Wow, so many incredible experiences and memories from the 2015 New England District Championship that it's hard to know where to start!
First off, the volunteers that planned, organized, conducted, and cleaned up after the event deserve a huge round of applause and lots of THANKS! There were so many ways that the volunteers went above and beyond for the teams that attended -- the event really catered to the needs of teams to be able to work on their robots, help teams be ready for matches, and have an enjoyable event.
Some specific awesome aspects of the 2015 NECMP:
* Practice space for the robots. I've never attended any event anywhere that provided so many practice opportunities: A full competition field running extra-length matches all day long every day (except during ceremonies), with signups for 4 spots and a filler line for 2 spots, using the competition-programmed D-Link 1522. In addition, there were 4 standard practice spaces with totes, RCs, a partial scoring platform, and a partial step. Plus there were carpeted spaces for 4 more teams to practice driving on open carpet to stack totes and pick up RCs. These practice spaces were awesome for enabling every team to have an opportunity to test fixes to their robot, try out improvements, and give their drive team some extra practice. It would be really easy to get addicted to having these many practice opportunities. Teams are usually limited in what robot improvements they can make at tournaments by not having an adequate way to test them out, but not a problem at WPI's NECMP!
* Awesome volunteers and event workers who are gracious professionals. We've attended many big-venue events where either some event volunteers (not typically, but usually a few) or paid venue staff (generally most of them) are unhelpful, brusque, rude, or on a "power-trip in their fiefdom." However, we encountered ZERO issues with any such matters at the WPI NECMP. Everybody that we encountered sought to help teams with their issues, rather than simply parroting an arbitrary rule for which a special-case exception is the obvious immediate solution. People from which I personally encountered above-and-beyond attitudes included Ken Stafford, Francis O'Rourke, Dana Henry, the FTAs on both the competition field and practice field, the playing field queuers, and the practice field queuer. The gracious professionalism even extended to the janitorial staff! In my mind, the fantastic attitude of volunteers and workers at this event was incredible.
* Making teams welcome, including free "bonuses." There was a team social on Thursday night, which included a free pasta dinner and a movie with popcorn -- this was great for providing something for all team members while the pit crews were working on the robot! Attendees were allowed to bring their own food into the venue -- this greatly helps students on a budget be able to eat properly. The parking was also provided to teams free of charge, including trailers. These bonuses definitely made us feel especially welcome!
Secondly, the teams we competed with were exceptional! Seeing the videos of the four Chairman's Award winners (195, 467, 558, 2877) made it clear that these teams definitely deserved the awards! They will surely all represent New England well in St. Louis.
Third of all, the robots were incredible! We're still stunned that every robot at the event attained a QA over 100 points! With so many great teams at the event, every qualification match was an opportunity to exceed 200 points. (Scores of 200+ were posted in 7 of our 12 qual matches!) There wasn't a single match where we encountered a team that was difficult to work with to collectively develop an alliance strategy to maximize the alliance's score. It's definitely a pleasure to work with the top New England teams!
