A Big Thank You and Congradualations to Our Alliance Partners 3476 & 1640

[Nato]

This reply might or might not be very long, so bear with me...

3476 is a third-year team. We work out of a two-car garage and adjoining house. All of our parts are literally conceptualized at the dining table, CADded in the living room, and machined in the garage. The team includes members from 12 different schools and 6 homeschools. We are incredibly diverse yet lack the traditional support that comes from association with a school.

We have grown exponentially over these short few years. I look back to Spring 2010, when I was invited by the team founder-to-be to come watch the Los Angles regional. And thus were the opening chapters of an unbelievable story...we had little collective knowledge of the program or a typical build season, but we still managed to field a drive base, elevator, claw and minibot.

In 2011, our rookie year, we were aiming high at the RAS award in the San Diego...missing both the eliminations and the award, we were inspired to do nothing but improve. Maybe make the eliminations at San Diego next year. Maybe build a stronger robot. Maybe not use servos on the tube gripper.

And we entered the 2012 season with a ridiculously small but dedicated group of members and mentors...adopting JVN's 10-step design process, our progress was astounding. Such was also the time that we began the submission of our first student-composed Chairman's Award, a process that has probably taught me more about what FIRST truly is than anything else. Winning the Week 0 Harvey Mudd scrimmage absolutely revolutionized our outlook. We really, actually could compete. Being the #1 pick at San Diego by rookie team 4161 and picking up third-year 3255 as the last pick of the draft, going undefeated in eliminations and realizing that we had truly earned our trip to St. Louis was mind-blowing. We realized that all of our efforts on the Chairman's Award, scouting system (have you ever tried to scout an entire regional with 2 people?), and relentless robot iteration had paid off.

In all honesty, our performance at St. Louis was not stellar - It seemed that we would either be #1 pick or miss eliminations completely. This case was, unfortunately, the latter. We were stoked at our success but inspired to do better. And thus ushered in the 2012 off-season, a frenetic and amazing period that resulted in over 20 outreach events, our own FLL qualifying tournament, the #2 alliance captain and winner of the Battle at the Border off-season, thousands of people inspired through our community events, and the never-ending improvement of our Chairmans' submission. All from a 2nd year team - I was worried that there was no way possible that we would be able to top the success of our 2012 season. How wrong I was.

The six weeks of the 2013 season were by far the most difficult of my life. Trying to fit a Chief Delphi 7 drop-down intake, floor pickup, 90 degree shooter, human intake, 2-speed gearboxes, and a 30 point climber in a tiny frame that all fit under the pyramid was basically impossible, and it was an exhausted Code Orange that exited the season with no drive practice, a fairly-untested shooter, and a spotty ground intake. The list of things to do were without end - make Chairman's presentation, make Chairman's videos, build practice bot, program autonomous modes, practice driving, iterate scouting system (3rd time), practice driving, set up practice field, practice driving. Yet the team stuck it out again and pressed even harder. We fielded a working robot at San Diego - not a small feat for getting the lift system working 5 minutes before pits closed in Thursday. Regional Semi-Finalists to the juggernaut 987 and 254 alliance, everyone was ready to sleep and be done. But one more regional awaited us...

The weeks leading up to the inaugural Inland Empire regional were beyond hectic. Our drive team practiced ceaselessly and improved the robot endlessly. The entire chairman's presentation was formulated, practiced, iterated, and practiced again. The scouting system underwent its third iteration in two seasons, as our regional partner 3255 graciously volunteered to assist the understaffed 3476 in our statistical endeavors.

IER began with even more issues. The robot again refused to work as it should have, and it was only the sheer determination of the pit, drive, and scouting teams that pushed us through two losses in the first three qualification matches. Nerves raised to a crescendo as the Chairman's presentation began and ended flawlessly. And as qualifications drew to a close, we were ranked #3. And thus began the ultimate test of our collaborative scouting system - the first time in regional play to be ranked within the top 8, we made the two most important picks of our existence. Semifinals stretched tantalizingly to three matches, we lost courageously in the finals, but gained 1538's wildcard slot. Somehow, we were going to St. Louis.

Rinse. Repeat. But worse. It was everything that it was before, except we had to raise $17,000 in just a few weeks. The drive team went sleepless. The scouting system underwent its fourth revision. Everyone stretched themselves as thin as possible to host multiple fundraisers and dedicated many late nights to practicing and endlessly iterating the robot. Yet, we again made it to St. Louis for the second year in a row, with the 9th hardest qualification schedule in the division waiting for us.

Our team finally realized its true potential. Putting up consistent 6-7 disk autonomous modes and approximately 90 disk points per match with a buzzer-beater hang, we managed to run 5-3 instead of the 3-5 predicted of us. Food consumption and break-taking slowed to a standstill as we attempted to garner information about 100 distinct teams. Smart strategy, outstanding and adaptable alliance partners, and sheer determination resulted in us being the #3 pick by alliance captain 303, somehow managing to pick up 1640, a cycler, defender, and 30pt climber that had somehow slipped through the cracks.

A third-year team to be in the presence of such experience and expertise was absolutely outstanding. Working side-by-side with decades of collective experience found in the TEST team and Sab-BOT-age was nothing sort of incredible. We are extremely thankful.

We knew that fierce competition would be awaiting us, but outstanding pressure performance and adaptable play by all three members of the alliance resulted in extremely close wins over the stacked alliance of 2252, 1718 and 141. The third year-team was advancing to semis, where we faced the juggernaut 128, 195 and 1676 alliance. Squeaking out two more wins, we were again on to the finals, facing no other than the #1 alliance - for the third time of the season.

Facing some of the biggest names in FIRST - 1538, 1986 and 217 - was a nightmare and a dream. Two matches and a quick trip around the dome (me) later, we were on Einstein.

Iteration didn't stop on the world stage. Frantic trips to scout and video the practice and quarterfinal matches in the stands to report to the drive team culminated in a close win over the outstanding 1241, 1477 and 610 alliance. The rest, of course, is history. Putting up a record 254 points in the second-semi, everyone was convinced we were headed to the finals...until the miscalculation was announced, and we were sent to a third match. A nail-biting 2 minutes and 15 seconds , along with perfect performance by the future World Champions resulted in another loss, and that was it.

Two California teams made it to Einstein.
We were the youngest team to make it to Einstein in 2013 - by 6 years. We were the only team number over 2000 that played on the world stage.

Was it because we have multimillion dollar facilities, a mentor-run program, outstanding luck, or tons of experience? No. We, 22 students, rose funds in our community to build Mavericks in a two-garage. We, team 3476, spent 12-hour shifts designing, machining, CADding, scouting, practicing. We strove. We iterated. We did it over, and over, and over again. We refused to give up, we improved instead. We improved our OPR from 45 in San Diego to over 80 on Newton.

Our utmost thanks to our alliance partners, our gracious opponents, and everyone who competed in this outstanding competition.