Best moments of Ultimate Ascent

[Robotmmm]

Best moment: Finals at IRI. Unreal to watch!

Worst: Being so upset at Champs at the initial bad call on Einstein that we got up and left our fantastic seats and started the long drive home, only to find out later that we missed one of the most intense finals ever!

[Woolly]

Hardest thing to watch: 1114's robot in the semifinals on Galileo desperately reaching for the 2nd bar, looking almost like a human trying to claw their way off the side of a cliff, only to fall.

Slapstick Robots: There are a lot of potential moments for this, but looking back, watching 2337 pushing 3656 and inadvertently shoving 1806 off the pyramid and then immediately backing away and driving as far away from the tipped 1806 robot as possible is actually funny to watch. (Galileo Quarters 4-1)

Best thing that never was: 118's 30 point climber. Or maybe a full FCS alliance winning worlds.

[khanh111]

Best Moment: On Curie during selection, 1678 (the Citrus Circuits, #1 on Curie) asked at least 4 or 5 other top-8 teams including 2056 and 359 to join their alliance. They were refused every single time, but it was brilliant from a strategic point of view (regardless of any controversy over gracious professionalism). They ended up winning Curie.

Best Personal Moment: My team (1540) managed to change the dynamics on Curie in one match: Our alliance handed 2056 their 3rd loss of the season, and we caused them to end up 4th in Curie rankings. It was our best match of the season, and there's some argument for us claiming that we upheld the Curie curse. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tVKesq22u0

[Brandon_L]

More of a nod to the game in general, this is probably my favorite season (so far) purely because of how level the playing field was - and how we saw a number of teams (2590, for example) rise to fame.

Personal favorite moment: TCNJ, finishing second to last in the rankings. The team chose to stay and work on the robot while eliminations were running. Around the end of eliminations we thought we had most of the kinks worked out, and after a couple changes to our stragey we managed to snag a spot on an alliance with Storm and 316 at lenape to win.

Just goes to show, don't give up. Ever.

If Mike &/or Justin reads this: Give us a highlight reel. Pleeeeease?

[themccannman]

Originally Posted by DampRobot

I also think Semifinals 1-1 of Einstien (between 1678's alliance and 469's alliance) was pretty amazing too, triple FCSes and good sweeping action.

I don't know if I'd really put them up for the best robot in the world, but 973's offseason bot 9973 was pretty amazing. They hit 6 cycles basically every match, and really showed what a butterfly drive is capable of. Plus, it's basically the robot that every signal veteran team should have built instead of the one they actually built. It was that dominant, and super simple.

A little bit of bias here, but I'm gonna agree with that first einstein match. It was a perfect match in every way, every robot was going all out, it looked like it was snowing on the field with how many frisbees were in the air the entire match. I also agree that 9973 was amazing. One of the simplest designs in 2013, yet it completely dominated every competition it went to.

Originally Posted by khanh111

Best Moment: On Curie during selection, 1678 (the Citrus Circuits, #1 on Curie) asked at least 4 or 5 other top-8 teams including 2056 and 359 to join their alliance. They were refused every single time, but it was brilliant from a strategic point of view (regardless of any controversy over gracious professionalism). They ended up winning Curie.

4 teams, 1717, 2056, 1310, and 359. I hold nothing against these teams for those choices though as I would have done the same thing. In fact we were hoping it would play out that way.

Also I think 4814 was the rookie team of the year, I made a post about them in another thread:

Originally Posted by themccannman

4814 was alliance captain for the 3rd seeded alliance in curie, and was one match from taking the division title from us. If they had beaten us, my money would have been on them taking the gold, they had a phenomenal alliance. I can't think of any other team that has captained an alliance all the way to division finals their rookie year.

I don't think any rookie team has ever been that close to winning champs while captaining their alliance.

[DampRobot]

Originally Posted by themccannman

I don't think any rookie team has ever been that close to winning champs while captaining their alliance.

Fun fact, way, way back, I believe it was 95, 100 (well, that wasn't our number back then) won champs. We were and are the only rookie to ever do so.

[Anupam Goli]

Originally Posted by DampRobot

Fun fact, way, way back, I believe it was 95, 100 (well, that wasn't our number back then) won champs. We were and are the only rookie to ever do so.

