The surreal experience of winning a regional

[nixiebunny]

Our team, the Bit Buckets, has been doing FRC for four years. This is the first year that we won a regional event. I don't mean that we were 2nd pick of the winning alliance - I mean that we were alliance captains and won every match in eliminations. Definitely unexpected, and the stars had aligned for us and our alliance partners.

I am curious if our experience was unusual, or if winning usually has this many things different from not winning. Things that I observed to be different this time:

1. The robot performed flawlessly throughout the event.
2. We made zero changes to the robot, only two minor repairs.
3. The drive team clicked. They danced instead of fretting.
4. The drive team got better and better and better.
5. We did not try to make the robot better, nor its code.
6. Scouting was done in stages, and the analyst did alliance selection.
7. Mentors worked hard to keep that one stressful student from stressing out the others.

Also, I spent Thursday (practice day) shepherding my older son through an appendectomy. I don't know if this had an effect on the outcome.

Is this experience typical?

[GreyingJay]

No

But congratulations!

[Kevin Leonard]

Originally Posted by nixiebunny

I am curious if our experience was unusual, or if winning usually has this many things different from not winning. Things that I observed to be different this time:

1. The robot performed flawlessly throughout the event.
2. We made zero changes to the robot, only two minor repairs.
3. The drive team clicked. They danced instead of fretting.
4. The drive team got better and better and better.
5. We did not try to make the robot better, nor its code.
6. Scouting was done in stages, and the analyst did alliance selection.
7. Mentors worked hard to keep that one stressful student from stressing out the others.

Also, I spent Thursday (practice day) shepherding my older son through an appendectomy. I don't know if this had an effect on the outcome.

Is this experience typical?

1. No
2. No
3. Maybe
4. Yes
5. No
6. Yes
7. Maybe

Some regional wins are more stressful than others, with parts breaking and last minute changes and risks taken. Others are nice and clean, like yours this weekend. I've been through both, and while both are fun- the stressful ones- where you have to make last-second repairs and quick-fixes- those are the ones you'll remember forever.
Congratulations! I hope to see your team do well at championships!

[Christopher149]

857 can't lay claim to winning a regional, but our experience as finalist of a district competition last year feels very similar. Finishing as #1 seed was very surreal, as winning that many consecutive matches is so unusual for us. We did essentially nothing to the robot through the course of the event, having done improvements in our out of bag time after our first event. And then to receive the EI award at the same event was stunning.

Unfortunately, our drive chain suffered failures in our 11th qual match as well as F2 and F3, contributing to an 11-1 record and not winning the event (but congrats to 3602, 4391, and 4988). Trying and failing to make repairs in finals was stressful, to say the least.

So, here is at least one team with a similar experience (at least right up until the end; we spent half of MSC fixing our drive train).