2008 St. Louis Regional

[Schnabel]

Those connectors were made before AM brought those out.

[IndySam]

Originally Posted by Schnabel

Those connectors were made before AM brought those out.

Ah, so you made them before build season?


And I talked to Amy and she said it was your fault that I didn't get my 45 button this weekend. I am officially blaming you for our bad luck this regional

[Richard Wallace]

I highly recommend that teams consider using this AM product. The crimps are made using automated tooling, which can be expected to show much higher reliability than crimps made using hand tools. This practice is considered important enough to be made a requirement in many industrial applications.

[IndySam]

Originally Posted by Richard

I highly recommend that teams consider using this AM product. The crimps are made using automated tooling, which can be expected to show much higher reliability than crimps made using hand tools. This practice is considered important enough to be made a requirement in many industrial applications.

All kidding aside, Richard is right. Those crimped AM connectors are well worth the $15.

[Derek Smith]

Hey Schnabel, how did Andy react when he found out about the wire? I vaguelly recall Bailey telling the story, but I'm iffy on the details.

[Schnabel]

Originally Posted by IndySam

Ah, so you made them before build season?


And I talked to Amy and she said it was your fault that I didn't get my 45 button this weekend. I am officially blaming you for our bad luck this regional

No, Andy Mark was still "in the process of buying this tool" (from the website) and we decided to use the connectors we had used the year before.

Originally Posted by Derek Smith

Hey Schnabel, how did Andy react when he found out about the wire? I vaguelly recall Bailey telling the story, but I'm iffy on the details.

I will just say that he was not happy.

[Syncopation]

Originally Posted by Richard

And a special shout out to our star visitors The Circuit Chargers from Tulsa, Oklahoma. 932 earned both the Regional Chairman's Award and the Woodie Flowers Finalist Award. And in three weeks they'll be on home turf in the inaugural edition of the Oklahoma City Regional. Y'all rock!

Believe me, the 6-hour ride home was a mix of adrenaline and exhaustion. Personally, I'm just glad we've joined the banner-having-teams club. It's just beginning to set in, so it's a bit electric here at school. Chairman's is of course amazing, and it's quite thrilling to be home to a Woodie Flower's award-winning mentor.

Though our robot didn't do well statistically, we did discover we had the third-highest ranking points of any team, and the first two were in the top eight - something of which we can be quite proud.

Thanks for the compliments - OKC and Atlanta are going to be exciting!

[cgredalertcc]

1741 had the exact same thing happen as 45 except that we didn't completely lose the connection. If anyone recalls we had a match where the robot was absolutely crawling. We used crimp connectors, but our electronics guy decided not to crimp them and the solder came loose. **SIGH** Needless to say we weren't happy about that.

Big props to 1182 and 292 it was great to play with you guys and I hope we that we get a chance to play with you again at some point. Congrats to 148, 217, and 830.

I must also point out that the score of the quarter final matches where we (the number 8 seeded alliance) played the number 1 seeded alliance that the first score was a difference of only 6 points, and the second was a difference of 30 due to penalties, which I have some questions about.

I was wondering when the penalties occurred, because from the coaching position the only time the plane of the field was broken was when 217 was stuck in the fence. I would hope the penalty wasn't called on the wrong alliance, and I plan to post the video soon so if anybody sees where the penalties occurred I'd appreciate knowing when it happened. I was also wondering why a penalty wasn't called when 1741 was hurdling and we were hit very hard by a robot of the opposing alliance. I wish I had been aware of this at the end of the match, so that I could have asked the head referee, because I only realized it after watching the match over on Sunday morning.
(I need to qualify the preceding with the fact that I'm proud of my team and my alliance and I don't mean any disrespect. I just would like to understand better what happened.)

Finally I'd like to thank 45. The drivers did an awesome job when we got stuck together and we look forward to seeing you at Purdue.

Thanks for a great regional

[Paul Copioli]

You can break the plane of the playing field without penalty. It is when you touch the ground outside the playing field that you get disabled.

[Jeff Waegelin]

Congratulations to my former team, 830, for being part of the winning alliance with 148 and 217. I'm so proud of you guys, words can't even begin to describe it...

[Sunshine]

Thank You St. Louis for your gracious hospitality!

Team 2062 extends a warm and appreciative “Thanks” to all of our new friends. It was great to meet, talk, and compete both with and against many of you. Our students are still buzzing with excitement and they are trying hard to explain the “happenings” of the FIRST experience (like that is possible).

A special thanks to team 525 for selecting us in your awesome alliance. We couldn’t have asked for a better group to work with than 525 & 2044.

Congrats to the winning alliance of 217, 830, 148.

The experience was one that we will not forget.

[Gene Williams]

Originally Posted by IndySam

Thanks to our alliance
2457, what a fantastic rookie regional. Thanks for ignoring the standings when you picked us.
70, after the carnage of round one, most of the people in the building thought you were done. Very few teams could have pulled that off.
It may sound strange, but I have never had more fun losing in the finals. It is honestly the first time I left a final on the wrong end of the score with a smile on my face. You guys were a lot of fun to work with. With a little less bad luck we could have made the finals (to be crushed by the #1 alliance). I’ll be happy to play with you guys again anytime.

I had to laugh as our 'bot did hot laps around the field dragging it's ball pickup mechanism/arm around and around, lap after lap, hitting and bouncing merrily along the way! My student coach asked me if they should of stopped, and I replied with a big "heck no, you done good! Good to get those lap points and good in destroying the arm!!!"

Some of the mentors asked me whether or not Hendrick Motorsports had called me yet! Apparently the lightening fast repair merited something. Not sure what though?

Here's a picture of it for laughs!



Take care and glad you had fun!

[Mark Pierce]

Originally Posted by Gene Williams

Apparently the lightning fast repair merited something. Not sure what though?

If nothing else you earned a lot of respect from everyone in St. Louis! It was nice to have you guys as neighbors in the pits and in the stands. Both BOB and the RoboDawgs look forward to seeing you and 494 again at West Michigan. I'm kind of disappointed we won't see any others from last weekend there.

Team 85 had a very good time at St. Louis. While we struggled at times on the field, we learned a lot about this year's game and robot. Off the field, the event was run as smoothly as any I've seen. Our thanks to all the volunteers and sponsors.

[IndySam]

Always great to have Bob around, although I didn't get my shop towel until Saturday.

I wish you guys were coming back to Boilermaker.

[Mark Pierce]

Originally Posted by IndySam

Always great to have Bob around, although I didn't get my shop towel until Saturday.

Sorry about the Shop Rags, the Drive/pit crew were too busy on Thursday and Friday to pass out many and the other team members seemed to get wrapped up pretty heavily in the stands scouting and watching the action. Once they started passing them out on Saturday, they disappeared quickly! It's best to just stop at the pit and ask. We'll miss BMR (and it's short drive), but at least our neighbors 2015 will be heading south to represent West Michigan.