Reflection on the 2023 Season
Since it has been a while since we have posted anything, I figured I would write a little something about our entire Charged UP season.
Kick off started in the usual fashion with the team getting straight to work on a design for our robot. The students came up with some great ideas and got started immediately on building prototypes for different intake designs. With the guidance of our mentors, they ultimately decided that gripper was the best idea for our robot. Then, they started working on designing what the robot frame would look like and how we would accomplish moving the pieces from the human player stations to the scoring grid. Our mechanical team got right to work on building the chassis for our robot and by the time they had that done, we had a complete design done and we got the frame of our robot completely built. The part that took us the longest to make and perfect, was our arm and wrist. If you have ever seen our robot, you’ll know that the arm and wrist are one of the most impressive parts of our robot. Because our robot is just barely below the height threshold set by FIRST, we quickly realized how top heavy it was. We still had some weight that we could add to the robot to counteract our balance issues when the arm was fully extended so we started looking into counterweights. One of the most amazing parts of our robots, is the positional counterweight that moves into different positions as the arm moves up and down and is dependent on whether the robot is driving forward or backward adding extra weight to the front facing part of the chassis. We got our robot completed before our Week 0 event and began construction of a 2nd robot that would be our competition robot, which we have never been able to do before.
While all of this was going on, our marketing team was hard at work coming up with designs for our pit, buttons, competition shirts and a multitude of other items. One of the things we got this year was our first 3D printer. We didn’t do too much with it right away but one of our mentors has a printing farm in his home with which he started toying with the idea of 3D printed swag. The team came up with the idea of printing the game pieces just large enough to put designs on them and make them into keychains. During the season, we had over 50 unique designs for the cubes and 2 for the cones. We found out very quickly how hot of a commodity those would be at our first competition.
Our Week 0 event was in Oxford, MI this year and it was quite the eye opener for us. We went there with our prototype robot while all of the parts for our competition robot were being powder coated. It was extremely great practice for our drive team to get used to what competitive play was going to be like this season. They were able to get a good feel of what cycles were going to feel like, how the robot handled over the bump next to the charge station and even how difficult balancing on the charge station was going to be.
We then got our competition robot completed, whom the team lovingly named “Pete Stop” for the Disney character, Guido, from the movie Cars. He is the little fork lift character who dreams of being an Indy Car pit crew member, if you didn’t already know. The only words he says in the movie is “Pit stop” in that adorable Italian accent. Anyway, We had a 3 week break from competition and were able to get everything finalized on our robot. We went to our first district event in Standish, MI which is a 1.5 hour drive from home and the team decided we would stay in the area instead of making the commute every day. That was a first for our team. Never in our history have we done a competition that far from home where we needed to stay in a hotel. The competition was very tight and there were lots of great teams there. We finished qualifiers with an 8-4-0 record and were seeded 7th. After alliance selection was over, we were the captains of the #6 alliance with teams 4003 Trisonics and 6631 Rocket Robotics at our sides. We were unfortunately knocked out of the playoffs after only 2 matches but we learned a lot about the game during that competition.
