What FIRST Is About

[Dan 1038]

I think 1114 showed 3492 what FIRST is all about in Pittsburgh... they saw the potential for the Robogens to play defense, even though the rookie team was ranked low after qualifications, then they helped re-engineer 3492's robot over lunch - it lost around 40 pounds and gained 2 more drive wheels in the process! As we found in the Semis, along with MARs, this worked for their alliance! Also, Simbotics lent us a minibot, which we could deploy on the practice pole but not on the field... BTW, 3492 has raised the funds to get to St Louis, which is awesome!

[lscime]

I was a volunteer at Pittsburgh (robot inspector) this year I would like to thank all of the teams who made the inspections enjoyable. I was particularly moved by those teams who had to modify their robots (sometimes drastically) yet did so without a complaint. These teams asked for help and got it; helping hands were never far away at Pittsburgh. Their robots made it to the field and inspired, and that is what FIRST is all about. I'd also like to make a special shout-out to Phil Malone from 1629 GaCo, I don't know how many times he rushed to fix another team's cRIO or wheel(s)!

Oh, and everybody who filed the points down on their robot gets bonus points!

-Luke

[rachelholladay]

I worked as a volunteer on Archimedes at the championship. Matches hadn't started yet so we were all just standing around. Team 118, Robonauts, came early to the field. Not only did they give every single volunteer one of their buttons but their student drivers spent about 10 minutes talking to some of us that were a bit bored. The answered all kinds of questions and were immensely friendly.

While volunteering I was also blown away by the Pink team's (233) spirit. They always had people dancing, even during the lunch break. No one in their section was sitting and they probably cheered for just about every team. When the volunteers wanted to start the chant of "archimedes", we immediately went to the Pink team, who got the whole field and crowd cheering. Later, I saw they had bubbles but didn't have the courage to go ask for some. My sister, who was in the stands, told them that there was a small volunteer on the field who wanted bubbles. During one of their elimination matches, their head mentor/coach slipped me some bubbles. I still have them.