2011 Peachtree Regional

[Andrew Y.]

Originally Posted by davidalln

Do not underestimate 2815's contribution to our alliance. Without them funneling us tubes so well, we never would have been able to hang enough for those 100+ point matches. Thanks to their great drivers and Billfred being an absolutely fantastic coach and person to hang around.

(and of course, thank you 1771 for helping us score score score!)

It was a fantastic regional, topped off by our very own captain Rick Shanor winning Dean's List. Very well run and a great experience as my final Peachtree Regional.

lets be honest here guys.... it was all about the billfred effect....

THANK YOU 1771 and 2815 for being AWESOME! We almost filled the rack...!!!

[nighterfighter]

It was a great regional. We were EXTREMELY nervous when our minibot broke right before the first match of the Finals against Peachtree Ridge.

Luckily 2815 played some EXTREMELY good defense, absolutely stunning.
Of course 2415 and our autonomous both scoring an ubertube really helped the scores.

I'm glad that we won to such an awesome opposing alliance. 1261, 1648, and 3149 absolutely rocked.

1648- Those pneumatic tires, oh my. Absolutely amazing stopping power.

To all teams- It was a great regional, hope to see y'all next year!

[Vikesrock]

As a recent transplant here to Georgia, this was my first Peachtree Regional. I have to say, y'all run a pretty great event (did I use that right? ). A huge thank you to all the volunteers who kept the weekend running smoothly. We got a little behind on Friday night, but we made up the time on Saturday morning and had alliance selections pretty darn close to on time. Thanks especially to Head Inspector and 3573 mentor Bob Tate, Head Ref Jan Spurlin and the FTA whose name I embarrassingly didn't catch.

3573 wants to send out a HUGE thank you to team 122 for sharing your minibot and putting in a ton of work trying to help us get it up the pole. We wish we could have gotten it up there for you more than the one time.

We also want to thank our alliance partners 2420 and 122(again!) for a great run in the eliminations. It was great to work with both of you guys!

Congratulations to the winners 2415, 1771, and 2815. I'm hoping we gave you at least a tiny scare in that first semifinal match when we had the lead for a bit . 3 great robots, you guys certainly deserved it.

Congrats as well to Chairman's winner 122, Rookie All-Star winner 3694, WFFA recipient Joanne Talmadge and Dean's list finalist recipients Alex Epstein and Rick Shanor.

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by Billfred, several weeks ago...

This will be 2815's first trip to Peachtree (and my first since a day trip in 2006). After coming up short to 1771 and 2415 in the Palmetto finals in 2009, we're eager to try and return the favor.

Eh heh...

Anyone who's read this thread over the past few days knows how god-awful our Friday was. This morning was no exception, with our comms going in and out during our first matchup and our digital sidecar getting unhooked during our final qualification match. I'd been talking with folks on both 1771 and 2415 through the days, mostly in the can-you-believe-our-rotten-luck sense. (A 30% run-the-whole-two-minutes rate at a regional is not usually picking material.)

Our second match this morning with 2415--one of those rare clean runs for us--they asked if we could play some defense along the middle. Having beat up our claw at the end of yesterday and not having much time to refine our driving, we agreed. We were encouraged by a good run, but even I (the resident eternal optimist) was kinda shifting into wait-'til-next-week mode.

Seeded 38th of 48th, I snuck up to the stands to watch alliance selections. As soon as I saw 2415 pick 1771, I said to myself "Good game"--these two were very in my eyes the best teams at the event (and if they weren't, nobody was getting two teams that could top them). The first round of picking went by without much fanfare--no way we'd get picked ahead of those guys--and even our representative (Stacy, our junior programmer genious responsible for even giving us a glimmer of ubertube hope) was about to turn towards the pits when 2415 called our number. I was a little enthused, as noted.

I have no idea how we managed to go six matches in a row without any major flubs--the closest we came was a weaker battery in Finals 2 (which is why we slowed down so much towards the end). Everything was clicking--we played our position as hard as we could, blocked hard, shoved as many tubes as we could, and only broke out the claw to pull tubes off the wall and deliver them (or during the last few seconds when we had little else to do, as our minibot aspirations were dashed on Thursday). I have no idea how this managed to work so effectively against three different tough alliances, but even through the rougher parts of finals we managed to hold it together and bring out a win. Once again, I was a little enthused--this was 2815's first ever regional win, and my first in eight seasons of competing in FRC across three different teams.

To 2415 and 1771, I can not thank you guys enough for taking the gamble on our team. No alliance I've ever worked with has been more relaxed, more prepared, and more able to adapt to challenges--I hope our kids were taking notes. (If nothing else, I know they took notes about minibots--we're definitely working on that for Palmetto.)

Thank you to the volunteers and crew for running a very smooth event. When running a little bit late is the worst thing you have to say about an event, it's a very good event.

Thank you to all the teams that helped us with little bits and pieces. I should've known we'd be in for a long three days when we realized our toolbox wouldn't fit on the bus.

