Greatest Moment in my FIRST career

[Cooley744]

I would have to say that my greatest moment so far was winning Tempest N Tampa back to back. (Yes, winning isn't everything, but back to back with a tie durring the finals both years is pretty amazing. If you were there, you know just how crazy it was.)

[fredliu168]

2006 FVC hanging around @ penn regional

44 teams formed the biggest and arguably the most competitive FVC regional that year. I went to the regional with low expectations. My base driver dropped out at the last minute and I had to "borrow" a person to drive from another team (thanks Spencer).

After being 1-3 in qualifications, we were picked by the 6th alliance somewhat randomly. Our alliance tore through the # 3, 2, 1 alliances, beating notable FVC teams like driven, overdrive, occam's engineers, and the #1 seed.

[Mike Schroeder]

Greatest moment in FIRST history for me? The conclusion and aftermath of Brunswick Eruption 2008

[gorrilla]

my coolest moment-

in 2008 getting our robot stuck on the overpass and then firing our scissors and lifting the robot about 1.5 feet off the ground

[smurfgirl]

I'm not sure if I can pick just one greatest moment- I've had a lot. I love my FIRST family- it includes my own team, and the many other teams and volunteers I've encountered along the way so far. I hope it will continue to grow. FIRST has meant a lot to me, and I want to help to give back to others and to inspire the way I have been. This is why watching people learn and grow as individuals create the fondest and the proudest memories for me. I've seen so many wonderful things happen and people flourish because of their time in FIRST. This is why my greatest moment in my FIRST career is reading my team's first Chairman's Award submission. I have pushed for it to happen since I joined the team, but it didn't happen until this year, now that I'm gone for college. Besides asking some open-ended questions to kick-start their brainstorming and a little bit of proofreading, I really had nothing to do with the process- it was all them; their motivation, their creativity, their learning experiences. The result of their efforts was just absolutely stunning, it was a brilliant compilation of our team story, beautifully written. It made me cry. Reading it, I could tell how much it did for them as individuals and as a team. I was thrilled with the result, and truly proud of all of them. Watching the people I've worked with grow into stronger people and benefit from the program means a lot to me.

Being on Einstein last year was also an incredible experience, and quite humbling... but I don't think it topped the Chairman's Award submission. I've experienced hard-earned victories after nail-biting matches. It feels good, I admit it... but it's a fleeting feeling. In the long run, as great as those moments were in the present and shortly thereafter, those aren't the things that count the most, or make us better people. The moments that we spend with our FIRST family, and the little moments where we learned a big lesson, are the moments that stick with us forever, the moments that ultimately matter the most. I don't really care that much if they win the Chairman's Award, the thing that is most important to me is how much they got out of putting the submission together.

Edit: I finally just closed this after like my 3rd edit to make it sound the way I wanted it to... and then I realized how much this sounds like my "catchphrase"- It's not just about building a robot, it's about building a team. (:

[Taylor]

My third-favorite FIRST moment was when the WFFA was awarded posthumously to Steve Yasick of 85 at the 2006 WMR. I never met the man, but his inspiration was evident in each and every member of BOB.

[MarcD79]

Well, being involved w/FIRST since Sept of 2002 there were moments. I guess the most important was after my older son joined team 176 in his senior year, received great recommendations from his teachers & mentors, was accepted to UMASS Amherst in Mech. Engineering, graduated in May '08 & now works from Pratt & Whitney. There were others, but just yesterday at the CT Regional, watching teams 126, 1155 & 1902 win was worth it. I've never seen so much crying for joy & happiness.

[Neidi Poole]

Before Saturday, my greatest moment in FIRST is the MC dragging me out onto the arena floor to tell a riddle to the crowd, and my first time driving.

But as of yesterday, my greatest moment in my FIRST career is my team winning the Chairman's Award, seriously I am still on the high

[Akash Rastogi]

So far...

All in the same day finding out that 1771 won Palmetto, 1676 won RCA at Palmetto, and 1323 won RCA in Sacramento. Makes me forget about our own lackluster season so far. Love all 4 of these teams (11, 1323, 1676, and 1771). You guys rock.

