Brunswick Eruption Results and Thanks

[dixonij]

dont worry everyone. one of my adivsors got a picture of the amazing floating goal! ill try and get it from him and post it.

btw... why wasnt there an award for the 1st place seed?!? the first time 87 is 1st after the qualification rounds and we dont get any hardware. oh well, we still were fan favorites and we actually have pretty darn good women drivers! if anyone was wondering why our johnson was put up so early, the switchbox operator accidently hit the VI-arm switch. anyway two pieces of hardware is nice enough. oh if anyone wants any of our flame shirts, wait until next season if we retire those shirts.


-Ian
I grabbed our fan favorite trophy and ran off the field before my whole team got up there... hehehe

[Firewolf]

Originally posted by dixonij
oh if anyone wants any of our flame shirts, wait until next season if we retire those shirts.


-Ian

that's all great and all, but I want the hair! i've been asking you guys for those for the past 3 years!

[Chubtoad]

Does anyone have a list of the results of the Seeding matches? Like a full list cause I know were weren't near the top

[Wayne C.]

If you PM Firewolf or TJRage they can probably give you the list. But I know right now that the actual docs are in a box with all the "stuff" from the competition and we probably won't get to clean it up until the Wednesday after next.
WC

[Wayne C.]

I've begun loading images in the gallery for all to see. More will come tomorrow. I have no idea of what is actually in there since my crew- Byron and Chelsea- took the shots.

WC

[John Larock]

On behalf of MOEHawk and all the Miracle Workerz, I want to thank all involved in the Brunswick Eruption event. We were questioning whether or not to attend, and we are glad we made the right decision (with a heavy bit of coersion from Teams 25 and 303). The Eruption event was a nice capper to a very active post-season.

I wanted to provide some feedback on the event.

THE GOOD

* Facilities were very nice. Food area was excellent. Line moved very swiftly. Food prices were good. Half-price sale was great.

* Sound system was terrific. Matrix3000 was a great DJ. We love the sound effects and hope to borrow them for Duel on the Delaware 2003 (on Columbus Day weekend next year - SHAMELESS PLUG!).

* Pit area was well laid out - plenty of room for teams to "spread their wings"

* Trophies were very creative and distinct. The whole theme was terrific. Nice to have multiple awards and those judged by attendees.

* Really liked the drag racing, women's round, and the strength round. Well thought out.

* Volunteers overall were very helpful.


THE NOT-SO-GOOD

* Day was very long. For teams like ours who had to travel two+ hours to attend, a 5:00PM end would have been great.

- suggestions:
only have 1-2 special rounds and keep them fast-moving.

[Wayne C.]

I agree with you John. I think I bit off more than we could chew with the games. Luckily dropping the OC kept us pretty close to the 6PM announced ending.

One pet peeve I had noticed all year was that by the time the finals were being run most of the teams had cleared out. It was my deliberate planning to have the awards ceremony at the end so we could have some folks there to cheer for the players. After all, getting recognition for something other than sports is a big part of FIRST.

Thanks to the Miracle Workerz for making the trip up and giving your all. Did you notice the colors on the Scorpion in the last seeding round?

Here's one for you- in my first edition (of 4) of the seeding rounds round 24 was teams 303 and 25 vs 365 and 84. It would have been quite a battle!! But after two more total redo's of the entire schedule as teams came and went the model ended with what we eventually played.

I hope all the teams had fun. I heard only one negative all day and I was able to correct it quickly.

WC

[John Larock]

I accidently hit POST REPLY before sharing my full note, so here is the rest...

THE NOT-SO-GOOD

* Day too long

- announcer was taking too long to announce teams. Once the high school, sponsor, etc. was announced once, there was no need to repeat it. For some matches, we went through at least two repeats of the full name for each team.

* Playing Field Electrical

- I do not know the full extent of the problem, but there were several stoppages due to electrical. It may have been teams not knowing the proper procedure or the electrical / communications signals for the field itself. A number of matches had robots without power halfway through the match. I know during the wildcard rounds, Team #222 lost power with about 45 seconds remaining. This really isn't fair to teams.

* Match Schedule

- I know Team #84 got snowed in and could not attend. There was at least one other team who didn't make it. It may have been better to redo the schedule than to ask other teams to sub. I can go both ways on this. While it is nice to be able to play more matches, will teams really be putting their hearts into it if they do not get any point credit? Don't know. With some teams not attending, we could have reduced the number of Qualifying Matches and saved some time.

