Lansing District 2009

[Beth Sweet]

So I bugged enough people at Lansing to get a media pass, and took about 300 pictures. I can't promise I got everyone/every team, but there's a whole bunch of them posted on our picture site: http://good-times.webshots.com/album/570612339OelZUY

Some of them are blurry (1918, you have some pretty interesting half blurry half not pictures from your elevator going up and down!) but the color on them is pretty good cuz I was close to the field. And yes, there are a bunch of 1504 and 2617 (our little brother team). But lots total, so lots of everyone.

Thanks to the Mussers, Dave Nolff, and all of the volunteers who worked to make this thing a success. I know a lot of the volunteers had to make things up as they went along, but you all rocked and coped incredibly well. (I think 4 EMS trips and a fire alarm is a new record!)

[Edit] I just realized that you apparently have to be a Webshots friend to save the photos. You can either friend us, or PM me with links to the pictures you want from Webshots, and I'll send you the photo. Sorry!
[Edit 2] I have also posted them in my personal Picasa if you want to download them that way. http://picasaweb.google.com/bethswee...ingDistrict09#

[MattLi]

haha yeah I noticed that too. I was thinking at the time... yeah if she gets hurt from a shard of metal... not good.

[Zach O]

Hahaha, I did hear about the EMS trips, and I loved how the fire alarm had gone off for 2 minuets before the match ended and people finally heard the alarm. Luckily there was no fire.

[nukelear1991]

Originally Posted by dragonrulr288

oh yeah, fun story for the 858 delphi deamons: at the end when we dropped in the finals is from when we went against you and had repeted hits to the front. You bent our bot so out of square that evrything had shifted nearly an inch, screwing our chains up! we could hardly drive! lol. Needless to say, we are ganna fix that... ^^

DUDE!!! we meant to be defensive and get some pinning....but not hits...hopefully we didnt mess the rest of the year up for you...oops.

Good luck rest of the year guys, you were great.

[Wayne TenBrink]

Our alliance was on the receiving end of that last second super-cell from 2767. He let go of it just before time ran out and it seemed to hang in the air for 5 minutes before landing in the trailer - ARGH!! What a shot to win the match!

It was cool that the Governor came to see the event and walk the pits. I didn't notice her lack of safety glasses. After we posed for pictures and she signed our robot, everything went south for us. About 15 minutes later, a camera tripod fell and hit our driver's mother in the head, sending her to the emergency room for a batch of staples (special thanks to the first aid crew!). She was back asap to see her son in action. In our next match, our robot sat motionless thanks to a faulty battery cell. Shortly thereafter, the fire alarm went off and the grandmother of one of our payload specialists wrenched her knee climbing down the bleachers (she was able to make it back to catch the rest of the action, too). Fortunately, things settled down after that.

Speaking of the bad battery cell (a 2009 battery), has anybody else had problems with batteries? I haven't heard anything from other teams, but I was discussing this with a motorcycle mechanic, and he mentioned that they have had a lot of problems with Vietnamese batteries. Unfortunately for us, we originally thought the problem was a bad connection. We tightened them down, "charged" it (or so we thought - according to the light on the charger) and used the same battery in a semi-finals match, where we sat motionless once again - a fatal error. Before going to the West Michigan District, we will have all our batteries load tested.

[dragonrulr288]

Originally Posted by nukelear1991

DUDE!!! we meant to be defensive and get some pinning....but not hits...hopefully we didnt mess the rest of the year up for you...oops.

Good luck rest of the year guys, you were great.

Na, we redid the problem posts.. But shifting our whole frame over an inch... That's insanity! No! Its LUNACY!!!!!!!!

[powerkane]

Originally Posted by dragonrulr288

EDIT
oh yeah, fun story for the 858 delphi deamons: at the end when we dropped in the finals is from when we went against you and had repeted hits to the front. You bent our bot so out of square that evrything had shifted nearly an inch, screwing our chains up! we could hardly drive! lol. Needless to say, we are ganna fix that... ^^

after we looked at our bot from the comp. we had our frame bent aswell ^^ we had to add extra supports to it to bent it back in to shape and as for our bar for the roller we use to consume the balls it was bent also lol maby we have to wrap our bots in bubble wrap ^^

[pathew100]

Originally Posted by dbs12693x

Did anyone happen to catch 2627's amazing super-cell throw at the end of their second elimination match on camera? That was probably the most amazing thing I'd seen all year, 67's win streak a close second.

It was in QF4-2, and it was the PS from 2767.

The craziest part was that he picked up a moon rock next to the empty cell first, went to hang it on the rack, realized he had the wrong one,dropped it and grabbed the empty cell instead at the last second, made the exchange and heaved the super cell about 2/3 of the field for the win.

I was one of the refs and on the blue side of the field so I got a good look at the whole thing!

[Raumiester2010]

Originally Posted by Zach O

The competition was quite a fun one to watch, and it seems like the whole stadium learned some new cheers, both from RUSH and from HOT.

I will also say vending was expensive, but the concessions they sold weren't as bad in price. The stadium was very upbeat and peppy for the competitions and matches everyone played. There were some new rookie teams that look like there doing well for a first season, and it felt like the pits were a little larger then at Kettering. Overall it was a great competition to attend.

And off to Troy for the EngiNERDs too!

Hmm, off to Troy for us too!
are you guys stalking us?