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Favorite FIRST Memories
This can be anything you want, if it was at a competition, during build season, off season, anything FIRST. I'll start it off.
My favorite memory was two years ago at Wayne State when my team Chairman's. Me and another member had worked hard on it every day after build until at least ten. When we won, our coach, me, and the other two presantors huddled together and said our "good jobs" then when our team saw it they looked at us giving us a round of applause. It was the best thing that could happen. We had won safety and the competition that year but Chairman's was all that I wanted. |
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Last year, my mom (one of our lead non-technical mentors) and my dad (a half-technical mentor) joined the team. At the BAE Granite State Regional I watched as my parents were awestruck by both the scale and the "odd" occurrences at the "competition". Saturday I grabbed my mom and said "Now you see why I love robotics."
We didn't do nearly as well as we had expected in the very beginning, but better than we expected after ship. Either way, last year was fun. |
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Laying down between Galileo and Einstein after we lost in the Galileo finals in 09 just happy that all the stress was gone and knowing my 1000 hours of work during the year was worth it.
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I remember being in the Pit trying to fix programming issues, sipping energy drink and the next thing I know I'm wearing my team's mascot costume and running around like a 5-year old.
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At the GKC regional we always have FLL kids come and run a mini-rumble. The greatest thing was last year while I was helping with it, watching the FLL students explain to curious FRC students about what they do. It's normally the other way around.
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When I was at Battlecry 11 and saw a triple hang in a match.
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Rookie year as a Freshmen, last year, at the Trenton Regional. So I'm at the hotel for the first night, and I go to get ice, which is right across the hall from my room so I wear socks. Being the klutz I sometimes am, I slip on the floor and bang my head on the corner of the wall. I pass out for a minute, and wake up with half of the mentors and coaches surrounding me. I tell them I'm just a little dizzy, and I'm fine, but of course, they call the hospital, and next thing I know, I'm strapped to a stretcher in the back of an ambulance. Then I get wheel-chaired to an MRI, and my uncle who lives nearby picks me up and I stay with him for the night. Woken up by my little cousins, not exactly pleasant. I end up making it to the regional, and I get a big welcome from my team, when I realize I'm still wearing the hospital armband. What a great first regional...XD
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Senior year my parents surprised me by coming to watch the Trenton regional. They had always known about robotics since my oldest brother started on team 11 in 1999 and usually stopped in during build, but they had never gone to a single event because of scheduling.
They were awestruck and loved every single moment of it. Seeing my parents smile and give 100% approval of my time spent those 4 years was something I didn't expect to be so happy about. They were already supporters of FIRST, but that day they fell in love with engineering too. |
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My senior year (2009) on my high school team, 339. We had won Delphi DTT for a completely student-designed component at a regional and were quite excited about it. It was, at the time, the FIRST award that meant the most to me, personally.
By the end of Friday at Championships, everyone in the pit had been eager demonstrating the component to the judges. We were quite passionate about it, but ultimately we had to focus on playing the game. Saturday morning, the judges were visiting our pit multiple times. Rumors started going around...why are they so interested? Do you think we could...nah, don't be silly. There are 400+ of the best teams in the world here. They've got flywheels, gyroscopes, and propellers. There's no way our little moving platform could be worthy of international recognition. We've never won a CMP award before. We didn't make the eliminations, and our head mentor wanted to leave early to make sure we could catch our flight. We begged him to wait until the announcement of awards, as a sort of wishful thinking. He ultimately agreed that we could stay until 6:00 PM, but no later. So we were watching the matches on Einstein interspersed with award presentations. At 5:58 PM (seriously), they get to Delphi DTT. And as the presenter began his speech, he included in his first sentence a clue that left no doubt: we had won. The twenty seconds of disbelief as the presenter finished his speech, the almost tearful cheering as our representatives accepted the award, and the sixty seconds of hugging among team members that followed, were truly indescribable. Our first international award in ten years of existence, for the design of a component I was directly involved in creating. With such an amazing cap, I cannot look back on my experience as a student in FIRST as anything less than perfect. |
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Probably being on the floor of the Georgia Dome in '08 standing with 1114 when they won their first championship.
