FTC Open Alliance Alliance!
FTC Open Alliance Alliance!
If I were to sum up this weekend in one sentence it would be FTC Open Alliance Alliance.
This weekend we competed at the Fingerlakes Qualifier in Penfield (shoutout FRC 1511 for running a great event as always). We ended the day with a 2-5 record, which might not sound great but it does mean we made it to the tournament. We were picked by the 6th alliance captain which was fellow FTCOA team 6347 Nerds of Feather! We also walked out with a first place control award, KEEPING THE STREAK ALIVE!
Match 1
Match one didn’t go great, starting off bad with a failed auto. Then we promptly broke the intake belt tensioner. But we pushed forward despite a disabled partner with some brown out issues. We scored 4 specimens on the chamber walking away with 42 point game. Which unfortunately didn’t win. But we thought for a first match soloing against some good teams with our broken intake, 42 points was pretty good. We were confident.
Match 2
We had a quick turn around not quite getting the intake repaired in time. We intended to do what we did the first match and just play with specimens. Our auto failed again, and then we browned out because in the chaos of the turn around and getting the intake fixed we forgot to change the battery. Which was majorly unfortunate. So going into lunch we had two losses under our belts but a long break, exactly what we needed.
Match 3
We got the intake fixed, we tested the auto and we practiced a bunch. We felt really good. We’re playing with Nerds of a Feather, a fellow FTCOA team which makes this even better. Unfortunately our auto didnt work again, we later found out that the timers we were using for the dead reckoning were getting confused because of the long innit time before the match, so now we knew what to fix. Luckily Nerd’s auto worked like a champ, giving us an advantage going into teleop. We cycled the pre placed alliance samples to our human player while nerd did the same for the yellow samples. Then we started cycling the chamber while nerds delivered samples to our human player. Then something bizarre happened.
Sample Hooked to a Churro in Our Bot
We somehow managed to get a sample hooked to the inside of our bot, so with a few seconds left before end game we couldn’t cycle so we played some FRC style defense courtesy of Brady. Nerds started cycling yellow samples to the net zone which helped and with our park and clutch buzzer beater park from nerds, we took home our first dub.
Match 4
Match 18 was a fun one, we were playing our sister team 12737 Electric Mayhem White. Started off rough again with a failed auto. But we came back swinging at the start of tele op with some of our fastest cycling of the day. Getting all 5 specimens from the human player station and from the field. Then intaking from the submersible to score a few more. Taking home our second dub and probably our best match of the day.
Match 5
Match 5 was big, our auto worked! We also had a big cycle game. Again one of our best, which I walked away thinking we won, as one I didn’t think the opposing teams climb was going to count. Turns out it did. Which was actually good for us as it means we might be able to replicate it. More on that in the next post though.
Match 6
Then we got picked by nerds of a feather and had another good game, both our autos worked which actually put us in the lead coming out of auto. Our strategy was exactly the same as our qualifier together, both focus on the ground samples then nerds deliver for our specimen cycles. We put up nearly 80 points, which we were all really proud of. But at this point that just doesn’t count it and we got bumped to the lower bracket. But we expected this and had confidence for our next match.
Match 7
That’s when disaster struck. Our autos work, but nerd’s failed half way through, no worries we still had advantage coming out of auto. We start cycling and nerds follow suit, the tragedy. Nerds goes down in front of the chamber. We try to push them out of the way, and we get enough out of the way to keep scoring. We get the 5 on the field. We realize what happened to nerds, their switch flipped so we try to use our intake to flip it back on. Then it all goes downhill. Before the match we put in our best battery knowing winning this match will save us from elimination, we liked this battery so much we christened it the “god battery”. Regardless, we brown out (we later found out this was a wiring issue). This led us to one choice, crawl and stutter to the park, which we get. But it wasn’t enough and we lost and were eliminated. Regardless, we were happy with our performance and were happy to be playing in the tournament, especially with a fellow FTCOA team. Shout out Nerds of a Feather. I wouldn’t have wanted to play those matches with anyone else, go check them out.
Reflections/Next Steps
All in all, not the event we were looking for, but the event we got. There were many unlucky parts of the event, but with the card we were dealt I think we made the best of it. There’s not much one can do with a half finished robot at a week one event, despite this we played at the highest level the robot we had could play at and made the most of it. We also didn’t go hand empty handed walking out with a Control Award.
Control Award Victory Photo
We have many ideas on how to improve our robot for our next event in January. We want to get the carriage back on, and fix the intake wiggle. We also want to investigate the 15 point climb by reaching the top bar. So more updates on those as they come out!
See you next week!
