Quote:
Originally Posted by Corey Balint
If you aren't watching this...smack yourself. The first seeded alliance, put up a row of 8 in under a minute. WOW.  |
Oy, don't remind me!
It's true: the field saw 1618 and 1251 square off on back-to-back matches--first in Q75, then in QF1-1. The result? The 1251 alliances outscored the 1618 alliances to the tune of
404-0. (And yes, I stand by
the comments I made in the BAE thread a few weeks ago. Of all the people who could've blown us out, I'm glad 1251 was involved.)
I'll go ahead and get all the thanks and congrats out...
First and foremost, thank you to
801 and 1102 for joining us in our brief run in the quarterfinals. I was just hopeful that we'd make it to the elimination rounds alone, but to be picking was just mind-blowing...mind-blowing to the point that the pick list I gave our student was completely flying by the seat of my pants. All three of us gave it all we could muster--I wish we could've kept running enough to try our strategy in QF1-2 for real, but it is what it is. Thanks for a great run.
And of course, congratulations to
1102 again for bringing home Chairman's.
Thanks to all of our partners in qualifying--that'd be
1102, 343, 1251, 538, 537, 1390, 337, 900, 665, 1293, 34, and 1249, if you were wondering--for a great series of matches. Ten rounds was hard on everybody, but we worked great together. We had a few mechanical issues here and there (particularly in the match with 1251 and 665, which kept us from taking the field with 343 and 1293)--I hope we didn't let you down too hard. I'd work with any of you again.
My
apologies to
all of the teams we had to defend against, especially if we did anything bad to your robots. (I tried to catch up with all of the folks we seemed to target harder than others, but some almost surely slipped through the cracks.) I wanted the arm to come out as well as it was back in the shop before ship day, but in the end defense was all we could bring to the table.
Thanks to
Tom, the IFI guy and
Ed Sparks on 34 for all their help with getting our controller and radio back up to snuff.
Huge thanks to
all the teams who helped us out with parts and ideas--587, 343, 665, 1293, and 1959 all come to mind, but I know that's not the full list.
Big ups to
342 for their first-ever regional championship. I didn't believe it when Mike Byran told me, but it's true--this is the first time 342's run the whole bracket, and the first time they've been in the finals since 2001. (Going back to shortly after Palmetto last year, Mike Bryan has been talking about keeping it simple in this year's design. Looks like that focus is paying off big time.)
I do have to give thanks to
everyone who didn't ride me too hard about our arm bopping me in the chin Thursday. It hurt, I'm okay, it was a better example than if anyone else had done it. (The controls got knocked, and I was caught off-guard. The end hit squarely in the chin, but didn't cause any damage beyond a little mark. Though eating that thick roast beef sandwich right afterward wasn't particularly fun...)
And finally, thanks to
all the students, mentors, parents, friends, and random well-wishers from Columbia High School. This was my first season away from "home", as it were, and I wasn't fully sure what to expect with 1618. We fought just about everything, it seems--manpower shortages, funds, the Postal Services department of the University of South Carolina, you name it--but we stuck it out until the bitter end. I wouldn't trade the past seven months for anything.
So, uh, how long until Palmetto 2008?