Technically winner of the '92 FIRST competition was the first rookie team to win a championship.

[saikiranra]

My favorite defense match was at IRI, Quarter Finals 4, Match 3. AWESOME defense and counter defense played by all teams, including 118. This match had everything: 7 disk autos, defense, full court shooters and blockers, cyclers, and even a 20 pt climb.

[Robo Hamsters]

For us there were 4 best moments.

1. When we had two of our students drop out within a week of our regional leaving us with only 1 student and 1885 so graciously loaned us enough students and some mentors so that we could compete at the DC regional.

2. When 2415 & 116 picked us for elims.

3. Our final hang during the finals at the DC regional. http://youtu.be/2b5VOGTHSgc?t=12m55s

4. Finding out we were going to Championships. (Where 1885 loaned us students so we could compete there as well)

Thanks again to Virginia FIRST, Team 1885, Team 1522, and Team 3373. You all helped make our rookie year the best it could be.

[thursam]

This moment was kind of... I don't even know. When you read it, you'll understand.

It happened at the NC Regional, in Raleigh. I was watching from the pits, but I had a perfect view of it. The Flying Platypi (2655) were climbing to the top of the pyramid. The were about to hook the top rung, and it was the last 30 seconds of the match - they were locked in for those points.
Until they fell.
Their entire bot tumbled all the way down, to the control floor of the field.
It was terrifying, and I'm pretty sure everybody's hearts stopped.
Luckily, they only broke the shield of their control board - which they happened to have a spare of.
Everything else was fine and they could continue.
I hope something like that never happens again, though.

Edit:
I apologize if this brings up bad memories, but I truly thought this was an amazing moment. They kept on going, and did an amazing job with the rest of the matches.

[Anupam Goli]

My favorite moment doesn't have to do with my team per se:

A lot of people may not understand why I like my favorite local team as much as my own team, but I always get excited whenever 2415 does well. Ever since I first saw their 2011 bot that completely dominated in 3 regionals and did well at championships, I've been a big fan of their team and machines.

My favorite moment of the season was watching 2415 seeding 1st on the Archimedes division and making it to the division finals, and their alliance even pushed it to a rubber match. It was just awesome to see such an amazing performance by a local team whose performance has inspired many in our area.

[Abhishek R]

Originally Posted by Anupam Goli

My favorite moment doesn't have to do with my team per se:

A lot of people may not understand why I like my favorite local team as much as my own team, but I always get excited whenever 2415 does well. Ever since I first saw their 2011 bot that completely dominated in 3 regionals and did well at championships, I've been a big fan of their team and machines.

My favorite moment of the season was watching 2415 seeding 1st on the Archimedes division and making it to the division finals, and their alliance even pushed it to a rubber match. It was just awesome to see such an amazing performance by a local team whose performance has inspired many in our area.

I was extremely excited to see 1477 go all the way this year. It made me happy to see the team we've allianced with often since as far back as 2009, and in 2013 partner up twice, take their opportunity and struggle all the way through a ton of rubber matches to take home the Championship.

I always cheer for any Texas team (I was throwing a fit in the Galileo semifinals because I was like hmm...118 and 1477?) but at the same time, I was glad Texas Torque got the recognition they have because I think people know now there are plenty of great Texas teams beside 148 and 118.

It's just a good feeling when teams around you do well and continue to inspire you to stay in FIRST and do amazing things, I think I'm really lucky to live within 45 minutes of both 1477 and 118.

On a side note...Peachtree was one of my favorite regionals. Full size practice field, really nice venue, and everyone was really nice and helpful, besides being filled with very good teams.

[geomapguy]

Originally Posted by Abhishek R

I was glad Texas Torque got the recognition they have because I think people know now there are plenty of great Texas teams beside 148 and 118.

*cough* 624 *cough*

[czielinski]

I think that quarterfinals 1-2 on Galileo were the best. The underdogs triumphed over 1114 and 118. It was Adambots, Hilltoppers and RUSH

[JohnSchneider]

Best moment: Archimedes quarters 2 match 3. We had never made it to elims at worlds. It was a really close match that advanced us. That was a tough division...