[JamesJones]

I used to think that the finals at FIRST were reserved for the powerhouse teams like Beatty, Wildstang and others that everybody knows are always in the thick of the competition with some awesome robots designed and built from a clean sheet of paper to play that year's competition and do almost everything the game demands (woa what a runon!). I now realize almost everybody has a shot at it.

I don't know if you noticed but basically our robot had 1 function (not counting the ramp we only used once). We grabbed one goal. That's it. We had a drivetrain and a grabber. No 2nd grabber, not ball handler, no extension device, no crabbing drives. We also had a lot of good parners, some superb drivers and a lot of luck. With those essential ingredients we played a regional and National competition and only lost one elimination round (I think you know the one).

I just wanted to encourage all the teams that look at a powerhouse team and think "boy, we could never put together a robot like THAT!" You don't have to. Focus on building the best robot you can with the resources you have. Don't stop improving it until right before the last match of the season. Don't be afraid to give up on something that's not working and rethink your goals.

Good luck next year.

James
Engineer/Coach
Team 180 SPAM