2015 Carson Division

[Jared Russell]

A couple corrections:

In the first match, 973 drive all the way into the driver station wall and cut off our auto due to a software glitch. We missed the 20 point tote stack as a result. Then at the end of the match, with 7 stacks standing, 973 inadvertently placed the 8th stack on a noodle, causing it to topple and take out another 42 point stack (as well as costing us a couple of penalties for ejecting game objects out of the field).

In the second match, 973 fixed the glitch but still drove a bit too far, and again hit us in auto. Soon after teleop began, 999 flipped over onto the landfill, thus cutting off 973's access to their second and third stacks. We knew we needed 215 points to advance, and at this point it was basically impossible. We dropped a can at the end as well, but by that point it didn't matter.

All in all an unfortunate series of events. Our alliance was capable of scoring every can and upright tote on the field, had canburglars on all four robots (subjectively, three of them were at least as fast as the fastest ones on Einstein), and had three robots with 20 point autonomous modes, but the vicious nature of the eliminations format along with some really mistimed bad luck ended our day way earlier than we had hoped.

Congratulations to the four alliances that were able to capitalize on our mistakes, and to the eventual division champions!

[mateoland]

Originally Posted by Jared Russell

A couple corrections:

In the first match, 973 drive all the way into the driver station wall and cut off our auto due to a software glitch. We missed the 20 point tote stack as a result. Then at the end of the match, with 7 stacks standing, 973 inadvertently placed the 8th stack on a noodle, causing it to topple and take out another 42 point stack (as well as costing us a couple of penalties for ejecting game objects out of the field).

In the second match, 973 fixed the glitch but still drove a bit too far, and again hit us in auto. Soon after teleop began, 999 flipped over onto the landfill, thus cutting off 973's access to their second and third stacks. We knew we needed 215 points to advance, and at this point it was basically impossible. We dropped a can at the end as well, but by that point it didn't matter.

All in all an unfortunate series of events. Our alliance was capable of scoring every can and upright tote on the field, had canburglars on all four robots (subjectively, three of them were at least as fast as the fastest ones on Einstein), and had three robots with 20 point autonomous modes, but the vicious nature of the eliminations format along with some really mistimed bad luck ended our day way earlier than we had hoped.

Congratulations to the four alliances that were able to capitalize on our mistakes, and to the eventual division champions!

Thanks for the correction Jared.

[wireties]

Hope to see our new Carson-friends off-season and next year! Thanks for a good time in a great division! Congratulations to 3339, 1711, 1325 and 215 on the win!

We hoped to help our qualification alliance partners more. We "went for it", modified the robot to do 6 stacks - put up 5 stacks of 6 twice on the practice field. But on Carson it seemed like some little thing killed us in most every match. On to next year!

[Adam Freeman]

Public thank you to the teams and volunteers in the Carson division. We had a great experience participating and working with all our qualification partners. Volunteers were very friendly and helpful on and off the field (significant improvement over previous years).

Couple of specific shout outs:

4488 - Thank you for selecting us! Short of being on the #1 alliance, we were realistically hoping to be playing with you guys on Saturday. We did not have the greatest showing during our qualification matches. My drive team and I made a ton of mistakes trying to do too much. Luckily you guys believed in our ability to execute our with our can arms and only put up our two stacks.

You created a perfect alliance that developed synergy faster than I have ever experienced! Your entire team is extremely impressive! Very well organized and prepared for any possible situation. Your robot was so consistently great at executing your match responsibilities. You guys deserved to be on Einstein, I feel really bad that our machine failure was responsible for not getting you there. You guys are well on your way to "powerhouse" status and I'm sure have an Einstein appearance in the very near future.

225 - - Ahh...WOW! I didn't see very many matches this weekend, so I had no clue you guys were that good. Seeing how quickly you guys were clearing the landfill and creating stacks, we probably could have even maximized aour scores a little higher by letting you clear out in front of our scoring platform even more. Your container righting and delivery was amazing. You guys were a pleasure to work with!

