2012 Alamo Thanks

[2789_B_Garcia]

I would like to FIRST (pun intended) thank all of the volunteers that helped ensure that the event ran as smoothly as it did and for providing a wonderful weekend to FRC 2789: Team TechXsplosion!

On behalf of 2789, I would also like to send a very special thank you to team 3552 for teaching us a very valuable lesson. Just before our last match, we sent half our drive team with all of our scouting data and team-generated power rankings to go speak with the top 6 seeded teams to make a last minute pitch for alliance selection, and we sent the other half of our drive team with the same data to pitch our team to the teams seeded 7-12 figuring that some of those teams would be moving up into a picking seed based on how top-seeded teams typically select other teams. We didn't garner much attention from the top seeds according to our drive team, but of the 12 teams we visited, one team actually took the time to come to our pit to look at the balancing mechanism on our robot. That team was 3552, which ultimately moved up a few spots to the 7th seed, and picked us to complete their alliance. Members of that team later told us that they had picked us because we were the only team that reached out to them and went to go talk to them in their pit before alliance selection.

Now some might say that the lesson learned here was how to find a young team with a high seed and position yourself to be selected by them, but 2789 is looking at this from a different point-of-view. The lesson we take from this focuses more on the value of face-to-face human interaction and reaching out to make a connection with another team. I'm proud that our team made it to the semi-finals, but that pride is underscored by the fact that we did so because we built a connection with a team on a human-level. Of course, 2789 had put a great deal of hard work into the design and build of our robot, selecting a strategy for how to play this game, collecting and analyzing massive amounts of data before and during the competition, and all of those factors played a role in the success we had, however, this alliance selection really drove the point across to me, personally, that there's more to this game than building a good robot, and the value of building a connection with good people is fundamental to the success of our team and this community.

FRC 2789 prides itself on being a passionate team, and we love the Alamo Regional! Thanks everyone!

[itsjustmrb]

On behalf of FRC Team 4063 – TrikzR4kiDz I would like to thank everyone for their gracious hospitality to our team. We are a rookie team in every sense of the word and we really appreciate all the words of wisdom and suggestions that were presented to us during the Alamo Regional Event. We had an awesome time and look forward to seeing y'all again next year.

Thanks again,

Mr. Billeaudeau

[Madison]

I'm going to piggyback onto this thread with my own thoughts about the event. I am not yet capable of producing a coherent thought, so I'll just make a list.

Bad Things:
- Don't high-five, like, three hundred kids. I had a fever for two days.
- Our first coopertition balance was initially awarded as two points, then revised to one. One point was the correct call there, but I wish someone would've told us that the revision happened.
- Bricking the cRio minutes before our post-lunch qualifying match on Friday, nearly missing it entirely and otherwise having to compete without any configuration files on the robot, making us unable to do much beyond drive. Our only qualifying loss
- We lost

Good Things:
- I met WAY more people than I was expecting to while there. I don't post here a lot these days, but was still recognized quite a bit; that was a bit surprising.
- We were first seed for the first time in our team's history, thanks to an aggressive coopertition balance strategy and a solid robot to back it up.
- We are very happy to have won the Innovation in Control award for our catapult with full range/power adjustment using only air.
- 118: Again, it was completely awesome to work with you all as alliance partners. You build amazing, gorgeous machines, but bring excellent strategic thinking to the field along with them and that always makes it a blast to compete with you. Even without your really cool balance mechanism, your machine was capable of outscoring, by itself, nearly any other alliance at the event and I wish more people would recognize how amazing that is. Everyone is focusing on the triple robot balance while I think the real story to come out of Alamo should be how crazy basketball scoring is going to become in the next several weeks.
- 3325: I am consistently impressed by teams that step up their game in the elimination rounds and produce stellar results. You all played fantastic, smart defense for our alliance and made it impossible for anyone to know that it was your first time playing in an elimination tournament. You were calm, collected and knew exactly where your robot needed to be on the field to be its most effective at all times. You balanced bridges with our team as if you'd been doing it all day.
- 4063: This team was our neighbor in the pit and our partners in our first qualifying round and I was completely blown away by how well they handled themselves. My team's been around for more than ten years and we are not half as put together as these folks were -- their coach and drivers knew exactly what to do during a match, knew exactly what strategies to watch out for and put their robot to good use. In the pit, they had several videos playing showcasing their team and, as a rookie team, won the Gracious Professionalism Award. That is awesome. I will admit, thought, I'm a bit flabbergasted that they *didn't* win the Rookie Inspiration Award or Rookie All-Star Award. They were really awesome. Watch out, San Antonio, these folks will be formidable next year.
- Loved the laid back volunteer crew at the event; things ran a bit behind schedule, but nobody was freaking out about it and everything was relaxed and calm. I know that here in Seattle, the crew prides itself on being on or ahead of schedule, but there's something to be said for the way they did things in Texas.
- So far, the real-time penalty process seems to work okay; I am surprised by that.
- The Rattler wasn't as bad a ride as I expected it to be.

The team had a great time in Texas and is very happy with the ways things went for us while we were there. Some bad luck in the semi-final meant that our trip ended a bit sooner than we'd have liked, but we are confident that we had a very strong alliance and we are looking forward to bringing what we learned to Seattle in a few weeks.