Curie 2012!

[MechEng83]

Originally Posted by hill

Does anybody have video of 207 jumping off of the elevated end of a bridge in what I believe was SF 2 or Finals on Curie? They had pulled down the bridge on their side and started to drive up the bridge while an opposing robot managed to wedge itself under the other side of the bridge. This held the bridge up while 207 drove straight of the end of the elevated bridge at a pretty high speed. They then dropped about two feet to the floor and went on driving without an issue.

The match was SF2-2, and the defending robot wedged under the bridge was 1741. Our driver couldn't believe 207 did that, as he didn't think anyone would be willing to risk a 2ft hard drop! Props to 207's driver for what I think was the most agressive play all tournament long.

[frdrake]

Curie elims had many many awesome moments in them, from the stands we were shocked too that 207 just jumped right off. I really hope someone has that video and will post it.

I just want to shout out to Daisy(341), Poofs(254) and Air Strike(78), our matches with your alliance were honestly the toughest matches all competition. I didn't realize it at the time but I'm sorry that 78 went out of comms in the finals (that was still a not known to me issue at the time). I saw 78 guarding the rail and thought that was what he was doing to limit the marauding but knowing he was out of comms changes it all. How long was he down for?

Thanks for the great games I know you guys had awesome robots and no one even ourselves would have been suriprised had you guys beaten us in the finals. Your robots were just that good and consistent.

[Siri]

Originally Posted by 3098 callahan

We had the same exact problem. The last day of competition they put new balls in the field. Which two of our matches we got in our rollers jamming almost blowing out our motor. We went to ask them about it, and they said it was part of the game.

Exactly. Though this wouldn't bother me so much if it wasn't specifically asked at the driver's meeting only receive a vague and misleading non-commitment that it would "be like the regionals", with balls only being replaced as needed throughout the competion. (The regionals did have replacements scheduled for start of eliminations, in addition to replace-as-needed.) Guess we should have asked if they were going to give us literally different game pieces mid-event as well.

Hi guys. I know I'm not on Curie. Even as a backup on Newton I was still worried about it, though.

Congrats to 987, 207 and 233. You guys were awesome and I believe definitely could have gone all the way. Also congratulations to 341 with 254 and 78. We love you guys and you also could have taken it all. Great job to everyone and I wish we'd all been lucky enough to witness the matches that could have and should have happened. (Even so, I humbly believe the Curie elims topped most of the later events.)

[Jared Russell]

Originally Posted by frdrake

I didn't realize it at the time but I'm sorry that 78 went out of comms in the finals (that was still a not known to me issue at the time). I saw 78 guarding the rail and thought that was what he was doing to limit the marauding but knowing he was out of comms changes it all. How long was he down for?

78 lost comms when they hit the barrier after hybrid mode in F1. They were out from about 10 seconds into teleop through the end of the match. In F2, everybody was moving with communications problems.

[twetherbee]

Originally Posted by MechEng83

The match was SF2-2, and the defending robot wedged under the bridge was 1741. Our driver couldn't believe 207 did that, as he didn't think anyone would be willing to risk a 2ft hard drop! Props to 207's driver for what I think was the most agressive play all tournament long.

I just posted the video that I got from Team 207 on Youtube here:

http://youtu.be/Lh7Vz2-OTPc

The jump is around the 0:47 sec mark

I hope they don't mind that I posted their video for them, but it was one of the most incredible and awesome things I've seen all season. A very gutsy move with no hesitation. They also were using rapid prototyped wheels this year, which made it all the more incredible that they didn't break something. (I guess Team 3528 did take some of the impact).

It was great playing with Team 207 in Curie and on Einstein this year. Those guys have a great team and we look forward to playing with them again out on the West Coast.

[frdrake]

Thanks for posting that, definately going to save it to show it off as what a tough built robot can do.

[twetherbee]

I would like to thank our alliance partners the Pink Team 233 and Team 207. That was the first time we've had a chance to work with (and not against) 233 since we first met in Vegas back in 2007, and it was an incredible experience. Pink definitely plays on a higher level in the elimination rounds (as they always do) and certainly peaked at the perfect time with their best performance of the year, IMHO. We were confident in our strategy coming into the championship that we could outscore a triple balance with the right partners, but lost sight of it over the weekend until Pink's drive coach, Brian, talked some sense into us at the last minute. "Think Pink" takes on a whole new meaning for me now. I wish we could have gotten that Championship banner for you.

Team 207 was an amazing defensive bot and a steal of a second pick. Seeing the video of them jump off the co-op bridge (I was focusing on the other end of the field and missed it) will forever live in my mind as one of the most incredible things I've seen in FIRST. They are a great group of people to work with, and we look forward to working together again in the future out on the West Coast.

I would also like to congratulate Teams 341, 254, and 78. The #1 alliance was an incredible pairing that at first I didn't know if we could beat. Congratulations on setting the 2012 game high score of 128. Miss Daisy's machine this year was a sight to see and we had a great time fighting back and forth with them and 233 for the top seed. I wish that our rookie mistake with the battery connector in our match together hadn't happened and we could have seen at least one match of what our pairing had the potential of putting up on the scoreboard. The Poofs are a perennial powerhouse team that I have admired and respected since I started in FIRST in 2006. They always have incredible robot designs, are fiercely competitive and one of the hardest working teams in FIRST. They are one of the teams you would always rather play with than against if you have the choice. And Team 78, it is too bad that you lost radio power in Curie Finals Match 1. Congrats on a great season as well.

