Re: Galileo 2010
 

For what it's worth, if we were a captain we likely would have grabbed you second round. I don't really see why alliances passed you up. Then again, I thought 1714 was a first round pick, so maybe my compass is a little off.

Re: Galileo 2010
 

Thanks for the kind words, Mary - but that was the easy part. The real heros were John, Nikki, James, and Josh for doing the swap. Especially with me badgering them to get it to the point where we could apply power to start the re-image. They did an absolutely perfect job of getting the old unit out, getting the new unit in just to the point where we could hook up cables and start the imaging process, and then they continued getting everything in the rest of the way while working in parallel with me. Truly a masterful swap. It definitely helped that we swapped a cRIO in Detroit so they had practice of doing it once before.

I also forgot to thank members of Teams 78, 40, and a few others who had their laptops ready with the imaging tool. The network port on my laptop is a bit flaky and sometimes causes issues at the most inopportune time. They were standing by ready to image if the imaging process failed. Also, thanks to the NI guys that stopped by.

Re: Galileo 2010
 

There are a lot of teams that I felt could've complimented any of those alliances had they been picked, including my team. :P

I don't know if it's robot politics or simply that our game play didn't factor into the alliance's strategy. But regardless, disappointment tends to feed the flames of motivation. And for us, this motivation is coming with drastic change.

I had fun on Galileo, this year more than others. I look forward to next year.

Re: Galileo 2010
 

WOW!!!!
What happened to Archimedes and Curie stacked and power ranked to come out on top? Newton happened with Galileo pushing right behind!!!!

Congratulations to 67 / HOT and partners 294 & 177 for threading the needle and beating us in Einstein semis in the most competitive series in our recent history, and especially for going on to win in the finals, just an awesome performance in an incredibly tough and level field.

So many thanks to our alliance partners: Tyler and the crew of 2056/OP, the Canadians from Stoney Creek, a great bot (and one of the most talented and professional teams we've had the pleasure to work with) and to 3138 the Innovators from Ohio (I still can't believe you are a rookie bot, especially after the awesome D you played in zone 3 in ADDITION to clearing balls out for our side to score, I did not see better zone 3 play all season!). Tyler, congratulations on your regional Woodie Flowers award, that means a lot!

This alliance was one of the best matched to play this game. 2056 was on the top of our selection list from our first scouting meetings before leaving for Atlanta and stayed there all thru competition. 3138 was at and near the top for both of us for second pick, boy were we glad they were still around! When you can play the game with each bot doing their job so well in each zone that the balls flow without having to zone jump (watch our Einstein semi-finals match number 2) it is just poetry in motion! No robot waiting time, no ball bottlenecks, just constant smooth robot action. If 3138 hadn't gotten stuck in that last match......AUGGGGH!

More thank yous:

to 1717, 217, 188, 51, 78 and many others for playing with us and against us well in qualifiers, great teams all (nice lift 1717, love the gas shock)

to 2834 for helping us win one of our toughest qualifiers (I can't believe you weren't picked for the eliminations, one of the best zone one bots out there)

to the pirates from Colorado, it was fun being next to you in the pits

to 148 / 217 / JVN for the best concept for ball aquisition, which we were able to fine tune into a great ball handling system (thanks to Carrington, his dad, and blob tape)

to 16 / Bomb Squad for the inspiration of recycling the 08 track ball liner for our upper roller, another part of our great acquisition system, and for playing well with us in Kansas City along with the Metal Mustangs

Special thanks to 1732 / the Hilltoppers for, believe it or not, playing us hard to the point of breaking at Midwest. If you would not have done so, we in all likelyhood would not have discovered a significant weakness in our robot (chains taking a hike) with enough time to work out a solution before Championships!

to our partner drive teams in our last qualifier ( 2467 and 3352, the Flaming Monkeys ), for playing the game, with its' convoluted scoring system, to best advantage. The biggest advantage was to us, from a position where most would have considered you out of the game you made a decision which had a major impact, and unselfishly helped us to put together the alliance that won the division, no small thing. In anything we do in life we stand on the shoulders of others, some who have gone before us and some who are with us now. In addition to improving the record ranking score for all of us, you made a decision that had a major impact. You both gave us a shoulder to stand on, many thanks for an ultimate example of team play, it will not be forgotten and we look forward to playing with you in the future.

Sorry for the long post.... so much to say and so much left unsaid......(congrats to Chris Fultz on Woodie Flowers! great to see you in the pits UPS/Katy and Kevin!) All of us on Winnovation had a great time, thanks to all, especially FIRST, the organizers, volunteers, ref's and judges.

Look forward to seeing you all in St Louis next year!!!!!!!!!! (robot and other things willing)

Scott Hill

Re: Galileo 2010
 

After 20 hour bus ride home and getting 2 exams out of the way, I'm ready to jump back into the world of FIRST with a look back at an amazing Championship experience.

First off, congratulations to Team 341 on your Chairman's Award win. I've been following your team's activities pretty closely for a few years and like many people on these forums thought that you were more than due for the recognition that you received last weekend.

A hearty congratulations also goes out to Team 294, Team 67, and Team 177 on capturing the world championship. You guys were fabulous and took down an alliance that many people had favoured for a very long time.
That, however, should take nothing away from the incredible way that Team 1114, Team 469, and Team 2041 played. It's hard to believe that an alliance that had, arguably, the two best robots all year were unable to seal the deal. I, along with many others, long to know what would have happened had 2041 not gotten stuck in the goal. (A special thanks to Team 1114 for allowing a couple of our team members, including myself, the opportunity to watch Einstein with your team).

To the Galileo division champions, Team 1625, Team 2056, and Team 3138 (and the alliance that happened to bounce us from the eliminations): well done. You were the perfect synergy of offense and defense working together to systematically pick apart each alliance that you faced. For a while it looked like you had your ticket booked for the Einstein finals. To our Canadian friends, Team 2056, congratulations on finally clinching that elusive division banner, it'll look great next to the other 8 you've got lying around at your school, I'm sure. (Thanks also for working with us early each morning to secure the best seats in the house, particularly on Saturday).

To our alliance partners, Team 2016 and Team 1058, thank you and sorry. Though our run was short, the both of you were great to work with and executed perfectly. For not being able to do the same on our end (with a dead driver's station in the first match and a penalty in the second), we are truly sorry. I've got to take the blame for both situations, first for not having ensured our Classmate battery was secure and secondly for not calling our drivers off the balls when we got one stuck underneath us. Hopefully we'll get a chance to work together in the future, perhaps with some different results.

I could go through and list off all the amazing teams we had the opportunity to play with and against (and even those we only had the pleasure of watching on the field), but that may take a bit too time. I'll finish off by saying that Galileo was a blast. It was cool to meet up with so many of our friends from Curie last year (68, 79, 217, 1771, 1983), but also to meet a whole new set of teams. This year's showcase is over, but I'm already pumped for next year's Championship in St. Louis.