Even though all were fun to work with, there are a few alliance partners from qualification matches that I really do need to mention specifically:
(1) In our first match on Friday morning (Q38), we were allied with 1100 and 2168. We and 1100 realized on Thursday night that our alliance's score could be increased if we would not run our 3-tote autonomous, but instead have 1100 run their 3-tote auto so that we could use our can-grabber in auto. However, 1100 needed a robot to move the middle RC out of the way, and 2168 did not have such an autonomous program. So, 2168 worked tirelessly during the practice time on Thursday night to develop, test, and refine an auto program to do exactly that. We all signed up for a practice field time on Friday morning to test out the auto program and our alliance strategy. It all worked great on the practice field about a half hour before our match -- in autonomous, 2168 pulled the RC out of the way, 1100 made a 3-tote stack, and we grabbed 2 cans from the step; teleop went well, too. Alas, it didn't go as planned in the actual match, but we greatly appreciate the above-and-beyond effort from 1100 and 2168 to come up with a great match strategy and even practice it beforehand! (This match was a good example of winning a battle but losing the war -- our can grabber won the head-to-head with 237 but ended up sending 237's auto off-course, causing their landfill to be disrupted so that their alliance couldn't get to the step to deliver a yellow co-op tote --- we won the can battle, but ended up losing 40 co-op points as a result! Live and learn...)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hh1Hw6EGYoA
(2) In our last match on Friday (Q98), we were allied with 213 and 176. The typical observer wouldn't have thought this match would have much scoring potential, as 213 was seeded 39th and 176 was seeded 57th. However, the alliance came up with a great strategy to work together for the match -- rather than having us each do our own thing, 213 would make 4-stacks from the HP station, 176 would cap 213's stacks with noodled RCs from the step, and we would run our 3-tote auto, co-op with the other alliance, and make/cap our normal pair of landfill stacks with RCs from the staging zone. Due to careful and courteous driving, the alliance ended up posting the highest score of the tournament so far -- 229 points!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OyGxm1oHao or
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKPNdupMYVE
(3) In our first match on Saturday (Q110), our alliance with 172 and 175 was another one where teamwork and working together made for a stellar score (227). In particular, communication with 175 and some excellent driving between stacks on their part enabled our last-second placement of an RC on a 5-stack!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfIrwPdVM3o&t=156 or
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmLbv0AfFO4&t=150
For eliminations, we were very excited about our alliance with 195 and 2067 -- two teams we've never previously been allied with in the playoffs. With 195's incredible teleop scoring consistency for capped 6-stacks, 2067's can grabbers combined w/quick RC-topped stacks, and our robot's capabilities, we saw the potential to record consistently high scores. Together, we mapped out the alliance strategy and thought we had a good plan.
In our first quarterfinal match, we decided to run our 3-tote auto rather than our can-grabbers, thinking we would want a dependably consistent score for the dangerous quarterfinals -- one bad QF match can sink any alliance in a tournament as stacked as NECMP! We were worried when all 4 RCs were immediately burgled by the 88-125-246 alliance, but knew we could still put up a lot of points with only 3 cans. Not until the match ended, however, did we think it would be over 200 points! (202 in QF4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ig7G10awvw or
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hJ5gyNWzLo and 214 in QF8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MfQ5XkD1uw or
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YnyRPSLJ14) This match ended up being a revelation for our alliance - we could play a conservative approach of not worrying about the cans on the step and still outscore the 4-can grabber alliances without having to give up our 20-point autonomous. (Running 1519's can-grabber would give us the potential for 2 more RCs on 5-stacks (40 more points), but would mean giving up 20 points in autonomous.) Given that consistency is the name of the game for surviving QFs and SFs to get to the finals, we opted to stick with the safer 20-point auto than the can-grab battle where almost anything can happen. If we needed the 1519 can-grabber to get enough points to proceed, we'd switch approaches, but not until then.
Particularly notable events from the elimination rounds were the robot-righting pairings of 558 by 2877 in QF2 (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-IgM9Dp7-A) and 1100 by 175 in Finals 2 (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trGySuPpBOs or
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCNmGJqVHbE) -- these were some great displays of teamwork and quick thinking.
The finalist alliance of 175, 1100, and 236 was a very consistent partnership -- they posted the 2nd-highest average scores in both the quarterfinals and semifinals, demonstrating that their finalist finish from the #4-seed wasn't a lucky fluke.
We owe a huge THANKS to 195 and 2067 -- they were both excellent alliance partners in every way -- as people to work with in addition to their great robots! 195's consistent trio of 6-stacks w/noodled-RCs gave the alliance a consistent foundation. 2067 grabbed as many cans as they could, built a consistent 5-stack from the landfill, and then did their best at the HP station, even though that was outside of their comfort zone from quals. We would build the other landfill stacks and opportunitistically deal with whatever was left. One match, we even grabbed a yellow tote to bulldoze litter! SF4 -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_sLqEEUK3o&t=128 or
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYoBJzQbfe8&t=135
Lastly, there are two other "class acts" that I just need to mention:
(1) As our 1519, 195, 2067 alliance returned to the pits after the elimination rounds, the other teams in the pits applauded at length as we made our way through the aisles -- this is a level of graciousness that is unheard of in any traditional sports. I'm still quite touched by this.
(2) When we returned to our pit area after the awards ceremony to pack up, we found a congratulatory bottle of sparkling cider on our pit table -- a gift from NRG 4055 -- definitely a real "class act."
Thanks again to all who made the event possible and competed at the 2015 NECMP!