Kettering University Rookie Competition

[CardcaptorRLH85]

Nope, no webcast. I'm here...

However, now that I'm here, has anyone else EVER seen a 5 HOUR delay due to a pair of failed arena controllers?

[Jherbie53]

Originally Posted by CardcaptorRLH85

Nope, no webcast. I'm here...

However, now that I'm here, has anyone else EVER seen a 5 HOUR delay due to a pair of failed arena controllers?

Only at a kettering kickoff. It was the same year of stack attack and the problem was that team were rolling the carts over the pressure pads the human players stood on. It wasn't 5 hours, but they did cancel matchers and proceeded to the eliminations rather than play the last handful of matches.

[CardcaptorRLH85]

Originally Posted by Jherbie53

Only at a kettering kickoff. It was the same year of stack attack and the problem was that team were rolling the carts over the pressure pads the human players stood on. It wasn't 5 hours, but they did cancel matchers and proceeded to the eliminations rather than play the last handful of matches.

I see, one of the 2 Kettering Kickoffs that I didn't attend ^_^ Well, at least the problem looks solved. What I want to know is how they managed to rig it....

[rogerlsmith]

There was TV coverage about this event:

http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/media?id=6004929

Way to go, whoever did their homework!!

Roger

[Andrew Schreiber]

I see, one of the 2 Kettering Kickoffs that I didn't attend ^_^ Well, at least the problem looks solved. What I want to know is how they managed to rig it....

Same way we control auton,disable, and normal mode... a toggle switch of course. Should be back to normal tomorrow. If not... well we deal right?


Oh, and we are not webcasting but we will be HOPEFULLY posting the entire regional on the web after the fact.

And while I'm writing, I would like to say that I have been very impressed by the level of competition I am seeing. Congratulations to all the teams and hopefully we will have a nice day tomorrow.

[Swan217]

Originally Posted by Jherbie53

Only at a kettering kickoff. It was the same year of stack attack and the problem was that team were rolling the carts over the pressure pads the human players stood on. It wasn't 5 hours, but they did cancel matchers and proceeded to the eliminations rather than play the last handful of matches.

Ahhh yes, KK '03 - a great day to be the DJ at a competition that wasn't competing. I completely know how the guy today felt

So I was going to mention how huge of a disaster it was walking around for 5 hours with no competing, oh and by the way - it's ALL MY FAULT EVERYBODY, AND I'M SORRY. I walk through the door, and suddenly the field breaks down. It must be my magnetic personality.

But anyways, it turned out not to be such a big disaster after all. It gave the rookie teams some valuable time with some VERY experienced robot inspectors to improve their robot and make it work correctly, so by the time matches FINALLY got going around 6:30 PM, pretty much every robot was working the way it was supposed to. And it turns out that with a 10 min match time, we're only 8 matches behind. How do you like that? Tomorrow should be awesome though. Some of these rookies are outstanding.

[Alex Golec]

Actually, Dan, we're only 3 matches behind!

[CardcaptorRLH85]

Wow, I have to hand it to everyone involved, the ingenuity of the people involved with F.I.R.S.T. never ceases to amaze me. However, since this field is going to be at a regional that we're actually competing at (GLR), I hope that all of the bugs will have been worked out of it by then ^_^

[GaryVoshol]

I am proud of all those rookies. We were originally on a 10-minute match schedule. By 8:00 Friday we were running 6-7 minute cycles, one after the other. They did marvelously, moving where we pushed and prodded and cajoled them to go. At about 11:00 this morning, the lead que told me we only had a couple matches to go, then rerun Match 4, 5 and 6 that were spoiled Friday afternoon. "And how many rounds did we cut out?" - none, we got all the games in. These teams got 14 rounds on the field to figure out what they can do. Watch out when they start hitting Detroit, Boilermaker, West Michigan, Great Lakes, Minnesota, Canada, and a few other places.

I'm not going to post winners, because every team there was a winner. They improved so much from Friday morning practice to Friday evening matches to the end of qualifiers this morning to exciting elimination matches this afternoon.

This event couldn't have been put on without the help of many veteran teams. I'll probably miss a few, and don't feel offended, but we had students and/or mentors there from Teams 1, 33, 45, 47, 67, 70, 217, 302, 314, 322, 397, 494, 469, 830, 1025 and 1322. I also saw spectators from several other veteran teams.

Oh, it's not just Dan's fault. Beth Sweet also has to take some blame - she's sure 1504 was plugged into the station that started all the problems during the finals at Midwest.

[Beth Sweet]

Gary, you're officially on the bad list...

Congratulations to all of the rookies! The caliber of teams I saw this weekend was wayyyyy above where I thought it would be! I would say over 75% of the rookies had autonomous/hybrids by the end of the tournament, and there were multiple machines doing lots of hurdling.

Congrats again to the rookies, as Gary said on the field, you guys sure as heck aren't acting like rookies, and in our mind, you're all vets now!