Extraordinary Moments from Champs

[caboosev11]

This year was the first time I went to champs and it was in short, amazing.
Many awesome things happened during the competition, but not all of them were directly related to the competition. A lot of great moments happened outside of competition, whether it was during the innovation fair, or in random places in St. Louis.

I thought I'd share my awesome moment.

On our way back from the competition venue, most of my strategy team got into one part of the train car on the St. Louis train system and sat down next to a random guy. While we were discussing what kind of alliance strategy would get us to win Curie, a few of us noticed the guy messing around with some pens and a paper. We didn't really mind it and kept talking.
After a bit, the guy gets up to leave and hands the paper he was messing around on to our mentor Joe, and says something like "this is for your keeping."
We were absolutely confused at first. It was just a bunch of scribbles. But then we turned it horizontally and saw us from his perspective.
We spent the next twenty minutes amazed and baffled. We completely forgot what we had been talking about before.

This is us from his perspective:
https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...f2&oe=579FD191

This is the awesome drawing:
https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...2a&oe=57E026A2

It was absolutely amazing. Even now I'm still in awe. The artist has a lot of skill, and we never expected a random guy on the train to do something like that.
Unfortunately, not everyone was drawn in. The guy who is facing away from the camera whose hoodie says "Piotr" doesn't appear in the drawing.

Let's hear some awesome stories that you guys have that happened outside of comps!

[asid61]

Although we didn't go to champs this year, we had some interesting experiences at Utah.
While on the light rail going to the team social, me and a group of friends were sitting next to this man (maybe 40 years old) who had almost been sentenced for a felony in his Junior year of high school after already being convicted of arson some years before; his friends convinced him that armed robbery of a gas station was a good idea. The judge tried him as a minor (he was 17) and gave him a very short sentence in an effort to stop him from going to prison for 20+ years. He said he turned his life around by working to get his GED and studying to start his own business while serving his sentence. Now he's married with 2 kids that are going through college and runs his own successful company. We told him he should write a book about his experiences.
You definitely meet all kinds on public transit.

[C.Lesco]

One of the only ones i can post here without getting heat from my mentors (HEY WESTERN MENTORS )

Explaining and showing off the bot and triwheels, having 133 scouts come over to scout was one of my favorites.

"Yeah so battery case is a music stand, bumper backing is an old intake, all of the metal bars are chair legs, this rod is hot glued in, oh this part of the bumper backing is also a music stand, electrical pan is a door panel off of a racecar, mount for safety light is off of another racecar panel, half zipties and ducttape, planned CDF and Portcullis arm is that sawed in half snow shovel over there oh and instead of filing these edges we just put electrical tape over them".

All of this and the wheels caused them to bring over other members to see which just brought me more joy. They wrote on their scouting sheet "Most., ghetto. robot. ever. They were all smiles though so it was all fun.

Dispite all of this we managed to put up an okay defence against them in the following match! They were a really awesome team to talk with and I wish them the best.

The match was q32 carver. If 133 is reading this hi guys!!!!!!

[Poseidon5817]

My favorite moment from champs (outside of the competition anyway) was when we went to the Over Under Sports Bar right down the street from the dome. We were standing outside the restaurant talking strategy when all of a sudden a drunk man holding a Coke bottle comes up and begins talking to us. The exchange went something like this:

"Hey guys. I'm just gonna say this now, please don't be scared of me cause I'm black! And I see there's a bunch of you, so please don't beat me up, that wouldn't be fair." We're kind of confused, but laughing anyway. He continues:

"Would you guys spare a dollar to hear the best beatboxing ever? I promise you it will be worth it." We agree, and he says:

"Trust me, this will be the best five dollars (notice the subtle change in price) you've ever spent." It is at this point he proceeds to lay down the best beatboxing I've ever heard. No joke, I wouldn't have been surprised to find a speaker in his mouth blasting Skrillex, it was that good. I ended up giving him five dollars, and he thanked us. Then he went to another group near us and repeated the same exchange, and they were busting out laughing as well. A lot of teams were walking near us nearby as well, so I wouldn't be surprised if anyone else here got to meet this absolute legend.