Now that the first season of Mid-Atlantic Robotics is in the books I can come out and say it - from Week 1 at Hatboro-Horsham through Week 7 at the Region Championship, my expectations have been consistently surpassed. These events have run EXTREMELY smoothly, and you can already see what the extra competition and unbagging time has done for the level of competition in our region!
There are many thanks and congratulations to give out:
Thanks to 25 and 1640 for being amazing alliance partners! What is scary is that we were putting up 100+ consistently with PLENTY of room for improvement.
25 - Your driver and drive team are the definition of clutch, and your locking drive train was a huge part of why our triple balances were so quick and painless. You were a pleasure to work with in the booth - let's do it again some time soon
1640 - We were ecstatic that you were still available! Yes, there were higher scoring teams still on the board, but no one else could come close to your versatility (blocking the inbounder slot, crossing the barrier effortlessly, feeding balls, contributing a couple shots, and your swerve drive helped to ensure easy triples!)
Our finals opponents 1218, 2180, and 2016 gave us huge scares in both Finals rounds!
1218 - You are my favorite team in FRC. You were able to overcome some setbacks during qualifications and selections to assemble quite an impressive display of firepower! Nobody was cheering harder than I when it was announced that you had qualified for Championships. Can't wait to see and talk to you there!
2180 - Great, great robot! It is always a hard fought match when we line up across from you.
2016 - Similar to 1218, I was ecstatic when you guys qualified for the big show. Congratulations!
365 - We have now played 70 rounds of Rebound Rumble, and only saw you ONCE on the field! I don't know why the scheduling gods have conspired to keep us apart this year, but hopefully in St. Louis and the offseason we will actually get to play on the same side for once!
3929 - Congratulations on RAS! I cannot believe you guys are rookies. See you in St. Louis!
75 and 433 - Congrats on Chairman's! Those videos were impressive.
3142 - Congrats on EI! A huge accomplishment for a relatively young team in our ancient region!
Don Rotolo - Count me among those who thought, "what, he hasn't already won WFFA?" It was great to finally meet you in person and I look forward to getting to know you better over the coming years
........
Miss Daisy is battered, bruised, and scarred from 70 hard-fought qualification and elimination matches, but she is ready and raring to go for the World Championship in St. Louis. We will do our best to represent the Mid-Atlantic Region and try to bring home some more hardware! Thank you to ALL of our competitors and partners during this Regional/District season: Each of you has helped us to learn how to use our machine more effectively, and has provided inspiration to drive our continuous improvement process.
The Miss Daisy robot that we put on the field is truly a reflection on all of you.