[Kevin Kolodziej]

Who's that fine looking young man behind the controls in that video??? I wonder what ever happened to him...

Chris, I had no idea that had happened during those matches! While that was going on on your end of the field, on our end of the field, this is what happened:

Match 2, 180 came out of the gate so fast and pushed the center goal away from us before I could drop to the walker. I tried to back out of the way and get around them, but the drill motors (oh how I miss them) were geared for speed, not power, and with that long of a robot, trying to turn it was like trying to turn a boat. So we got pushed up against the side rail and somewhere along the line one of the axles on one of the wheels got bent. I still remember Blair's words: "The BEAST sits crippled on the side of the field."

We get off the field and there was no chance we were going to get that axle and wheel fixed before the third match. But 173 was the #1 seed for a reason and showed everyone why while 66 did a phenomenal job of playing keep away. You guys were an awesome alliance to play against and those are 3 matches I will never ever forget.

I love stories like these.

Thanks for posting this, John. I wish we had more detail in the video of all the iterations the front end went through, specifically the stoppers for when we fell over at the start. There were wheels with springs, cushioned frame members, all sorts of stuff, and in the end, one of the simplest ideas worked the best: just use the pneumatic cylinders that will then lower the bot down onto the walker.