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Re: Worst Moments in Team History
I've related this elsewhere, but it probably bears repeating. In 2007, we primarily focused on being a rampbot and GLR was our first regional. For various reasons we didn't get a lot of practice in on Thursday, but we were confident in our ramps, as they worked very well in a few tests at the shop. Sadly, we were using the infamous 1:125 Banebot trannies with FP motors. Predictably, we stripped out the carrier plates and were pretty much useless on Friday. We managed to get the things welded together that night and won all our Saturday morning matches thanks to some fairly impressive lifting. We all crossed our fingers during the draft, and ended up completely overlooked by all the teams thanks to poor Friday.... Except for 1114 and 67, who picked us for the #1 alliance. You're probably wondering where the bad part is, but rest assured, I'm almost there. Our alliance completely trounced #8 in the quarters. Then came the semis. Semi 1, our robot inexplicably twitched about ineffectually and we lost the match, barely. I'm uncertain of the reason to this day, but I suspect we were bit by a "charged" battery that failed to make good contact with the charged. We spent entirely too much time chasing it as a radio problem that we barely had time to swap in a fresh battery and get out for Semi 2. We ended up just strapping our battery in and running without a rear bumper. Unfortunately, our battery strap wasn't particularly up to spec and it was apparently our bumper that was holding our battery in all weekend. So when an opposing robot hit us with a decent block, our battery flew completely out the back of our robot, leaving us dead on the field. 1114 and 67 put up a good fight and we only lost the match by a tube, but it was obviously our shortcoming that lost us the regional.
I'll probably live it down someday in the future when I manage to stop posting about it annually, but I still swear I'll figure out some way to make it up to Karthik. Preferably not with a repeat performance on an opposing alliance, though.
And remember kids: Always strap your batteries!
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The difficult we do today; the impossible we do tomorrow. Miracles by appointment only.
Lone Star Regional Troubleshooter
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