We had a 2 week break before our next district event in Troy, MI so we worked hard on our programming and getting our autons nailed down. Our lead programmer was going to be on vacation during that event so we had to make sure they were tight. We visited the facility of another local team a couple times since they had a full field built that we could practice on. We went to the Troy 2 event feeling very optimistic. Qualifiers were filled with all sorts of ups and downs. We, again, finished the qualifying rounds with an 8-4-0 record and were seeded 7th for alliance selection. We were picked by the #4 alliance captains, Team 1684 Chimeras and were quickly joined by Team 5612 Robo-Raptors in the second round of selection. Let me just tell you, the playoffs were awesome. Our alliance was tight! We won all of our quarter finals and semi final matches even knocking the #1 alliance of teams 3538 RoboJackets, 2337 EngiNERDs and 7856 UPAD Fusion to the lower bracket in our second match. They fought their way back to the finals where we met them. The first finals match was a heartbreaking loss of 134-156. We came back after our 15 minute break with our heads held high, our robot in tip-top shape and ready to rumble. The 2nd match was extremely close all the way through with the #1 alliance edging out ahead 121-117 before final scores were tabulated. Thanks to some penalties, we were able to win that match with a score of 160-153 which tied the finals up 1-1. WE WERE HYPED! We took the next 15 minutes to clear our heads and were awarded the Creativity Award for our amazing pit, counterweight design and air delivery system. Match 3 of the finals met us with a whole lot of anticipation. Since our teams inception, we have not won an event so this was a huge moment for us. We were all on the edge of our seats, screaming our chant as loud as we could trying to get our drive team pumped up. The endless “Red Alliance, Blue Alliance” chants roaring through the gym (RedAlliance was louder, thanks to our team). The match started and we all were shouting “Two High” as our robot completed it’s autonomous cycle. All of the sudden, on the other side of the field, we see one of the opposing robots clip the charge station during it’s auton, and flip over, right itself and get stuck in the human player station! Our auton was a huge success and we got our pieces placed exactly where they were meant to be. Autonomous finished with our alliance up by A LOT! Those of us in the stands were totally in awe! The robot that got stuck was able to get dislodged and continued on with the match, placing pieces on their team’s grid. Hollywood and Chimeras were hard at work, placing as many pieces as they could while our alliance partner, 5612 RoboRapors, was in the middle of the field playing defense, disrupting the cycles of the Blue Alliance. We edged a head by quite a bit by this point and our hearts are racing! The signal for the endgame comes on with 30 seconds left in the match and we’re all on our feet in the stands cheering on our team. They cycle through a couple more pieces and attempt the climb onto the charge station. All 3 robots move in unison and slightly topple over the other side with 12 seconds left. They adjust a little bit and engage with 7 seconds left. The blue alliance goes for a last second climb and are unable to get it to balance. We are all screaming by this point and rushing out of the stands to congratulate our drive team! The final scores are read and we won! WE WON!!! 165-98! WE WON!!! It was the most unforgettable moment in our team’s history. We’re all down at the field crying, laughing, high-fiving. Thanks to our amazing alliance partners, we now have a Blue District Event Winner banner to hang up and be proud of! We did it! We won.
We came home from that event on Cloud 9! We had just less than a week to prepare for our State Championship in Saginaw, MI at Saginaw Valley State University. We had secured 84 of the 120 district points needed to qualify for the FIRST Championship World Competition. Time to grind. We spent that week fine tuning everything, recapping our last event, pre-scouting other teams and strategizing for the many matches to come. The event schedule hadn’t been released yet and we weren’t sure which field we were going to be on. At the State Championship, there are 4 full fields with 40 teams competing on each one. 160 teams in total compete in this event every year. The match schedule got released and we got a little nervous. There were some great teams on our field. It was my first time there, and I was absolutely amazed at the scale of this event! The pit area was enormous, the fields were all in the center of the arena and the stands were full! Teams from all over the state of Michigan were here to see who was the best! We were on DTE Energy Foundation Field with amazing teams like 1023 Bedford Express, 503 Frog Force, 245 Adambots, 2075 Enigma Robotics, 302 Dragons, 5460 Strike Zone and many more great teams. This was going to be a challenge. Qualifiers went on for 80 matches and we managed to seed 2nd on our field! We made it to the playoffs! During alliance selection, which can be brutal at these events, we selected 3620 Average Joes and 3767 TC Titans, both teams we had not seen in District events. Our first match started and it was on. We were against the #7 alliance. We missed grabbing our last piece during autonomous but that didn’t phase us. We went for piece after piece and scored as quickly as we could. The defense in the middle of the field was tough. At times, all 6 of the robots battling it out were hemmed up, unable to maneuver. Our alliance was able to score 6 links that match and win with a score of 161-131. We were moving on in the playoffs. Our next match was against the #3 alliance of Adambots, 302 Dragons and 2832 CSPA Gems on the blue side. This one was a nail biter. After autonomous, there was just a 1 point difference between the sides. Defense was light as both sides were solely focused on scoring game pieces. All the way through, the scores went back and forth between red leading and blue leading. During the end game period, both alliances went for the triple climb, 3 robots on each charge station, first the blue alliance and then red. The final score was just as close as the rest of the match with us losing 168-169, dropping us into the lower bracket. Our 3rd match wound up being our final match of the tournament. Near the end of the match, one of our alliance partners got tipped over by a hit from the other alliance, our other alliance partner bumped into our robot knocking them into the referee’s scoring station forcing the refs to shut the robot down which caused us to bump into them again getting their robot stuck in our frame for a short time. We were able to keep the scores close and would have won if not for those mishaps. The final score was 129 Red to 138 Blue. That’s not where this story ends for Hollywood, though.