So much magic. That's huge when you're a freshman. -Nick |
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My favorite memory was in '07 in at GTR. The alliances were being chosen for the quarter matches. Here we are the only team from the N/E in Toronto & not known by anybody there. The alliances had been chosen all but the last team. 1114 & 2056 then announced our team, 176! We all jumped for joy & hugged each other happily. Unbeknown to us, our team captain was told prior to the picks, but was sworn to secrecy. Well, we helped our alliance partners kick butt & won the regional!
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I will always remember everyone at the Travers City regional singing happy birthday to me. It was a great way to spend my birthday and my first competition.
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Watching the FLL kids come through the tunnel into the Dome in Atlanta. They get such great looks on their faces.
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Competing at the Boston regional :)
I remember several great moments there and the epic stair climbing up and down. We won Chairman's and I got Dean's list :) There are always so many amazing moments though, I couldn't possibly mention them all! |
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Mine was a couple of months ago at C.A.G.E. Match. I believe we were in the semifinals, paired of with 234 and 1555. Two other teammates and I had been rotating positions (driver, operator, human player (trident!)). This round, i was the operator, in charge of possessing soccer balls, shooting, and hanging. A robot on the opposing alliance never had communication for some reason so they basically parked themselves on the hill by the left goal (driver station view). We were in the middle zone, and there was a ball against the left side wall, and it was the only one close, so the driver went over to it, parallel to the side wall. He ran into it, and i ran the roller, we possessed it, and then the driver started turning towards the goals (still driver station view), assuming the next step was go over to the right side wall to score on the empty goal. I however, had a different idea in mind, and when he started to rotate (mecanum wheels), i fired the ball towards the left goal. It took one bounce on the ground, and then slid right through the little gap on the side in between the robot and the wall, then hit the ramp, and then went in. The crowd went crazy, and it was the first time all day the entire crowd stood up and cheered altogether for something (excluding national anthem, etc.). Being a Freshman, this feeling of pride and accomplishment was tripled. I hope i can accomplish a single play of that magnitude again. So far, that's my favorite memory, but i'm sure it will be topped.
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Last year, I was the copilot, and it was the finals of the Lone Star regional. The red alliance had one match, the blue another. Ridley (one of our mentors) came running from the field, shouting that the field cleanup had found a #25 half-link. Earlier in the year I was made "chain queen", so I flipped the robot and checked the chain. It wasn't ours, but one chain had slipped a sprocket and wasn't tensioned. That repair allowed us to win the final match and go home the champs of Lone Star. I felt so friggin happy for that fix, I was even brave enough to hug the head coach (two years previous i learned that this is a bad idea without the influence of victory). It was the best moment of my robotics career.
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2007. Watching my son and team finally get a double hang during auto in the last match of the last off season competition. Tubes and a rack again this year. Hmmmm:)
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My first year in competitions, 2001, NJ regional, being partnered with 75 and 175, i dont remember the 4th team, and in Philly partnered with 103, 365 again dont remember the 4th team...
won both regionals and had an absolute blast at it, the reason they stand out is though not because of the win, but working with those teams mentioned above was an absolute blast, still 4 of my most respected teams around the FIRST field. I am always surprised by 175 the most because they are always one of the quietest teams but always do well with their robot and their team. But yea to have worked with all 4 of those teams in one year is an absolute blast.... Second best memory, last year NJ regional Finals match 2, seeing the entire arena go in a uproar after the score is announced, I do not think I have ever seen the crowd go so crazy ever at NJ in recent times. Was an absolute blast. Theres soo many more, winning the first chairmans award, coaching my first match, reaching division finals in newton... the list is unending it seems. but those two definitely top the list. |
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Three letters: IRI. The whole trip, from the day-long drive out, to the mentor meet & greet, to seeing the awesome robots and legendary people, to holyjeezijustcoachedatIRI, to holyjeezijustmetAndyBaker, to the endless amazing elimination rounds.
