So, Who Are the 4911 CyberKnights, V2

The 2019 FRC 4911 CyberKnights (Well, most of them...)

I've seen a lot of questions on the internet recently, and I really just want to help people, so I'll use this space to answer a pretty common question I see:

So, who are the 4911 CyberKnights?

V2, extended directors cut edition.

(With commentary)

This year, we faced difficulty alongside many other FRC teams across the globe. (And specifically the northern continental Americas.) Blizzards, dumpster fires, waiting for CAD to finish. Throwing CAD away, starting again, then waiting for CAD to finish... again.... Another blizzard... (and robo-plague! How could I forget about robo-plague!) This season had it all. Probably the most proud moment for me though came at the end of build season when I was able to open the lab refrigerator, and was able to continue breathing normally.

(This post was supposed to be amusingly long, but for realsies, there's actually some good stuff (like, Woodie Flowers' Good Stuff,) in here. I am so proud of the team, I just can't help but talk about them, and I do honestly try to make stories relate-able, and contain lessons that other students and mentors might find useful. So, here follows an in-depth recollection of build season, and closes off with a jumble of random thoughts and stories that for one reason or another caught my attention. I do hope you had a great season, and we all look forward to seeing you next time!)

Competition Week 7

Six years of being at the furthest field from the pits...

Six years, six visits to the World Championship. (Or... World Championship South for the past few years...) Last year we raised the bar for ourselves. We had a high target to reach for, and not much time to finish any last minute planning, practice, or upgrades. But once again, we were going to Houston.

Competition Week 6

We had nice weather out here! For one day... Then it rained...

Rank 8 in PNW in terms of District Points. Yep, that seems right. Pretty happy with that. Prior to District Championships in Tacoma, we calculated the minimum district points needed would be around 125-130, and felt confident we could rank in the top 15, get picked up by a solid alliance, and be recognized with an award for either our robot or business model. In actuality, the  district points cutoff required for World's qualification was 142. Not to worry, we ranked slightly higher than 15th.

Tacoma was another great weekend of robots, friends, mistakes, and achievements. Our 4th consecutive weekend of competition (and coffee), and the outcomes qualifies us for World Championships in another week's time (in which we'll also have coffee).

Competition Week 5

Made some minor updates to the lab. Been waayy too long....

With our 2 district point-scoring events complete, and the 9 district events complete, we have now scraped up enough points to qualify for the PNW District Championships. (Ok, let's be real for a minute here. Last year we played in the Einstein finals, and this year we are scrambling for points to qualify for District Champs? Yeah, we had a long season with limited driving and tuning. It can happen. But for now, this is fine!) We made a few minor updates to the bot this weekend, and got it a lot more time driving under hard defense.

Competition Week 4

(Part of) the strategy collective

If our planned schedule holds, this past weekend was event 2 of our 5 events in 6 weeks of madness for 2019. The past weekend was the PNW Glacier Peak district event, historically one of the most competitive events in PNW, and 2019 was no different. Every match was a chance to gain experience, learn more about the game, and strut our robot stuff. Overall our week was roughly similar week to last week, with a few major differences in what we prepared. (And you know, showing up to competition with a working bot...)

Competition Week 3

Pit set up, robot ready to go! ... ish...

This was quite a busy week for us all. We started Monday and Tuesday completing our final robot preparations during our 6-hour access period, and ended the week with our first competition of 2019 at the Sundome Arena in Yakima. 

Competition Week 2

Bots sitting, ready to go

For me, this was a very busy week. I actually didn't make it into the lab at all with work constraints, and had to follow along through our Slack channels. This week was more competition prep: drive practice, software tuning, breaking and fixing things as often as possible. On top of this, we are rapidly approaching our first competition, and needed to plan out our unbag session. This week we had our students plan and prep everything they would need to successfully tackle the numerous tasks required during our 6 hour access window.