Your Worst FIRST experience

[Richomundo]

Originally Posted by AsimC

This experience temporarily made me lose my faith in FIRST, but i got over it after a week, mainly b/c im obsessed with FIRST and I love whats its doing around the world.

The good in FIRST definately outweighs the bad, and the bad isnt even FIRST, its a tiny tiny percentage of a few people.

see the bad guys?

[Soukup]

All Animators would know what I am tlaking about....

IN my junior year (3 years ago) we had worked real hard to get our animation done. Thats when they still gave you 10 weeks to get it done. SO the robot had already been shipped and we were working at a team members house nearly every day for 4 weeks. There were 6 of us, and most of us had just learned to use this program for any benefit. Basically after about 1 week of hell and chris pulling an overnighter we were finally done. I got it to the shipping store 25 seconds before the FEDEX guy showed up. ANyways, we did a really product that would have easily been top 25, but it got disqualified. NO real reason, (well they gave us a bunch of reasons but none of them had anything to do with our animation) stuff like no title screen, no credits, no team name, no team number... it was the most puzzling email in the world. We all read this thing and felt our hearts sink to the floor. We could have understood if it had something to do with our animation, but it was like having 10 weeks of your life thrown away. Ive only cried three times in FIRST, and that was one time.

Well next year, we turned our anger and frustration into motivation. We used everything we had and won 3 regional animation awards. And when our name was annouced at GREAT LAKES that would have been the second time I cried.

Moral of the story.... crying in FIRST IS OKAY....

[akaria]

My worst FIRST experience had to be the VCU Reginal this year on the second night. The two other people in my room got really really sick, just like alot of other people there (if you were there you know what i'm talking about) and i had to nurse two very very sick people, untill my mom showed up ^_^, and my room reeked of puke the entire night gag hack

[Peter Matteson]

I'll just say being a young mentor who gets mistaken for a student leads to frustration in occasions when some one needs to talk to an adult and doesn't believe how old you are. There three of us on my team 24, 24, and 25 who had to deal with this at three competitions.

[Andy Baker]

I gotta say that my worst FIRST experience was in 2003, when myself and a TechnoKat teacher were responsible for not getting our robot to the Pittsburgh Regional. We both messed up with coordinating the shipping from the St. Louis Regional from the prior weekend.

It ended up getting there on Friday.

To make matters worse, we had to re-wire the drive base when it finally got there. Our first 5 alliance partners were not happy.

The silver lining to the could was that we spent all day Thursday helping other teams.

Andy B.

[Steve W]

Originally Posted by Andy Baker

I gotta say that my worst FIRST experience was in 2003, when myself and a TechnoKat teacher were responsible for not getting our robot to the Pittsburgh Regional. We both messed up with coordinating the shipping from the St. Louis Regional from the prior weekend.

It ended up getting there on Friday.

To make matters worse, we had to re-wire the drive base when it finally got there. Our first 5 alliance partners were not happy.

The silver lining to the could was that we spent all day Thursday helping other teams.

Andy B.

And to think that we felt sorry for you. You must admit that a lot of teams were pulling for you even if they weren't your partners.

[Joshua May]

Originally Posted by Soukup

All Animators would know what I am tlaking about....

IN my junior year (3 years ago) we had worked real hard to get our animation done. Thats when they still gave you 10 weeks to get it done. SO the robot had already been shipped and we were working at a team members house nearly every day for 4 weeks. There were 6 of us, and most of us had just learned to use this program for any benefit. Basically after about 1 week of hell and chris pulling an overnighter we were finally done. I got it to the shipping store 25 seconds before the FEDEX guy showed up. ANyways, we did a really product that would have easily been top 25, but it got disqualified. NO real reason, (well they gave us a bunch of reasons but none of them had anything to do with our animation) stuff like no title screen, no credits, no team name, no team number... it was the most puzzling email in the world. We all read this thing and felt our hearts sink to the floor. We could have understood if it had something to do with our animation, but it was like having 10 weeks of your life thrown away. Ive only cried three times in FIRST, and that was one time.

Well next year, we turned our anger and frustration into motivation. We used everything we had and won 3 regional animation awards. And when our name was annouced at GREAT LAKES that would have been the second time I cried.

Moral of the story.... crying in FIRST IS OKAY....

I know exactly how you feel. I was the team's sole animator for 2003, our rookie year nonetheless, and I worked the entire 6 week son getting that animation perfect, I swear I actually got maybe 1 hour of sleep in the last week. However, at the end of the 6 weeks, we had to give back the computer, so I gave a CD with all of the files to another guy who would render it and then we sent it off to FIRST. Well, he rendered it in the wrong format of all things, and we didn't get judged for it. And, the wrong file was sent to FIRST anyways, so if you look on the DVD, it's just really weird.

I got over it though,I was able to fix the animation before our venue at the local fair, and got some really good comments from it.

[Rez648]

Mine (and my team's) worst experience was at the Midwest Regional last year. At our hotel after a day of competition, one of our coaches was carrying around the team's $2000 laptop that had all of our stuff on it (website, newsletter, programming, etc) and he set it down at the hotel's front desk to check in and accidentally leaves it. Well, guess what happens...someone steals it. After calling the police, the cops searched each one of our rooms and questioned nearly all of the team members. To this day, the laptop has not been recovered.

