Great Lakes Regional History

[Chris Hibner]

Originally Posted by Andy Baker

45 was on the finalist alliance. We had a good alliance in 65, 45, and 1, but lost to 47's alliance. I forget who their third partner was.

I remember it was 111/47/45 at Midwest in 2000. For some reason I thought 45 (the robot centipede) and 47 also teamed up at GLR. Oh well.

2007 and 2008 almost didn't happen in my memory. I think I missed 2 out of 3 days at those events due to my career pursuits at that time. I don't remember a lot about those two years other than Atlanta.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Originally Posted by Andy Baker

I remember talking to Ken Patton after the final match against 47's alliance. We both agreed that the only way 47 was gonna lose that year was if their robot broke. They ended up breaking a weld on their arm in the elims at the Championships, against 312 and 131.

Andy B.

Andy,
Wasn't that the year that the pipe broke? We all thought it was a weld and I remember talking to Joe on the way back from the field after the break. There was no way for them to make the repair as the pipe had a compound fracture. About 6 inches long and around the entire pipe as I remember. Maybe Dr. Joe is watching.
It was one very sweet machine! Ours was my favorite of all time and it is still in the awards case at the school.
We were in the #8 alliance in EMU according to our history page.

[Craig Roys]

I love the district model, but I forgot how much fun it was having out of state teams come to MI to play - looking at this thread has been nostalgic.

2008 was the year of the decline - I believe the #1 alliance was turned down 4 times before getting their pick. I believe that was Paul Copioli's doing to break up any super alliances. We were sitting in the #4 seed and it certainly messed up our alliance selection plans.

[nikeairmancurry]

Originally Posted by Craig Roys

I love the district model, but I forgot how much fun it was having out of state teams come to MI to play - looking at this thread has been nostalgic.

2008 was the year of the decline - I believe the #1 alliance was turned down 4 times before getting their pick. I believe that was Paul Copioli's doing to break up any super alliances. We were sitting in the #4 seed and it certainly messed up our alliance selection plans.

66 was turned down, by 67, 33, and 27 I believe.. Yes probably by Pauls doing, but heck it was a Michigan Event, there are always gonna be super alliances no matter what, pre or post district model.

[Joe Johnson]

Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz

Andy,
Wasn't that the year that the pipe broke? We all thought it was a weld and I remember talking to Joe on the way back from the field after the break. There was no way for them to make the repair as the pipe had a compound fracture. About 6 inches long and around the entire pipe as I remember. Maybe Dr. Joe is watching.
It was one very sweet machine! Ours was my favorite of all time and it is still in the awards case at the school.
We were in the #8 alliance in EMU according to our history page.

I could literally feel my face flush red as I read this post.

That robot came out so well. It was nearly a fiasco because we made a major design error in the gearing of the main arm drive but Mike Ciavaglia (who was "King of the Machine" that year) redesigned things at the 11th hour and implemented it just in the nick of time.

We also had a drive team that was just amazing that year. He was easily the best swerve driver we ever had. Most Swerve Drivers still think in X-Y motions even though they have the whole plane to work with. Our driver that year would think it, and the robot glided into place.

And, then at Disney, we ran pretty well in qualifications, we had a great partner (a team out of Florida -- HeatWave I think). And... ...we broke in the first match that mattered.

My brain just could register what had happened at first. Our massive ball handling mechanism just fell into the high trough as we were scoring balls.

In retrospect, we were able to determine that this was a design flaw baked into the robot from the start. A weld joint that was different from every other weld on the robot. It looked okay at first glance but when you think about it with benefit of hindsight, it was probably braking the first day we started practicing. 3 Regionals, 1 set of qualifying matches and 1 game later, it broke in a very catastrophic manner.

When the Grey Beards from the early days of Chief Delphi get together we invariably talk about that season as The One that got away from us.

But... ...life is long, and being a Cubs Fan from the crib, I say to myself, "there is always next year!"

And there is...

Cheers,
Joe J.

[Paul Copioli]

Originally Posted by Craig Roys

I love the district model, but I forgot how much fun it was having out of state teams come to MI to play - looking at this thread has been nostalgic.

2008 was the year of the decline - I believe the #1 alliance was turned down 4 times before getting their pick. I believe that was Paul Copioli's doing to break up any super alliances. We were sitting in the #4 seed and it certainly messed up our alliance selection plans.

Originally Posted by nikeairmancurry

66 was turned down, by 67, 33, and 27 I believe.. Yes probably by Pauls doing, but heck it was a Michigan Event, there are always gonna be super alliances no matter what, pre or post district model.

Yep. 2008 GLR was finally going to be the year 217 won GLR ...

We, unfortunately, had a large target on our back at GLR in 2008 and some of the best defense of the year was played on us (especially by 201) during qualifications. We were sitting at 16 after Saturday morning. 66 was the number 1 seed as a lapbot (a good lapbot) and everyone knew they were picking 217. The problem was that every team in 2-8 were really, really good and super alliances ,were going to happen if we didn't do anything about it. 2 - 8 order was: 47,27,1718,33,65,107,67. Knowing who was going to be snatched up within the top 8, I went to the lead mentors and students of 66 and said the following: "OK, we will obviously say yes to your selection, but if you want to make it to the finals I need you to do the following ... If you do this it will be very awkward for your student but believe me it will pay off in the end"

[Andy Baker]

Originally Posted by Joe Johnson

And, then at Disney, we ran pretty well in qualifications, we had a great partner (a team out of Florida -- HeatWave I think). And... ...we broke in the first match that mattered.

My brain just could register what had happened at first. Our massive ball handling mechanism just fell into the high trough as we were scoring balls.

Joe, here is a video of the match in which your weld broke at Disney.

Sincerely,
Andy

[Travis Hoffman]

Originally Posted by Andy Baker

Joe, here is a video of the match in which your weld broke at Disney.

Sincerely,
Andy

Twist the knife, much?

Don't know about you all, but any exchange between Andy Baker and Dr. Joe makes me very nostalgic. Retro.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Hey,
I just saw that girl driver from CD a few weeks ago.

[Richard Wallace]

Originally Posted by Travis Hoffman

Don't know about you all, but any exchange between Andy Baker and Dr. Joe makes me very nostalgic. Retro.

Retro? They are both rookies again! (Or is Joe's team second year now?)

But it is really cool to see these tales of the great days retold.

[MagiChau]

Originally Posted by Chris Hibner

I think I even remember most of the winning teams/alliances:

1998: 47
1999: 71, 27, 85
2000: 201, 47, 45
2001: 33, 548, 85

Just reviving a thread here.

I cheated, I wasn't on the team until 2010 so I can't recall those years from memory.

Results from Technokat's Archive for 1999. For 2001 I can take a picture of our trophy or blue banner for proof. Although FIRST correctly lists the award on our team page http://www.frclinks.com/t/85
http://www.technokats.org/documents/...greatlakes.pdf