2012 FRC Arizona Regional

[Saberbot]

We had a totally awesome time. Thank you to all teams for making our first event ever so incredible! It was such an honor to play on the same field as 610, 842, and 1212. Those last three matches were probably the most fun half hour of my life so far. I can't imagine having a more exciting match.

Thank you so much to the Cobras and Coconuts for choosing us to be on your alliance. I was really impressed by our teamwork, and you guys were so much fun to work with. Go CocoCobraCats!

A funny side note:
610 and 842 both inspired parts of our robot.
We originally got the idea for our ball intake arm from 842 in the second week of build season. It was totally crucial to our performance.
610's information on Chief Delphi was crucial to our implementation of CAN, which allowed us to use P.I.D. on our shooter. Without their help we wouldn't have been nearly as accurate.

One more side note:
I remember reading the WIRED article "La Vida Robot" when I was in fifth grade. Hearing about the beginnings of 842 was truly inspirational and has really stuck with me through the years. After following you guys for so long it was crazy for me to play with you. Thank you for all that you have done for FIRST in Arizona.

I know that this weekend was life changing for me and many of the members of my team. We are really looking forward to continuing to grow in the future, and are proud to have been a part of the founding of what we hope will be a strong, long-lasting program at our school and in our community.

[falconmaster]

Originally Posted by Saberbot

We had a totally awesome time. Thank you to all teams for making our first event ever so incredible! It was such an honor to play on the same field as 610, 842, and 1212. Those last three matches were probably the most fun half hour of my life so far. I can't imagine having a more exciting match.

Thank you so much to the Cobras and Coconuts for choosing us to be on your alliance. I was really impressed by our teamwork, and you guys were so much fun to work with. Go CocoCobraCats!

A funny side note:
610 and 842 both inspired parts of our robot.
We originally got the idea for our ball intake arm from 842 in the second week of build season. It was totally crucial to our performance.
610's information on Chief Delphi was crucial to our implementation of CAN, which allowed us to use P.I.D. on our shooter. Without their help we wouldn't have been nearly as accurate.

One more side note:
I remember reading the WIRED article "Viva La Robot" when I was in fifth grade. Hearing about the beginnings of 842 was truly inspirational and has really stuck with me through the years. After following you guys for so long it was crazy for me to play with you. Thank you for all that you have done for FIRST in Arizona.

I know that this weekend was life changing for me and many of the members of my team we are really looking forward to continuing to grow in the future, and are proud to have been a part of the founding of what we hope will be a strong, long-lasting program at our school and in our community.

I am glad that something we posted has helped, that is why we do it. Wish more teams did this to help not only teams that need it but it also raises the level of the competition. Its GP! The NERDS 1726 have done this in the past as well and its helped us!

As far as "La Vida Robot" its crazy playing against someone we inspired when they were in 5th grade, and it also makes me feel old. I am the only member of that team still "competing" in FIRST (at least in a mentor role)
Its utterly fantastic to here about our impact on other people from the people that we impacted. Thank you so much. Any time your on this side of town please stop by and visit. Take care!

PS we will keep posting stuff that we think is cool and might help.

[nixiebunny]

The Bit Buckets had a great time. We knew that we didn't deserve it, but it was quite amusing to see ourselves ranked third at the end of Friday.

I think the end result was as it should have been. The Falcon and Coyote teams are world-class. It was an honor to have lost our only matches to them.

[falconmaster]

Originally Posted by nixiebunny

The Bit Buckets had a great time. We knew that we didn't deserve it, but it was quite amusing to see ourselves ranked third at the end of Friday.

I think the end result was as it should have been. The Falcon and Coyote teams are world-class. It was an honor to have lost our only matches to them.

Its nice and funny to be called world class. Thank you. We are looking for you guys to be a dominant force in FIRST.

[Pjohn1959]

Congrats to Fredi and the 842 team on building a fantastic scoring monster. That tele-op point total is only rivaled by 2056. It was really cool to watch 3 balls trail each other in the air and land in the basket. Great job, and hope to see you on Einstein!

[Donut]

Looks like AZ was a good event this year. Congratulations to 610, 842, and 1212 on the regional victory, and to 2486 on another Chairman's award. Hope you all do well at Championships!

Congratulations to 498 on making it to the Finals. That makes twice now, one of these days we'll get our first regional victory!

