2005 Lonestar Regional Awards, Congratulations all teams!

[FusionDude364]

Originally Posted by GB330033

Personally, I wouldn't have called it excessive, but that's just me. They were trying to cap the center, and we decided to take advantage of the casters on their front and try to spin them. They just so happened to fall over...

Personally, I would call it excessive because when they fell over it broke their arm, leaving us as the only effective capper on our alliance. 660 was able to deliver a few (1 or 2) tetras after 57 broke, but it was a definate blow to our alliance.

[Andrew Rudolph]

Thanks to 364 and 1255 We had a great time with you guys, I hope to see you next year at Houston...maybe?

[Barry Bonzack]

Congrats to all teams that attended. Thanks to team 1083 for having me along for the ride and treating me like one of the team. It was an awesome regional and I had a great time in Houston.

[Dan Richardson]

Personally, I would call it excessive because when they fell over it broke their arm, leaving us as the only effective capper on our alliance. 660 was able to deliver a few (1 or 2) tetras after 57 broke, but it was a definate blow to our alliance.

I wouldn't have called it excessive because all they did was push, not ram or anything of the sorts. Although I might be a bit biased, 1255 just tried to spin 57 away from the goal because of their casters upfront and they did fall over, they did not push high, its just the way things go.

We are sorry they broke, this never was our intention we did not mean for them to tip. But as far as being disabled in the second matchif I remember correctly 57 drove straight into a goal during the autonomous mode, and was stuck there for the rest of the match. We broke once and had a dead battery the second match ( an accidental flip flop ) in semi-finals so I can understand your pain.

They were both hard matches that could have gone either way I would like to personally thank 364, 57, and 660 for the great matches. And of course thanks to our alliance partners 647 and 1255 for being such great allies.

Great Regional

Dan

[bhweezer]

Congratulations to all of the teams that went to Lone Star, especially 118. You guys definitely had one of the most original robots I have seen and it was quite an experience competing with and against you. Overall Lone Star was great! The only thing that stuck out to me was it seemed as if the judges didn't call many of the penalties regarding the loading zones. I saw quite a few teams getting bumped around while getting tetras in the loading zones and were never penalized.

One more thanks to 660 and 57 for an awesome alliance!

[Jverdon]

Originally Posted by Stud Man Dan

We are sorry they broke, this never was our intention we did not mean for them to tip. But as far as being disabled in the second matchif I remember correctly 57 drove straight into a goal during the autonomous mode, and was stuck there for the rest of the match.

They were not stuck and got out and were able to try to play defense. Unfortunitly it was not enough and we were not able to win the match with only one capper.

On the note of penalties there were not many called I think it was 118 that knocked over some tetras off the loading zone and did not get the penalty called.

Thanks to all the teams at Lone Star and we hope to see you in Atlanta.

[MasonMM]

118 did knock some tetras off the auto loader, but we were always touching the HDPE triangle making it legal to interact with the tetras on the auto loader... except for one case when a tetra we were holding bumped into another tetra that was on the auto loader while we were trying to get into a capping position, which meant we were not touching the HDPE, and the tetra we were holding was considered part of our robot, so we got the 10 point penalty that we deserved. That was our first and only penalty this season. A rule clarification our drivers had to learn the hard way.

[Kevin Sevcik]

Hey all,

So I was the coach for 57, and I'd like to clear a few things up. I did feel that 1255's defense was a bit rough at times, but they were called for it, so that's been and done. To any interested, the fall actually broke a welded seam on our tower. Luckily, we've gotten it rewelded and that system will still be 100% for the Championships.

The second round, there was a miscommunication on the team and our automode was set to straight forward instead of nothing. I don't believe we managed to get out of the goal, as we got high-centered on the base of our tower.

Finally, our arm was giving us problems before that. We'd managed to break a retaining plate earlier in the regional, and that was giving us some problems. The fall exacerbated the problems and our globe motor gave out to boot, so we ended up planning on being an all defensive bot in the last match.

Thanks to 364 and 660 for allying with us. Y'all were great and we're sorry to let ya down. We'll be looking for ya at Champs and next year's Lone Star.

[GB330033]

Yeah, we were rough, and we know it. Heck, it's all we could do. However, we had no intention of breaking yalls arm, or even tipping yall, we just wanted to keep you from capping the center. It was 1083 that let us in on the fact that yall had casters, which meant yall could spin. That's what we were trying to do, we're sorry it ended the way it did. You guys and 364 carried us to a win in our first qualifying match, so we definately wished no ill will. Good luck in the championship!

[Argoth]

Originally Posted by bhweezer

Congratulations to all of the teams that went to Lone Star, especially 118. You guys definitely had one of the most original robots I have seen and it was quite an experience competing with and against you. Overall Lone Star was great! The only thing that stuck out to me was it seemed as if the judges didn't call many of the penalties regarding the loading zones. I saw quite a few teams getting bumped around while getting tetras in the loading zones and were never penalized.

One more thanks to 660 and 57 for an awesome alliance!

There should have actually been fourty points deducted from purple haze alliance in our first semi-final against them because they repeatedly rammed our bot four times when it was in the human player loading zone. The refs said it was because our human player didn't run to the robot, but with our design that would have been completly unsafe and not in accordance with the spirit of First. But, oh well. I don't think our right track could have lasted another match. The motor gave me burns on my hand because the belt that was inside the robot was far to tight and was overloading the motor. Great game ya'll though and sorry to team 57, we truly did not wish you to fall. Thanks to all our alliance members and see ya'll next year!

[Kyle Love]

Congrads to teams 118, 231, 499 great job cya all at nats!

