Most Memorable First Moment

[MikeJ675]

Mine, sadly, isn't of 675 getting the EI award last year, as I had graduated the year before and was in college something like 2,500 miles away. The year before holds my most prominent memory.

Quarterfinals at San Jose, 670, 675 and 256 against the cheesy poofs alliance.

670 was substituting for 1120, the top ranked team in our alliance after a gearbox failure in the first match.

Match goes on for a while with 670 keeping the poofs out of position to score in the high goal while 675 and 256 dump an obscene number of balls in the small goal. The poofs tip and we continue to dump as much as we can in the bottom goal, winning by 2-5 points, iirc. This was the first loss for the poofs at SJ, from what I recall. The thunderous roar from the crowd was amazing, and I still remember it pretty well.

[Leav]

I'll have to say that my fondest memory of FIRST was wearing a really silly bib, on the field, with 8 other captains.

"team 1578 invites team 1577 to join it's alliance"

ahh.... that brings a huge smile to my face...

that moment made me feel great because it made me realize I had achieved a goal I had set myself almost 4 years ago:
I was watching stack attack clips on TechTV and said to myself: "I wish I could do that...." --- well... I did!!!

I don't think there will ever be a year I won't be involved in FIRST in one way or another, partly because how happy I felt at that moment.

thanks for reminding me....

-Leav

[Tottanka]

Originally Posted by Leav

I'll have to say that my fondest memory of FIRST was wearing a really silly bib, on the field, with 8 other captains.

"team 1578 invites team 1577 to join it's alliance"

ahh.... that brings a huge smile to my face...

thanks for reminding me....

-Leav

heh, i was there, next to you.
You were captain of alliance 2, i was captain of alliance 3 =]

[Cory]

Walking into the tent city in the parking lot of Epcot, '02.

That was the "Wow, this is really something special" moment for me. The atmosphere was just unbelievable.

[Koko Ed]

This is a good one:

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

This is a good one:

and of course the moment we finally won our very first regional ever in 2005 at FLR was HUGE!

[Wayne C.]

Originally Posted by Aren_Hill

IRI 2006
semifinal 2-2
71,1625,910 vs 25,1114,33
if you weren't there you missed the greatest first match i've ever seen.
it still would've been the greatest to me if my team wasn't in it.

glad you had fun !! ; )

[Wayne C.]

Originally Posted by Tim Baird

My most memorable moment from FIRST has to be, hands down, the last day of Nationals in 2000.

I was the driver for Gael Force, and I had just gotten accepted to WPI. Back then, to get the WPI scholarship, your team had to be voted on by all of the other teams. We had spent a lot of time on the past two days playing politics and talking to a lot of teams about my situation and asking if they'd please vote for us. I flat out could not afford to go to WPI. Even with loans it would have been insane.

Saturday morning rolls around and we're all sitting in the stands on Einstein. Woodie begins to announce the scholarship winners (there were only a few back then, so they actually took the time to say them all), and he finally gets to Worcester after a few minutes seeing how it's at the end of the alphabet. When he said "The WPI Design Innovation Scholarship goes to Team 126 Gael Force", I literally fell into my seat because I couldn't stand up anymore. The team members than poured on top of me as hugs, high fives, and back slaps were going all around.

I then borrowed a mentor's cell phone and called my parents to let them know I had won. They didn't believe me at first and thought that I was kidding, but as I tried to explain, the Voices of Liberty had started signing the Brazilian national anthem, so I hung up out of respect. I called them back in a few hours after a couple of matches to bring them up to speed.

Later that day, we battled our way to the top and found ourselves in the finals against 25 and their alliance. We won the first round, but then lost the latter two. While we may have lost, I was still the happiest person in the world having a National Finalist medal on my neck and knowing that my college tuition was taken care of now.

To this day, it's still probably the best day of my life.

