I’m curious, what was the unique situation?
…as the heavenly sounds of Nickelback play in the background…
Ohh boy, yet another thing that 900 is at the center of and the FRC internet will go nuts about. Seriously though, one of the best alliances we’ve been a part of. It was an honor working with all of our alliance partners.
Thanks! Me and my team have been looking for video of this to be posted since a few hours after selections!
In short, myself and the scout from 744 came into alliance selections with very different ideas about how high-level Steamworks was going to go down, and how best to give our alliance a shot and breaking through Newton alliances with such world-class teams as 118, 1678, 330, and 180. We both had very clear instructions from the rest of our scouting teams about what it was we were looking for in a 3rd robot, and that lead to the ~6 minute discussion featured in the video (that actually starts 2 minutes before the linked time, at around the 1 hr mark). 744’s scout did her job and listened to her team, choosing 900. Now, when the serpentine came back around we were in better accord and the choice for 5012 was a bit easier to settle on.
That alliance selection process was insane, and I think Verdeyen put it well when he talked about how these are the kinds of discussions that happen going into a match. And a huge thanks to him, too, for letting the discussion come to it’s natural conclusion! He handled it spectacularly as an MC, keeping the crowd energized. Thanks for volunteering!
It was great to be able to work with y’all! Yours is a team so incredibly full of character, not just crazy comfy zebra pants and great CV work.
Huge thanks to our other alliance parters, 744 and 5012, as well. We all had a great time taking the second seed alliance down to the wire four matches in a row. This was Spectrum’s first time playing in division elims, and it certainly was an entrance. It was a great way to end my career on the team, and was made possible with the help of these great teams.
Yup, thank you for finding that!
Will explains it right. I expected resistance, because 900 wasn’t the traditional pick. But we wanted 900 because we knew we already had 2 great gear cyclers, and in some match ups we could use a shooter. Then, in the worst case going back down the next 12 picks, we’d have at least a 3.2 gear average robot, which was enough to ensure the 4 rotors. So while 900 may not have been a traditional pick, we knew it wasn’t risky. What we didn’t expect was getting 5012, who was averaging almost 4 gears per match.
Also, what that video doesn’t show is me in the stands running up to Spectrum about 5 minutes into the argument to explain what was happening. They were on board, and we got the message down that it was ok.
Overall, it was a pleasure working with 3847, 900 and 5012. That strategy session by far the most involved and interesting I’ve ever been a part of. I hope to work with you all again in the future!
Congratulations to Newton’s winning alliance, and to all the great teams competing.
LOL!!! Can you wish for world peace now? 
You ran the gauntlet of 118’s and 1678’s joint evaluation and you were fourth on our list of noncaptain picks for what we looked for (and 5892 was 6th). You deserved and congrats and thank you for being on our alliance.
We wondered if the discussion was about 900. Zebracorn’s lead scout had come to us to discuss an alternative strategy before we rose to third in the rankings and the likelihood we would not be an alliance captain increased dramatically.
3849 (and 744) were high on our list. 118 couldn’t stop bringing you up in our draft strategy session. I’m not sure quite why they imagined you would be available (but then again we got 4188 and 5892…) And of course 5012 stepped up its game hitting 5 gears in at least one match we scouted. We have a fondness for them of course.
A personal thanks to Will of 3847 for making this alliance selection the most hilarious I have ever seen. By the end of that discussion I was pretty sure you were gonna get punched.
Likewise. Of all the ways to finish out my senior year, coming up with long-shot, risky ways to beat alliances just beyond our reach was certainly one of the most exhilarating!
To be entirely honest, for all of Thursday and Saturday we thought we almost might’ve fallen that far. Our scouts kept assuring those of us in the pits we were “solidly middle-of-the-pack,” and the fact that we were ranked in the bottom third made that solidly believable. Then we went back to the hotel and looked actually looked through the gear averages in our scouting data.
5012 was an absolute steal on the back end of that double serpentine. Our scouts had them in block for teams we fully expected to be unavailable by the time we were in a position to be helping with picking.
It’s my pleasure! Verdeyen even made a comment as I was walking onto the field about people walking in like they own the place. I wonder if he saw it coming. I would not have blamed 744’s scout if she thought I’d grown too big for my britches (especially just after the GP award!), but we had a good time duking it out verbally. It was good to see y’all again at champs after all the fun we had in Lubbock, I wish y’all the best next year, and maybe I’ll meet y’all again as a volunteer!
If possible, could this alternative strategy be shared? I loved playing with/against 900 and their strategy ideas always made NC interesting.
I’m just curious since it’s all over with now where my team 5842 sat on most of your guy’s scouting databases because we may not have stood out like the top guys who everyone knew would be on top (118,180,330, and 1678) but we did make a statement I believe in Newton being there.
As the lead mentor of 1678, I want to thank all of the outstanding teams that competed on Newton this year. It was a very deep field of quality robots that made our division one of the most competitive and exciting.
A big thank you to our old friends 118 for believing in us. It was an honor to play with you again and certainly way more fun than playing against you (LVR). We were incredibly fortunate to be able to pick up two steals with 4188 and 5892. 4188 gave us exactly what we needed in a good gear scorer and, although 5892 did not get to play, we know that you would have been a solid back up in the event you were needed.
Those final matches on Newton were some of the most exciting I have ever witnessed. The number 2 alliance of 330, 180 and 696 pushed us very hard and took it to four rotors both times.
330, you are truly a class act. In my entire history with FRC, I have never had the lead mentor of a future opponent come up to me the morning before eliminations, wish our alliance the best, and even throw their support to take it all the way on Einstein. I was thinking that the No. 2 alliance could easily take it all the way as well.
