[Kevin Kolodziej]

Originally Posted by TimSchley

There was a story about Team 1675 from Milwaukee being there on local news.
http://www.wisn.com/video/30641530/detail.html

http://www.wisn.com/video/30656790/detail.html
http://fox6now.com/2012/03/11/traged...ents-attended/

There were news crews waiting for us when we arrived back in town last night as well, which turned into decent coverage of the team/trip and promotion for the upcoming WI Regional next week. Its a shame that it took a tragedy to get this kind of attention though.

All-in-all, Team 1675 thoroughly enjoyed our first trip to the Pittsburgh Regional. We were very impressed with the teams, the staff, the venue, and the city. Load-in could have been a huge mess with the steep hill and our gigantic bus, but careful planning and communication was evident the entire time and everything went off without a hitch. Our students had a ton of fun, even though the robot had more than a few hiccups during the weekend.

Thanks to 4027 and 1708 for being great alliance partners in the finals and not giving up on us when we broke down on the first match. Unfortunately we never did get it fixed, and you probably would have been better off with another team rather than us falling off the bridge in the second, but that's the way it goes I guess!

The only thing that I found frustrating about the regional was the way the elims inspections were handled. At most events I've been to, after you play your last qualifying match, you go to inspection to get weighed, with bumpers, and you're done. We did that and were turned away and told they weren't allowed to do that until after alliances have been picked. Then I was surprised to find the need to weigh the robot and bumpers separately again, as well as both sets of bumpers, and get sized, and then have an inspector waiting in our pit to check the electrical system again. When all was said and done, we never had a chance to take the three robots to the practice ramp to see if the triple balance was even possible, but more importantly, in our rush to appease the second inspection (bare terminals on the Victor connections, which are buried in our robot), we likely loosened something or jiggled something that led to our problems for the elims. I talked with one of the inspectors about the situation and I understand why the extra inspections were done, but the lack of preemptive inspections created far too many unnecessary headaches.

After the competition we had dinner at Primanti Brothers and said our goodbyes to the Steel City. Despite the long drive, I have a feeling you'll see Team 1675 there again sometime! Congrats to 48 Delphi ELITE for the coveted triple crown of FIRST (CA, Winner, WFA) and to the Girls fo Steel for the EI award - well deserved.