A Series of Unfortunate Events

[Akash Rastogi]

We let down 222 at Philly when our chain snapped during eliminations for our intake rollers forcing us to play defense with a non defensive drivetrain =/. According to many outside of our team or friend circle, we could've won that regional with the partners we had. 222 has an insanely good robot(Archimedes winner anyone?) and 316 does as well.

[Abra Cadabra IV]

While we were building our robot, the student assigned to put our chain tensioners on decided that our chains were tense enough so we didn't need them and didn't put them on. Flash forward to the middle of Friday at Los Angeles. We were up against a tough alliance, so our strategy was that we were going to bait the other team's best scorer into chasing us around the entire match, which worked for about thirty seconds until we hit a wall and threw a chain. Naturally, the opposing alliance took this opportunity to fill our trailer until no more balls could fit.

And to add insult to injury, somehow someone or something reset our CRio while we were putting the chain back on...and we didn't notice until our next match had started and we weren't connected.

The only other failure we experienced all season was our conveyor belt jamming because we left off...ONE WASHER. Oops.

[flyingcrayons]

Originally Posted by galewind

(Most of this stuff is stupid insignificant stuff until you see Friday afternoon's story, which is quite an adventure).

Okay. I'm sorry folks, but I think it's going to be hard to beat my story. I think that someone's hexed me and it has trickled down onto my team.

Before the trip
The week before leaving, a series of drop ceiling lights and flourecent bulbs die, and the day before we go, my microwave goes, all before houseguests are staying to watch my dog. I fix the lights, buy a new microwave, and go on my merry way.

In school on Wednesday, the day we depart, I call our transportation department to confirm the pick up time on Monday, as our flight time was changed, and they said "Bus? What bus?" -- apparently when our trip was approved, the appropriate people neglected to tell the transportation department, but then we get on our merry way.

Our bus comes speeding into the parking lot, and we load into the bus to head toward the Philadelphia airport. We quickly unload baggage and make it into the terminal with about 1:45 before our flight departs.
We hit the check-in counter, and we get one 75-year old man to check in 31 people. It takes one hour and 30 minutes to check us in (before TSA). Thankfully, in that time, we discover our flight is delayed. For two hours. And a half hour delay ON the runway. There was an "incident" on our flight which, upon landing, took us ANOTHER half hour to get through, and we arrive at the hotel at 11PM.

Thursday
Thursday, on the way over, I twist my ankle. I go to first aid at the stadium, and they have no ice. I go to Papa John's booth, get a plastic serving glove, fill it with ice, and try to ice it up. I get told by event staff that I can't keep my foot up elevated on the seats. So I then went to the Omni and bought an ace bandage and wrapped it all weekend.

Inspection this year was very difficult to get through, and we got failed a few times for things like wire coloring and fitting in the box (because we touched the wall). What was frustrating is that they would find one thing wrong, fail us, and send us back, to find one other thing, fail us, send us back. We went through this process 3 or 4 times before getting the sticker.

Friday
Friday morning, we were excited to be able to participate in the Robot parade for winning NJ Chairmans!! After leaving the hotel with a few stragglers, I was disappointed to see my kids not in the stands. Turns out that when I said "Be in the stands by 8:00", that someone (student or mentor) thought that meant "8:15 is okay". Needless to say, 90% of my students missed us in the parade. That made me livid, but I eventually got over it.

**This is where the story starts to get good**

So matches start, and we start losing. Our team was playing relatively well for our capabilities, but we just couldn't cut the mustard. After going 0 - 3 we had a pretty good match coming up with a local powerhouse this year, 816. In auton, we hit another team and break our elevator, a part of which falls onto the floor. We think that we get disabled for it. 816 hits another team and has a wire issue that causes them to shut down. We end up with a tie in that match. This was match 57. We also have one on 65, so we try to get our robot fixed up the best we can while on the field. Sadly, we've lost power to the cRio and we can't figure out why, so we have to bail and return to the pits.

We go back to the pits and can't figure out why the cRio won't boot while the PD block is sending appropriate power. We call the NI guys over, and they test it, ask us to take it out so they can take it to their booth to test it further. While there, I notice the winner of the cRio drawing, team 2590, a team that we helped in mentoring! I go to spare parts to get a new cRio, and they're closed. So then I go to 2590's pits but they're not there, so I call them to let them know that they won, and to beg and plead to borrow their new cRio since spare parts had already closed for the day. They come back to the pits 30 minutes before closing time, and after a nice photo session with some executives from NI, we rush to install the cRio in the pit.

As we install it, Drew, one of our programmers, starts to boot his laptop to update the firmware and code for the cRio discovers that his computer has crashed. He reboots only to later find out that it's a physical drive failure. So we not only lost our cRio, but also our programming laptop! But let it be known that Drew's a smart kid, and had a relatively current version of the code on a pen drive in his laptop bag. We decided to set up my freshly-formatted laptop with labview back in the hotel room, so we reach for the bag with the backup code.... and it's gone. As it turns out, it was left on the field. Lights in the pits dim, they're kicking us out... fade to black.

