Favorite Memories Of The 2011 Season

[fuzzwaz]

Originally Posted by apalrd

* I made some of my first parts during this season, and used the lathe and mill for the first time.
* The first time 2-tube auto ran, it was bag day, and in the basement on the practice field. It worked so nicely (until we changed the wheels at Troy).
* Winning Kettering, the first event 33 had won since 2005. It was nice to finally win, instead of being finalist again and again.
* Winning MSC with 67 and 70 (More Hot Bees), possibly the best alliance I have ever been on during official events. 33+67=100% awesome?
* the "3" game with 2337 and 503 (among others)* Scouting meeting before the concert. Lots of team numbers shouted out, lots of scouting sheets passed around, and lots of teams sorted into piles and then sorted again.
* Watching the robot drive dead straight the first time I ran the drive-straight code on the competition robot. It was soooo nice to see things translate from the practice to comp bots so easily.

The "3" game is so insanely awesome

[fuzzwaz]

And for me, it has to be our very FIRST chairmans presentation at the Nile's district. We had a "searching through the jungle" presentation where we are T.V. guides on the FIRST discovery network. I start off by crawling in and shushing the judges and then I jump up in the air and yell "CRICKEY!".

The very first time, the judges assistant looked at me and said-

"You can go in now"
"Oh, I know"
*lays flat on my stomach*

The look on her face was priceless!

At the state championship, the judges stopped the time because they thought I tripped and fell!

i'll never forget

[Jeffy]

Team at midwest walks into our pit:
"Do you guys have a wiring diagram?"

Sophomore student, his first year working on electrical, but he is the man now: "I am a human wiring diagram, how can i help you?"

This team^ had no electrical faults throughout the regional.

[RoboMom]

A treasure chest of memories this year.

Attending the 9th year of the Chesapeake Regional and helping as inspection manager. The lead inspector, the robot inspectors and the teams made this just plain fun and something I have never "officially" done before.

Having a secret sponsor step in to tell me they would pay for my airfare to the Championship when they heard I wasn't planning to go. Having the Baltimore Area Alliance teams pay for my hotel. Because of this I saw dozens and dozens of people I care about.

Helping to facilitate the 7th annual NEMO meeting at the Championship. 7 years! Where did the time go?

Working on the shout-out video at the Championship and being given the freedom to do this the way I envisioned it. The videographer was so easy to work with. I had a blast. So thanks to all those panicked team members who agreed to be filmed before I told them they needed to mention all their mentors. Yes, all of them.

[Frenchie461]

The "aw heck yea!" moment when the robot first drove

Long hours CNCing

[legogeek24]

The best part of the pre-season was discovering our team number was 3456

Moving from an experienced team (1569) onto a rookie team offered some really neat experiences. As a captain, I was really able to lead the new members and I felt that I really helped show them the true meanings of FIRST robotics, it was a really neat experience.

Winning Rookie All-Star was really awesome. I knew it qualified us for the championship, but I don't think anyone else on my team realized. So when the regional director told us we were going to St. Louis, it was awesome seeing the looks on everyone's faces and watching everyone jumping up and down, hugging everyone in sight, and being so excited for the amazing opportunity!

[Kyoshirin]

-Having people come to our pits and become more impressed by our wrench-on-a-carabiner rack than our robot. =D

-Going to states with my buddy and missing all of the elims because we were in the practice field with other robots. (I will always respect 503's drivers, their robot is really hard to drive)

-Playing a humongous game of ninja at the CMP afterparty.

[PayneTrain]

• When our minibot won its first race at VCU, I proceeded to jump a good 3 feet in the air. I figured this out since I was eye-level with the top rack. I screamed, I danced, I hugged. It was a big moment.

• My favorite moment was seeing a team dejected by our worst performance in 3 years at Chesapeake so excited, happy, and proud to be on Team 422. That's why I'm so excited about the offseason. The kids get it. Now we just have to show that to everyone.

• My third favorite memory this year is the help 340 gave us on the minibot. Great teams come out of Rochester...great enough that 422 is considering FLR as a 2012 destination regional. We don't ever pick an easy regional (here's to you, Trenton)

• My last one was hearing what our projected 2011-2012 revenue was before I started putting the first legitimate business plan together for our team. I swear, we are going to be turning heads in 10 months (I hope).

[BJC]

Originally Posted by fuzzwaz

The "3" game is so insanely awesome

Although I have never been a part of the three game (I'm generally busy at events) I have heard stories that have made my sides hurt laughing.

One of my favorite that I've heard involved 2 of our students in a covert mission to get our threes back from 2337. They doned thunderchicken shirts (217 was sitting right next to 2337 in the stands) went and sat in the middle of the 217 kids for about 15 minutes. (to many weird glances by the 217 kids) Finally the cha cha slide started playing and while the 2337 kids were dancing our two coverts ran over and grabbed the threes much to the confusion of the 2337 students. (why the heck were thunderchickens stealing their threes?) They then ran away and pulled off their 217 shirts much to the suprise of the Enginerds. A successful operation.. Although I'm pretty sure the Enginerds got the threes back later via cleaver use of a mascot.

Anyways, that was my favorite story this year.

(p.s. to all three game contenders): I'm not quite sure who is winning, but we will be ready for you next year!

[rcmolloy]

I have 3 distinct memories from this year that are all worth mentioning.