Glad to hear the plans are in place for a Tucson regional next year. Arizona FIRST has come a long way since I was a freshman in high school!

[Mr. Lim]

There are moments in your FRC career where you say to yourself "this is why we do FRC." Arizona provided plenty of those moments, although not for the reasons you might expect.

Not to downplay the robots, but I don't wish to dwell too much on the competition, or the fact that we were finally able to break a 10 year regional dry spell this past weekend by riding the coat-tails of our partners through the eliminations. To finally win a regional was amazing, but...

To be honest... after 842, 1212 and 610 lost F1, to 2486, 498 and 4146, in our subsequent alliance huddle, I wasn't even a tad bit nervous, anxious or upset. Why? Because as long as we tried our best, I would've been more than happy to see the opposing teams win this regional.

An alliance good enough to hit a 36-pt autonomous, where all 3 robots hit 2 shots each, deserves to win a regional (QF 4-1). And saying that doesn't do justice to the quality of those teams off the field either.

The most important aspect of our time in Arizona this past weekend had nothing to do with robots.

I had the pleasure of speaking and interacting with an incredible number of students, mentors and volunteers while at the competition. I really should name them all, as well as their respective teams, but the list would simply be too long. To quote one of our student team presidents (Patrick White), the enduring statement of the weekend was:

"No seriously... EVERYONE was just... so... freakin'... nice!!!"

It was a moment to re-ground ourselves, and to re-evaluate what we truly enjoy so much about FIRST.

Canada is a very different place to compete in than Arizona, and there were many many things we experienced in AZ that I would love to bottle up and take home with us. That's not to say we don't love Canada (we do!!!), but as I talked to team members on the plane ride home about how to take the "next step" as a team, the conversation focused entirely on how we could be more like the teams here - particularly in how they interact off-the-field.

There are so many teams in AZ that exemplify what we want to become, but I have to single out Crush 1011 in particular.

I don't know if I've seen a team exhibit the level kind of pure, genuine, unbridled enjoyment of FRC as 1011. They were simply a pleasure to be around, all day, every day. It is a special team that can make those AROUND them enjoy the FRC experience that much more - regardless of how your robot is doing on the field. That's inspiration, and it's a skill that deserves as much attention as our ability to hit shots in hybrid, or triple balance a bridge, IMHO.

I'm glad I had a chance to experience the importance of that first-hand.

Thanks Arizona!

[Shelbers2486]

Congrats to all the teams who competed in AZ! It was a truely memorable competition for so many reasons. It was very cool to have so many diverse teams at the event, it made it very interesting!

Congrats to 610, 842, and 1212. You guys were certainly the best of the best and it was great to compete with each of you! You guys certainly deserved the win and we are so excited to see all of you in St. Louis! I'm going to try to convince my team that we should go to the Toronto regional next year

Congrats also to Tecbot on Engineering Inspiration, and the Sabercats for the Rookie All Star Award! We're looking forward to seeing you at Championships also!!

And of course we have to give a huge thanks to the Cobra Commanders and Sabercats for being such great alliance partners! The CocoCobraCats would not have been the same without any one of us We got it next year right?

Once again, congrats to all teams, Everyone played a part in making the AZ regional a success. Good luck to anyone competing in another regional or Championships!!

-Team 2486 The CocoNuts

[G Fawkes]

Originally Posted by Mr. Lim

I had the pleasure of speaking and interacting with an incredible number of students, mentors and volunteers while at the competition. I really should name them all, as well as their respective teams, but the list would simply be too long. To quote one of our student team presidents (Patrick White), the enduring statement of the weekend was:

"No seriously... EVERYONE was just... so... freakin'... nice!!!"

I thought you might be interested to hear that after talking with some members of team 610, our vice president said "....the Canadians are just SO nice"

Hope to see you here in AZ next year

[JDL]

Originally Posted by Saberbot

Those last three matches were probably the most fun half hour of my life so far. I can't imagine having a more exciting match.

And exhausting, it was hard getting up and going back to work Sunday. Plus I had to get all the pesky FIRST parts out of my tool bags and job box.

Originally Posted by Saberbot

Thank you so much to the Cobras and Coconuts for choosing us to be on your alliance. I was really impressed by our teamwork, and you guys were so much fun to work with. Go CocoCobraCats!

That was the best alliance I've ever worked with. You guys are a great team and I think you'll go a long way.