Quote:
Originally Posted by ctt956
Any webcast?
Good luck to all of the teams!
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Webcast? Eh heh...
It turns out that our host facility had added extra security to their wifi over the summer. That security attempts to DDoS everything that isn't their own network...and guess what isn't their own network? The field. We spent the first hour of the qualification schedule essentially tearing down the entire school network to kill power to all the access points. The net result was a functioning field, but no hope of a webcast. Thankfully, once we got past the delays we were able to hold cycle times pretty well and play the full schedule for 8 matches per team.
(Side note: This network discovery also made 2815 realize what was going on with their robot in testing...they thought it was their own hardware at fault!)
From the last time I posted the lineup, we did have one change for posterity: 4083 dropped out with their school closed all week from Hurricane Matthew, while 4533 fielded a second robot at the last minute.
Between the schedule and the game just beating the snot out of these machines, we elected to do four four-team alliances. Here was the draft order, no declines:
1) 281/4451/2640/4901
2) 3490/343/1398/2815
3) 283/6366/1553/5180
4) 3489/2059/4533/1758
Semifinals:
1 d. 4 in two matches
2 d. 3 in two matches
Finals:
2 d. 1 in two matches
So congratulations to our SCRIW VI champions,
3490 Viper Drive, 343 Metal In Motion, 1398 Keenan Robo-Raiders, and 2815 Blue Devil Mechanics! Both matches were decided by 10 or less, and they were a thrill to watch.
The SCRIWDriver Award was presented to
John Lindower, who has been running SCRIW's food operations for the past five years and is retiring from the crew. His son is an alumnus of 1293, the Pandamaniacs, and he was literally the first person we pulled in to make this event happen. I don't think it would be as successful or as sustainable without his efforts, and I wish him the best in whatever he decides to do next with his free time.
Thank you to the four participants in the SCRIW Mentor Match:
3490, 281, 1758, and 2059. The funds raised towards hurricane relief efforts are much appreciated. If we can quit having natural disasters the week before SCRIW, that would be even more appreciated!
Thank you to our workshop presenters,
Richard Coutant from 2059 and John Fogarty from 4901. We really think these workshops are important for teams, since SCRIW is one of the precious few opportunities in South Carolina to get teams together.
Thank you to
FIRST North Carolina for renting us the field, which was much more cost-effective compared to trucking one from Indiana. Speaking of Indiana, I have to thank the powers that be at
AndyMark for agreeing to fly down Daniel Bravo for our FTA and myself as announcer and whatever other hats I might wear in the moment. Yes, SCRIW pays for the FTA--but I don't think I'm spilling trade secrets to say they aren't making gobs of money flying two people 600 miles away on company time and paying for a rental car/gas/food/etc. They really do this because they believe in these events.
I'm going to double-thank
Daniel Bravo here. Once again, we managed to finagle veteran head referee
Terrell Burch to head ref SCRIW. However, at the last minute he needed to visit his doctor around lunch...and then he needed to get a referral for something, which (fortunately for us, unfortunately for him) couldn't come the same day. So for several qualification matches, Bravo was being our FTA, our CSA,
and our head referee. Which is absolutely ridiculous. Both of these guys went way above and beyond here, and we're lucky as hell to have them.
And finally,
thank you, teams! If teams didn't think this was an important thing, it would not have lasted six years. The teams I saw on Saturday all got it, and I see them all working to make FIRST better in the Carolinas. We are all stronger when we get together and work to expand access and opportunities to participate in this state, and I hope we can keep this momentum growing.
I look forward to seeing you all at SCRIW VII!