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Posted by Peter Krumdieck at 03/11/2001 11:35 PM EST


Engineer on team #353, Pobots, from POB Central School District.


In Reply to: Long Island Regionals: Results, "Story"
Posted by Kyle Hill on 03/10/2001 9:26 PM EST:



: Here's a recap from the SBPLI-Long Island Regionals. We call it "The Hail Mary".

: Day 1 was a wash, and due to an extreme lack of luck or teammate ability, we finished 29th out of 33. Day 2 saw VAST improvement, as we scored 255 in the first match of the morning, breaking the record (previously 176). While our single-match record later fell, we somehow made it onto the 3rd seed alliance, and played...

: Here's how it went in the semis.
: Match 1 (Them): 48 points. Nothing goes right.
: Match 2 (Us): 50 points. See above.
: Match 3 (Us): Everything goes right. _400_.
: Match 4 (Them): 408. One extra black ball was put in a goal. Without that ball, they have 399.
: Match 5 (Us): We capped off both goals with big balls. 480 points.
: (At this point, we're celebrating like mad, because we figure that A- they can't score 400 again and B- they sure as hell cant score 481.)
: Match 6 (Them): They only put 6 or 7 black balls in the one goal, fetched both cylinders (one capped with a large ball) and pulled both up onto the ramp, and balanced it within 50 seconds. With a full goal, that easily would have scored them 550+, but the goal was half empty. Yet, as they timed out, one player from the station threw a "hail mary" ball into the goal on the ramp. It goes in. They got 490 points and won the semifinal.

: The alliance then went on to win the championship over the 4th seeded alliance (nothing spectacular scoring-wise, the winning score was a little over 200).

: The moral of the story? Luck means everything.

Kyle:

This was an awesome match. BUt I gotta tell ya. winning the Final felt even better.

The semi that you refer to reminded me of a poker game gone bad. first two guys were betting their stack of chips, then their watches, then their car keys in successive raises. And as with poker it turns out that for this particular match, we had the ace in the hole. (thanks John)

As part of the winning alliance for the first two FIRST Long Island Regionals I just want to say thanks to all who made it happen. Our out of town friends from teams 190 and 250 as well as the local guys from Sachem and Lindenhurst.

I'd also like to thank Team 514 for their support in the past two seasons. I'd also like to thank my company (Underwriters Laboratories - Working for a safer world!) for their support.

Most of all I'd like to thank all of the instructors and students on team 353 POBOTS.

UNDEFEATED LONG ISLAND REGIONAL CHAMPS!

Instead of "engineer Pete" I'm now called re-Pete!

-pete