SCRIW IV (South Carolina Robotics Invitational & Workshops 2014)

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by Josh Drake

The event planners must still be sleeping that one off

Some of us are still taking it easy this evening!

First off, for posterity and reference, here's how alliance selection broke down (in order, with no declines):

1) 4444/342/281/3459
2) 3701/283/1293/3140
3) 3489/4935/1398/1758
4) 1553/4901/1539/2815
5) 343/3490/1225/4083
6) 2059/4451/4533/3976

And the elimination bracket went thusly:

Quarterfinals
1 had a bye
2 had a bye
5 d. 4 in 2
3 d. 6 in 2

Semifinals
5 d. 1 in 3
2 d. 3 in 2

Finals
5 d. 2 in 2

Thus, your SCRIW 2014 champions are teams 343 (Metal In Motion), 3490 (Viper Drive, the first-ever two-time SCRIW champions), 1225 (The Gorillas), and 4083 (The Iron Wolverines)!

I have to give props to the finalist alliance as well. 3701, Royal Robotics, had never attended a FIRST competition outside of the North Carolina Regional. Despite the low number, SCRIW was 283's first competition as a newly-formed team. 3140, despite being known around the state after attending Palmetto this year, was the first Tennessee team to sign up for SCRIW.

And like I said during the handshake, I've waited eleven long seasons to welcome my alma mater 1293 to the finals. Sometimes the robot wasn't up to snuff, sometimes the partner wasn't up to snuff (and who can forget the heartbreaker partner red card in 2011's Palmetto semis?), but one way or the other fate had kept them out of the finals of eleven Palmetto Regionals and three SCRIWs. You wouldn't know it from the way they've helped area teams, build solid robots for their means, and work incredibly hard to put on SCRIW with 2815, but this is the first piece of hardware they've taken home from any event anywhere. If there is any justice in the universe, more will come soon to the Pandamaniacs.

I was similarly pleased to present the SCRIWDriver Award to Jacob Paikoff for his four fantastic years of service in putting SCRIW together. He's volunteered in any number of roles, including head referee this year (and he didn't even ask for it!), and he's almost always been the last person out the door both on setup and on teardown that isn't either a host team, AndyMark, or me (and I don't count). He's a tremendous asset to any event he attends, and we're thankful to have had his help over all these years.

Props to the crews from AndyMark, 1293, and 2815 for their efforts in putting the event on. It wouldn't be possible without all three working in sync. Further thanks to the guys from the IROC event for letting us borrow their balls.

Personal thanks to 1553 for picking Garnet Squadron, and to 1539 and 2815 for being great partners. Wish it could've gone further, but it stings a little less to lose to the champions. Further personal thanks to 4451 for the Billfred Approved stickers--I'm keeping those away from the kids. (No, I didn't know they were putting that on the Ramblin' Rex machine...let alone that big!)

To anyone that caught my shoe-losing moment in the Finals 2 intros for posterity, please add that to the long list of "please don't show this to Billfred" photos. Karthik, your job is secure.

And lastly, thank you to all SCRIW IV teams! We would not be able to stage this event without the continued support of all these teams, and we are already making plans for SCRIW V to be bigger and better than ever. We aim to have a date firmed up to share no later than Kickoff.