New Jersey Eliminations

These were the most fun I have ever had down on the field as a student. Playing with 1089 and 102 was surely a blast as we took down the power house alliance that included CT Regional Winner 1923, and Einstein Semi-Finalist 25. Even though we won by a different aspect of the game and not the main one (hanging tubes) it opened eyes and showed the importance of the Minibot. Even though we were only Finalists, I still love every minute being down there.

Philadelphia #1 Seed

I told Akash Rastogi that by the end of the day on Saturday of the Philly Regional that we would end up at #1 seed. Going into the last match, 341 deployed their Minibot too early and that gave us the advantage. I know that they deserved that spot and they should have had it but Philly has been unexpected over the past few years. Anyway, we had our last match up with us and 816 against the strong green machine, MOE 365. Before the match, we weren't connecting with the field and we had our classmate replaced. After that was done, my drive joysticks were switched and I was driving the different sides of the robot. Trying to drive like that made me frustrated and annoyed that we might lose the match. However, we ended up in first place with a win and it was the most excited I have ever been about the performance with the robot and the team.

After Philly Wrap Up

I stared at the Logomotion field with tears in my eyes after the awards concluded. Yeah I was upset about the eliminations and the red card but I was more upset about the team and how we did so great but it just wasn't enough to get us to STL. The pain I had from that was tremendous but it reminded me of how I will bring my FIRST experience my college and workplace. Also, I will try my best to mentor teams for as long as I am living because this program has given me the greatest experience of my life.

[MysterE]

Two quick memories:

1) Watching our team pull together. While we are a second year team, almost all of our students (and mentors to be honest) are first year. I began to see glimpses of team unity at the Bayou Regional but it wasn't until the Championship that I watched everyone band together. Now I watch students walk through the halls together as Robotics members.

2) Being called coach for the first time by some of my team. My dad was a football player and when I told him that story he teared up a bit. Me? A Coach?

-D

[akoscielski3]

Best Memory was winning a match against 1503 (qualification). We were paired with one rookie team and 1507. We all new that if we worked great then us and 1507 would be 2nd and 3rd seed. After the great match, and my heart pounding out of my chest, I new we did it. I dont remember the final score but i do remember being so happy i was jumping like crazy. (i'm the driver) We congradulated our alliance partners on the win and then next match we wanted to win to over take 1507's seed (2nd). Unfortunalty we didn't win it but oh well we finished in 3rd... the best we have ever done. We thought that 1507 was going to pick us for alliance selections, but they didn't
I believe that if they did then we could have beat 1114 and 1503's alliance in the finals.

[Nick Lawrence]

Originally Posted by akoscielski3

Best Memory was winning a match against 1503 (qualification). We were paired with one rookie team and 1507. We all new that if we worked great then us and 1507 would be 2nd and 3rd seed. After the great match, and my heart pounding out of my chest, I new we did it. I dont remember the final score but i do remember being so happy i was jumping like crazy. (i'm the driver) We congradulated our alliance partners on the win and then next match we wanted to win to over take 1507's seed (2nd). Unfortunalty we didn't win it but oh well we finished in 3rd... the best we have ever done. We thought that 1507 was going to pick us for alliance selections, but they didn't
I believe that if they did then we could have beat 1114 and 1503's alliance in the finals.

This match was the most important one in our qualification schedule. We needed to beat you guys to keep 1507 away from the top seeds to win the tournament, considering 1114 had one loss already, we were concerned that 1507 would seed #1. I knew it was going to be tough, especially after hearing that 3138 wouldn't be able to score in the queing line, and our other partner wouldn't be able to either. I had butterflies going into this match, it could have won or lost us the entire tournament. It was a fun match to play, and you guys really outplayed us.

It's kind of nice to hear that teams feel accompolished this year when they beat us, especially after our performance last year...

-Nick

[Brikien93]

I've got two memories that are gonna stick with me for a while this year I think.

One was at our Oklahoma Regional. We were in the semi-finals with our alliance partners 932 and 935. Our first semi-final match ended with us winning. Our second one, however, ended with both blue and red alliance receiving red cards for minibot tower interference. While the next match was going on, one of our partners from 932 went to challenge it. After the other semi-final match finished, the MC stepped into the middle of the field and called for quiet. The entire arena went dead silent. "It has come to our attention by one of the red alliance teams, that there may have been a bad call in that last match. So, after some discussion, the referee's have made their decision. The red card...on the red alliance...has been REVOKED!" After this, the entire arena went absolutely insane with cheering and screaming and applause. Our own teams were hugging and screaming as well. We won the regional after that.

The other was from Nationals. I was at our pit with a friend of mine talking to people and passing things out as they went past, when two kids from the chinese lego team came over. They both wanted a picture with the two of us, so we posed with each of them in turn. We then gave them our custom spinner necklace to remember us by, and they thanked us. A few minutes pass, and suddenly 4 people from the same team show up at our pit, and they all want a group picture with me. Several pictures are taken with all of us, and they then gave my friend and I one of their own cool give-a-ways. I have a newfound love for these people.

Also, meeting Dean Kamen. Great moment.

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by MysterE

Two quick memories:

1) Watching our team pull together. While we are a second year team, almost all of our students (and mentors to be honest) are first year. I began to see glimpses of team unity at the Bayou Regional but it wasn't until the Championship that I watched everyone band together. Now I watch students walk through the halls together as Robotics members.

2) Being called coach for the first time by some of my team. My dad was a football player and when I told him that story he teared up a bit. Me? A Coach?

-D

Thanks for the memories, Coach.

Jane