[laurenlacy]

My best moment was just topped... seeing Mark Lawrence win the MN North Star WFA and being presented with the award by Woodie himself. Mark has been an amazing force for 1816 and an amazing force for FIRST in Minnesota.

I was standing with a number of people close to Mark and we were all watching as it became immediately apparent to us that he had won and slowly more apparent to him. Easily my favorite FIRST moment.

[PlatyPi Gunner]

My best moment would have to be my entire 2nd year(this year). After a disappointing rookie season in 2008 with one team essentially playing battlebots in a practice round, we had our entire pnuematic system ripped off and it took us the entire regional to recover, we ended in a three way tie for 19th overall and didn't make it to eliminations. This year, we revamped our image, and marketing plan, we went from C.Y.B.E.R. Robotics, which made us sound like stalkers, to the Flying Platypi. I got a chance to be the secondary driver this year(belt, guns) and The first day of Peachtree we went 6-0, and finished in 2nd place for the day. early day two was a little disappointing with us going 0-3 for the morning, and the head ref giving us a little bad publicity after a mishap with the E-Stop. We ended up 12th overall before the eliminations, after falling from 2nd. Luckily(or not depending on how you see it) the top 8 kept picking inside the top 8, which cleared us into the 8th spot by the time the 7th alliance had picked. Due to our position, we hadn't really planned an alliance to pick, nor had we kept up with who had been picked, so we kinda embarassed ourselves by picking 2 alliances who'd been picked already, then settled on 2415(you may know them as the palmetto winners), and collaborated with them to pick 832. We were a little intimidated going into eliminations, having to play the beast that was 1746,1771, and 547, coupled with the fact that our robot didn't like being on the blue alliance. first round we ended up winning by four points, the arena went nuts, maybe halfway through us and 832 had slammed 1746 into the side pretty hard, and it messed up their chains methinks. we managed to tie the next round 80-80 with our robot screwing up, we got owned the 3rd round, and won by a good 20 points on the fourth and final round, 1746 chains were acting up again. we went on to beat what I think was the 3rd seed, and then we beat the 7th seed in the final to become the 2009 peachtree champs. and that, is the best moment of my FIRST career

[carolynn4848]

I think that my greatest moment in FIRST would have to be being in first place for 24 hours at the Boston Regional, even if we were eliminated in the quarters, it was an amazing feeling.

[Hanna2325]

Friday and Saturday! For most of our team this was our first time at competition (not including KC earlier this season) so making it to the finals was so exciting...I could hardly believe it! It was such a wonderful two days (meeting Woodie Flowers/having him sign the robot and drivers pins!! + Shindig + Kurt's Woodie Flowers' Award! + Competing = BLISS) We had a ? for spanish if there was a time we'd totally live again (in a good way) my answer is 100% the mn competition! It was AWESOME and everyone there was so great!

-Hannah
***

BTW I'm making a flickr dump of pics from MN so if you hav any just pm thanks

[RMS11]

This year at Peachtree we came in very excited with a very young team (more than 50% new members), but slowly these new kids spirits dropped as we fell to the bottom of the standings, with our robot not running about 5 matches and eventually ending 2-7, 43 of 46. But I guess when our robot worked it showed some potential, and the PlatyPi must have seen this in the matches that we did work and picked us as the 8th seed. And "lunch" break was all we needed to get the bugs fixed and some driving practice in. After 2 hours of hard work, we competed in our first playoff match and beat the #1 seed. From there everything worked great and our alliance partners were great also, and we ended up winning it all. This is my greatest FIRST moment.

[Zholl]

This is only our rookie year, but I think the best moment so far, and I'm quite sure it'll stick with me for years to come, would be winning the CO regional with 399 and 1332 with the Rookie All Star award and the website award (this one only because it was me and Scotty that did it). It was one of those few moments when I was sure I had to still be at the hotel dreaming up until the giant cougar mascot grabbed me and the deafening roar from our alliance all but blocked out the single thought: "OH MY GOSH WE'RE GOING TO ATLANTA!" It was a pretty big moment for us since our robot's just a bin on wheels and none of us really expected to make eliminations, let alone win them.