2001 - UTC New England Regional - Finals. It was the first match - (126,177,69,501,175) - We were to go under the bar, grab a big ball, and wait for Gael Force to balance the goals with 69's help. We all did our proper jobs until about 1:10 was left in the match, we knew that we wented to be in the endzone and clocked out by 1:01. We stopped our efforts for putting hte big ball on top of the balanced goal, and booked for the endzone. As we were doing this, my coach said to me, "Drop the ball" - i replied, "no, we might need it later"
As we entered the endzone the bot jerked as we killed the power causing it to lean forward on its front wheels. There was nothing i could do, the power was off. The bot stayed tilted on its front two wheels for what seemed like an eternity, only to fall out of bound. My first thought was that we were screwed, until i realized the robot was not touching the ground, the robot had balanced on the ball which was still firmly grasped in our claw.
The referees could not decide what to do, they did not know whether the bot was counted as "in the endzone" or disqualified for touching outside teh field. they then consulted Dean and Woodie... it puzzled them too. It took them at least 5 minutes to come to a decision... i attached a picture of the robot in fall, and a picture of dean and woodie being completely baffled about what to do.
Tom
The Bobcat Falling...
How We Landed...
Dean and Woodie Confused...