VCU- A Wrap Up and Appology

[Gimpy]

yeah ostrich...blue hair is fun especially when it stains a hotel bathtub! good job to all the teams there..congrats to all the winners. the ice fights and the dancing on stage were pretty fun i have to say. and remember...must get gumby.

GO ROBODOGS!!!

[bigk2k4]

I'm just glad no one saw me trip on the ramp...

[dlavery]

Originally posted by warbot620
douse anyone who was at the vcu regionals think that team 620 was was shafted during the finale round alliance picking when

1st officials said on intercom you could decline a offer from a team ahead of you but still accept a offer from another team latter, but if you didn't accept you would be eliminated.

2nd team 620 has an offer from the team ranked 2nd or 3rd (cant remember) and decline btw(they decline b/c already had made arrangements with the oakton team)

3rd when team 620 has an offer from oakton we accept

4th totally incompetent field manager run over after we had already gone over to team oakton and talks to the guy running it then comes back and says you can do that and so we take are place back in 8th pance and choose are partners, they don't even give us the chance to accept the other teams offer.

5th we talk to head ref and they say that we were are allowed to accept oaktons offer

6th we have to go in the finals without any change b/c "it's too late"

RULE T-7: Teams may decline an offer when asked to ally for the elimination rounds; however, if a team declines, they are no longer eligible to be chosen as an alliance partner.

1st: You are mis-representing what was announced at the beginning of the selections. The announcement stated that if a team was selected as an alliance partner, they could either accept or decline. If they accepted, fine. If they declined and were below the top 8, they were out of the selections and could not be considered further. If they were in the top 8, they could remain in the finalist pool and still select partners. No mention was made (one way or another) about responses should a finalist team be selected a second time. I am sure about this - check the tape if you are in doubt.

2nd: As soon as you declined the offer from the 3rd seed team, Rule T-7 kicks in. The motivation for declining the offer doesn't matter.

3rd: Rule T-7. You can't do that.

4th: The "totally incompetant field manager" was doing exactly what he was supposed to do. He caught a rule violation that was missed by the M.C. (me) and he did his job. Your needless insult and insinuation is inappropriate and undeserved. Go check your attitude at the door.

5th: The ref was mistaken. They are human, and make mistakes too. That is why there are people like the field managers who can refer to the rule books to double-check items like this. When Rule T-7 was pointed out to the ref in question, he agreed with the field manager.

6th: You were the ones to decline the first offer, because you wanted a "better deal" with a different team. The fact that your better deal resulted in a rules violation is your fault, not the refs, not the field managers, not FIRSTs, nor anyone else's. You don't get to re-set the whole scenario just because you violated the rules.

7th: As my dearly departed grandmother used to say "QUIT YER BELLY-ACHING!!" Enjoy the fact that you got to the finals!! There are a lot of other teams that didn't get that far. Your team made a great showing with a good robot and capable skills. Have fun with how much you did! Don't demean your own accomplishments by spluttering about a minor pimple on the complexion of the entire competition.

If it has been said once, it has been said a thousand times: FIRST has almost nothing to do with the competition - it has to do with what you do before the competition, what you go through to get there, and what you do with the experience afterwards. If you are focused on how well you do in the competition standings, you are focused on the wrong thing, and you are going to miss the real value and payoff of the program. A year from now, heck - three months from now - no one is going to care whether you placed first or tenth or sixty-third at the FIRST Richmond Regional Competition. What they will care about A LOT is what you did with the experience. Are you using new skills and knowledge that you gained during the process? Did you consider a new career path that had never been an option before? Did it lead you to a new understanding of engineering that you never had before? Did you get excited about designing and inventing things as a result? Did you put something into practice that you learned from the competition? Did you take ANY of the values that you hopefully documented in your Chairman's Award submission, and find a way to spin them back to your school or community or family or friends? Are you a better person as a result, or have you met and befriended better people? Have you found a way that you can improve the capabilities or society or culture of the country or the world, even in a small way? If you can answer "yes" to ANY of these questions, then how well you team did or did not do at the competition is insignificant in comparison.

FIRST: get with the program.

-dave

[Jeff Rodriguez]

Well said dave.
Question: What other regionals are you going to be at?

[Katie Reynolds]

Dave, you're awesome.

- Katie

[Johca_Gaorl]

It was awesome

Dave - You were great, it was fun being next to you guys! I still didn't get my beef though...

Sam's hair was very cool, looked difficult, it probably should have one an engineering excellence award, lol (My hair was blue and silver, but it didn't stand out nearly that much)

435 - Stacking 6 boxes was one of the coolest things I saw the entire competition, that was incredible!

234 - Also one of the coolest ideas, so many of us thought about arms, then decided not to do it, you actually did it, awesome!

Everyone seemed to like our Knight Krawler/Segway/Begway, probably more of you remember that than our robot, hehe, oh well. Watch Philly, we'll be better!

384 - You guys were awesome to watch (and listen to when that wheelie bar caught the ramp!)

388 - Congratulations, and thanks for the Flashlight and rockin' Triangle Tool Thingy!

Sorry if I forgot anyone!