5659 - Unfortunately, I did not get to interact with you guys at all. I appreciate the amount of work you were putting in to be retro-fitted with 4488's special device. I wish I would have gotten a better opportunity to meet and interact with you team.

254 - Seeing my friends, who I only see once a year, is what makes this entire Championship experience so special! Talking robots in the pits, watching matches field side, hanging out in the evenings is always better when you guys are there. Would have been incredible to get a chance to work with you guys. Hopefully it doesn't take another 12 years to get a chance to play together. You have the best robot in the world for this game. The level of work and detail you guys will do to to be the best is inspiring and terrifying at the same time. I have no idea how you guys do it. I hope we get to see you guys again someday.

973 - Similar to Poofs, seeing our Einstein partners and friends from last year was extremely fun for us. You guys deserved to be the #1 pick, your performance was incredible. Keep your heads help high, stuff happens so quickly in these 2min matches, that require split second decisions. It's very hard to always be perfect under that amount of stress and expectation year after year. You all have a great attitude and we are very happy to call you friends of the HOT team!

16 - Seeing Meridith, John, and Brandon this weekend, re-living our old Einstein experiences from '08, and having you in our corner for the Finals was awesome! I'm glad we could both get into the Semi's before we had to fight it out for cans. Working with and against you is always a blast. Similar to 254 and 973, you guys are on that list of special friends that we get to see once/year. It's good we are taking advantage of it before this opportunity gets taken away from us.

Thank you all!
-Adam

[Williane]

Originally Posted by Adam Freeman

You created a perfect alliance that developed synergy faster than I have ever experienced! Your entire team is extremely impressive! Very well organized and prepared for any possible situation. Your robot was so consistently great at executing your match responsibilities. You guys deserved to be on Einstein, I feel really bad that our machine failure was responsible for not getting you there. You guys are well on your way to "powerhouse" status and I'm sure have an Einstein appearance in the very near future.

Adam, your team is amazing. To be able to play on opposite sides of the field last year made our competition special, imagine this time working side by side with Team 67! It was very exciting to see how each team in the alliance played its part well. Team 225, what a sweet team, in the pits and the arena, your robot timing bringing the cans and stacking looked like we have practiced a lot before. Our dear rookies 5659, great GP and teamwork allowing our team to install the system on your robot. Each robot and driver doing their best; it was impressive.

Let's look at this from the bright side, your team participation brought our alliance very close to getting to Einstein. One of the 4488 team rules is to never blame individuals or groups for mistakes or get hung up on errors, as long as everyone in the team is doing their best. Everything that happens, good or bad, is handled by the team, as a unit. We improve and learn from each experience.

It is the same here, our alliance was one single team with a big number "4488-67-225-5659" and it was perfect! I don't think anyone has any doubt we all did our best.

We know it is part of this competition that a robot may fail and mistakes may happen, that is what makes our hearts pound and our adrenaline rush, and makes the audience cheer and scream loud. I believe ours, and the first alliance, brought some excitement to Carson, don't you think?

We are honored to have played with each of our alliances members both in Carson division and at the PNW events. We are grateful for the many friends we made throughout the year and the moments we had.

[Kevin Leonard]

What a crazy and unexpected result to a phenomenal weekend.
First, I'd like to thank our alliance partners for being absolutely incredible.

1325 has the most simple design I wish I had thought of. 3 stacks/match consistently, even when there were seconds left to place their last set of 3 totes and a container, they almost always got it done. And the match they dropped the container on the last stack, our other amazing alliance partners were right there and ready to cap both small stacks of three. Incredible teamwork.

3339 was one of the most consistent teams in the division, and had an incredibly smart set of brains behind the glass and in the stands. Their spirit could be heard in the hallways outside the stands, and every member of their team was extremely gracious. They knew the shortcomings of their robot, and when things went wrong on the field, they knew exactly what to do. I talked quite a bit to some of their mentors and students and was impressed by how cool and knowledgeable every member of this team was. Congratulations on being the first Israeli team on Einstein!