Hey, you. Yes, you, the person that hasn't been to IRI. Go. This year. Seriously. I have powerful memories from behind the alliance station glass and working frantically in the pits, but my favorite memories always have to do with the people. Reading my co-driver without saying a word and scoring a last minute spoiler. Finishing each other's sentences and working seamlessly through early mornings and late nights. Hanging out after an unbelievably long competition Friday. ...Yeah, definitely the people that make the difference! |
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Other good moments for me: Winning Chairmans at Kettering (and States) my freshmen year. It was really special because we had never won a Chairmans award before, and were trying really hard to write an awesome essay and presentation. It was special the last year as well, but not as special as the first time. Winning the MARC as an essentially rookie driver (with only a few hours of practice on 469's practice field). |
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Oh man, I totally get the pilot/copilot interaction. When everything you say ends up in stereo, you know you've made an unbreakable bond.
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My Name is Karl and I was a Robotics student in 2003 as a High School Sophomore and now I'm 23 years old and a mentor on Team 313 "The Bionic Union" and my favorite memory was the 2003 Championship Event in Houston,TX. I was the Pit Nazi as you would call it and I just loved running between the Astro Dome and the new Reliant Stadium helping the team fix the robot and making sure the tools were ready when they arrived back in the pits. That year we made the Newton Division playoffs as a 5th seed and our alliance partner and us were bounced in the first round in two games by the eventual division champions so at least we lost to the best in our division but the memory was just awesome with helping our alliance partner and my team fix the robots between matches and running to the pits for tools and wiring and all that good stuff. FIRST has given me more memories than any other group I have been apart of, the smiles you see on these kids faces when you win a match just makes you remember why you've put over 500 hours of your life into this one robot. Good Luck to all teams in the upcoming competition season I hope you all do your very best, I know I have high hopes for my teams design this year.
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I'm a little late to this thread. While I'm a hard core VEX robotics person, I have a lot of great FIRST memories around FRC.
They are best summed up by Siri: Quote:
Robots with Cynette, Jane Young, JVN, Andy B, Karthik and the other 1200 people there. Exploding Bacon and Skyline Chili. Trip with 1640 (and Siri) on the way out and back (Dayton AFM). Jack taking the VEX challenge 8-0. Seeing and talking to *those teams* that you see on CD and the regional winners list, touching and seeing the robots up close is priceless. Just GO. But the overall best memory is seeing my son in the pits at Drexel, after a disaster match and being yelled at by the Head Mentor, diving back into the robot to make electrical repairs to get the robot ready for the next match. Focused, skills at the ready, making every moment count. |
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In 2008, after being selected by 1st seed 1625 we won our 2 QF matches and our 1st SF match. But halfway through it we got SLAMMED by 1986 and just stopped. The drive team grabs her off the field and we take her to behind the big curtain and find that the radio plug-in on the IFI controller had completely sheared off. So there we are running around with our heads cutoff trying to find another IFI controller and 1625 comes over and asks us if we need help and by then we found another one but our match was loading on the field. Winnovation says :cool: Don't worry, we got this. We finish our fix halfway through the match and go to find Winnovation and 1296(other allaince partner) owning the other alliance, I think we ended up winning the match by like 30 points. Needless to say, they called their hit like The Babe called his.
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2010 was my senior year, and the first year our team won a regional tournament. We had played four finals matches, two of them ties, and were franticly scrambling for a fresh battery and a way to make that dang post hold on for just one more round when the results for the last match went up. Of course, most of the things I took away from FIRST have nothing to do with winning or losing, but that moment of victory is something I'll never forget.
I feel compelled to respond to dodar's post-- Team Titanium never has and never will engage in malicious gameplay. I don't remember the details of that match, but our 2008 bot was quite zippy and did occasionally collide with field elements and other robots. I sincerely apologise for any damage we may have caused. That said, on behalf of myself and my team, and with no disrespect to you and yours, I'm hurt by the implication of fowl play on our part. As you point out, 2008 wasn't our year, but we competed honorably and I'm proud of that season. |
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After eight years, I've got a few.
