robo hottie71 wrote:
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...but I'd like to throw my name into the pot too. Not so much for the 2002 game (we all know how much skill was required for that BEAST), but for the 2001 game. I've heard some people call the 2001 Beatty robot automatic and things like that, but it wasn't as easy as it looked to line everything up perfectly match after match. Sure I made my mistakes, but who doesn't? I just wish I could have driven a more competitive game, like this year's or back in 1999. I did drive in 2000, but I was only a button pusher.
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It's completely arbitrary, but I want to add my vote for Kev. (#71, 2001). I was on the team in 2001 and I was the backup driver. I don't lay any claim to any of the comments that were heard about the driving that year because Kevin was unmistakably better and drove every match. If you take a look at some of the footage, you might notice that sometimes if the goals didn't line up straight, the wheels would get caught and that touchy little bridge wouldn't balance. In my best practice times, when I had to correct the alignment on those goals, I only managed 35 seconds remaining. Kevin, on the other hand, would usually trim it out with at least 61 seconds remaining (an important cutoff). Kev, I'll never understand how you did that so quickly.
Anyway, that was a complicated robot and I would like to add that I also attempted the position of secondary driver (both sets of arms, the scoop, and gear shift). Sarah had that position, with good cause, because when her and Kevin worked together, that's when you saw that continuous, fluid movement - despite the fact that they were both pressing and pulling on 5 things at once.
Ok, enough about my bias for my old team. I also want to add on a couple of mentions for other teams in 2001 (I didn't follow 2002 and in 2003 I was too worried about our drive train
). I'll just say that all of the teams on our alliance did a wonderful job and leave it at that. As for others, I loved how well Wildstang's driver just popped around the field at full throttle, no problem (they even dislocated the bridge going too fast once). Although I'm not sure that Hotbot's robot was complicated to drive in 2001, I commend their ability to get that big ball up there so quickly. There are so many others that were great, but I shouldn't be awake, let alone thinking, so I'll leave it at that.
I GET that FIRST is about more than winning on the field. BUT... ...it is my experience that the great programs of the FIRST world almost always build on a foundation of competitive robots. Success on the field begets success in other realms. - Joe Johnson [more] 
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