1711 started working perfectly at exactly the right times. While in qualifications, their canburglars were less than consistent, in eliminations they beat some of the best and fastest teams in the world to the cans, and managed their role incredibly well. Our team knew when you were on the field, our alliance was better off. Also made the only upside-down stack on Einstein, and the only one I've seen all year.

20 was thrilled to be a part of this international alliance, and can't believe luck went in our favor as many times as it did. We're honored to be an Einstein team for the first time in our long history.
Thanks to 1325 and 3339 for believing in us enough to make that pick, and for taking everyone's input when it came to match strategy. We can sometimes be a bit much to handle, as we have some strong-willed strategists, but all of you acted in the most gracious manner imaginable throughout the whole run to Einstein.

To the finalists- Wow!
When your alliance formed, I was sure we couldn't make it to division finals, let alone win the division.

4488, one of our drivers may have had a crush on your robot. Such a consistent machine and an amazing team to face on the field.

67 is the team I bring up in examples of how to build robots intelligently. Your robot this year was fantastic, and your canburglars were scary fast. I was excited when I saw we had a qualification match with you in our revised schedule.

225 was the dream 2nd robot, and I don't know how they lasted that long. Consistent landfill stacking, blazing fast canburglars, and smart driving brought this team a MAR championship, and a division finals appearance. You always have a unique approach to the game, and this year is no different.

And wow did I want to see 5659 take the field and see the crazy can-stealing contraption they ended up with. Who knows what would have happened.
Your alliance was scary, and things could have easily gone the other way in finals and seen the SupremeShock HotFire alliance make its way to the big stage.

Now to the #1 seeded alliance,
254, 973, 999, 4499, I was both upset and excited to see your alliance falter. Upset because I knew your alliance was capable of a world championship, but excited because it meant everyone else in the division had a chance. Our team was super excited when we found out we had a practice match with both 254 and 973, and what I saw during that was scary, to say the least.

Lastly, I want to mention one of our team's newest BFF's, Team 5254, the Trumansburg Robot Raiders (or #5poofs, for some).
They're an awesome second year team with an incredible robot who I was disappointed to see lose as early as they did. 20 didn't actually expect to be picked on Saturday morning, so we decided to help 5254 picklist and strategize Friday night, as from the #10 seed they could have ended up an alliance captain very easily. We were thrilled when they ended up getting picked by 1519, and then managed to get the steal of 399 in the second round. When we unexpectedly got picked, their team cheered for us, and our teams have become closer than ever as a result. To anyone who doesn't know 5254, check them out, and get ready for them to do great things in 2016.

[AWoL]

Originally Posted by Jared Russell

Our alliance was capable of scoring every can and upright tote on the field

Not to be an annoying pedant...but step totes?

[Jean Tenca]

Originally Posted by AWoL

Not to be an annoying pedant...but step totes?

Step totes in elims! I was blown away that you guys grabbed them and scored them. You guys were incredible.

[Ben Martin]

Originally Posted by ScourgeDragon

Step totes in elims! I was blown away that you guys grabbed them and scored them. You guys were incredible.

You guys built a fantastic alliance. I don't think we've ever built alliance synergy that fast. It was a real pleasure working with you, 67 and 5659. You were the most rock-solid on the alliance, always worth half or greater of the scores we were pushing. Our showing wasn't great for many matches, so thank you for trusting that we play a strong support game in eliminations.

67, it was great playing with you guys! It was great having a little 'Einstein experience' around to help ground us as we pushed through quarters and semis.

Hope to play with both these powerhouses again soon!

5659, I didn't get much chance to interact with you guys, but thank you for your willingness to install 4488's mechanism. It would have been critical had we made it to the Einstein stage and into semis.

For the step totes--the left side of the landfill was boxed in with stacks, what were we supposed to do with 30 seconds?

Congratulations to 1325, 3339, 20, and 1711--we thought we might have you even after we lost a can in the last match, but you guys pulled it out. Great job, and congratulations!

To the #1 alliance--it was unfortunate that things ended the way they did for you, after everyone clearly put hours and hours of effort and thought into building an extremely strong team. Regardless of how it ended, the best 2 robots in the division were on that alliance, and as such they will be serious inspiration for us as we work on off-season upgrades.

