1 Year ago Today

FIRST General Forum
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Share your Houston Stories:

I was woken up this morning around 6 o’clock to a notification from OneDrive wanting to show me some videos I took from one year ago today.

Of course, one year ago today, 400 hopeful teams were converging onto George Brown Convention Center… I was thoughtful enough to try and record my teams journey there. After a quick walk down memory lane of my teams first ever trip to the Huston Championship, I thought about everyone on CD who won’t be making the trip to Houston this year due to Covid-19. I thought we all might appreciate an opportunity to reflect, or see the trip through the eyes of some very excited high school students.

So, on this date which has started so many great memories, and is sure to make many more over the coming years, I invite you to recount and share some of your favorite stories, videos, and pictures from the Huston championship, from any year.

I’ll start with my own: (Sorry in advance for vertical)

About 10 minutes of editing later I was able to throw together what little content I had of my team’s trip to Houston. Unfortunately, as soon as competition festivities started, I lost focus of anything outside of our robots performance. I was too young still to realize how unimportant the robot was to my experience as a whole, and I dreadfully regret not recording it all. Please do not make the same mistakes I did, go to conferences, meet other teams, get some buttons, eat some good food, have some fun. For most of you, your robots performance is not the part you are going to remember.

Thanks to:

Jason: For pushing me to make some vlogs so I can better remember this moment of my life. (Goodluck with 949)
Gilbert: For making me to go talk to some of my hero’s, in 254, 118, and 148, when I was too nervous.
Geoff: For always helping me through any leadership struggles I had.
Dom: Best CADer known to man.
Evan: For helping us lead our team to our most successful season yet.
Ms. Herzog: For being there year after year.
All other mentors: For making the Robototes what we are.
#Birdallance: For being the best team anyone could ever hope to lead.

Now time for your story!
Drop it bellow! Lets hear about your awesome Houston stories!

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I definitely have to thank Jason for teaching me about complexity.

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Oh, man. I miss Houston food so much. Food around the convention center is so good! I don’t have a lot of good pictures from Houston last year, I was too caught up walking around, talking to people, and watching matches. I did spend a few hours walking around and taking pictures of other teams’ pits though, and this one might look familiar to you:

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Obviously not 1 year ago e exactly… but you said Houston stories.

I wasn’t in Houston, but I was watching Einstein at home when they announced the WFA winner.

I got a noise complaint email later due to my reaction :slight_smile:

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I came to Houston last year with 5015. Since 4334 didn’t make it, but our sister team did, I decided to go along, and they were happy to have me come with.
I remember feeling so proud of their work throughout Newton, especially during elims. This was the first time they’ve been since 2015, and all but two students were brand new to FIRST. I might not have been a member of their team, but seeing them integrate themselves with ATAA, and their students learning the skills at the same time as developing a robot, it was amazing to see them make it all the way to finals as the 7th alliance.
I’ll always remember watching them do a double level 3.

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Wait a sec. Why didn’t you choose your moment to be when 254 walked up to our pit?

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We were practicing with 27, 67, and 3538 at the RUSH shop while watching the Houston elims broadcast.

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Me too in 2017, I was watching Einstein on a webcast when they announced the WFA Winner. :slight_smile:

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Pretty sure right about now (would be roughly 4pm(?) in houston?) we were scrambling to figure out what we would do if we were in a picking position without a climber.

Our last match being a tie saved ourselves from finding out (seeded 15th instead of 7th) but I dont think it would of been a fun night trying to figure out how we could of made it work…

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Never been to Champs. Would have been my first time this year.

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253 caught the Midnight Express Fun Overnight Flight from San Francisco to Houston. One year ago we were all sleep deprived, delirious, and excited.

If you can, avoid the No Sleep Plane Ride from Hell.

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Here we are signing our names on the robot before Turing playoffs. We made it to finals and played against the chezyhawks. I vividly remember Paul Copioli yelling about succ climbs.

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Hahaha I have cried in public about two times since I was a kid. The first time was when I took a soccer ball to the nose, causing me to bleed 30 minutes thereafter so I got a little teary in second grade.
Then there was the time I remember bawling my eyes out on the last day of worlds after we lost to the Robowranglers by approximately three points on Roebling (kinda my fault but that is another story). I was crying my face off when @EricKline gave me this huge hug and I just remember the mixed emotions of joy (WE MADE IT TO WORLDS!), desolation (the great seniors would no longer be with us), and hope for a greater year next year.
Who would have known that in a year, the world would be stuck at home for days on end, hoping for a virus to dissipate.
God I miss those five days in Texas last year… :’>

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I’m glad somone found that as cool as we do!

CD is not ready for the story of me freaking out to that extent.

It wasn’t your fault that we lost to them by three points, it’s because of you (and @Mika1820) that we kept within 3 points of one of the greatest teams out there!

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Yet you insisted on going to bed for an early flight from Louisville…

Something unique happened to Mike Starke and I. The majority of our audience is <35 for our shows and content but we had a mom and grandma come up to us to say they were fans of FUN and enjoyed watching content with their kids/grand-kids. We get to meet a lot of awesome people but that defiantly stuck in my mind from Houston.

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Yes,
I was on my way back home to Hawaii, then head to Worlds in St. Louis with our FRC team. :slight_smile:

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Watching the livestream from home

Again

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Oh boy that was an awesome weekend.

We ranked 9th and ended up as an alliance captain in the Turing division. We picked 3196 and 4451 as partners and won quarter finals. Unfortunately in semis we had some sort of issue with the FMS in both matches and were not allowed replays of the matches. :frowning:

It was a sad end to the best competition ever for our team. We had never been in the playoffs at worlds, let alone as an alliance captain. Overall it was an amazing experience, as it ought to be, and it will for sure be a highlight of my high school years.

and

Ofc I wish it could have happened this year we built a great robot. Next year :raised_hands:

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Having entirely too much fun coming up with random Instagram stories for the team account.

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Experienced a whole range of emotions as I reflected on our surprising 2019 competition journey beginning with ranking 24th in our first event and culminating in a return to Einstein after ranking 1st on Hopper. Incredible pride in our team’s effort and the growth we shared that year.

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