Team 4814, Reflections on our 2013 Season

[lemiant]

What's the credits song by the way?

[MSawan]

Originally Posted by lemiant

What's the credits song by the way?

The song is Hummer by Reaktor Production, www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDMZvdZlb7w

[themccannman]

You guys really had a killer rookie season, during our final curie elimination match I was happy we were against you because I thought you guys would take Einstein if you beat us. I really can't explain how impressed I am with your team.

[Samwaldo]

The whole time, the word inspirational was all that could come to mind. I took so many lessons out of your video. It was so worth the time watching the whole video.

[Akash Rastogi]

Exceptional video and team! Hope to hang out a bit at IRI.

[Jonathan Norris]

Amazing video, I'm really looking forward to meeting your team next year. I know that starting a team(s) through a University has unique challenges and opportunities, with all the success you've had this year your program is on the right track and will only grow from here.

[Wayne TenBrink]

What a phenomenal season! Not only did you tear it up on the field, but it is obvious that you all (students and mentors alike) were inspired, learned a lot about yourselves, and picked up some useful STEM experience as well. Great video, too.

It was a real honor to play with you and 67 on Curie. We all gave it our best and almost made it to Einstein. Our poor old robot still isn't all the way back together, but it should be at 100% for the off season. The floor is a long way from the top of the tower.

Good luck at IRI, and we hope to join you on the field again sometime.

[Karthik]

Congratulations to all of Team 4814 for putting together one of the most epic rookie seasons in FIRST history. 4334 set the bar pretty high last year, but you wrote a pretty amazing story yourselves. I've always had a lot of close ties and fond memories attached to Western University, so it's great to see how they've stepped up and supported FIRST in the London area.

To the entire FIRST community, you need to watch some of the videos that 4814 has put together. These guys totally know how to promote FIRST and "Make It Loud". The production quality of what they've put out is amazing; I can't wait to see what they make next!

[OWilliamson]

Great job you guys! I loved watching you guys throughout Champs, and it was definitely an amazing rookie run!

[gabrielau23]

I'd love to watch it but youtube is blocked at my school right now..

[Kernaghan]

Originally Posted by gabrielau23

I'd love to watch it but youtube is blocked at my school right now..

Hahaha happens to us all

[Adam Freeman]

WOW! Congratulations 4814 on an incredible season. Thank you for putting this video together and documenting your season.

This video was very inspiring to me, not just from robotic perspective, but on a personal level. To see the emotion and effect on the students and mentors was really powerful.

After participating in the program for this many year, I sometimes forget what it's like to feel that emotional about a result that isn't winning the entire thing. This video helped restore some of that.

To be honest at the time of alliance selection, we were not very happy that we were the team that was "stuck" playing with the defensive rookie team that lucked it's way into an easy schedule and was 8-0 at Champs. Embarassingly, we were actively hoping and lobbying that they would not pick us and let us fall to 2056.

But, after experiencing their defense, with and against us, and looking back at their qualification schedule (played against 1503, 67, 1310, and 2056) they really deserved to be ranked in the #3 position.

In the end, 4814 proved to be very deserving of their rank. Shutting down any team that we put them on (1717, 1983, 3539, 148...). I am very happy that we were selected by them and had a chance to participate in their amazing season.

I didn't get to talk with you guys much in St. Louis during our run together, hopefully I will be able to at IRI.

Congratulations and good luck in the future!

-Adam

[Mr. Lim]

Great video!

It was an absolute pleasure watching your team this season. I was able to see everything unfold at both GTRW and at Champs.

4814 played some of the most tactically smart matches I've seen, and they did so in every match they played.

I had a chance to speak with two of their leads prior to alliance selections, and boy did they REALLY understand how FRC worked. I was bombarded with questions and very insightful perspectives that many veteran teams wouldn't have given a second thought to. They knew exactly what it meant to be a rookie team that ranked very high (at times #1 overall), and who achieved this primarily by playing outstanding defense and employing sound strategies. This is NOT an easy position to be in, especially when you have many other high-profile teams in the top spots below you.

Picking becomes a very complicated process, and what teams say to you, and what you say to them can be easily lost in translation.

There'a a lot of pressure from a lot of different teams, including your own.

The "best" decision to make isn't so clear, and every choice seems to leave *someone* mad at you.

It was an awesome conversation to have with 4814, especially with this "rookie team" which really weren't operating like rookies at all.

And the best part of the conversation was that in the end, it seemed completely unnecessary.

These guys had already done their research, understood what everyone's intentions and motivations were, knew what they wanted to do, and understood how best to achieve it in the most gracious and professional way.

Just awesome...

P.S. Keep an eye on that Jethro fellow for us!

[Jilani]

Originally Posted by Mr. Lim

P.S. Keep an eye on that Jethro fellow for us!

Don't worry, we'll keep two eyes on him

Thank you everyone for all the kind words! I'm glad all of you enjoyed hearing our team's story

[Jay1986]

What an amazing season you guys! I love the video and wish you the best of luck in the future!
~Jay