Truss throw catching club

[ToddF]

I suspect that the most rare ability demonstrated on the field this year was the ability to catch a truss shot (intentionally). The only thing rarer is to do so as part of a perfect cycle. Anyone else done it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VO1C_flphVE

The interesting thing is that catching a truss shot requires more teamwork than anything else in the game this year. It really should be worth more than just 10 points.

At the Chesapeake Regional, we took one practice match specifically to work on truss catching. With 1629 throwing, it took three missed attempts before the drive teams nailed it, and completed the last two of the five attempts. We were hoping for the opportunity to catch a throw from them in the qualification matches, and we were dismayed to find that the match schedule had us playing against them TWICE.

There's an interesting back story to the catch in the above video, as well. We got to be good friends with 1610 on a shared bus ride to Palmetto a couple years back. The weekend before the VA Regional, we traveled to 1610's home turf and spent a day doing joint drive team practice, using our respective practice bots. Among the things we practiced together were floor assists, and over-the-truss passing. We never got a really good opportunity to work together in a qualification match until this one, and it resulted in an over-the-truss catch, a perfect cycle, and setting the high score record for the regional. Our Friday night strategy session was held jointly with 1610, with everyone sharing scouting data and insights about the other robots, then each team separately developing their own pick list. As luck would have it, we ended up on separate alliances, and met as opponents in the finals. Because two teams on 1610's alliance had previously earned Championship slots, we knew we were going to St. Louis when they made it into the finals. The finals were about who got to take home the Blue Banner, and whether our 3rd alliance partner would go to Worlds with us. After seeing 1610 take the gold at our previous two regionals, it was finally us who came out on top at Chesapeake. Without patting ourselves on the back TOO hard, one of the things I'm proudest of this year is how the students on 1610 and 2363 have lived the philosophy of Gracious Professionalism, competing fiercely on the field while helping each other become better when off the field. It's these kinds of relationships which the teams of Virginia need to develop with one another in order to raise the level of gameplay in our state to match other areas of the country.