What are your victories?

[Sperkowsky]

Originally Posted by GreyingJay

Those are absolutely victories! Sponsors for sure is huge! Not only for financial reasons but it will up everyone's game a bit on your team, knowing there are people watching that you want to impress. It also lends a level of professionalism and pride (and somehow looks more "official") when your robot, banner, T-shirts, etc. have sponsor logos all over them.

Congratulations and good luck!

It's amazing how far we have come. Just today our banner came in. Looking at it with huge Sponsors like Northrop gramman, cable vision, and dunkin donuts. We decided not to get sponsors on our shirts or sweatshirts (we don't want to have to buy new shirts every year) but the banner alone feels good.

[GreyingJay]

Originally Posted by Sperkowsky

It's amazing how far we have come. Just today our banner came in. Looking at it with huge Sponsors like Northrop gramman, cable vision, and dunkin donuts. We decided not to get sponsors on our shirts or sweatshirts (we don't want to have to buy new shirts every year) but the banner alone feels good.

Good idea on the shirts. It is also apparently a thing to trade shirts with other teams, so not having the logos is a good thing for that, too (some companies protect their image carefully and don't want their logo being worn by people that they are not affiliated with).

I just bought a new banner for our team too. Everyone loved it. It's such a simple little thing but it lends so much... credibility! Buttons, too. Button trading is huge at regionals as I quickly discovered.

[Riverdance]

One year ago, we had just finished the roughest season of our team's existence, including rookie year. A power struggle with our head mentor led to him being removed from his position and he took our bank account and sponsors with him (all in all about 32,000 dollars). We had spent a season rebuilding, refinancing, and figuring ourselves out. Our robot was paid for in large part of the pockets of mentors and families. We had moved work spaces two weeks before build season started in an effort to get ourselves under the wing of the school. We were, in short, a mess. Hartford District 2014, we were finalists only by the strength of our alliance partners.

We just got back from Hartford 2015. We have a lot of our old sponsors back, and some new ones. The school district adores us. We put together a strong community outreach program and didn't have to focus so much on internal affairs as we did last year, because we are already much more stable. We have a rookie team of our very own, 5686, the Wirecats! Our new parent mentors are fantastic, dedicated people who want to see the students succeed. Most importantly, after a year of rebuilding, we have landed solidly back on our feet. This year's strong recruitment program has gained us nearly double the members we had last year, and all of these kids have worked incredibly hard to ensure that this year, we qualified for NE District Champs!!!

As a team who, prior to last year, had not been picked for an alliance since 2011, I can say with a lot of happy tears that this victory means a lot!

[Boltman]

Getting within 6 points of likely-taking Ventura to Worlds (with Fantastically GREAT alliance partners 696 and 1836...could not have asked for any better!) and going into this week "back to back" in SD with "new" capabilities along with old ones..Thanks MK, CB via GB!!!!

Hope to see you all in STL. We will do our best! "Now that we got kinks worked out"

[Jake177]

Originally Posted by Riverdance

we qualified for NE District Champs!!!

As a team who, prior to last year, had not been picked for an alliance since 2011, I can say with a lot of happy tears that this victory means a lot!

Congratulations on making it to NE Champs! You guys built a fantastic robot this year, and our whole team was surprised when we got you with the 7th pick this weekend.


On the topic of this thread:
Given our team's history, any season that doesn't end with confetti on our robot can sometimes feel like a bit of a letdown. But I couldn't be prouder of the hard work our students put in this year, especially in the weeks between our two District events. At Pioneer Valley, we ranked 2nd to last and were not picked for the playoffs. At Hartford this weekend, we ranked 12th and led the #7 alliance to the semifinals, with an average just 7 points away from making it to the finals. Even though the end result wasn't enough to keep our season going, making such a dramatic improvement in just three weeks is a victory in my book.

[frcparent]

Your victories start with setting up a manufacturing system capable of creating a robot that will do something when you have no idea of what. It proceeds on when you help all the teams around you with anything they have a shortfall in. It is greatly enhanced when you manage to have a functioning robot bagged on time for competition. It again rises to a higher level when you manage to make it handle an entire regional based on the parts you have available. It concludes when you do whatever you can to further the goals of your team, at the same time you spend your time between matches assisting any competitors not having the lack of design flaws you did. It ends with everyone celebrating the unity and brother/sisterhood of thousands of kids having gathered for a common goal, to celebrate hard work and intelligence.

[Riverdance]

Originally Posted by Jake177

Congratulations on making it to NE Champs! You guys built a fantastic robot this year, and our whole team was surprised when we got you with the 7th pick this weekend.

Thanks so much! We loved working with you guys; these were easily our best matches of the season. We were so happy that you guys picked us and had an absolute blast! Best fun I've ever had at competition (and that's saying a lot).

[Squillo]

Our victories this year - we were finally able to actually NOT try to "do it all" in favor of trying to do a FEW things well and consistently. As a result, our robot consistently did what we'd designed and built it to do, with only minor mishaps/breakdowns. That was so huge for us.

As a result, our drivers got to drive, and strategize, and reach for goals - instead of standing there frustrated while we had comm problems, electrical problems, mechanical problems...

We were able to attend a second regional, on the mainland, for the first time.

And, as a result of all of the above, we made it to semi-finals for the first time ever (a result of #1 and #2, definitely), in a regional that was 'stronger' (in terms of the overall ability of the teams and robots) than any we've attended before.

Woot!

