This was one of my favorite events of all time. I know your point is that it was crazy because you were ranked 11th, but if you looked at the numbers, of the available teams you had the best shooter at the event. It would have been crazier if we had picked anyone else.
The craziest thing about that alliance selection was that The Red Hot Chilli Bots were available as our second pick. At that time we always made two pick lists; a list of the teams we wanted for our first pick, and a separate list for our second pick teams (we used different selection criteria). If I recall correctly The Red Hot Chilli Bots were the first team on our second pick list with the same request for climb verification.
Also the best FRC mini documentary came from that event. Made by Red Storm Robotics team 3875
I cannot recommend more highly giving it a watch! It captures the feel of an event better than any video I have seen.
I will preface this by saying that this story is only so crazy because I’m a scouting and strategy mentor for both 1501 and 3494. This scenario occurred at the 2024 Plainfield event (INPLA).
1501 ranked 5th and was one of the best all-around bots in Indiana this year, with a strong autonomous, ability to easily switch back and forth between amp and speaker, and workable trap. They went on to captain the state championship winning alliance.
868 had the best autonomous of any team at the Plainfield event and were great at speaker and trap. They were ranked 6th right behind 1501.
3494 ranked 13th with a very unique bot - an amp and trap specialist who couldn’t even possibly attempt the speaker. Sheer volume of amp scores, and therefore amplifications - which they were very good at - were their only appeal in an alliance selection, so they were worried that they wouldn’t even get picked if they weren’t able to move into an alliance captain position. They went on to rank 2nd at the state championship because of their ranking point scoring ability.
1501 picks 868. The crowd fully believes that 868 will accept because their rep starts to say “gratefully” - but instead of gratefully accepts, at the last minute, it is gratefully declines. He had assumed that the answer would be yes and at the last minute received a no from his strategy team. A lot of people were totally shocked by this decline, but 1501 easily recovers and picks another strong shooter, 5010.
868 turns around and picks 3494 - a first pick almost as different from 1501 as night from day. The #5 alliance of 868, 3494 and 135 wins straight through to finals 1, where they encounter their first loss, but then rally to realign strategy and get the last 2/3 to win the event as one of only two alliances with a dedicated amp bot.
3494 goes on to return the favor and pick 868 at the state championship to see if they can run it back again, but mechanical issues quickly took the alliance out of the tournament. 1501 goes on to get their happily ever after, winning their first state championship during the team’s 20th anniversary season. All three teams involved in the debacle go on to rep FIN at the world championships.
I apologize for being slow here. If the two phrases mean the same thing, how can they be two different occurrences in two different years?
Edit: Ah. I see. The team literally achieved the same thing twice, and the second bullet point about the 11th-lowest rank is merely another time in the same team’s history when they’ve done this.
Lol…well this is a fun part of team history I didn’t know about! Wasn’t expecting to log onto CD today and see that haha!
Craziest alliance selection story for me definitely has to go to Yakima 2023 (WAYAK) - Normal alliance selection, but having a mostly upside down bracket was definitely memorable!
This doesn’t exactly fit this topic but the 1st alliance hasn’t won the Wisconsin regional since 2018. In the past 4, the 2nd alliance won in 2019 and the 3rd alliance has won since COVID 19.
2020 MWR truly was an event for the ages and definitely what came to mind first when I saw this thread. I’m very much an Infinite Recharge apologist and wish we got to see more of that game. I think the potential ceiling of it was really high.
