“Victory Goes Beyond Winning” – 2011 Alamo Regional

Written by Ryan Cesiel on March 9, 2011 in 2011 FIRST

The AdamBots traveled to San Antonio to participate in the 2011 inaugural FIRST Alamo Regional and meet their rookie team, Team LamBot 3478, for the first time. It may seem like a week 1 competition at an inaugural regional is a recipe for failure. But the administration and volunteers of the Alamo Regional ran a very successful competition. Thanks to them and all the wonderful teams at the Alamo, we had a very enjoyable and extraordinary experience. No, we did not win the Alamo Regional, but we did have a very successful regional.

Mr. and Mrs. Drummer arrived in San Antonio with the robot Wednesday night and a helpful group of LamBots (Team 3478) unload the robot and setup the pit. Students and other mentors arrived Wednesday evening around 11:30pm in San Antonio after a lengthy connecting flight.

Hanging a Circle

On Thursday, we did some fine tuning, practicing, and helped Team LamBot 3478 with problems they were having on their robot. The juniors that were taking the ACT and MME arrived Thursday night with Mr. Cesiel.

Friday morning we won our first two matches (51-0 and 53-0), scoring all the points for our alliance. Right before lunch we had a tough break, losing 3-36 after some tough defense. After lunch, we played well in our first match, beating a high ranked team at the time, Robowranglers (Team 148). In our next match we lost to the #1 and #2 seeded teams, Team 16 (Baxter Bomb Squad) and Team 2848 (The All Sparks), 33-70. Later in the day we played a in a defensive battle winning 5-0 against Teams 1642, 647, and 3481. Then, we finished the day off strong winning 67-13. We finished Friday with 5-2 record in qualification matches. During the Friday awards ceremony, we received the Best Website Award for this website, AdamBots.com. The judge had lots of great things to say!

For the LamBots, they started Friday rough. Their robot did not move for the first several matches. But, after some hard work and help, the LamBots started moving and their crowd in the stands cheered fervently. Later in the day, I was back in our pit talking to judges when I heard a roar from the crowd. It turns out that “crowd” was just the LamBots; they had hung their first tube. Click to watch a video of one of their mentors, Juan Carlos’, reaction to the LamBots scoring their first tube.

Friday evening we met with the LamBots for a pizza party and to discuss what would happen on Saturday. After we discussed what was happening on Saturday, students and mentors talked with each other for another hour until the LamBots had to go back to their hotel.

On Saturday morning, the last of the qualification matches were played. We finished the qualification rounds 6-3 and earned the #9 seed after winning one match and losing another. It seems that we may have given our rookie team too much information the previous night because they were on the opposing alliance that beat us in our one loss Saturday morning.

Team 2848 (The All Sparks), #2 seed, selected us in the alliance pairing selection along with Team 57 (The Leopards). In the elimination rounds, we made it all the way to the finals after winning several tightly contested matches including a semi-final that went to three matches. The offensive power of Team 16 (Baxter Bomb Squad) and Team 148 (Robowranglers) was unmatchable though as they scored the national high score in the finals (135 points). We lost two straight matches 135-37 and 114-53. In the last match, however, we showed our offensive prowess in scoring 2 logos (6 tubes) and our minibot (View Match on Youtube – Courtesy of Team 148).

At the conclusion of the elimination rounds, the 2nd a final awards ceremony started. During the ceremony, many of us were rooting for the LamBots during several awards including the Team Spirit award and the Judges Award. Little did we know, the judges had something even better in store for the LamBots. When Team LamBots 3478 was presented with the Rookie All Star Award, they went ecstatic. They were screaming, jumping up and down, and then they ran all the way to and through the line of high-fiving judges. For the next two award presentations, they could still be heard screaming and shouting in disbelief until the master of ceremonies politely told them to quiet down. Their screaming and shouting was understandable though. Afterall, the Rookie All Star Award does earn them a trip to the FIRST Championship in St. Louis.

Many of us AdamBots were nearly as ecstatic to see the LamBots with the Rookie All Star Award as they were themselves. I myself was more proud seeing the LamBots win the Rookie All Star Award than seeing our team win any other award in the past four years. Even one of our veteran mentors, Mrs. Drummer, said, “I think I was more excited when the LamBots won the Rookie All Star award than I was when the AdamBots won the Sacramento Chairman’s Honor several years ago.” We felt that this team thoroughly deserved the award.

During the competition, the LamBots cheered constantly despite having a nonfunctional robot for several matches and showed more enthusiasm and excitement than any other team I have seen at a regional or district. Furthermore, not only have I not seen more enthusiasm or excitement at any other district or regional, I have never seen a team so proud and thrilled to win an award (the Youtube video of the Rookie All Star Award is a must-see). Team LamBot 3478 demonstrated that they “get” FIRST–that they understand what FIRST is all about. Team LamBot understands that “Victory goes beyond winning.”

AdamBots Blog

“Victory Goes Beyond Winning” – 2011 Alamo Regional