As it turned out, luck favored our alliance and we gave it our all on Einstein. Playing against our dear friends 973 in the Einstein finals was one of the highlights of my tenure as 1678’s head coach. Huge congratulations to 973, 1011, 2928 and 5499 for taking the gold medal. 973’s shooting was out of this world and your alliance thoroughly deserved the win.
Finally, I want to say how proud I am of all the outstanding students on 1678. You guys have worked so hard this year to make it one of our most successful years ever. Five years in a row on Einstein is something to be truly proud of.
It boggles my mind that some of your team members have made it all the way through their careers as students (and some mentors) and never witnessed a year WITHOUT Einstein. Your attitude towards giving your all and leaving it all on the field is truly inspirational. Great work this season and thanks for the amazing show!
1678 is the FRC equivalent of the New England Patriots. They may not win the Super Bowl (Einstein)e every year but they always make the playoffs and they are usually the favorites to win it all.
Oh man, I guess I better get my thanks in while the hype is still strong. Such an incredible experience for 5012.
To 744, 3847, and 900: thanks for having faith in us and selecting us to join your alliance. We knew our robot this year was a major gamble to play with in elims. After hitting our autonomous 0/10 times and having a rocky first day, we understand why we fell so far. It was mentioned that this was 3847’s first time playing in champs elims. That fact is unbelievable. Spectrum is an incredibly inspiring team to me personally by way of the resources they’ve made available over the past few years. 744 is also an incredibly thorough and detailed oriented team, as evidenced by the alliance selections argument. Working with 744 and 3847 with the support of 900 was a dream come true. Scoring 445 in every (officially counted match) and bringing our competitors on 330, 180, 3735, and 696 to 3 (4) matches was just icing on the cake.
It’s always a pleasure to play against 330. Incredible coaching staff on 330 always make for some tough elims matches. I bring a curse to my teams - if we attend an event with 330, it will end by facing them in elims. 
They had a fantastic alliance with 180, 3735, and 696. Congrats on making a subdivision finals run.
Congrats to Newton subdivision champions and championship finalists, 118, 1678, 4188, and 5892. Absolutely insane matches. Thank you to all four teams for constantly inspiring us to do better.
Congrats to our 2017 world champions, 973, 1011, 2928, and 5499. All very slick robots with insane scoring capacity. We are huge fans of all four winning teams. Best of luck representing Houston at FoC.
The GRB was a fantastic venue for quals. I loved how functional the layout was. What it didn’t have the grandeur of a stadium, it made up for that by having everything, including our friends on FTC and FLL very close. It was great to be able to visit my mom and my sister’s FLL team between matches. Thanks to all of the volunteers who made this happen. Now that we know how great the venue is, we look forward to attending in the future.
I’m not sure how many of my students will read this. I know I don’t thank them often enough, but I think their performance this season merits public recognition. This year is a special one for Gryffingear. This year we took in our largest class of freshmen since rookie season while our first group of 4-year seniors took the leadership helm.
To my drive team, Marcus, Matt, Christian, and Justin. Freshmen driver and human player Marcus and Justin went above and beyond this season. Marcus is one of the most skilled drivers I’ve had the pleasure of coaching and Justin’s ability to adapt and execute was second to none. Operator Matt - I know the strategy we fielded at San Diego didn’t have you doing much of anything, but you took to your new responsibilities at Sacramento and beyond controlling the gear mechanism very quickly. Christian - being pilot was not easy. So many rules and potential cards, it was possibly the highest stress position at events. Thank you for giving your all for every match. Match strategists Eliseo and Javier - thank you for being so thorough and detailed with match strategy. Thanks to you, my job as drive coach was significantly easier. Pit Lead Angel - thank you for dealing with all of the silly robot issues from match to match. From snek mode to completely wrecking the arm, you’ve lead the pit crew through some insane repairs. To my engineering team - you’ve seen the game and our strategic assessment evolve constantly over the season. From the fuel specialist revision of Mad-Eye to the gear specialist revisions, you have worked nonstop over the past 12(!) weeks to ensure that we remain competitive week to week. Good luck to my graduating seniors in your future endeavors. I can’t wait to see what the future has in store. Thanks to everyone on the team for an incredible season.
Thanks to EWCP, my fellow mentors, Gryffingear Parents, and various friends and supporters for making this season the most successful in Gryffingear history. See you in the offseason and 2018.
I’ll be honest that we were not looking for another fuel shooter since we already had 2 on our alliance. That said, we were very impressed with your performance and ability to both shoot AND run gears effectively (I saw you get 4 a couple of times). You were very impressive as a second year team to take on all of the challenges in the game and to do so well.
Thank you for the compliment. We never take even getting to Champs for granted. We recognize that every year there are
many other teams performing better than us, and even in 2015 luck was with us.
We love working with the community, and view the competition as just a highly effective means of educating our students about not only STEM but other life lessons. We hope that others at Champs enjoyed working with us, and competing against us, as much as we did.
Thank you, and I knew we probably wouldn’t compare to Robonauts or anything I was just wondering because of being a second-year team.Unfortunately also our second year of getting knocked out by 180 in semis so…
lol yeah, you never saw us play as a gear bot so… we actually never really played as a gear bot at Houston because we finally got our shooter down our max gears at one point including pickup from the ground I think was 7.
As announced at the competition, photos for all Newton Division drive teams at Houston Championships are now available for download!
https://frc1678.smugmug.com/20162017-Season/Newton-Division-Drive-Teams/