Palmetto 2004 The first Palmetto Regional, the first event for 1293, the first time I'd seen a robot other than our window motor drive. By the end of Thursday, two Florida teams had more or less blown my mind: SPAM with their omnidirectional drive and stupid-fast hanger, and ComBBAT's catch-'em-as-they-come-down ball strategy. Neither brought home the gold (not that our 4-3-1 record was anything to phone home about either), but the sheer variety of the designs opened my mind up--and, with my mother's agreement (did I mention I was a high school senior at the time?), led to act two... Championship 2004 With 1293 done for the season, Mom and I decided to sign up as volunteers for the Championship. I was assigned as a real-time scorekeeper on Archimedes Field, which had a lineup of world-class teams--Beatty, TechnoKats, Killer Bees, Huskie Brigade, Rhode Warriors, Martians...the list goes on. If the hooks got in at Palmetto, they were stuck in here. (More to it, it's where I really got hip to ChiefDelphi.) Manchester Kickoff 2005 Thanks to the cheap airfares of Independence Air (remember them?), I made it to Manchester for the 2005 Kickoff. It was the first year of 3-on-3, and the field border itself was already unveiled. (During the telecast, each speaker unveiled some element of the field, not entirely unlike this year.) The net effect on the season was negligible, but knowing the change to 3v3 an hour or three before the rest of the world (and remember, there was no Twitter yet, I didn't even have my own cell phone, and Facebook was strictly for college students back then) was kinda awesome to me. Mission Mayhem 2006 This event should have fallen apart in a spectacular failure when the field flooded the first day. The hard work of a lot of great Florida people took a boatload of challenges (the flooded field, one team dropping out overnight, throwing everybody out of the pits to set up the new re-engineered field and rewriting the manual to match) and had one hell of a good time. Palmetto 2007 This was my first season working with a team other than 1293, the now-defunct Capital Robotics. Our arm never worked, except to sock me in the jaw (forever changing its name from the original "What Robot?" to Uppercut), but we had one thing going for us: the much-maligned match scheduling algorithm that saw us playing with the TechTigers for many of our matches. Enough matches, it turned out, to push us into the 11th seed--and thanks to some lucky picking, the eighth alliance captain position. The TechTigers, deservedly the #1 seed, mopped the floor with us in the first quarterfinal match 264-0. We turned around and ran the match with a better plan (or, some would say, our first attempt at a plan), but our tower came loose, pulling the main battery cable out of our terminal block. I didn't need to see the score to know we were ready to crate it up, but the first taste of eliminations was a great one. Brunswick Eruption 2007 This trip had a number of firsts for me. My first parking ticket (which USC eventually rescinded), my first time working with a pre-rookie team...oh, and the first off-season I attended with a robot, the aforementioned Uppercut borrowed from the Capitals. It was about a 12-hour drive from Columbia to New Jersey, followed by meeting up with the members of 2458 for the first time. (Until then, it was strictly email.) We started with each of the kids giving the robot a spin on the carpet...until one of them hit the arm control a little too hard again, breaking our claw. Immediate reaction? "Ooookay, so...we're playing defense." And sure enough, it worked--a respectable 3-2-1 record and the award for highest-seeded prerookie--not just their award, but the first for any team I'd worked with. It was another long slog back to Columbia, but it was definitely worth it. 25 is on to something with this prerookie thing. I know there have been many more since--getting silver at Palmetto, winning Rookie All-Star right after that, joining 1398 on the floor for their first regional win in 2010--but I think I've gone on long enough. :) |
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Championship 2004 The "One Day Wonder"
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/18269 1396 arrived in Atlanta to find that the robot did not make it there. There were enough parts available in the pits to make them a competitive bot. |
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One of my own entries to this thread is Thursday at Colorado in 08, after practice matches every team was oddly done with any modifications (weird i know). So it was a bunch of teams just hanging out, 1986 had balsa wood airplanes they were handing out (great fun in a giant arena), it was so laid back and everyone was awesome to talk to. |
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3 big ones for me:
2002 Championship in Epcot- My first championship event, and the scale of it completely blew my mind. Watching Beatty march their way to victory is something that I feel very fortunate to have been there for. 2004 Palmetto Regional- My home team (team 11) first regional victory. It was a trying build season for our team, but we were extremely proud of our robot, and it performed fantastically in competition. 2007 Boston Regional- My current team (team 125) first regional victory (although we had won the Championship in 2001). An extremely hard fought regional for us, and we were lucky to be paired with our friends 126 and 69 to form the "NU-HYPER-FORCE". An extremely tough finals bout took place with our alliance having to take on the #1 and 2 seeds (121 and 1626, with their partner 1568). After splitting the first 2 matches, the 3rd match was extremely tight. Amazingly in the final 3 seconds our team was able to dart from midfield and literally coast up the ramps of team 69 to take the regional. Andy Grady's words still live in team 125 infamy: http://www.thebluealliance.net/tbatv/match/2007ma_f1m3 -Brando |
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One of mine was in 2009 at Brunswick Eruption.