[MooreteP]

Originally Posted by Jared Russell

A couple corrections:

In the first match, 973 drive all the way into the driver station wall and cut off our auto due to a software glitch. We missed the 20 point tote stack as a result. Then at the end of the match, with 7 stacks standing, 973 inadvertently placed the 8th stack on a noodle, causing it to topple and take out another 42 point stack (as well as costing us a couple of penalties for ejecting game objects out of the field).

In the second match, 973 fixed the glitch but still drove a bit too far, and again hit us in auto. Soon after teleop began, 999 flipped over onto the landfill, thus cutting off 973's access to their second and third stacks. We knew we needed 215 points to advance, and at this point it was basically impossible. We dropped a can at the end as well, but by that point it didn't matter.

All in all an unfortunate series of events. Our alliance was capable of scoring every can and upright tote on the field, had canburglars on all four robots (subjectively, three of them were at least as fast as the fastest ones on Einstein), and had three robots with 20 point autonomous modes, but the vicious nature of the eliminations format along with some really mistimed bad luck ended our day way earlier than we had hoped.

Congratulations to the four alliances that were able to capitalize on our mistakes, and to the eventual division champions!

Here is some field side video of the match that I posted in another thread:

Carson QF 4
I have a feeling that 973 being in the right driver station was also having their vision of the field blocked by the stacks of totes placed right in the front of them.
Did they know that the noodle was there? Did the countdown cause them to push their luck?

Carson QF8
The most poignant part of this match was at the very end as time expired.
254's tether became entangled in 973's drivetrain at 2:00.
The tether snaps as the buzzer sounds.

In spite of the publicity this year, no tethered robots made it to the Einstein Finals.

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by MooreteP

Here is some field side video of the match that I posted in another thread:

Carson QF 4
I have a feeling that 973 being in the right driver station was also having their vision of the field blocked by the stacks of totes placed right in the front of them.
Did they know that the noodle was there? Did the countdown cause them to push their luck?

Carson QF8
The most poignant part of this match was at the very end as time expired.
254's tether became entangled in 973's drivetrain at 2:00.
The tether snaps as the buzzer sounds.

In spite of the publicity this year, no tethered robots made it to the Einstein Finals.

Kids and I knew it was there. They were hesitant to score for that reason, I thought we were clear enough and told them to go for it.

It wasn't a good call.

[GuyM142]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

Kids and I knew it was there. They were hesitant to score for that reason, I thought we were clear enough and told them to go for it.

It wasn't a good call.

I can say for sure that your alliance had the best can burglar and the best robots and I was really hoping to have the chance to play on the same field with you.
Things like that can happen.. especially in the rush of the game.
Thank you for a wonderful season, you guys rock!

[GeeTwo]

Originally Posted by GuyM142

Thank you for a wonderful season, you guys rock!

Thanks to team Bumblebee for being such wonderful spirit - you're our role models as we work on improving our team spirit this year. Even if we hadn't gotten anything else from CMP (and oh, yes, we did), sitting next to you and rooting for you during selection and playoffs on Carson was worth the trip.

And you can bet that we kept rooting for you on Einstein from way up in 448!

Looking forward to hearing "Bee Bee Bum-ble-bee" at CMP again next year!

[MooreteP]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

Kids and I knew it was there. They were hesitant to score for that reason, I thought we were clear enough and told them to go for it.

It wasn't a good call.

Recycle Rush, for all of the controversy about the nature of the game, has it's redeeming qualities. Those wang dang noodles affected the outcome of many matches.
Human players = important

This particular match had all of the drama of this years Super Bowl with the blocked pass to the end zone at the end that determined who won the game. Just listen to the response from the audience when the stacks fell.
GDC = good job.

[Tom Bottiglieri]

Originally Posted by MooreteP

This particular match had all of the drama of this years Super Bowl with the blocked pass to the end zone at the end that determined who won the game. Just listen to the response from the audience when the stacks fell.
GDC = good job.

A) It was an interception.
B) There were no pool noodles on the field for absolutely no reason.