2009 Boilermaker Regional

[Crump]

i would like to thank 868 for picking such a low sead team (us)... obviously our record said we weren't quite up to par but i believe we showed what FIRST is all about.. this game cannot be won by any one team, it takes lots of teamwork, perseverance, and confidence to win anything in the FIRST community....

again.. thanks you 868 and 292 for the awesome alliance partners.. we'll cya in A-TOWN

i would also like to congratulate 829(DIGITAL GOATS!!) on their gracious professional award.. i don't think there was anybody more deserving.. in case anybody wants to know how close the goats and Kil-a-Bytes are... we had two matches where we played against each other and everytime we we both joking and laughing with the other team about 'dumping on them'.. so yes.. Goats.. you guys rock! cya at IRI!!

and the Kil-a-Bytes will see everybody who's going in Atlanta!!!

P.S.- for those who were wondering what we changed at Purdue.. we changed drivers and we perfected our traction.

P.S.S- and for those who are keeping track of us.. we've changed something on our robot every regional.. and yes.. there will be yet another change for Atlanta CYA THERE!!!

[IndySam]

What a great weekend, another fantastic regional put on by the BMR planning committee and the best crew in the business. Every regional should be run and officiated like this weekend.

Big congrats to winning alliance 868, 292, and 1024. Only way I could have been happier is if we won. Also congrats to the runners 45, 234 and 461. You guys were an amazing alliance, sorry I rooted against you guys but I had to root for the Indy teams and our old friends from Russiaville.

461, you guys are so deserving of a win. Thanks for letting us scout with you. I promise you will be on the top of my rooting list from now on until you get that win.

Congrats to 1529 for your first ever elimination appearance. The first of many to come.

1018, what a fantastic year for our old friends from the NW side. I love playing with you guys.

Congrats to the girls from 2360 for being an alliance captain for the first time and a great job picking your alliance partners. Few veterans could have picked so well.

Congrats to 45 on the Chairman's Award. It's well deserved. I know we wouldn't be the team we are without all of you help through the years.

Congrats to Ben for winning the Purdue scholarship.

Thanks to 1000 for picking us. When I first saw your robot I wasn't impressed but when you ran away from us like a scalded dog in practice my jaw dropped. Well done. And also a big thanks to 135 for being a great alliance partner. We came so close to being in the finals.

111 please come back to BMR every year, you guys raise the level of competition and make us all work harder.

[Luke Pike]

Originally Posted by Qbranch

1501: Never got to ask what was up with the shooter, but you guys stay classy. I've never seen such an aura about a robot before... beautiful piece of work.

Thanks, Qbranch. During practice day, I discovered that the camera just couldn't keep up with the really fast robots, possibly because it was lower on the bot than others. Therefore most shots after that were manually controlled (by me). Also, our robot handles the game pieces slowly, which made us an ineffectual scorer. So instead, we adapted and used strategies that our robot was not designed to do to win matches, making the most of the scorers on the alliance and helping them to score big. Although this got us far, there was some amazing robots out there competing against us and even though we lost to them, we lost because they were better and not because we didn't try our hardest.

So thanks to all the teams that we played with, and also to the teams we competed against, for making it a great competition.

Originally Posted by EricH

Also, 1501 won Imagery, correct? (Listed team--1510--wasn't there.)

Yes we did. That was one of the great takeaways from BMR, winning two awards, the imagery award and the safety award.

[Dan2081]

I gotta say gratz to the driver from killabytes. I dont remember his name but talk about best regional ever... (he won the regional AND the 15,000$ purdue scholarship!)

[lenny8]

so what was the highlight of the event?

[rick.oliver]

Originally Posted by lenny8

so what was the highlight of the event?

As a visitor on Saturday, there were a few bright spots. It was great to see so many of our IN friends who competed at Buckeye. I especially enjoyed watching 1747 (our Alliance Captain at Buckeye) team up with 1018 (the Alliance Captain of the Buckeye finalists). While it was unfortunate for 2360, it was even sweeter when our sister team from Kentucky, 554, was called in to play. Then, the three went on to win two matches against a very good number one alliance and advance.

I was also impressed with the strategy executed by 868, 292 and 1024 as they won the second Finals match and extended it to the rubber match. 45, 234 and 461 played great all trough the eliminations. Quite a finale.

[Ryan Dognaux]

Congratulations to 868, 292 and 1024 for winning the regional. Talk about a heck of a finale.

Also congrats to 234, 45, and 461 for playing some really great elimination matches.

45, you guys deserve the Chairman's Award so much. We were all ecstatic and will be pulling for you in Atlanta.

Thanks to 1741 and 2081 for picking us for the elimination rounds. I think Boilermaker showed just how relevant defense can be in this game.

I'd like to personally thank all the current and past Purdue FIRST members who came to this regional. It was a very special ten year anniversary weekend and shows exactly how your experiences in FIRST can continue at the college level. As was said during the awards ceremony, Purdue FIRST alone has impacted over 20,000 people since its inception.

It's a very rare thing found here in Indiana and I hope all of the students attending the regional look into Purdue University as an option for college after high school.