We redesigned most of the robot for the off-season, as practice for the new members, and also because our "shooter" bot wasn't very good. We managed to work our way into the top 8, and were the 8th alliance. Our dumper mechanism broke, and there wasn't enough time for repairs. I quickly reprogrammed autonomous to try and stop the opposing robot across the field, while the other two teams would come in from both sides and both dump their Orbit Balls in. This strategy worked great, and we made it to the semifinals. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEQjWChZCn4 Then the belt used to pick up orbit balls overheated on 1807's bot, so they resorted to one dump and played some really good defense while we went to return Empty Cells for Super Cells. We scored 2 Super Cells in one match, and moved onto finals. Finals were tough. Overdrive (2753) was one heck of a robot. We still went for Super Cells, while 1807 played defense and 56 continued to dump. We threw and missed a Super Cell, but 56 picked it up and dumped it at the last second. I remember crossing my fingers while the Super Cell slowly traveled through the maze of their conveyer belts up to their basket and finally dumped into 2753's goal. No, we didn't win, but it was quite exciting to work together and strategize with our alliance partners to make it all the way to 3 final matches even with 2 semi-broken bots. I didn't expect us (the 8th alliance) to be able to make it all the way to finals. Also, people such as Don Rotolo made some nice comments. |
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My favorite memory was in the 2010 Boilermaker Regional. We were partnered with 234 and 2856 and we were in the semifinals. About halfway through the match a robot hit our alliances wall and our laptop slammed shut. Our robot lost communication and we frantically tried to get it rebooted. With about 15 seconds left we were down 2-1 and our robot finally got its communication back. Our driver moved out of the way of the defending robot, causing him to hit the tower and get a penalty, and go score a goal with one second left to make the score 2-1 in favor of us and put us in the finals.
It was an incredibly exciting match and made us change our controls to make sure they would not shut again. |
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Also Peachtree 2009 I was a FRC rookie and my team, with the help of great alliance partners, won as an 8th seed. I remember being on the floor when we won surrounded by members of our alliance teams. Awesome energy. Besides competitions, I love the look on kids faces when they see our robot move for the first time. :D |
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Champs, 2010. First match of the finals, after reducing 469's loop to 2 balls, in the endgame, right after the worst words possible: 6...5.."And the hook falls shy!" ...3...2...1..*CLICK*..BZZZZZT. I will never look at gas springs the same way again. Nice job 67.
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I, too, feel as if I should respond to dodar's post, but I will address that later. I was the driver for 1986 in 2008, and that entire year was easily my favorite memory. I loved driving that year's robot. The thing was super quick and agile, and other teams and parents could never believe how I managed to squeeze through some gaps.
On to responding to dodar. I don't specifically remember that match or event, so I decided to check TBA for video. Come to find out, they didn't have the video from that tournament, but I did discover we didn't play 1592 until the finals. So I started looking through my robotics archives, and stumbled upon the videos from all of our matches during the Colorado tournament. I watched both final matches and during each, 1592 was fully operation through both. I spoke to one of my co-mentors (as I have graduated and become a mentor myself) about the tournament, and he remembers 1592 being knocked out exactly when dodar spoke of, but being completely operation for our matches. Therefore, it must have been another team that damaged 1592's robot, as it was impossible for us. The reason I responded wasn't to call out dodar. I did this because I don't want our team to be remember in a negative light. Like my past teammate said, Team Titanium never has and never will engage in malicious gameplay. I hope this provides some closer and there very best of luck to team 1592 as well as every other team this year. |
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