Of course, the laptop was replaced and we still remind the teacher of his mistake. It is a humorous topic now, but last year, it was the worst thing that could happen.

[Alex Salomonsky]

My worst experience was during the 2003 season when our team didn't have a good scale to weigh the robot, so the chairmen, a teacher and I went to the boys lockerroom and asked if we could borrow the scale they used to weigh wrestlers ( it was the only scale available at the time). The allowed us to use it, but of course, a bot can't fit on that scale, so they said, hey Alex you're strong, we'll weigh you then you pick the bot up and we'll subtract your weight from the robot.

So I get on the scale then i picked the bot up by only two pieces of metal cuz they told me it was strongly bolted there, and i stood there, which sucked. The two of them took there time as i stood there dead-lifting the bot. As soon as they said the weight, on cue, obe piece slipped off cuz stupid freshies forgot to put nuts on the bolts. the nice 110 lb robot feel on my left foot and it hurt like crap. The teacher and chairmen had a nice laugh at my pain.

[greencactus3]

Originally Posted by Alex Salomonsky

As soon as they said the weight, on cue, obe piece slipped off cuz stupid freshies forgot to put nuts on the bolts. the nice 110 lb robot feel on my left foot and it hurt like crap. The teacher and chairmen had a nice laugh at my pain.

yes i know how that feels. at least i was just holding one half of the robot up and crawling under it rather than dead lifting it, but...
the painful part is, that the freshmen didnt file all the corners very well and sharp corners rubbing against skin only results in getting the robot prematurely colored... not funny!

[#1Transgirl1140]

Alot of things happened on our team and weren't really dealing with the robot. It mostly delt with our members. One of our drivers from our rookie year was still expecting that he was still going to drive, and the rest of us thought that he was slacking off a bit UNTIL his postion as driver got threatened. A new member to our team, but was on another team ended up driving. The other team memeber put up a fight to drive at West Michigan, because we won as rookies. He ened up driving and that cost us a higher seed then what we ened up with. The worst thing that happened but was also very funny was when the allaince picking happened, the team that was supposed to pick us couldn't read there own writing and called out the wrong number....1040. We were so mad. I was also upset since we tried for the Chairman's Award and thought we had a good chance, but 141 ended up getting it. oh well, the judges thought that we were pretty good for a second year team, but not as good a 141

[Izzy_Stradlin]

well i have to agree with my fellow team member..paul...about the hell that was going on in our room and a certain someone dropping their pants in our window..that was awful!!but the one thing that was awful in atlanta....THE UNDERGROUND MALL!!!! omg was that awfull..no FYE ..no music store ..that were actually open..i cant survive like that!! I NEED MUSIC!!! but yea i mean come on..closing a 6!! what a whoot...and all the stores were, were official Atlanta merchedise it was awful...and really there was nothing to do there..me and my friends sat in the hotel room and watched Twister and Navy SEALS all day...oh and cant forget Apollo 13 ..but the competition..the only bad thing was..that someone STOLE my cell phone!!! it sucked..someone..probably off the streets took my cell phone when i changed into my viking costume..yes im the Viking from team 230..but im retired now..lol...remember the boat?? ( yea team 230 knows what im talkin' bout!) other then that it was great..esp. the wrap party!!

[RLopez]

I have to agree with the VCU "epidemic". I was one of those "sick people". Omg, it was awful. The first day i was fine.. then the second day... like most of our team was sick; a few in the hospital. and i was fine in the morning, but after that.. i just went downhill and i got soo sick.. i ended up winning this year's "upchuck award" for the team awards that were given out in this year's team party.

[Izzy_Stradlin]

lets see..i just thought another worst FIRST experience for me...and that was 3 years ago..first year i was on the team..2002 i think it was..and we were at the Long Island Regional....and i was being followed by some guy..who was madly in love with me from another team..I think it was the Pyschotics from New York..i wont speak of the name but anyways.. he couldn't remember my name!! lol..so me and my friends devised a plot so that he would leave me alone..i mean i know it sounds mean but if you had a bf at the time and you were being followed even when you told him you had a b/f..wouldn't you do that ..well maybe at the time it was fine but now that i look back it might have been alittle cruel...it was so odd..and he wrote me all these letters (couldnt spell for his life..too much drugs..seriously) but he was really cute i might add..lol...but then he got the crazy notion that he was training to be a SEAL at 17 (just because he saw my navy SEALs pin on my jacket that night)..but anyways..that was my worst experience at a competition..

[Adam Y.]

Originally Posted by Dzdconfusd

I'll just say being a young mentor who gets mistaken for a student leads to frustration in occasions when some one needs to talk to an adult and doesn't believe how old you are. There three of us on my team 24, 24, and 25 who had to deal with this at three competitions.

This is unrelated to first but it sure is a lot better than being mistaken for a fifty year old person while only being eighteen. Of course it was at a funeral but still I dont look that old. I have had very little bad experiences in First. Though the worst has to be the feeling of nervousness whenever we use the robot. Its like giving birth to a baby. I don't care about winning I just want the dam thing to work. Though I feel really dumb for not thinking of using ripstop nylon. It is soo much lighter than the fabric we used on our robot.