[Nemo]

Some thoughts. It'll be a long post.

Thanks to 2056 and 3990 for being great partners. Getting picked by 2056 in the first round was like winning the lottery - I did not see that coming.

Congratulations to 1678, 148, and 862 on winning the division and making it to Einstein - you guys deserved it.

Playing in the elimination rounds was really, really exciting. The quarters were all nail biters. Small things made a big difference. That alliance was extremely tough, and kudos to the alliance captain 1310 for putting themselves on my map as a pretty amazing team (I was ignorant of them previously, but I'm sure they're quite well known to everybody who's seen them in action before).

Here is my take on the semifinals. It was pretty obviously necessary for us to play defense on 148, because otherwise they score 100+ points on us. Even if we defend them, we end up letting points through and relying on allies to make up the difference. But defending 148 is pretty tough, because the defender is constantly riding a thin line between committing penalties versus allowing a bunch of points while not scoring any. It's a really tough job for a driver, and one has to react very quickly. Having watched our driver all year at three events, I can say that he has done a phenomenal job. Often enough I've watched other robots and wondered what the driver's plan was or if they have one. Our driver makes really fast decisions and has the skills to execute, and he can switch tactics very quickly as things develop. There have been some pretty impressive moments. Anyway, the defense on 148 was a really tough challenge, and he actually got the better of them in Match 1 (although they still scored a number of discs). He came pretty close to committing a foul at the end of that match, but he pulled off a clean late bump when they weren't yet touching the pyramid, costing them a bit more time. The difference between winning and losing was razor thing. In Match 2, 148 got around us early enough to get off the 40 point climb, and that was decisive. I can imagine that in Match 3 he didn't want to let that happen again. From the stands, we were really tense watching those last 40 seconds of the match after 148 loaded their red discs, knowing that it might be the difference. When the time clicked down to about 20 seconds and they hadn't started climbing, I starting to get pretty excited since it appeared we had it won. Then a few seconds later we saw that hit, and we were pretty sure we had just lost the match. Basically it was a driving error that cost us in the end, and I don't think that's any sort of insult to our driver, who was amazing all season long. Had we won, he would have had to try to walk the same tightrope with 67, and who knows what would have happened. It would have been fun to see. As for the foul call, I was not at all surprised by the 50 point call. I think it could have gone either way, but I don't fault the ref at all, and we put ourselves at the mercy of that call by putting on that late hit.

Getting picked by 2056 in a division that had been splintered by declines was a better situation than I could have imagined had I tried to dream up a best case scenario. Sometimes getting to Einstein seems like an impossible dream. Losing this chance on a penalty carried a pretty big sting, so it will take a little while for that to wear off. When it does, we will definitely look back on this season and know that it was our best yet. I wish we could have helped 2056 get their first win, especially after events last year that shall not be spoken of.

This season has been pretty grueling. We had a rough build season, focusing a TON of resources and energy on our 30 point climber. That includes all of our time right up to the KC regional. After a REALLY grueling KC event where we constantly reinvented the robot, we decided to abandon the climber. We were a pure cycler by the end of KC, installing the 10 pt climber for Minnesota. After catching a few breaks and winning in MN, we knew we needed more than a shooter and a 10 point hang to have a real shot at the Championship. So we upgraded to 2 speed drive and put the extending blocker on. It was quite a journey. Champs qualifiers were pretty amazing - most matches were quite close with lots of good allies and opponents. Even if we hadn't been picked, I would have been fairly satisfied with the event. All things considered, advancing to the semis for the first time and being on a great alliance was a really great prize for us. It makes us want to come back for more.

Now it's time to focus on some of the other burning issues, like how to get more funding, how to be more organized, how to recruit more girls, how to find more space, how to get more mentors, how to be more visible, and....