Camera Issues -- So close yet so far.

[JoeXIII'007]

My initial reaction what was happening on the field at Nationals was a bit angry I must admit. I didn't like how things were going and just how all of a sudden things went downhill.

But, being a humble FIRST participant, I rethought, reconsidered, and said to myself, "Hmmm, we could've gotten around this." Unfortunately, experience at past regionals told me that such actions were unneeded, and thus, I and the team was sort of blinded to this possibility that we would have to do such a thing.

Between these 2 thoughts, I can't really say how I feel about what happened, but I am definitely sure about the following:

• We tried, and I'm happy to be able to say that.
• We got close, and was even successful 3 times in practice and once officially at GLR.
• We gave something for everyone to see, and added to the suspense of the game. With that in mind I've had a recurring thought about what would happen if we actually capped center or side consistently. May be that suspense would have been lost, the excitement diminished, and the curiosity of 'when will they get it right' would have gone extinct. It would be an expected, normal event. I even saw a referee give a very animated reaction when we got close at nationals. So, it was REALLY fun to see it work like this.
• Very few others were doing this, so it was a real treat to see at least one robot go after something green.
• Due to all of this, we recieved the Delphi "Driving Tomarrows Technology" award, which I am eternally grateful to FIRST for giving. THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

Even though green objects outside the field led the robot to terminal damage, things happen, and it isn't the end of the world, thank God. I hope all who saw us enjoyed our little stunt of sorts, and I end my 3 cents there.
-Joe