Thread: 2008 Wisconsin Regional
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Unread 17-03-2008, 01:37
galesc galesc is offline
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FRC #0171
  
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Platteville, WI
Posts: 3
galesc has a little shameless behaviour in the past
Re: 2008 Wisconsin Regional
Quote:
Originally Posted by XaulZan11 View Post
I'm not a big fan of all the typical congratulations for the winners/thanking alliance partners that everyone does, but 1714 is truely deserving of the chairman's award. While they are not that well known here, they are the real deal. Every time there is some publicity for FIRST, community service or anything related to FIRST happens in the Milwaukee area 1714 is involved and most of the time leading and organizing it.

Not to take anything away from the winners, but it is always difficult to see elimination matchs effected or decided by robots breaking down. In the Semifinals, 1625 was 'shooterless' for a match and a half, and 1730 bent their ball picker upper, making it 'shooterless' too for almost an entire match. I think those two teams were a clearly the best two teams at the regional and it is unfortunate to see them fall short by breaking. Then in the finals 1652 broke down, forcing 1306 (not 2169 as mentioned above). In the final match, 2169 broke down or got stuck on thier first lap.
I do agree with you that 1714 is a great team and deserves recognition for all of there accomplishments.

However, I don't agree with you about finals being decided by robots breaking down. You are taking away from my alliance accomplishing winning the regional, and I will tell you why. You can build an awesome shooting robot, but it doesn't do any good if you don't build it robustly. During the entire competition our robot, need only fine tuning, but no major repairs. Our alliance and pit neighbor 2549 needed little repairs either. It is also not wise to hinge your whole design on the fate of one small component. If you watch the footage from the regional 171's ball collecting belt cam off in the end of the final match, however we were still able to operate with the other belt.

So, although I am bias, I disagree with your assessment of the best teams at the regional. The design process starts with the concept and ends with the longevity of your design. I think the best teams won the regional!

Casey Gales
Mechanical Engineer