[FTC]: 07-08 Season VA FTC Championship

Hey Folks,

Virginia FTC Affiliate Partner Darlene Panteleo, FIRST and Virginia’s FTC community just put on a fantastic Championship tournament. Who out there has stories to swap, ideas to share or suggestions for the future?

With nearly 50 teams competing there must have been some fun moments off and on the field, some interesting “Ah-hah!” moments and observations, and some inspiring, unsung heros deserving of praise. Let’s publish/recognize them (here or on the VexLabs site http://www.vexforum.com/showthread.php?t=2014) while the day(s) are still fresh in our minds.

Blake

I speak for all three of us on Team 270 Apollo. I would like to thank some people and teams who, if without, we could not have possibly won. We only won because of the most amazing performances of gracious professionalism that I have ever seen, from so many people in the community. Without a single one, we could not have made it. So I want to be sure to thank them here, as we could never repay what they have given us.

Thank-you to Osbourn Park HS Metal Jackets 183 for being a great, strong alliance. They helped with parts, and collaborated with us throughout entire event. Thanks for cheering us on, and supporting us as we teamed up to rise to the top.

Thank-you to Olde Town Hobby Shoppe Faberians 368 for being a very strong alliance, and having won an elimination match man-down. Your ability as middle schoolers to have single handedly taken down two high school teams in an elimination match was most impressive.

Thank-you to Blake Ross for providing countless parts, support, and far too many microcontrollers. You are a great part of the community.

Thanks to Mr. Willis and Mrs. Crawford, for starting us up, and countless amounts of help and support for the last almost year and a half. Without you we could not be where we are now. We will never be able to repay the debt, but are certainly willing to try.

Thanks to the opposing alliance in the final match. Mavericks from Gar-Field (53) used their only time out to give us time to fix an issue that had come up. That was the by far the most astounding performance of gracious professionalism I have seen.

Thank-you to the Gar-Field team in the opposing alliance for all your support, and an incredible game.

Also thank-you to the team playing with gar-field in the final match, the Juggernauts, for all of their help throughout their day in trying to get rematches for field issues, and general support, along with playing an incredible game.

Thank-you for all of your support:
Woman passing out crystals on field one. (Name?)
Fellow Prince William County Teams
All of those individuals keeping us informed, and helping us out.

Thanks to the judges for selecting us to receive the innovate award. We are truly honored.

Finally, thanks to the girls from the NASA team that drew that awesome pic of me. Made my day.

I know that there are countless other people that I owe thanks, but the day was a blur, so thank-you. Please let me know of anyone I forgot.

Sincerely,
Alexander Obenauer
Software Engineer, Team 270 Apollo

Team 183 would like to thank Team 270 Apollo for picking us to be on their alliance, and Olde Town Hobby Shoppe Faberians 368 for being partners on the alliance. I couldn’t be happier with the alliance, and how we played so well together. We were constantly helping each other in the pits, and on the field. I think the most impressive part was when team 270 had to rewrite their code, and Blake Ross let them use their laptop to achieve this. We would also like to thank Blake Ross for selling us a new controller.

We would also like to thank team 159 the Holy Rollers for lending us their extra controller after we broke ours during autonomous testing (dropping on floor).

We would also like to thank the red alliance for using their time out to help out Apollo finish fixing their chain. Also thank the red alliance for personifying gracious professionalism.

We also need to thank the volunteer Chuck for helping us pass inspection, by letting us use his laptop to rewrite our code.

Also thanks to all the teams for such a great performance on and off the field. Over all this truelly was a coopetition.

Sincerely,
Team 183

VA FTC Awards

The Amaze Award is presented to Team No. 342, Hopewell 1, from Hopewell High School.

The Motivate Award is not being presented to a winning team. Instead, it will be shared by the four teams from Battlefield High School, Team Nos. 194, 354, 360, and 392.

The Innovate Award is presented to Team No. 270, Apollo, from Woodbridge.

As much as they want to remain anonymous, the Think Award is presented to Team No. 33, Anonymous, from Woodbridge.

The Connect Award is presented to Team No. 254, Raptar, from Ashland.

The Inspire Award is presented to Team No. 177, Twisted Bots, from Gloucester.

Finalists: Team 53, Team 441, Team 364

Winners: Team 270, Team 183, Team 368