Back at the hotel, the programmers work feverishly to update TWO laptops with current versions of labview and the WPI libs, and write ALL NEW CODE in case we can't find the bag with the back-up code. We make an effort to get there bright and early saturday morning. No rest for the weary.

Saturday
Everyone gets to the stands on-time! We get nice seats next to Buzz and skunkworks, two great teams. Programmers get to work, kids get food, awards are given, and "let the games begin!". Did our team make it? Did they get the cRio programmed? "YES!!! We're up!! We're out there!" Then whack, two more losses, and we land 86th place (out of 87). We've got our crate coming to the pits before our robot even makes it back from our last round. We pack before QF's are finished. We go back and cheer one some great teams in curie and galileo, and sit back and watch the show on Einstein. Some kids need to go back to the hotel to drop some things off, so I escort them back. We get back to the park about 40 minutes later. I get in line for food -- no plates to speak of in sight. Once again, I'm livid. Not even Karaoke could make my night better (especially because it was booked up).

As the party wrapped up, our team got together and sat to watch the last couple acts, which led up to the fireworks. As I sat with my students and my wife, my anger washed away while bathed in the lights and sounds of the show. I can't explain it -- but watching my kids as a group smiling at the show, and realizing that they had so much fun, made this entire trip, and all of its adventures, absolutely 150% worthwhile. We all headed back to the hotel in positive spirits, reflecting on how funny all of the ordeals were.

Sunday
To add insult to injury, a kid puked on the plane on the way home. We just couldn't catch a break!!


Team 1089's journey to Atlanta this year was a long and stressful one. But we have this saying on 1089 that really fits in well:

Life is a Journey, so Don't Stop Believin'

See y'all again soon!

gee, mr gregory, you seem like you had a tough time... at least the kids had some fun...

[scottmacdonald]

I GTR this year we made it to the finals and won our first match against 1114, only to have our robot break down. After calling a timeout our alliance partner 188 was 5 seconds late to the field and couldn't play in the 2nd match.

Finally, in the 3rd match with about 10 seconds left we we're leading but they shot a super cell which bounced off a robot and into our trailer with a final score of 97-90 for them.

I'd Call THAT unfortunate. But it was still lots of fun and full of gracious professionalism.

There were a couple other parts to this story that I left out and can be found http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...&highlight=GTR

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by flyingcrayons

gee, mr gregory, you seem like you had a tough time... at least the kids had some fun...

Lol. Chris, you need a hug? I hear thefro gives out random hugs lol

[Lil' Lavery]

Though there was a very definite series of unfortunate events that cost 1712 this year on Archimedes, I think a better example is perhaps from a couple years ago while I was with 116.

It came on Galileo back in 2007. The qualifications were a bit rough, with 116 facing 10 opponents (11 if you count the fact we faced #1 seed 1425 twice) who were in the elimination matches and only having one partner who did the same. Match 68, where we score 6 tubes but ultimately only have 2 points due to spoilers and penalties, sums up pretty well the qual matches. Needless to say we didn't seed in the top 8 (3-4 record, 54th seed) despite being one of top individual competitors.

We were picked 6th by 1595 and were joined by one of my favorite teams in FIRST, 93. We became the only alliance to stop the Thunderchickens before Einstein since 2004 when we defeated 2272, 45, and 217 in quarters.

The semis where the real unfortunate events begin. We squeak out a victory in match 1 against 173, 1902, and 1319. Match two was much rougher, with what we referred to as the cursed spider foot (4 distinct scoring attempts resulted in tubes on the ground) and a massive row of 7 for the other alliance. We spoiled their row (cutting it into two rows of 3) and placed a single tube. If we had went back to 93s ramps earlier and not bothered with the tubes we might have won 30-16, instead of losing 16-2. The worst part was when 1595 lost their arm to a (completely legal) hit by 1319 at the end of the match, costing our alliance one of our scoring machines.
The third match involved 1595 attempting to play defense without their arm. With hindsight being 20/20, we should have opted to replace them with #1 back-up 1382 (a defensive ramp-bot) who would have likely filled this defensive role better. 1595 accidentally de-scored an opposing tube while defending 173, which resulted in a 10-point penalty. Going into the end of the match, both 116 and 1595 are on 93s platforms, which raise into the air. With only seconds left it appears both will receive bonus points, but then 1595 slides off as time expires, falling to the ground. We were still leading with 116's bonus points and our rack scores, but the penalty from earlier flipped the outcome of the match, and helped the other alliance advance to the Galileo finals (and eventually to Einstein).

[klanicam]

Team 3062 had a couple unfortunate events at the Championship.