Remember when I mentioned that we had 84 of the 120 needed to qualify for the world competition? Well, during states, we earned another 123 points thanks to our seeding and the fact that we won another award!!! We won the Quality Award for our engineering of the counterweight and how well-built our robot is. That put us well over the threshold needed! We had 207 District points and were headed to Houston, TX to compete against and alongside 639 other amazing teams from around the world!!! Yes, I said that right. 640 teams qualified for the FIRST Championship. Do you also remember how I said there were 40 teams per field at the state event? Well, at the World Championship, there are 80 teams per field! 8 fields of robot glory! We prepared for our trip to Texas by loading up our lead mentor’s van with our robot, all of our pit items and snacks for the trip. Our 2 fearless leaders took Pete Stop all the way to Houston in the back of his van while traveling with a couple mentors from another local team. While they were driving, the rest of the team met up at the airport in Waterford, MI 1 day before competition started and boarded our private plane that our most gracious sponsor of the year, ALLIED Construction, provided for the team. We flew in true Hollywood style! They even rolled out the red carpet for us to board the plane! The flight to Texas was roughly 2.5 hours where Jake and Beth met us with the vans we would be using to transport the team around Houston. First stop after we landed was the George R. Brown Convention Center where the competition was to be held. We got unloaded, set the pit up, walked around the venue for a bit and headed to the hotel for some relaxation by the pool. Did I mention how gracious ALLIED Construction was? They provided our entire hotel stay for the team as well. 14 suites at a brand new hotel in Houston just minutes from the venue! Taylor Swift was in town that week too, so they weren’t cheap. After getting a good night’s rest, we arrived at the venue early so we could attempt to beat the crowds getting in there. Competition that day was tough. There were 2 full days of qualifying with each team competing in 0nly 10 matches. We didn’t fare too well during qualifying, ranking 47th on our field. We spent our evenings at the hotel relaxing at the pool, talking with other teams who stayed at our same hotel and strategizing for the next few days to come. Alliance selection was at the start of the 3rd day and we were not expecting to get picked with how low we ranked. We found out that alliance selection was going to be different here with each alliance being able to select a 4th team as their backup. The first round went around alliances 1 through 8 and we didn’t get picked. The second round went around 8 through 1 and we still weren’t picked. The final round went back 1 through 8. The 8th alliance was up to make their final selection and we heard our number get called. Out of sheer knee-jerk reaction, we all screamed! We couldn’t believe it! We got picked to be in an alliance in the playoffs on our field! Yeah, we’re the back up team, but WE GOT PICKED! Our alliance consisted of 1102 M’Aiken Magic from Aiken, SC, 1619 Up-A-Creek Robotics from Longmont, CO, 4362 CSPA Gems from Brighton, MI and us, Hollywood Robotics. Our first match was against the #1 seeded alliance of 2056 OP Robotics from Stony Creek, Ontario, Canada, 254 The Cheesy Poofs from San Jose, CA and 27 Team RUSH… All previous division champions or world champions! Our alliance was a total and complete underdog in that matchup. However, it did not go as expected. One of the robots on the other side of the field went down early in the match causing the match to be 2v3. We won! Alliance 8 beat Alliance 1! It was the talk of the competition. Needless to say, we lost our next 2 matches eliminating us from further play in the tournament, but we made it! We were there!
The team has really grown in the 2 years that my family and I have been involved in the program. Since the FIRST Championship in April, our team has competed in 7 off-season competitions at most of which we have competed with a second drive team and robot and have 3 more to go. We are training up the next generation of Hollywood team members and building the program to be an even bigger success. Without the guidance of our amazing Lead Mentor, Jake Hawley and his #2, my wife, Beth Saling, and all of the hard work of the wonderful students and skilled mentors we have, we would not have made it that far. To all of you, I say thank you. Thank you for allowing me to be part of this team. Thank you for showing me what it’s like to be part of something as amazing as this.
WE WON!
Lights, Camera… HOLLYWOOD!!!
