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Originally Posted by Andy Baker
I really, really DON'T want to see that video. It has been on an endless loop in my mind for the past 2 days.  I can't wait until I replace that memory with better ones in Chicago.
Andy B. |
Andy,
Don't feel so bad: I have a LOT of those endless loops playing in my mind, such as...
#1: In 1999 at Nationals, our team was ranked 9th going into our final match of the seeding rounds. Our partner was team 1. Our two opponent robots didn't move the entire match, leaving the field free for us to get a perfect score. Had we only scored 320 points (out of a possible 540), we would have been the number 1 seed at Nationals. However, our pit crew replaced the left-rear motor and had assured us that the pre-match checklist was completed and the robot was working. Guess what: it was wired backwards! Our robot just sat there and could 0nly spin around in a circle. Instead of being the #1 seed, we wound up 19th (the top 16 got to pick) and no one picked us - we sat out and watched the elimination rounds. This was perhaps my saddest day in all of FIRST.
#2: At the 2000 Nationals, we were ranked around 20th with a couple of matches to go. We were up against 126 (Gael Force), who had a great robot. Some judges were at our pits looking over our robot just before our match, so we were forced to rush to our match, and set the robot on the field without doing the pre-match checklist. The match started and guess what again: our robot didn't move! The guys in the pits unplugged all of our drive motors so the judges wouldn't get hurt. Upon seeing this, our drivers tried to use our arm to crawl to the bar. Time ran out when we were about 6 feet short of the ramp. We lost the match by 8 points. Had we hung, we would have won (hanging was worth 10 pts.). We ended up seeding 21st. Had we won this match we would've seeding around 12th. Once again, we didn't get picked and we had to watch the elimination matches wondering what could have been. On the good side, we did end up winning the Leadership in Control award at nationals, so I guess the tradeoff wasn't too bad.
There are a couple more, but I can't bring myself to go on.