Thank you to the NASA machine shop...and sorry about those axle shafts.

Thank you to the millions (plus or minus 99.99%) of 2815ers watching at home that called, tweeted, Facebooked, and texted us through eliminations, and to the parents and USC mentors that welcomed us home to the machine shop tonight. Also thanks to all the non-2815ers who've passed their congratulations along.

And finally, thanks to my teammates. Thanks to a surprise exam, we lost our USC mentors for Peachtree and had just eleven people making the trip--nine kids, one teacher, and me. Their experience, never-say-die attitude, and ability to work through all our many gremlins is the only way any of this could even be possible. We're graduating an exceptional group of seniors, and they've certainly set the bar high for our underclassmen. Cameron, Will, Christian, Stacy, Manoel, George, Aaron, Lizzie, Meg, and Chris--thank you all for a wild ride.

Now to fix up that arm....

(PS to 2415 and 1771: When I said after the photos we've got to do this again on Einstein, I meant it! )

[davidalln]

Originally Posted by Andrew Y.

lets be honest here guys.... it was all about the billfred effect....

The term "Billfred effect" has already entered into our team's vernacular. Actually

[elemental]

The Peachtree Regional was great this year and I had a really fun time!

My team would like to thank #1261 The RoboLions for having and allowing us to use the 2011 Driver Station re-imaging key. Without that we probably would not have been able to compete.

We'd also like to thank our amazing alliance partners.
#2967 IronWorks for picking us and showing amazing Gracious Professionalism during and after the elimination rounds. Your enthusiasm and team spirit made us feel like winners.

#1848 SOUP. I always look out for your team during Peachtree and being in alliance with you was a great experience.

Congratulations to the winning alliance 1771, 2415, 2815. You dominated the playing field and it was fun to see such high scoring games.

Also congratulations to 122, The NASA Knights on the Chairman's Award. Your team is really fun and inspiring!

A big THANK YOU goes to the NASA Machine Shop Guys. I'm sorry I don't know your names but the three of you really helped our team both in 2010 and 2011. I'm looking forward to seeing you at the North Carolina Regional.

Great judges, great volunteers, amazing teams, and lots of fun! This is probably the last Peachtree Regional I'll attend but I'm glad I'll remember it this way.

[bstrong1218]

Excellent work by 2415. Your bot was amazing as was your minibot. That minibot inspired our all-nighter on Friday and helped us build a minibot to win our matches Saturday morning.

3344 had a long three days. After losing half the servos on our brand new roller grip during matches on Friday and changing back the our old claw, we were really pleased to see our drivers hanging tubes Saturday morning. We couldn't have been happier to make it into the elimination matches, but, between a dead power switch on our new minibot, a dead battery on the big bot, the classmate not recognizing the cypress board where our deployment switch was located, and those insane pneumatic tires on 1648's bot, we didn't have a fighting chance in quarter-finals.

Overall, Peachtree was amazing! There was some really spectacular designs, and I can't wait to see a few of you guys in St. Louis.

[dangerousdave]

I have edited and posted a finals HD video that I shot here if anyone is interested and doesn't mind the red alliance & 2415 slant of it.
Dave

[sdcantrell56]

Originally Posted by dangerousdave

I have edited and posted a finals HD video that I shot here if anyone is interested and doesn't mind the red alliance & 2415 slant of it.
Dave

Do you have any video of our 128 match?

[zbutner]

Those elims and finals were super fun to watch. 2415 had a blast at peachtree. I hope we have footage of that highscore quarterfinal match.

*I just wanna give a shoutout to our SCOUTERs who meticulously surveyed and compiled every single qualifying match into our database. Without them, the team would not have known to pick such great alliance partners.

[nighterfighter]

Originally Posted by sdcantrell56

Do you have any video of our 128 match?

One of our members got a video of it-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lzc6AeoCi58

[dbonar]

Delurking to say that 3573 had a great time at Peachtree. A bigger practice field would have been nice but its people that make an event and Peachtree was full of great people.

Big thanks to 122. Sharing your minbot was terrific I just wish that so many little things hadn't kept us from doing more with it Congratulations on the Chairman's Award.

2420 and 122 thanks for picking us. We knew we could compete at that point (Friday morning was a different story!) but its great to feel the love from others. We didn't make the finals but it was a good run.

[wynniethepooh]

one stupid tube from a full rack. our coach Andrew unfortunately made us go deploy our minibot otherwise we wouldve gotten it

[Andrew Y.]

Originally Posted by wynniethepooh

one stupid tube from a full rack. our coach Andrew unfortunately made us go deploy our minibot otherwise we wouldve gotten it

haha....maybe if you guys scored a little faster...i wouldn't have had to tell you to forget the rack and go for the minibot

[ttldomination]

Originally Posted by nighterfighter

One of our members got a video of it-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lzc6AeoCi58

Wow, I must say, that by attempting to throw the tubes and prevent 1771/2415 from scoring, the other alliance's human players give them more tube. Poor strategy.

- Sunny