[Bendavnel]

Originally Posted by Dan2081

I gotta say gratz to the driver from killabytes. I dont remember his name but talk about best regional ever... (he won the regional AND the 15,000$ purdue scholarship!)

Thanks dan. Yeah that was by far one of the best weekends of my life. I will definitely remember it for many years to come. I owe everything to my coaches, mentors, and teammates. Roboitcs has been pretty much the biggest part of my life throughout HS.

After the teams great success last season we had alot to prove this year. It wasnt as perfect as i had envisioned it at the first two regionals and even during qualifications at BMR but that all changed during what were by far the most exciting elimination matches i have ever expirenced. Im glad that we could pull out the win and qualify for Atlanta. What a way to go out as a senior.

Thanks to teams 45, 234, and 461 you guys were an amazing alliance and serious force to be reckoned with. You all have great robots and i cant wait to see all of you in Atlanta.

To teams 868 and 292. Thanks for letting us join you guys. It was seriously an amazing expirence for my team and for myself personally. I hope both of you are going to atlanta, i cant wait to see you guys again.

Finally to all of the other teams that attended BMR, and all of the volenteers and judges thanks for making it such an amazing experience. I can imagine all the hard work and dedication that it must have taken to pull of a regional like this and i cant wait untill next year when i can help in putting on this fantastic event.

[Molten]

One thing to note: 234 and 45 had many very tough matches to even get to the finals. Despite them being the teams that everyone was watching, they had many worthy adversaries. Also, I'm glad that 45 got their fan working. I heard that they were having troubles with it on practice day and it would have been disappointing had they not got it working.

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by Molten

Also, I'm glad that 45 got their fan working. I heard that they were having troubles with it on practice day and it would have been disappointing had they not got it working.

We never did figure out what was going on with that.

In several early matches, the robot took off and went forward at full speed with the propeller running for the entire autonomous period -- but the code doesn't have an option to do that! Then, for the rest of the match, everything worked except the propeller. After it had happened several times, the drive team brought the robot back to the pit with it still powered on, to see if we could do some diagnostics and figure out the cause of the problem. We did determine that the propeller safety sensor was working electrically but the software was reporting it always active, even when it was physically disconnected from the Digital Sidecar, but that didn't explain the incorrect autonomous mode. After a remote reboot of the robot controller from the Driver Station, all was normal, so we are confident it wasn't a hardware issue.

The stuck safety sensor lights a specific LED on our operator console, so it was possible for the drive team to watch for it and reset the robot before the start of a match (though it might have delayed things a little). Fortunately, it never seemed to happen again.

[Taylor]

Originally Posted by lenny8

so what was the highlight of the event?

For us, it was defensively holding the 45/234/461 powerhouse to its lowest score of the event (DC as well). At one point our driver had both 45 and 234 pinned in a corner for what seemed like 20 seconds. 2040 (Team Spirit winner) and 1327 (WFFA winner) made a great alliance with superb strategy - if it weren't for a couple unfortunate-for-us supercells, things would have been very different. It was an honor playing with you guys, and it was an honor to lose to the eventual finalists.

Hooray for an all-Indiana finals! The cities of Carmel, Russiaville, Indianapolis, Kokomo, and West Lafayette were well-represented. Other notable Indiana residents: Brant Bowen and David Kolberg, the Outstanding Volunteer and WFFA winner. With 45 winning the Chairman's, everybody BMR is sending to Atlanta is from the Hoosier (read: Boiler) state.

I had the pleasure of serving as a volunteer for the first time, as a queuer and pit announcer. Not only was I able to gain some insight as to how a real event runs (which may come in handy when it's time for CAGE Match 2009 - October 3rd, mark your calendars!), but I was able to see how mature and professional the teams were. We were ahead of schedule on Friday until the electrical mishap, and we not only made up several matches on Saturday morning, but finished on schedule as well! I don't care what the team numbers said, on Friday there were no rookies there.

[Collin Fultz]

Originally Posted by A_Reed

I wonder if the field crew found their little golden memento from the Pitt. field crew yet?

I thought after SB 40 and SB 43 the Terrible Towels would be white with black stripes.

We were 8 matches behind on Saturday morning and ran 5:30 match times all day Saturday to only finish 25 minutes behind.

A big thanks goes to all of the teams at the competition for working with us through the trouble.

Contrats to everybody at the competition...it was a blast.

[IndySam]

Originally Posted by Collin Fultz

I thought after SB 40 and SB 43 the Terrible Towels would be white with black stripes.

We were 8 matches behind on Saturday morning and ran 5:30 match times all day Saturday to only finish 25 minutes behind.

A big thanks goes to all of the teams at the competition for working with us through the trouble.

Contrats to everybody at the competition...it was a blast.

BTW Collin, I thought your Friday awards speech was great.

[Chris Fultz]

Originally Posted by IndySam

BTW Collin, I thought your Friday awards speech was great.

obviously good parenting*


* absentee father, strong mother

[EricH]

Once again, Fantasy FIRST would like to know who won the Delphi Driving Tomorrow's Technology Award. Team 2393 (listed) did not attend, and not knowing who really won is holding up our scoring. If you know, please post here or in the Season Long Fantasy FIRST thread.