02/22/2018
What a great season for the team competing for the first time in FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC). Starting as an 8th grade rookie team, the boys did a great job throughout the season.
Their journey started at the Saratoga Qualifier. They stood #12 in the qualifying rounds. Being a rookie team, they had very little understanding of how the elimination rounds worked. They didn't expect that they will make it to the elimination rounds. What they didn't realize was that they were one of the most consistent teams in that tournament with the highest OPR (Offensive Power Rating). One of the top teams at the tournament that knew a thing or two about competing in FTC, picked them as their alliance partner. Their alliance won the Saratoga Qualifier with two alliance teams out of three progressing to the NorCal Championship.
After doing a bit of Google search, team found ftcstats.org. That's where they learnt more about OPR. They also realized from that website that they were ranked #1 in NorCal and #6 in the US based on their OPR. The team was ecstatic and super motivated after that.
Knowing that the other teams would be working hard to get better, what followed was great determination and resolve to get even better. The team took apart and rebuilt their robot multiple times trying to perfect it. They ran into numerous obstacles, and learnt from their failures. The youtube videos that other teams posted were super helpful in this learning process. Also, the videos from Pitsco were very helpful as well.
They then participated in the San Jose Qualifier with a better robot. This time, among the 16 teams that competed, they ranked #1 in the qualifying rounds and got to pick their alliance partner. For the first time, they were alliance captain. They were thrilled. They picked their alliance partner carefully using a more mathematical procedure (using an OPR calculator). Their alliance won the elimination rounds in just 4 games without giving their opponents a chance to win a single game. They made some good camaraderie at the tournament. At the San Jose Qualifier, I heard someone say "TogaTech drive team is legend" - that made my day.
With a couple of successes under their belt, a lot of teams started recognizing them as "TogaTech, the rookie middle schoolers". The team really enjoyed getting the recognition from the senior teams. I guess, the most proud moment for them was when the Saratoga High School teams and other high schoolers started to recognize them as "TogaTech, the rookie team that made it to NorCal Championship".
Now the goal was to reach Seattle for the US West Super Qualifier. To reach there, they had to compete with 55 other top teams in NorCal Championship with most of the teams comprising of 10 - 15 members from the various top notch Silicon Valley high schools. It was tough, but the team knew that they had the chops to do it. Working endless hours, sometimes whole day and late nights, they put together a great robot that they were confident will take them to Seattle.
In NorCal Championship, the team competed really well. They realized that it was not just they who had been working really hard but the teams that they were competing with, had been working really hard as well. The other teams were as well prepared as them, if not more.
The team gave everything that they got. They ended up #7 after the qualifying rounds (out of 28 teams in their division). They knew their own OPR and the OPRs of other teams from the qualifying rounds. Based on OPR, they were #8 out of the 28 teams. With 12 teams (4 alliances, each with 3 teams) making it to the elimination rounds, they were confident they will get picked up for the elimination rounds as an alliance partner. One of the top teams at the tournament picked them as one of their alliance partners for the elimination rounds.
In the semi-finals, their alliance completely overwhelmed the competition and won the best of three semifinals in just two games.
With the success in semis, their alliance was really pumped up for the finals. Unfortunately, in the middle of the first game (among the best of three), the controller for their robot crashed. They lost about 20 seconds and couldn't recover from that loss of time. The alliance lost the first game.
Still, they kept the hopes high and the alliance won the second game, tying the series 1 - 1. In the final round, the alliance fought hard, but unfortunately, this time one of their alliance partner's robot crashed in the middle of the game. The alliance lost the series 1 - 2. An awesome season ended rather abruptly. The team was shocked, angry, disappointed and saying that they were sad is probably an understatement.
After spending the day licking off their wounds, I saw the texts that some of the members sent on the Google Hangout that they used. As the coach of these awesome group of boys, I couldn't be more proud.
They did well in everything that they had in their control. They learnt that sometimes things that are not in your control can also determine your success or failure.
Although season left some bitter/sweet memories, we are thankful to FIRST for creating a great platform for young kids to learn and to inspire others. I want to extend special thanks to Bob France, Saratoga High School's Robotics Director, for providing great mentorship to the team. I also want to thank Rohan Rao (Saratoga High School Sophomore and FRC team member) for providing valuable guidance to the team.
Onwards and upwards!
- Hemendra