pic: You guys remember what most of us said would never happen last year?

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by Jared341

To turn this around, a perceived slight by the CD community can also be a powerful tool. I have used Fantasy First picks, otherwise innocent "quotes" from forum users, and other online "popularity contests" as motivation for our build and drive teams more than once.

Pictures and videos that people drool over can intimidate, but they also motivate. I think that the veteran teams who truly do "get it" hope that that is the message that gets received when they post their machines.

If people do Fantasy FIRST right Chairman's level teams are more valuable than dominant teams (more points) thus otherwise powerful team in the HOF like 67, 111, 16, ect are off limits to me if there's a Chairman's threat available no matter how good their robot is.

As for perceived slights, there's 1800 teams in FIRST and not everyone is gonna be in the spotlight unfortunately. There's always surprise teams that rise to prominence every year and for all their dominance 1114 just won a championship last year and 217 and 148 have two each in 18 years. It's not just as easy as showing up and watching everyone wither away. There's alot of good teams out there including ones that no one cares about and they're using threads like this to feed the need to kick much butt.

[thefro526]

I looked at this picture and started laughing. I laughed because I realized that with those three teams on an alliance they would probably run out of balls and be frantically driving around the field trying to gather up the balls they haven't already scored. Moral of the story, if you go up against 148,217 and 1114 make sure you hoard all of the balls.

Thought this thread needed more humor =P

[Paul Copioli]

First off, I laughed out loud when I saw the picture.

Second, there were some questions earlier in the thread regarding what sort of things did we do new? Also, there was some mention of collaboration and I want to address that too.

What we did new this year:

1. Take balls from the floor ... successfully - We have been a team since 1999 and only one other time did we attempt to get balls fromthe floor: 2001. Our robot at the Championship that year di not even have the floor loading mechanism on it as it did not work (we were called "Royal Fusion" back then). This is the first year we are picking balls up from the floor.

2. Traction control - We had this figured out within the first 2 weeks and shared exactly what we were thinking on these very forums. We have never done traction control before this year.

3. #25 chain for drive. This requires new mechanisms and we learned how to handle #25 chain.

4. Use absolute encoders with analog outputs. Historically we have used traditional digital output encoders using digital inputs..

Collaboration: I am a big fan and if you can contribute an equal share to the collaboration effort, then it will be a true collaboration. However, if one team is doing all the work and the other is benefitting, then that is more of a mentor / mentee relationship. This year, 217 collaborated with 148 and 1114. We also had a few design discussions with 1726 regarding the screw. 148, 217, and 1114 all discussed the turreted shooter and the helix. 1114 decided on a turreted shooter with a different intake. We decided on a turreted shooter with the helix. 18 decided on a massive dumper with a helical loader. you will see similarities between the robots, but not one uses the same parts.

Finally, 217 has been receiving sheet metal from IFI since 2006. To me, the sheet metal is what makes a TunderChicken robot a "ThunderChicken Robot" and for that 217 has John and the folks at IFI to thank.

Paul

[AdamHeard]

A lot of you are correct in saying there is no guarantee, and we haven't seen anything.... but at this point from what I've seen, the safest top 5 robots to bet on are (in no particular order);

1114
148
254
217
968