one another and with the mentors, we were able to make changes and repairs to our machine quickly and effectively, and, of course, we all cheered each and every time our hopper unloaded balls into the goals.
• I was offered some very meaningful compliments that took me completely by surprise.
• We built a fantastic, effective machine for this year's game. We were responsible for scoring 75% or more of our alliance's score in almost all of our matches -- all with a 1-pt. dumper.
• Ice skating at Lloyd Center on Friday was fun. It was nice to see some teams come out and join us again.
• Before the start of our first quarter final match, I had the pleasure of a conversation with Woodie Flowers about the game and how we thought it might play out. One of FIRST's greatest assets is the accessibility of its personalities. Go to an NFL game and try to have a conversation with the quarterback and see how far you get.
• Competing alongside teams 1839 and 956 in the eliminations rounds was an honor and a privilege. We came together after competing all three together in our final qualifying match and winning by a margin of ~50.
• Despite losing in the last few moments of our second quarter final match, I think we showed everyone at the event how to beat 254. It's a shame nobody was watching ;)
• Winning a qualifying match despite being down one robot was a rush.
• The pride the kids have in their effort is amazing. They were grinning from ear to ear each time someone came over to congratulate them, to ask about the robot and the team, or to ask where we're competing next. Unfortunately, we're not currently registered to attend any more events, but we'll see what we can't do about that.
• Receiving an award from team 1425 for our robot's design was a flattering gesture that we all appreciated.
• Seeing Bill Gold again and finally being in the same room as Cory McBride. Cory and I had a near miss back in 2003. It's about time. I also got to briefly meet Akshay from 115 and EJ from 254, both very cool.

Congratulations to teams 254, 1887 and 753 for winning the event and to team 492 for winning the Regional Chairman's Award. I hope the momentum from this weekend keeps up through the rest of this season. Thanks, particularly, to Jason Morrella, Woodie Flowers, the whole FIRST staff and the volunteers for being the glue that held the event together. Based on what I've read about others' experiences at the other regionals, it seems like we had the best of the best with us at PNW this weekend.

Re: PNW 2006 -- The Pacific Northwest Regional in Portland
 

I must admit, I was glad to be able to go to the Pacific Northwest regional this year. It was great to see all the teams working together, and despite some minor technical difficulties, to watch the volunteer staff do so well to bring everything together so it all worked out. This years competition was a joy to referee, and I was glad that there were so few penalties, although a few did occur. It was great to watch the teams at the regional interacting, and helping each other out, and at least with the time I got to spend in the pits, there was a definate aura of excitement and anticipation that was very heartening. Congratulations to 492 on Chairmans, and to all of the teams who participated. You are all spectacular for how you participated and behaved on the field at the regional. The excitement and energy at the regional was even greater then last year, and this was a great event to participate and to help contribute to because of all of the students, engineers, teachers, and mentors involved. Even more exciting, there were no disqualifications of any robots at this regional. That, in itself made me very, very happy. Congratulations to all the teams who participated,and all recipients of awards.

Re: PNW 2006 -- The Pacific Northwest Regional in Portland
 

It seems many teams have had problems with the scoring system. Hopefully that's worked out before the next set of regionals. Our team was a bit disappointed when a match that we lost due to a scoring error (didn't get points for our autonomous so we lost that, then we didn't get points for robots on the ramp) made it so we placed right outside the top teams (placed 12th), but hey... technology messes up sometimes =P It's like those PowerPoints that never work on my school's computers =( We still had a blast though and the other alliance must have felt pretty happy when they won that match =)

Re: PNW 2006 -- The Pacific Northwest Regional in Portland
 

Thank You!

Congrats to 492 on winning the Chairman's Award this year. Also, congrats to the winning alliance - 254, 753, and 1887.