[Andrew Schuetze]

Originally Posted by MasonMM

Thank you so much, but we couldn't have won the robot competition without the help of our awesome alliance partners. I have to say, it was a great few final rounds. Very competitive teams, and great consistency across all the bots.

A big thank you goes out to team 118, winning alliance captian, for selecting our team to be the third alliance partner. This is our fifth year competing and it is taking us a while to reach the competitive level. The major emphasis on wins and loses in the rankings this year caused our capable robot to be low in the standings at the end of the qualifying rounds. As the lead sponsor, I had told the team on Friday night that if we continued to compete that our team might get the attention of an alliance captian.

So thanks for noticing us and it was great to play good strong, legal, defense for you and team 231. (We are still penalty free remains one of the top five reasons to select team 499 for an alliance) The action was just amazing. Three robots per side yielded so much action that it was hard to keep track of the stacks and rows. The automodes and driver action of 118 and 231 was terrific. Our driver, Gilbert, was all over the mid-court pushing and shoving

[Natchez]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

The third team this season that has experience both a regional championship and a regional Chairman's award.
So I have to ask: Which feels better?

To keep with this year's theme, thanks for throwing a hanging curve ball, Ed; the Chairman's Awards feels so much better ... orders of magnitude for myself. I believe that our entire team would agree with my sentiment but probably at different levels as Mason has demonstrated. Trust me, this is not because we routinely win the Lone Star Regional ... as a matter of fact, we have never won the Lone Star Regional until yesterday. Our students work so hard throughout the year supporting engineering education (EARLY; FLL; BEST; Botball; FRC; ...) that it is wonderful to have them recognized with the Chairman's. Actually, our team members are selected in December by their commitment to engineering education and not based on anything else. As a result, we get a wonderful group of students.

What should never go unsaid about Chairman's in the Lone Star Region is that our teams are closely integrated when it comes to engineering outreach. We sincerely feel that we are representing many teams from the Lone Star Region when it comes time to compete for the Chairman's at Championships. For example, all year we work with team 57, side by side, to host many of the robotics competitions we have in Houston. 57 does all of the legwork for the BEST tournament and our students work side-by-side with 57 students on kickoff and competition day ... the roles are then reversed for FLL. We also work together with 57 for the Houston Robotics Sponsorships (www.HoustonRobotics.org) which provided Sponsorships from Brazil to Oklahoma. The list of partnerships just go on-and-on with great partnerships amongst the Mississippi teams, Ponca City, San Antonio teams, Houston teams, ... I'll spare you the rest of the list. I've always wondered what the judges think when we (and probably all of the other teams) are constantly talking about how great the other teams in our region are when it comes to outreach.

We are very humbled & honored that we have been given the opportunity to represent so many great teams from the Lone Star Region at the Championships ... I hope we make them proud.

Ed, thanks for keeping Chairman's at the forefront of our discussions,
Lucien

[dfava]

I would like to thank Lucia Sevcik and all of the wonderful Houstonians for another fun-filled Lone Star Regional!

Special thanks to team 57 and 660. Alliance 3! Sometimes you need alittle luck
- we played hard and that's what counts. Kevin - you need not apologize, because you didn't let us down. We win or lose as a TEAM!

On the excessive bashing - I felt that the interaction was all within the rules of engagement. FIRST always tells us to build robust machines! We must listen! If anything, I believe that LSR judges always error on the more conservative side of robot/robot interaction. At the Nationals, the rules change slightly and what was once considered reckless bashing, will then be called clean aggressive defense (as our 2004 robot can attest to - coming home with several Al sideplates bent beyond recognition!)

I agree with Lucien that we must keep our focus on what matters most - and that is changing the world. Would each of us give our lives so wholeheartedly if FIRST was nothing more than a robotics sporting event... I think not. The competitions are just "lagniappe" - something to help us all unwind before starting again on the outreach, community service, the educational experiences, bonding and mentorship. FIRST has so transformed my life and the lives of the students, parents and engineers that are involved, that most of us can hardly remember life before FIRST! A life where we slept more than 4 hours nightly, where we didn't have recurring nightmares about not finding our robot crate at Nationals or where we ate supper on a real kitchen table instead of the workbench in the robot shop! FIRST FEVER - Catch IT!

My hat is off to Lucien (Woody Flowers Award -very deserving)and all the Robonauts (Chairman's award - very deserving)! They made an exceptional bot this year and continue to be role models for all teams through their extension services and outreach. (HEY - they even mentored us many moons ago)!

Congratulations - 118, 231 (loved the seam ripper) and 499 !!!!!!!!

I loved the Ponca City 476? machine too - just beautiful! Great work Tonya!

Also, Congratulations to the other MS teams: 456 Dawn and Warren Central - always with a great machine FINALISTS! and 1205 Scott , Alan, Todd and Pearl River/Picayune - Quarterfinalists!

Special SHOUT to our new friends from Brazil - 1603 Liberato! Koji , Uri and the gang! Thanks for the excitement!

Super special message of respect to all of my students,teacher, mentors, and parents for believing that anything is possible when we work together!

" The difficult we do immediately, the impossible just takes alittle longer!"
David Fava
#364

[tkwetzel]

Originally Posted by tkwetzel

There are (I believe) 5 teams who have won both those awards this year. Only 3 of those teams have won them at the same regional. All 3 of those teams also had a mentor win the Woodie Flowers award at the same regional.

I have a correction to make: At least 5 teams have won Chairman's and the regional at the same regional.
Teams that have won both a regional and a regional Chairman's award in 2005:
67
111*^
118*^
233*
358*
365*^
1241
* denotes that they won the regional chairman's award at the same regional that they won.
^ denotes that they also had a mentor win the Woodie Flowers Award at the same regional as the other two awards.