[YAK'ker]

Originally Posted by Squillo

Our victories this year - we were finally able to actually NOT try to "do it all" in favor of trying to do a FEW things well and consistently. As a result, our robot consistently did what we'd designed and built it to do, with only minor mishaps/breakdowns. That was so huge for us.

As a result, our drivers got to drive, and strategize, and reach for goals - instead of standing there frustrated while we had comm problems, electrical problems, mechanical problems...

We were able to attend a second regional, on the mainland, for the first time.

And, as a result of all of the above, we made it to semi-finals for the first time ever (a result of #1 and #2, definitely), in a regional that was 'stronger' (in terms of the overall ability of the teams and robots) than any we've attended before.

Woot!

wow - that's an echo of what happened to us, too!! A year of solid performance....may not have won much, but made it to semifinals for the first time, too!!!

[scca229]

I wouldn't call it "MY Victory" but "FIRST's Victory".

As the FTAA at the Las Vegas Regional this past weekend, on Saturday after alliance selections we actually had the time to take a full lunch (first time I can think of as an FTAA for my 8th event now I think). As I was walking over to the Volunteer Room to sample the very good food they stuff into us each day, I was headed off by my step-mother, one of the extremely hard working team mothers/mentors for Team 60 (I am a remote mentor as well) among other things like FTC and multiple FLL teams. One of the Team 60 families had set up a BBQ layout out in the parking lot to feed the crew and it sounded awesome and I would be able to get some fresh air before the chaos of playoffs and field tear-down.

While I was sitting on the grass hill under the trees enjoying the huge burger with all the trimmings and enjoying chatting with the team, something similar to a Frisbee (I think it was a lid to a Rubbermaid food storage container that flew very well) went screaming by us and a member from another team made a pretty spectacular catch in front of me. When I turned to see who threw it, I saw that it was someone on a different team from another state. After a few minutes of watching, it occurred to me that there weren't just 2 playing, but 4...the other 2 were students from 2 other teams, each from one of the 4 (?) teams from China that were at this Regional.

As I sat there watching, the only thing I could think was, "If this isn't one of the bedrocks of FIRST, I don't know what is." Four kids that probably didn't know each other before Thursday just having fun together while waiting for the Playoffs to start. I leaned over and pointed it out to a few of the younger kids on the team and told them to remember what they are seeing...one of them was already writing it down in her notebook she uses for recording her experiences in preparation for submissions. If having no robot connection issues for the playoffs hadn't put a smile on my face, that right there did for the whole day.

[Squillo]

Originally Posted by YAK'ker

wow - that's an echo of what happened to us, too!! A year of solid performance....may not have won much, but made it to semifinals for the first time, too!!!

Hey, Yak'ker - I see you're in Newport - my brother lives in Toledo! Would his kids have gone to your school? Or is there a high school in Toledo?

[YAK'ker]

Toledo has a VEX robotics team, but possibly his kids go to Newport HS (many do, we have an IB program there) - What are their names? I am a librarian at Newport HS so can find out where they are.
Next year, if we go 4-H (our robotics program at Newport High is being cut) then his kids can join us, no matter where they live in our big county!!!

[Squillo]

Oh, that's why I said "went" - they are all college grads now! One with the first PhD in our family ( ), in meteorology; one with an archaeology degree, doing digs; and one with a degree in PR or communications or something like that (looking for work...). (Proud auntie here...) Last name is "Hannah" - their dad, my bro, has gained some fleeting fame recently for a discovery in the area of fisheries biology (reducing bicatch in the shrimping industry), maybe you've heard of him, but probably not, I think it's a pretty narrow field. Anyway, we're a whole family of geeks.

[itsjustmrb]

What are our victories you ask? FRC Team 4063 started a trend during our rookie year of 2012, we were the only rookie team to win the coveted Gracious Professionalism award. This year we went to 3 regionals, won 2 GP Awards, 2 Creativity awards, made it to 1 quarterfinals and 2 semifinals. Although we did not make it to Champs, we were one replay away, we still hold our heads high. In 4 years, 9 total regionals, we have 6 Gracious Professionalism Awards, 2 Regional Semifinals, 2 Regional Quarterfinals, 2 Regional Finalists, 1 Regional Winner, 2 Creativity Awards, 1 Engineering Inspiration Award, 1 Imagery Award, 1 Dean’s List Finalist and qualified for the World Championships twice.
FIRST is much more than just building robots and I think our team is great example of this. As Albert Einstein once said “Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.” I believe FRC Team 4063, TRikzR4kiDz, is of great value and very successful.

Mr. B.

[K-Dawg157]

My team is the Aztechs 157.Before this year, we were a mediocre team that did well, but never great.

This year, I really wanted to step us up a notch. I persuaded a mentor to join the team, and he helped us to our victories. We still haven't won any event, but we have done so much better in so many other things.

This year was the first in 9 years that the Aztechs won more than 1 award in a season. We won the Judge's award, and the the Excellence in Engineering award. That is HUGE for us. We had amazing spirit, and a very simple robot.

Another victory is that we designed a simple, yet robust robot that we never had to fix. Nothing broke, nothing had to change, we competed, and then went and helped other teams. The fact that our design was so versatile was amazing to me.

This is the first year in a looooong time that the Aztechs have been Alliance Captain at both events we competed in. Yes they were 7th and 8th seed, but we were ranked that high because of our robot's capabilities, which I am very, very proud of.

Lastly, I am excited for next year. This is the first year that the graduating seniors have been mentoring and teaching underclassmen how to do the job they will leave behind. I am a senior now, and I do not fear for next year, because I trust the students the team will have.

This year has been huge for the Aztechs, and I hope that it only gets better from here.