2010 Thank you from Team 177

[Chris]

The Bobcats had an amazing run at the 2010 FIRST championship but the craziest thing wasn’t where we finished (although it was pretty crazy) the craziest thing was where we started the weekend. There were many people who helped us end where we did and this thank you post is going to be long. I apologize in advance.

236: The first thank you has to go out to team 236, who when our robot got severely damaged in the semi-finals at the Hartford regional, they bailed us out with so many tools, so much technical and moral support that we made it back to the field for our match with out even needing to take a time out. We turned to the Ticks again at championship when we needed batteries for the finals and they stepped up and bailed us out again. They are amazing!! (We’ll work out the battery return over PM’s I hope)

Due to a shipping SNAFU, 177 entered Wednesday night of the Championship with lots of repairs to make, and no tools in which to make them, again the FIRST community stepped up in a large way.

178: Loaned us tools, all weekend and we were honored to share a pit, (or in the case of Suffield an alliance) with you guys any time. There isn’t a more class act in FIRST

166: Doesn’t attend the championship very much, and this fact is a loss for the FIRST community. They are definitely an up and coming team, who I hope to see at the championship event more in the future. From Wednesday night onwards they graciously loaned us tools, the use of their pit, gave sage advice, and offered camaraderie in the down time.. And Friday when our robot catastrophically fell off the bar during a qualification match (ironically our match with 294), 166 recognized that this would be a defining moment for our pit crew, so they photo documented the whole event for us, as our team of kids and adults worked side by side to make sure the Bobcat would make her final match of the day. (which she did) I offer a huge THANK YOU!!!!!!!!! You guys were definitely a part of our success.

148: I don’t know what more can be said of 148 that hasn’t already been said. The Texas teams post about how they help every team at the Texas regionals pass inspection, JVN posts their entire robot design every year so everyone can improve together, their teaser videos make us all quake in our boots year in year out. So when we were without tools Wednesday night, I knew whom I could count on…We rolled our entire robot over to the 148 pit and even though their drive system was in pieces at the time Horne, Monty, and an amazing group of kids, offered us all they had to share with out missing a beat, or seeming like we were bugging the crap out of them..(which I'm confident we were )

To 294 and 67: If you guys hadn’t picked us our weekend would’ve ended drastically differently. Thank you for giving us the chance to play after lunch on Saturday. Believing in us that we would pull it together when it counted and that we would positively contribute to your alliance. When we broke during the Einstein semi-final, you guys not only offered us the use of tools (and a giant crow bar ;-) ), you had great advice. The biggest thing was you had the utmost confidence in us to fix it without missing a beat, not once did I detect a tone of panic or regret from you, and that meant a lot. Then when everything counted the most leading the (1114, 469, 2041 alliance) by one match, you let us put our robot on the field not at 100% (we lost function of 2 out of 8 wheels on the drive train and couldn’t fix it in the allowed window) you gave us the chance to finish what we started with you. You let the last memory of our robot be triumphantly hanging covered in confetti instead of sitting on the sidelines watching, I and our team will never forget that. There aren’t any teams in FIRST I would rather work with than these two… Not everyone would’ve made the call you guys did, and we will appreciate it forever.

And to whom I’d like to thank most of all is Team 177 especially the kids who made this the most memorable season of my FIRST career, you guys never gave up on a mechanism that wasn’t working, you never stopped wanting and trying to improve every little bit, you pushed the team to strive outside of its comfort zone on every mechanism including the drive train, you fixed a robot I believed to be un-fixable after it fell 2.5 feet. You designed, built, programmed, wired, drove, fixed, and scouted your butts off. This one was special, and hope you guys had as much fun as I did.

Sorry for the long winded post, but that all needed to be said :-)

[Eric O]

I would like to say a second Thank You to everyone Chris has listed, and want to add a few comments of my own:

Teams 67 & 294: Winning a championship takes effort from the entire alliance. Thank you for picking us, both of your teams are class acts with fantastic robots.

294: Although I didn’t see exactly what you were doing in the final matches because I was watching the other side of the field, it was obvious by the scores that you guys controlled the opposing zone better than any team could have. In general, your versatility to play all over the field is what earned you the much deserved #1 seed in our division.

67: You’re not just HOT, you’re on fire (Think NBA Jam)! You are my new favorite team. Your machine this year was the best scorer on the field, your drive team was fantastic, and your entire cheering section in the stands was a blast to be around. While it is obvious that you put pressure on yourselves to win, you also don’t forget to have fun while doing it, all while carrying yourself professionally. The fun part is what makes you the fantastic team that you are.

1114, 469, & 2041: You guys had an amazing alliance and it was a pleasure to play against you in the finals.

Team 1073: You likely do not know this, but after seeing your performance at the NH Regional we took a look at your possessor and used it as an inspiration for our redesign. I enjoyed watching you play and almost take out the #2 alliance.

Team 78: Thank you for all of your support, and for bringing our tools (and the Ticks batteries) back to New England, so we didn’t have to pay to ship it all back.

I want to thank the rest of 177 for a great “neverending” season. I am glad all of the continuous improvement paid off and proud of all of you!


-Eric O’Brien
Team 177
Bobcat Robotics
World Champions 2007 & 2010

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by Chris

236: The first thank you has to go out to team 236, who when our robot got severely damaged in the semi-finals at the Hartford regional, they bailed us out with so many tools, so much technical and moral support that we made it back to the field for our match with out even needing to take a time out. We turned to the Ticks again at championship when we needed batteries for the finals and they stepped up and bailed us out again. They are amazing!! (We’ll work out the battery return over PM’s I hope)

The craziest thing about 236's help at Hartford? They were the next backup team, so if 177 didn't get back on the field, they'd be called in. They were working directly against themselves for the good of the 5th alliance there, making their outstanding help all that much more commendable.

[JABot67]

Why do I read Chief Delphi? Posts like these. That's why I read Chief Delphi.

177, you were definitely the right pick, and you meshed with our alliance perfectly. I bet people in the stands were wondering who the 24th pick on Newton was and if our division had magically switched to the non-serpentine IRI alliance selection process, just to see what would happen.

[Drumrkat7]

I would like to second everything that was said by both Eric and Chris! As a student on 177 and a Junior on the team, I cannot believe the amazing things I have been through with the Bobcats. The Ticks did save us in Hartford and I am convinced that without them, we wouldn't have made it through another match. As for 67 and 294....it was an honor to work with both teams! I thought the true test of our alliance was when half of our drive train blew out before our final match on Einstein and you both decided to keep us on for one last match!

It was one of those experiences that, as the others have already said, I will never forget.

Thank you to all!

---Katherine Desy