* Slow down / Speed Up

- With the day dragging on (Qualifying Matches were not completed until at least 1PM), the announcer was asking teams to "hurry up" if they had last minute set-up to do while their robots were in pre-match on the field. It's hard to take when, through no fault of anyone, we might be trying to make up for lost time due to electrical difficiulties.

* Organization / Queuing

- For some reason, some matches would be over and no teams would be queued up for the next match. This happened a number of times.

While these are not major issues, they all add up to adding lots of time to an already full schedule. With the placement of one or two volunteers in the pits to keep things moving, this could be easily improved.


THE THANKS

Through it all, Team #365 had a great time! Thanks to Team #224 for selecting us to share their alliance. Also, thanks to Team #651 for being a great partner.

To teams #25, #341, and #271. Great job! Your alliance played more matches than anyone and you did it all with style, grace, and power! You guys deserve to take home the ULTIMATE Tiki God Statue.

Team #87 - terrific job with your #1 Seeding. You guys had more QPs by far than anyone else. And if our comp team would have done a thing or two different in our match together (we didn't get into the endzone and were a mere two feet away at the end of the match), you would have had an even higher average.

Team #303 - The "It Ain't Easy Being Green" Award was very gracious and thoughtful. Thanks!

All the individual organizers - Wayne C., Paul K, Mike Wade & Pete (the FIRST FIELD ON TOUR guys) and everyone who helped. It doesn't happen without y'all.

Thanks for the chance to compete one last time with last year's bot. Looking forward to working with you all in 2003!!!

[Mascott222]

hey does any one have pics of the guys from 222 in their wigs and grass skirts?
or one of their pineapple

[George A.]

How about team 11? Twice they had their ball cage up ready to dump balls and the wire snapped!! (D'oh)

Anyway thanx to team's 25 and 303 for a great competition. Everything ran smoothly and I would definately do it again next year.

P.S.: Congrats to team 25 for finally accomplishing what so many of us hoped to do. Beat the living daylights out of MOE!!!

[Spikey]

I have pictures of the floating goal, I will post it as soon as possible. I also will put up some other pics I took at the competition.

We had lots of fun and our new drivers got some great practice. We love our new speed trophy

[dixonij]

Originally posted by M.O.R.T.
P.S.: Congrats to team 25 for finally accomplishing what so many of us hoped to do. Beat the living daylights out of MOE!!!

you guys must not have been at duel on the delaware when the two team alliance of 25 and 87 spun MOE and won the competition. Diablo seems to do well in the qualifiying rounds but we didnt design it well enough to do good in the elimination rounds...

[Wayne C.]

Hey guys-

I am very happy the Moe team attended. It took a lot of arm twisting (not meant as a PUN in any way- sorry). But imagine how they feel to always have the audience out to get their robot? I guess if you build a great machine it sets the bar higher and gives the teams a goal to work for. Beating a machine like the Moehawk is a landmark achievement, at least it was for us.
Team 365, a relative youngster in FIRST, should be proud to have had such a great rise as they have in the past few years. They really seem to have the ideals FIRST is looking for and they certainly deserve all the recognition they have received.

So rather than go after the green guys - since we won each of the four off-season comps we entered- does that mean we are next year's target? Hye, we are guilty as much as the rest of you but I hope my guys all recognize the difference between good natured rivalry as opposed to vengeance.

Consider this- we won awards with 11, 102, 303, 84, 87, 341, 271, 293 and several others this year and in the past. That means we have played with nearly half the field of BE as partners. I consider all these teams our friends. The same goes for the teams we have beaten. Team 303 has both beaten us royally and been beaten by us yet we consider them good friends. Dean and Woody had the right idea when they developed the Alliance format for FIRST.


So lets cut the Green Guys a break. I want to be on their good side when they build their next monster machine next year ; )

WC

[Spikey]

I looked at one of my pics of the flaoting goal and it looks really odd. IS anyone else having this problem? Is the image distorted? If so please reply and I can repost it.

It was great competeing with 25 again we go way back, we loved your crane bot. At rutgers 25, us, and Moe dominated in 2000. That was a great game, I hope some version of it returns.

[Wayne C.]

Spikey-

I redid your shot and reposted it. With the reflective tape reflecting the flash it looks like the goal is leaving the ground and taking the robots with it. Very UFO like.

Scully and Mulder may want to look at this one.....

WC