Actually that day was pretty big for me from the other side of the field. I remember losing that round because your alliance as picking our black balls from the goals as fast as we stole them from yours! Our team suddenly got lots of attention. Within 24 hrs I was having my head shaved on Good Morning America.

And I should point out that 25 was the third in our team and next to last pick overall for the alliance selections. The teams from San Jose (Foothills HS) and Napa (Vintage HS.) , Ca made the alliance a reality. We owe a lot to Kenny Vargas of Foothills.

That season was the spark that lighted the fuse for team 25. Life has never been the same since. I hope our efforts have helped to light sparks for other teams.

WC

[Billfred]

One other moment I'll always remember was Palmetto 2004. My first event ever (as I wouldn't really convert to my globe-trotting ways until that fall), and it was practice day. SPAM was on the field with their short little omni drive, and I looked away for a couple of seconds. When I looked back, they were already hooked on the bar and winching themselves upward. It was about then that I realized just how spectacular some of these robots could be.

[vivek16]

umm.. uh...

THE WHOLE FREAKING THING... It flew by too fast...

-vivek

p.s. good thing I am only a sophomore this year.

[Nuttyman54]

The eliminations at SVR 2007 hands down. Not the finals, not the semifinals, but the quarterfinals. This wasn't a 5 match brawl either, and from any other person's point of view, it was nothing remarkable.

But I am alumnus and active mentor of Team 971, Spartan Robotics. This is their home regional, and was their first time back in the eliminations since 2004. This time it was as the 1st pick of #7 alliance, headed by 1700.

And they were facing my other team, Team 190, in the quarterfinals. I have never cheered harder, not even at the 07 Champs, than I did for those 3 matches.

190 is going back to SVR in 08, and I'm hoping this year I can see them both on the same side of the field for the finals.

[David Brinza]

Originally Posted by Cory

Walking into the tent city in the parking lot of Epcot, '02.

That was the "Wow, this is really something special" moment for me. The atmosphere was just unbelievable.

That was the first Championship event I attend - it blew my socks off! I haven't missed a Championship since. I still get that feeling each year..

The most special moment for me occurred at the 2006 GTR. The Team 4 "One-Day Wonder" experience (GP+ help from many teams), being part of the "Team Division by Chicken Element" vs Triplets matches, and the incredible atmosphere of the two-field Super Regional was awesome beyond words.

[JaneYoung]

I seem to be accumulating a lot of special and wonderful memories and moments. One that stands out for me this year was meeting Mrs. Mary Baker at the 2007 Championship in Atlanta. She's just cool.

[BanksKid]

i'm gonna have to go with having random casual conversation with Dean Kamen at championchips my freshman year and not knowing who he was until opening cerimonys............./having ongoing conversations with his brother Bart Kamen to this day.

[Blue_Mist]

Oh, there are so many. A few of the most memorable:

-The time our robot caught on fire but won the regional anyway (2006 at Silicon Valley)

-The time we beat the Cheesy Poofs at Silicon Valley (2007)

-When our driver got into hockey skates and was chased around the build room (2007, and our build room is full of drafting tables and sharp edges)

-The time that only a few of us where left in the room and began to balance the leftover pieces of wood from building the half-a-rack on our heads and try to blow each others' off (I think it may actually have been later that night, after 9:30pm or something. Our build sessions are supposed to end at 9:00om on school nights. )

-The time three of us (as 2006 freshmen Solidworkers) began to label each new hopper design as "For the Love of God Don't Keep Changing the Design 1, For the Love of God Don't Keep Changing the Design 2, For the Love of God Don't Keep Changing the Design 3," etc...

- And don't forget the time that we hooked up three batteries to an aluminum pole and short-circuited the whole thing to generate sparks (2007, I think), whence came this quote, somewhere along the lines of "And thank you to Nick Felt, who risked death by electrocution so we could all [see sparks]."

I don't remember the exact order of any of these; they're all mixed up in a whirlwind of fun, sleep deprivation and excitement. I look forward to many more memories this year!