[Andy Baker]

Wow, what a regional at St. Louis! Here are some random notes...

Thank you to teams 1444 for choosing us as a partner and 829 for completing a great alliance. It was an honor and pleasure to work with both of your drive teams and impressive to see you handle your well-built and durable robots. It was an honor to get to know the 1444 team from St. Louis, work with their knowledgeable drive team, and see how their students designed their own shifter gearboxes.

I am very proud to be a TechnoKat. This was definitely a TEAM accomplishment, to be a part of the St. Louis regional winning alliance. Our scouting team, pit crew, drive team support crew, and drive team all pulled their weight to help make this effort a winning one. Also, winning the Motorola Quality Award for only the 2nd time in TechnoKats history is quite an accomplishment. Way to go all of you! I was reminded just how special our drive team and pit crew is when all I was doing in the finals was fetching tools.

The quality of teams and the people in the St. Louis region is outstanding. I am not sure I've been to a regional that had more volunteers running it. There was an abundance of judges, inspectors, que-ers, and people all around to help make this competition enjoyable. Our team parents (and grandparents) who volunteered agreed that this was one of the best regionals they have attended. Kudos to the St. Louis Regional planning committee. I would recommend this regional to any team wishing to attend.

As for qualification matches, it was not fun going against 148 5 out of the 9 matches we were in. However, it was good practice for our drivers to play against the heavy defense that JVN would send after us in the form of 148's alliance partners. I was happy to see that our drivers scored at least 2 or more tubes in each match under this pressure.

Ramps are important, but time will tell if 2 tube scorers and a defender can beat 2 tube scorers and a ramp. The final round went to the 2 scorers and the ramp (1444, 45, and 829), but it was close. If 148 would have scored one last ringer in the first match, the would have one that match. That was the same match that 217 was hung up on the rack ... however, at the same time, 1444 was tipped over and inoperable for most of the match. Our strategy was to scatter the rack with tubes, play defense on their tube scorers, breaking up the opportunity for large rows, and get both robots on the ramp at the end. Thankfully, it worked.

It is especially great to see team 829 finally find success on the FIRST playing field. These guys from Warren Central HS and Walker Career Center in Indianapolis have a great team and work hard to make a well-designed robot each year. This year, their ramp-bot is a definite winner. Here's to lead teacher Randy Decker and the rest of the Digital Goats for a great win.

This game is fun... the end game makes it great. Ramps are the key to the excitement.

It's gonna be a good year for FIRST.

Andy B.