While making a presentation a couple of nights ago, I had to digitize some archived video. While doing this, I ran across some gems and decided to upload them to Youtube. You all may get a kick out of some of these.
1992 Maize Craze final match
Clinton Nypro (now 126) vs WPI (now 190) vs Wheeling HS (now part of 111) vs Delco & Kokomo HS (now 45)
1993 Ruge Rage match
I don’t know who is all in this match, but the low-profile aluminum bot with the removable cage for balls is Kokomo’s.
1994 Final Match
Here is a bit of ESPN’s coverage of the 1994 Championships. This is final match #1. Sunny Delight goes on to win match 2.
1995 US FIRST Promotional video
Veterans - look for Mike Bastoni and John Viltro in this one. There are some great quotes from Dean in here regarding why engineers and mentors are key resources to FIRST teams.
Here is a 2000 Championship Quarterfinal match where 126 and 131 pulls off a big upset to beat 47 and 312. Notice 47’s basket breaking right at the end. Notice a few robot drivers who are still around today.
2002 Semi-final match from the Championships. Notice that team 60 has the advantage early in the match, but then 71 inches their way to the right zone over the next 70-80 seconds. 66 knew how to help 71, but 60 and 144 had no choice, even with 500 pounds weighing down team 60. Amazing.
2003 Semifinal match from the Championships. This was the first year of auto-mode. Notice what 111’s robot does. Yes, they knocked down all of their opponent’s stacked totes and then climbed the ramp in auto.
I have a (very short) video from Rumble At The Rock I need to capture one of these days. I actually have all the hardware to do it finally!
Maybe in November when I can actually sit down at home for more than an hour at a time I can get that done & uploaded.
I’m sure the FIRST community would appreciate that footage of the first offseason competition!
lol! I just watched Woodie Flowers explaining the 2003 game! I’m still lost…
Thanks for the uploads, though. Very fun to see FIRST in it’s early years. I especially enjoyed the ESPN coverage. I really hope they decide to do it again.
I’m looking for a video that koko ed posted back from a 2004 off-season where a robot flipped over another to hang and swing from the ball.
Ed, are you out there? Can you help me?!
1998 was the last year that FIRST was covered by ESPN.
I really don’t know why it stopped for sure. However, I will make a guess. Like many other tough decisions, it was probably about the money.
In 1999, FIRST asked about 20-30 teams to supply video footage so they can put together a documentary. A documentary producer ended up creating a 30 minute video that was very good. When FIRST went to ESPN to get the video aired, ESPN pushed back and wanted to blur out the corporate sponsor logos on the robots, flags, t-shirts, and such. Essentially, ESPN did not want to help advertise for these companies without being paid.
I didn’t understand this at the time, and still don’t quite understand it. Of course, sporting events have all kinds of corporate sponsors, and each one of them can’t be paying ESPN. However, there is a high dollar contract with each sporting administration to pay ESPN for the coverage.
I suppose that FIRST could not afford this same sort of payment for a contract.
Ughh… Crazy times!! I was coaching that match… or… attempting to.
We barely got out of autonomous & then that happened.
Needless to say, I let out a rather high pitched scream, looked at my drivers who just started laughing, & we all thought that was the coolest darn thing we saw that season, even if it meant we were out of the match… :rolleyes:
To quote Fall Out Boy, “Thanks for the memories…” :eek:
Tremendous! I’ve recently been trying to think of a way to get all old FIRST footage together, have one central place to either link/search/find old FIRST videos, like a specific FIRST youtube. The blue alliance or something like that would work, but teams would have access to easy uploads and what not, it might just be easier to use Youtube and link in these forums or something.
