Favorite FIRST Memories

[web_master_dpep]

This can be anything you want, if it was at a competition, during build season, off season, anything FIRST. I'll start it off.
My favorite memory was two years ago at Wayne State when my team Chairman's. Me and another member had worked hard on it every day after build until at least ten. When we won, our coach, me, and the other two presantors huddled together and said our "good jobs" then when our team saw it they looked at us giving us a round of applause. It was the best thing that could happen. We had won safety and the competition that year but Chairman's was all that I wanted.

[Zuelu562]

Last year, my mom (one of our lead non-technical mentors) and my dad (a half-technical mentor) joined the team. At the BAE Granite State Regional I watched as my parents were awestruck by both the scale and the "odd" occurrences at the "competition". Saturday I grabbed my mom and said "Now you see why I love robotics."

We didn't do nearly as well as we had expected in the very beginning, but better than we expected after ship. Either way, last year was fun.

[kwojcik]

Laying down between Galileo and Einstein after we lost in the Galileo finals in 09 just happy that all the stress was gone and knowing my 1000 hours of work during the year was worth it.

[varun1718]

I remember being in the Pit trying to fix programming issues, sipping energy drink and the next thing I know I'm wearing my team's mascot costume and running around like a 5-year old.

[treffk]

At the GKC regional we always have FLL kids come and run a mini-rumble. The greatest thing was last year while I was helping with it, watching the FLL students explain to curious FRC students about what they do. It's normally the other way around.

[klmx30302]

When I was at Battlecry 11 and saw a triple hang in a match.

[J.Warsoff]

Rookie year as a Freshmen, last year, at the Trenton Regional. So I'm at the hotel for the first night, and I go to get ice, which is right across the hall from my room so I wear socks. Being the klutz I sometimes am, I slip on the floor and bang my head on the corner of the wall. I pass out for a minute, and wake up with half of the mentors and coaches surrounding me. I tell them I'm just a little dizzy, and I'm fine, but of course, they call the hospital, and next thing I know, I'm strapped to a stretcher in the back of an ambulance. Then I get wheel-chaired to an MRI, and my uncle who lives nearby picks me up and I stay with him for the night. Woken up by my little cousins, not exactly pleasant. I end up making it to the regional, and I get a big welcome from my team, when I realize I'm still wearing the hospital armband. What a great first regional...XD

[Akash Rastogi]

Senior year my parents surprised me by coming to watch the Trenton regional. They had always known about robotics since my oldest brother started on team 11 in 1999 and usually stopped in during build, but they had never gone to a single event because of scheduling.

They were awestruck and loved every single moment of it. Seeing my parents smile and give 100% approval of my time spent those 4 years was something I didn't expect to be so happy about. They were already supporters of FIRST, but that day they fell in love with engineering too.

[FRC4ME]

My senior year (2009) on my high school team, 339. We had won Delphi DTT for a completely student-designed component at a regional and were quite excited about it. It was, at the time, the FIRST award that meant the most to me, personally.

By the end of Friday at Championships, everyone in the pit had been eager demonstrating the component to the judges. We were quite passionate about it, but ultimately we had to focus on playing the game. Saturday morning, the judges were visiting our pit multiple times. Rumors started going around...why are they so interested? Do you think we could...nah, don't be silly. There are 400+ of the best teams in the world here. They've got flywheels, gyroscopes, and propellers. There's no way our little moving platform could be worthy of international recognition. We've never won a CMP award before.

We didn't make the eliminations, and our head mentor wanted to leave early to make sure we could catch our flight. We begged him to wait until the announcement of awards, as a sort of wishful thinking. He ultimately agreed that we could stay until 6:00 PM, but no later. So we were watching the matches on Einstein interspersed with award presentations. At 5:58 PM (seriously), they get to Delphi DTT. And as the presenter began his speech, he included in his first sentence a clue that left no doubt: we had won.

The twenty seconds of disbelief as the presenter finished his speech, the almost tearful cheering as our representatives accepted the award, and the sixty seconds of hugging among team members that followed, were truly indescribable. Our first international award in ten years of existence, for the design of a component I was directly involved in creating. With such an amazing cap, I cannot look back on my experience as a student in FIRST as anything less than perfect.

[Nick Lawrence]

Probably being on the floor of the Georgia Dome in '08 standing with 1114 when they won their first championship.

So much magic. That's huge when you're a freshman.

-Nick

[MarcD79]

My favorite memory was in '07 in at GTR. The alliances were being chosen for the quarter matches. Here we are the only team from the N/E in Toronto & not known by anybody there. The alliances had been chosen all but the last team. 1114 & 2056 then announced our team, 176! We all jumped for joy & hugged each other happily. Unbeknown to us, our team captain was told prior to the picks, but was sworn to secrecy. Well, we helped our alliance partners kick butt & won the regional!

[Chaoskitty]

I will always remember everyone at the Travers City regional singing happy birthday to me. It was a great way to spend my birthday and my first competition.

[GaryVoshol]

Watching the FLL kids come through the tunnel into the Dome in Atlanta. They get such great looks on their faces.

[Waffles]

Competing at the Boston regional

I remember several great moments there and the epic stair climbing up and down. We won Chairman's and I got Dean's list

There are always so many amazing moments though, I couldn't possibly mention them all!

[Duke461]

Mine was a couple of months ago at C.A.G.E. Match. I believe we were in the semifinals, paired of with 234 and 1555. Two other teammates and I had been rotating positions (driver, operator, human player (trident!)). This round, i was the operator, in charge of possessing soccer balls, shooting, and hanging. A robot on the opposing alliance never had communication for some reason so they basically parked themselves on the hill by the left goal (driver station view). We were in the middle zone, and there was a ball against the left side wall, and it was the only one close, so the driver went over to it, parallel to the side wall. He ran into it, and i ran the roller, we possessed it, and then the driver started turning towards the goals (still driver station view), assuming the next step was go over to the right side wall to score on the empty goal. I however, had a different idea in mind, and when he started to rotate (mecanum wheels), i fired the ball towards the left goal. It took one bounce on the ground, and then slid right through the little gap on the side in between the robot and the wall, then hit the ramp, and then went in. The crowd went crazy, and it was the first time all day the entire crowd stood up and cheered altogether for something (excluding national anthem, etc.). Being a Freshman, this feeling of pride and accomplishment was tripled. I hope i can accomplish a single play of that magnitude again. So far, that's my favorite memory, but i'm sure it will be topped.