[Rick TYler]

Originally Posted by ttldomination

417 has a nice design, but a tad bit...tedious. On the other hand, they were one of the few teams which could actually pick up the pucks from the ground.

417 is mostly made up of former FLL "Gothic Lawn Gnomes" students. The Gnomes are a perennial force in FLL. This was their first FTC tournament and I think they are just starting to really "get" the virtues of speed, simplicity and toughness. I wish you could see their 'bot up close -- it's really a cool bit of engineering in a lot of ways. They certainly know how to make use of all those Lego bits and pieces, and I love their puck-slamming lifter device. At the tournament they were also having some drive-train issues, since they had to turn their 6-wheel-drive design into 4WD at the last minute. At the re-do they will have their 6WD system back up.

I also loved the robot built by Madison's kids at FRC 488 (I cannot remember their FTC number -- it's one of those 4-digit ones). It was simple and effective, the trademark of an experienced team. Also, Madison has a dark gift for chassis design and I saw her fingerprints all over it, even if she never touched the robot.

TTL, you probably didn't see it on the video feed, but 575 climbed the ramp on the "B" field. It was reportedly the only ramp-climb of the day.

February will be fun.