1. Our first match after lunch on Friday, one team wasn't paying attention to the clock and didn't get their robot or human player to the field in time. So, it was a 2-on-3 match. What hurt even more is that we were paired with 1218, Vulcan Robotics, with their Taz Robot (an awesome robot). Without that human player, there were two bins of balls that never made it onto the crater for them to pick up and score.

2. During one of our Saturday qualifying matches, the other alliance launched a super cell at the end of the match, it missed one trailer, bounced off a robot and landed in one of our alliance trailers. We lost the match by 3 points, 91 - 88. Fantastic match!

3. Our last unfortunate event was after the match stopped, we were winning 60 - 54 with the RealTime Scoring. After the official score, we lost 58 - 68. It was the first time I saw a score go down, without penalties.

[kapolavery]

That reminds me..
Another one we had was during a qualification match against a high seeded team.. we were in the queing area when the match before us finished..
Unbeknownst to any of us, one of our alliance HP had to go get something..
and didnt make it back in time. So there was an outpost with a full set of moon rocks the whole entire time.
We lost the match (its alright though) and went to talk to there team to see what happened. He was held up by other teams moving their robots to the pit and queing area...and by the time he got back, they wouldnt allow him on the field..Its really unfortunate!

[Josh Drake]

Originally Posted by klanicam

3. Our last unfortunate event was after the match stopped, we were winning 60 - 54 with the RealTime Scoring. After the official score, we lost 58 - 68. It was the first time I saw a score go down, without penalties.

With rocks being scored so quickly that happened a couple of time in our favor. We would be down 10-12 points, and come off with the win after the official count. Unfortunately in happened in favor on the Archimedes champs in the first round of the finals. The real time score had us up 14, but after the official count we lost by 2. You win some you loose some. The next round wasn't close.

[jamie_1930]

Originally Posted by kapolavery

What were some "unfortunate events" that happened to your robot or your alliance's robot that costed you big time during a match?

2009(with team 2228):

-We used a fisher price motor for our ground pick up mechanism (basically a conveyer belt with poly cord and wedge top) and we had a couple jams and some breaker trips.

-Once at the Hartford Regional in Coneticutt we accidentally plugged the joysticks into the wrong usb ports so i (co-pilot/shooter mechanism) was driving and our driver was turning our turret. It took us almost the entire match to figure out what was wrong, mainly do to the fact that our traction control wasn't working and the wheels wouldn't turn till i pressed the trigger.

-Also at Hartford we had a communication error with the field (our "guess" seeing it worked fine tethered and our wifi block was on out at the field) and the field hands wouldn't let us back on the field, despite the huge window of time before alliance pickings. As a result we had a greatly deminished chance of being picked, and weren't, because we couldn't prove to the other teams there wasn't a problem with our robot.

2008(with team 1930):

-Last year at Finger Lakes we forgot to plug in power to the left CIM motors so we just spun in place and had a group slap because of this incident.

-Also we ended up having another robot puncture our side plating (32nd inch aluminum just so we had a place to put our sponsors)

-And finally we had a hard hit with another robot and our claw mechanism that knocked of one half of our claw because we forgot to put the final welds on it and it was only tack welded.

[thefro526]

This year we only had one on field failure during a non-practice match. In Match 58 on Curie we were playing the Thunder Chickens. We knew that we'd need to play hard defense to win the match. 60 seconds into the match we held their alliances to 20 points when we hit them head on to help our partner pin them. Apparently we went hit them we jarred our master ground connection loose and the robot died completely.... We still tied the match 58-58.

[pacoliketaco]

well, our robot was fine this season, but i cut my finger open on a moving chain/sprocket. that was a fun way to spend Thursday at nationals. So i went to Atlanta, all ready to play frisbee the whole time, and the first day i injure my throwing finger, and didn't get to play at all. Now, two weeks later, i still don't have full feeling in that finger...

[Josh Drake]

Only I would get stung by a wasp while trying to dismantle our pit after the Palmetto regional. I guess that's why they want you to wear gloves; the rogue wasp in Littlejohn Coliseum!

[byteit101]

In seeding matches, 3 things killed us:
we had a harvester of pvc pipes on our front with just a thin cardboard like sponsor board, and during auto, playing in the center pos, we rammed into another robot so that their edge hit our harvester, and our harvester fell apart and prevented us from moving (we took a video of our matches from our camera, and you can see it collide with us very hard!) the programmers changed it to turn and then go forward slowly in auto after that
We put in a dead battery (6V?) and crawled
we were downloading the movies from the robot, and we had to go up, so we took the laptop to the staging area, finished, but forgot to plug in our WGA, and our light was BLINK.BLINK.BLINK.BLINK the match as we got scored apon

[LWakefield]

In a semi finals match, in the third match, we had a bad battery and our robot didn't go anywhere.