On Saturday, December 12, we attended our first qualifier of the season. It was hosted by Team LED and took place at Southern Polytechnic University. As usual, we arrived at 7am so we could get our pit set up and get through inspections early.
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| Our team and our robot |
We made it through the hardware, software, and field inspections without any problems. We felt good about our judges' interview.
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| Hardware inspection |
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| Software inspection |
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| Field inspection |
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| Waiting - and preparing - for our judges interview |
However our first three matches were not very successful. In one, a motor controller burned out. We replaced it between matches, by hooked something up backwards. So in the next round, Jackson had to drive with inverted controls. He did the best he could, but it was hard and he turned over on of the goals so we lost those points. In one match, the wrong program was selected on the NXT. Those were dumb mistakes that really frustrated us.
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| Waiting for our first match to begin |
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| Working on the robot |
But it all turned around in the last match. We were paired with team 9160 - Titan Roboteks, and together we scored 236 points. That was the best score of the day by anyone.
Team 9160 finished ranked 2nd and they chose us for their alliance partner.
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| Selected for the alliance |
We won the semifinal in 2 straight matches. Then we won the final in 2 straight matches. In the last match, we scored 239 points. It was awesome!
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| Preparing for the final match |
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| Blue wins! |
Overall, it was a great competition. We won the PTC Design Award for our robot design. We were part of the winning alliance (2nd team chosen). And we were third runner up for the Inspire Award. Unfortunately we didn't advance to the state competition, but it gives us hope for the next qualifier.