Congrats also to the other teams in Curie that had great performances this weekend off the top of my head like 1986, 624, 3098, 1507, 1477, 2474, 1678, and 1511. The Curie field was very deep this year and it was a lot of fun to get to know and compete against new teams we've never faced.

Lastly, I want to give a special thanks to Team 525 for helping us fix our ball intake mechanism after they inadvertantly broke it at the end of QF3-2. Truely a remarkable showing of gracious professionalism and class from a great team.

See you all next year.

[kjohnson]

Originally Posted by Jared341

78 lost comms when they hit the barrier after hybrid mode in F1. They were out from about 10 seconds into teleop through the end of the match. In F2, everybody was moving with communications problems.

78's barrel connector for power to their radio was knocked out as a result of the impact.

[SharonO]

Originally Posted by MechEng83

Congrats to teams 987, 207, and 233 for being division champs and making it all the way into the finals match on Einstein.

Thanks to team 3528 and 1477 for being awesome alliance partners. Quarter-finals were crazy intense with our 60-62 loss and 72-71 and 46-45 wins, and semi's were even more ridiculous with 207's kamakazi style defense over the co-op bridge!

Does anyone know where I can find match videos for both quals and (especially) elims? Thanks!

Team 3528, Up Next, would like to thank teams 1477 and 1741 for their awesome performance in the eliminations. The game playing strategy was ingenious. Texas Torque's shooting was dead accurate and Red Alert played amazing defense. Each of those QF matches could have went either way. I would love to re-watch all three matches again.

I don't remember after which match we bent our bridge-tipper, but if we had been able to employ the same strategy in the SF's, then maybe we could've given 233-987-207 a better run.

[Kit Gerhart]

Originally Posted by SharonO

Team 3528, Up Next, would like to thank teams 1477 and 1741 for their awesome performance in the eliminations. The game playing strategy was ingenious. Texas Torque's shooting was dead accurate and Red Alert played amazing defense. Each of those QF matches could have went either way. I would love to re-watch all three matches again.

I don't remember after which match we bent our bridge-tipper, but if we had been able to employ the same strategy in the SF's, then maybe we could've given 233-987-207 a better run.

Those semis are the first time I remember seeing two pink teams against each other. Sometime in the future, we need to come up with a pink alliance, like the maroon alliance that won the '07 championship.

[Matt_]

Originally Posted by Solidstate89

Not too happy about the "cooperatition" from the opposing alliance in the final match, but it's the finals and strategy is more important than ever during the Championships I suppose.

Are you referring to Q-150? If you are, we did not throw that co-op balance. We actually setup early to help ensure you would get those points since they were critical to your ranking (and really had no bearing on our positioning). You guys showed up later than expected and didn't go up the bridge straight, then there wasn't enough time to correct. Our entire alliance was upset we didn't nail that balance.

[frdrake]

I don't believe that's the one he's referring to. It was something that happened earlier with a different team.

[Matt_]

Got ya. Just wanted to make sure because we were the last qualification match and were supposed to co-op with them (which obviously went wrong). The way I read that post eluded to us throwing the balance so they wouldn't rank higher, and thats something our team is completely against and wanted to clear that up.

[bam-bam]

Although we didn't get picked for eliminations, 1501 had a great time (sans some craziness) at the championships.

For the majority of the team, this was their first time ever competing at the worlds. We had crazy matches and mess-ups that reminded us that this wasn't regionals anymore. I can tell that many are taking the experience to heart, and using it to improve themselves and the team next year.

We are extremely humbled by the amount of the teams that came up and asked about our stacking abilities. We knew we had a bit of reputation outside of Indiana, but not at this level. Thank you.

Thank you to 3950 for the continued interest in picking us. Unfortunately, the selections didn't run in your favors. We were looking forward to working with you all, and hopefully that will happen in the future.

On a personal note, thank you to so many teams that took the time to answer my questions despite busy moments, them being 971, 1114, 2056, 1717, 125, 148, 842, 33, 48, 25, 67, 365, and 469.

1501'll hopefully come back next year, and if we do, we'll kick some serious butt around, count on it.....

[JesseK]

1885 had a blast on Curie. We had a decent schedule with a mix of powerful alliances and matches where it all fell to us. It was also fun to be able to watch our FTC win the FTC Championships right next door to Curie on Saturday morning.

Thanks to 244 and 624 for a good run at the Semis! The strategy we attempted in SF 1-2 was fun to try even if it became ineffective. The idea was to disrupt 254's ball flow -- which obviously didn't work if it enabled them to get the season's high score. We're sorry we blew a drive train Jag and couldn't finish the match out.

After we got our schedule Thursday morning I convinced our team to move autonomous to the left corner of the key. This was probably the best improvement we've done all year since it gave us a 100% perfect alignment every single match using some very simple triangulation off of field elements. It also got us out of the way for the moving autonomous routines, such as what 341 and 254 had, while also allowing us to be independent autonomous scorers with flexible timing. Finally it put us right in the prime ball throwing lane for the opposing alliance -- and since we were still touching the key, there wouldn't have been any penalties for contact with an alley bot in the opening seconds of teleop.