[Basel A]

Well, if we're telling stories, I might as well join in! Be prepared for a wall of text, but I swear it's a good story.

Our hours and hours of brainstorming at Kettering, the day of kickoff, was a great success. We made our most major design decisions there, and our robot was designed off of those ideas. Most things were a bit down from there. What sort of ball control? How will we hang? Will we suspend? Too much weight? What type of kicker (mini das boot?)? Many of the problems were only solved near the end of build season, which we ended with about 1.5 robots, most of a main robot and about half of a practice bot.

At Kettering District, it showed. Our ball control wasn't great, the hanger needed some serious work. Despite that, we played many good, hard matches. Our great drivers kept us in it, playing strong defense. When we finally hung on Saturday, I think almost everyone was cheering in the stands, it was a great moment. We nearly got the first suspension, in week one. Given about 5 more seconds, team 1322 and we would have been front page news in FIRST, a week 1 suspension; however, it was not to be. I must say we were a bit lucky to be selected for the eliminations. We played good matches with good partners (thanks Teams 1 and 1243!) against good opposition, and fell to the #1 alliance in the semifinals. I consider this event a great success. Our hanger worked, our kicker was good, if the ball control needed work. We also showed that defense could be a game-changer.

Ann Arbor was different. We went in knowing we should succeed, and there was pressure on us. We played plenty of very good matches, finally scoring some good goals from the midfield, consistently hanging. For the second straight event, we nearly got the first suspension in the nation, as team 1684 just barely missed our suspension bar. Again, unfortunate. Ranked fourth, we were selected by #3 team, as the #2 alliance (thanks 573 and 66!). There were some truly great moments in those elimination matches. Finals, match 3 could have gone either way. In the end, it was 573's clincher scoring, and our hanging that won the match. Team 2337's first blue banner! It was great. We had high hopes going into MSC.

The Michigan State Championship.. Said to be more competitive than a division at the Championship (well.. probably not).. We knew it would be a challenge, playing against some of the greatest teams in the world. We certainly played well when we had power. Despite losing comms for two matches, we played a very solid match against one of the only few other midfield specialists, team 469. We had a breakthrough here, our robot was hot, scoring balls, hanging almost every match, winning despite difficult matches and better alliances. We also debuted our ball deflector here, and it was as successful as we thought it would be.

Then, qualifications match 80. Getting pushed around, 20 seconds on the clock. With 18 left, we hit the bar, a huge clang. As one person in the pits said, "I was checking my FRC Spyder app for rankings when I hear a "whack!" Which, of course I just think 'oh, Enginerds are up.'" But there was more, as we moved above the platform, team 2959 moved forward, their hooks sprang to our bar, hooked on, and they pulled themselves up. The pits emptied as the stadium exploded. Michigan's first suspension. All our work to make it possible had finally paid off. And better yet, we won the match because it worked.

It was a great match, when we had a breakthrough in match 88. As balls were quickly cleared into the near zone, we saw our alliance scoring heavily, and decided to try exactly what the ball deflector was made for. halfway through the match, we hung and deflected balls into the near zone. Despite playing against defense, the partnership between us and team 910 was solid, and we scored 19 points in that match.

This led us into alliance selections, ranked 11th, hoping to be picked. As 8th alliance captain, we selected two teams that would be good partners. 2619, rivals from year 1 and the alliance captain we defeated in the finals at Ann Arbor, were our first pick. Then, 226, the Hammerheads, a quick, agile, scoring bot. We had our expectations in the quarterfinals, despite going up against the #1 alliance, led by 1918 and the dreaded 469. First match was so close, as we starved the red alliance of balls, but we finally fell 11-14, when a suspension that could have tied the game failed. Then, we got smoked in our next match, and our MSC was over.

And now we're here. Our ball control is fixed up. our hanger has been perfected. our suspension bar is itching to be used. Our ball deflector a veteran of the hardest official event outside of Atlanta. Our drivers, experienced against some of the greatest teams. Who knows where we may end up. As my sig says, Big Hopes.

Big wall of text is OVER.