Re: PNW 2006 -- The Pacific Northwest Regional in Portland
 

There’s nothing superhuman about our program and I’m glad that we were able to show a new region that this is exactly the case. A lot of teams seem to think that there are “one hundred NASA Engineers” or full NASA machine shops that just deliver robots to us once every year. This isn’t the case at all, and I’m glad that the word is finally getting out. Like Dennis posted earlier, this year’s team was run by a 19 year old, a 21 year old, a 22 year old, and a 23 year old teacher. We are a team that’s built on hard work just like everyone else’s.


Just for clarification, our FP motors caught fire, were plugged in wrong, and backed out of their AM Planetaries (our fault, not AM’s). No shafts of ours were broken at PNW. We also had a couple dumb problems with our ball system in a couple matches, one of which was the 2nd match of the finals.

753 was amazing. Their team is full of top notch kids, and they build consistently solid robots year after year. It was an absolute pleasure to be allied with those guys and gals. Same with team 1887. We were fortunate enough to have a pit right next to them, and they were an absolutely classy team. It was terrific how on at least one occasion each of our teams, pretty much, single-handedly won a match for our alliance. It was an amazing chemistry that we had, and I feel fortunate to have been a part of it.


I finally got the chance to thank my former HS Physics teacher, Eric Stokely (formerly of 258 and now with 360), for originally getting me into this program. It was very emotional for me, personally, being able to see, for the first time in ~4.5 years, this person who has been a huge influence on who I am as a person, and it was even more exciting to be participating in the same event with him. It was seriously like old times being in the pits or watching matches rooting our teams and each other’s teams on.

Thanks to all the teams who helped us out at the regional. Thanks to 492 for letting us mooch power for our scouts’ laptop. Thanks to 360 for that team color LED. Thanks to everyone else who gave us miscellaneous parts or tools to work on our robot. It was good to see Maddie again, too :)

I want to thank everyone who had a hand in putting on the PNW Regional. It was a terrific event to compete in with many terrific teams and robots. I’d love to attend this event again in either Portland or in Seattle.

I feel like I have a lot more to say, but for some reason I can't organize my thoughts right now.

Re: PNW 2006 -- The Pacific Northwest Regional in Portland
 

WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOO that was the funnest thing iv ever don't man! my team won two awards :D :cool:

Re: PNW 2006 -- The Pacific Northwest Regional in Portland
 

So, I think if there is any place I would go postal right now it is Hatch Techology's headquarters. How do the manage 2 years running to make this ****?

Oh well.

The reason I am posting is that I get a 404 when I try to get:
http://www2.usfirst.org/2006comp/Eve.../rankings.html

which is the linked to from the regional page. Does anyone have a saved copy they wana share?

Thanks.

On another note, about shooting from a ramp.

At least at the pacNW the only 2 bots to do it were 254 and 492 so it is unique in impalmentation, even if many people thought about it.

Re: PNW 2006 -- The Pacific Northwest Regional in Portland
 

I saw team 701 do it as well.

Re: PNW 2006 -- The Pacific Northwest Regional in Portland
 

Ah, then my bad. But still, something that 3/47 do I would still say is pretty darn unique. I have to say that the determining factor is 254 just did it the best :).

Re: PNW 2006 -- The Pacific Northwest Regional in Portland
 

I am sorry if I sounded critical of your program, and that I repeated a story that a student told me about your mechanical problems. You folks built an incredible robot, and it was inspiring to watch. I wish I'd had a chance to get a closer look, but you were all working so hard I didn't want to distract you. You did come in with a superhero reputation (sort of like seeing Clint Eastwood riding down a dusty street on a horse...), and it was encouraging to see that you had to work hard on a stubborn machine just like the rest of us. Yours just worked better when you were done. :) :) I hope you can come back to PNW next year.

Re: PNW 2006 -- The Pacific Northwest Regional in Portland
 

I don't mean to "bump" or be a post whore but does anyone know when these rankings are coming back online or an alterant source?
http://www2.usfirst.org/2006comp/Eve.../rankings.html