clarifications on this year's nationals

Competition Championship Event
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  1. The now famous SPAM match, we were not totally broke. Our wheel had some damage, and the gearbox making noise, but we probably could have run(we will not know for sure until the bot gets back). Jason( the teenager-no adult mentor on the field for 173), made a great decision to run 66 instead of us. Meanwhile, I want to say 180 caused the most damage we have ever sustained in 7 years of competing. What an unbelievable shot, great strategy, great machine-in my top 3 matches, even though we lost.

  2. The 2nd Kingman match. A wire had come lose from the match before and we didn’t notice it. When we fell over, the drive wheels were dead. All we could do is shuffle. Once the ball got between the goal and us, we were no match for Kingman. Actually, Kingman’s one arm broke during the match before, which limited their pushing power. With us and 66 pushing for all we could, we just were able to overcome them. For me, the jury is still out if we could overcome a healthy Kingman.

  3. For Kyle Hill, you mentioned that a ball thrown at 71 was high and hit one of our drivers in the chest. Wrong on both counts. It hit me and it was not in the chest. Let’s just say that this 6’-6", 230lb guy had his breath taken away and almost went to his knees. You fill in the rest.

In conclusion, this year’s competition was the roughest one yet. FIRST says they don’t want Battlebots, but I’m not sure what you would call this year’s finals. While I can’t stand Battlebots( have watched more than 10 minutes), the crowd was definitely into this one and so was I. What do we do for next year?

Sincerely,

Brian Beatty

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*Originally posted by Brian Beatty *
**1) The now famous SPAM match, we were not totally broke. Our wheel had some damage, and the gearbox making noise, but we probably could have run(we will not know for sure until the bot gets back). Jason( the teenager-no adult mentor on the field for 173), made a great decision to run 66 instead of us. Meanwhile, I want to say 180 caused the most damage we have ever sustained in 7 years of competing. What an unbelievable shot, great strategy, great machine-in my top 3 matches, even though we lost.

  1. The 2nd Kingman match. A wire had come lose from the match before and we didn’t notice it. When we fell over, the drive wheels were dead. All we could do is shuffle. Once the ball got between the goal and us, we were no match for Kingman. Actually, Kingman’s one arm broke during the match before, which limited their pushing power. With us and 66 pushing for all we could, we just were able to overcome them. For me, the jury is still out if we could overcome a healthy Kingman.

  2. For Kyle Hill, you mentioned that a ball thrown at 71 was high and hit one of our drivers in the chest. Wrong on both counts. It hit me and it was not in the chest. Let’s just say that this 6’-6", 230lb guy had his breath taken away and almost went to his knees. You fill in the rest.

In conclusion, this year’s competition was the roughest one yet. FIRST says they don’t want Battlebots, but I’m not sure what you would call this year’s finals. While I can’t stand Battlebots( have watched more than 10 minutes), the crowd was definitely into this one and so was I. What do we do for next year?

Sincerely,

Brian Beatty **
Now I finally know your name. Sorry, but it was kinda weird not knowing the name of the person telling me how to keep you guys going where we all needed you to go. I felt so small standing next to this guy … a new experience for me.

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Brian,

Glad to hear no significant damage. We never set out to damage anybody but when you’re going for the same goal as 71 you can’t afford to dilly dally. I watched the video again and realized we did push on you guys with our grabber extended which we have tried to avoid doing (because it’s pointy) but have occasionly lapsed when things got exciting. Sorry about that.

Hats off to the coach on 173. I’m pretty sure we could have just done the same thing again. Putting 66 in there really threw us off our plans.

Despite the outcome (sigh) I thought the finals this year were good for FIRST. They were exciting, both alliances had a pretty even chance at taking it and it went the full 3 rounds. We could only be so lucky to have a rematch next year.

James
Engineer/Coach
Team 180 SPAM

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*Originally posted by Brian Beatty *
**3) For Kyle Hill, you mentioned that a ball thrown at 71 was high and hit one of our drivers in the chest. Wrong on both counts. It hit me and it was not in the chest. Let’s just say that this 6’-6", 230lb guy had his breath taken away and almost went to his knees. You fill in the rest.

Sincerely,

Brian Beatty **

:eek: Ay de mi. My apologies… from my standpoint in the front of our alliance’s section, it looked like it had and that it didn’t hurt whoever it was that was struck pretty badly. No one else on my team saw it to correct me, anyway.

I hope you’re alright, sorry about joking at your expense.

-Kyle