2012 Boston Regional

[Jared Russell]

Miss Daisy (the team and the robot) is currently on the bus back to Pennsylvania, and we wish safe travels to everyone else on their way home today!

Our team has been to *MANY* Regional competitions over the years, but the Boston Regional is definitely one of the very best. We heard great things about the event, and they were all 100% true. The venue, volunteers, teams, and guest speakers are among the best in FIRST.

Our robot was unable to shoot accurately for a few rounds on Friday - it took us several hours to figure out that our shooter wheels had worn and were no longer gripping the balls without slipping. We applied some grip tape to the wheels (thanks Pink!), recalibrated on the practice field, and now our shooter is more accurate than ever (I don't believe we missed more than one ball in any of our elimination matches). If anyone was wondering, in Finals 2 we had a failure on the transmission of our shooter feed motor shortly after hybrid, hence why we didn't shoot in teleop. In diagnosing the problem on the field, we originally suspected a controller getting unplugged, so we tried re-enumerating our joysticks but this resulted in being unable to operate our bridge manipulator as well. Thanks to our partners for ad-libbing on the fly to pick up the scoring slack and adapting to balance with our intake deployed!

We have many thanks and congratulations to give out:

233 - It was great to get to work with you in the playoffs and get to know your team! Your team manages to be extremely professional while also knowing how to have fun! And, as usual, your robot is amazing and is still getting better with each match you play. You inspire me. Look out for Pink in St. Louis!

246 - We were simply AMAZED that you were still on the board with our second pick. Your hybrid, ball feeding, and balancing skills were vital to defeating the ball starvation tactics employed against us in the elimination rounds. Congratulations on Chairman's as well!

125, 78, 2084 - Your alliance was outstanding, and you had us very nervous! 78, congrats on EI! I was extremely happy to see that you got your ticket to Championships!

3958 - It was an honor to finally meet the legendary Dr. Joe, and I am incredibly disappointed that 3958 won't be at Championships (barring something unexpected). Hopefully they will post some up-close pictures and videos of their robot. The drive system is truly one of a kind; I'm pretty sure AndyMark never intended their pneumatic wheels to be used as bevel gears! The quad-stinger arrangement was awe inspiring to see on the field, and it was a blast to triple balance with you on the practice field!

Jeff Downs (FTA), Ed Patterson (Field Supervisor) and all of the other volunteers - WOW! This is how all FRC events should run!