[Travis Hoffman]

Originally Posted by trilogy2826

It was fantastic to make new friends with 48 and 269. We could not have asked for a better alliance from teamwork and compatibility to skill and robot reliability.

QFT. I found myself uttering "this is awesome" on the video I shot of SF2-3 (link below). Never before have we been a part of an alliance that clicked so efficiently. The fact that the fewest points we scored in an elimination round match was 52 is a testament to that teamwork.

It was a pretty rough road for Wave during quals. Due to an unanticipated software interaction with FMS overhead during 3 of our matches that left us driving and acting in a completely uncontrolled state, we were almost resigned to call this a failed event. Thanks to an unrelenting and impressive fix by our software team, Ashwin, Kellie and Marcus, we were able to get back in the game. A special thanks to Nick from 93 and Chris from 269 for providing support and insight into our issues.

Kudos to battling through qualifying - your robot was still most impressive despite any software issues. And your eliminations performance was nothing short of astounding. With 269 providing excellent support to you in the almost-victory in the 3 vs. 2 match in SF2-2 while we were finishing replacing our drive chain, 2826's effort in that match was perhaps the single greatest example of offensive execution under the gun I've ever witnessed. Truly clutch. I only wish I had recorded it to share it with the world - if you have video of that match, I encourage you to share it online!

Regardless, we regrouped in SF2-3 (finished the repair 30 seconds after the 3 vs. 2 decision was made), and this resulted - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyEa-Sb74Gs

Congratulations to a seriously-awesome #1 seed finalist alliance of 2481, 2169, 167, and 4174 (original 2nd pick) - your scoring prowess was extremely impressive!

Immediately after alliance pick, we knew as a 2 long and one wide alliance, we had a tough path ahead of us, dreading the triple balance ease of some of our competition in practice over lunch. We stuck to our plan of 2 score, one feed, double balance at 20 seconds throughout elims.

Heck - I was surprised at the lack of DOUBLE balancing attempts by some opponents, let alone triple balance efforts. But some of these teams were so adept at scoring, I'm guessing they thought they could overcome the extra 10 balance points by racking up the 3's.

Once we arrived at finals against 2481, 2169 and 167, we knew we had an extreme challenge ahead. 2169 and 2481 were nothing but flawless in their execution in hybrid and their speed in delivering three consecutive 3 pointers was frightening throughout quals, quarters and semis.

Thank you to 2481, 2169 and 167 for providing the most exciting gameplay I have ever been a part of.

I thought the quarters and semis were no slouch matchups, either! My congrats again to the finalist alliance - the 98-77, no-penalty match #1 was likely one of the greatest combined elimination round performances at any event so far this season.

Here is video of Finals Match 1, although it is blue alliance-centric: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSChOG_CB6Y

And here is the link to vid of no-slouch Finals Match 2 - another 98 point score (3 penalty points): http://youtu.be/nv1EgRuSDXA

I was amazed at how close the successful strategies for this year were to 2011. Perfect auto from the alliance, 2 score like crazy, a smart and effective human player that can feed balls across the field efficiently and a 3rd bot that can cross the field and deliver/starve game pieces, followed by a quick end game. I know this can generally apply to most past frc games, but is particularly uncanny when compared with 2011.

Word. A formula for an enjoyable and successful game - 2011/12 have been two of my favorites!

269 was simply awesome as a third bot who could hit a ball in auton, tend bridges, double balance with 48, and most importantly, steal and lob countless ammo bombs for 48 and 2826 to score - you brought the rain, and we were happy to wash ourselves in it!

To complete my excited rambling, a big thank you to 48 and 269 and all my fellow team on FIRST 2826, Wave Robotics! I could not be more proud.

I would also like to provide other thanks/congrats/comments from the Wisconsin Regional:

The whole experience was absolute maximum excitement throughout - congrats to the ENTIRE Wisconsin Regional field of teams for putting on an outstanding show for the crowd - you showed spectators what FIRST can and should be all about!

We knew coming in that Wisconsin would be a far more competitive challenge for us than Pittsburgh. The teams there did not disappoint - Wisconsin and surrounding states should be VERY proud for building such a vibrant FIRST community in your region!

We were off our teleop game through much of the qualifying (our polycord belts in the feed conveyor had stretched and required trimming and re-welding to return additional shot consistency), but thanks to a reliable hybrid mode and the pneumatic bridge tender we developed and installed after Pittsburgh (mad props to Luke Scime and our Pittsburgh alliance partners MARS 2614 for inspiring the design and sharing CAD info), we were able to make up for any deficiencies. The 18 bridge CP we earned in balancing 9 of 11 co-op bridges were critical to securing the #2 seed.

This put us in a position to select 2826, Wave Robotics. Dudes - when we signed up for Wisconsin, you were one of the select teams I wanted to work with while there. Your CD teaser pics only added to that anticipation. I was ecstatic to have this opportunity to work alongside such a class program. Your robot and people were everything we expected and then some. We'll see you in St. Louis - I expect great things out of you there!

269 - yet again, we were blessed to have an AWESOME second pick waiting for us at the back end of the draft. You did everything we asked of you with excellence and skill, and your people are first-class all the way. Enjoy the victory - you deserve it! We're proud to help make your Lieutenant Governor happy!

To our drive team and pit crew - you dug very, very deep to operate at near flawless execution levels during the semis and the finals. You found the switch and flipped it...now just keep it flipped for IRI (hopefully)...and oh yeah, Queen City and the Championship.

Side note - Tyler and Sammy, our robot operators, aim and fire shots with no camera assistance. I think it is worth mentioning the time they put in to practicing to become skilled at gathering and scoring without any software or sensor aiming assistance. We even removed the camera and the live dashboard feed in Wisconsin because they said they do not use it - we might redeploy it rearward to assist with locating balls on the field during collecting. Keep up the great work!

Some additional recognition:

Thank you to the event staff and volunteers for being courteous, friendly, and professional throughout the competition.

Congratulations to all award winners but especially to 537 on their Chairman's win. I believe there were TWENTY-FOUR Chairman's Award submissions at Wisconsin? That is amazing and impressive - again, a testament to the healthy Wisconsin FIRST community - congrats to Charger Robotics for coming out on top! See you in Cincinnati!

Thanks to Mexican rookie Team 4371, ART: Advanced Robotics Team & UNIVERSIDAD TECMILENIO, for providing so much spirit and flair to the event - thank you especially for coming over and cheering alongside us during the elims. Congratulations on winning the Rookie Inspiration Award at the competition - you definitely deserve this recognition!

Thank you to the judges for recognizing us with the Motorola Quality Award - that is one of the select technical awards we really get revved up about as it validates the credibility of our engineering project solution and all the hard work and decisions we made in making the robot a reality.

It was great seeing our good friends 1732 on their home turf. Class people and program and a unique, solid robot design.

Finally, something a bit out of the ordinary. Thank you to Price Engineering (www.priceeng.com) for going out of your way to set up and process a critical overnight Bimba cylinder order on Thursday afternoon. The sales rep even called me in the evening from her home to provide a status report on the order tracking. The items delivered to our hotel before we even left on Friday were critical to our success this weekend (hurray to staying at a hotel near the airport). Wisconsin teams - buy stuff from this fine company!

I would gladly return to the Wisconsin Regional in future years, especially if they don't hold it the same weekend as Midwest (and vice versa).