Secondly, we went on to the judging area to practice our lines. The judging was running late, which worked out in our favor by giving us more time to practice and read over our lines. However, once we went in, the overall presentation and our answers to the many questions given to us by the judges were comprehensive. Our goal was to leave the judges with little they didn't know about our team. In addition, we hoped the the flashiness of our spirit wear and our outrageously pink hats would make an impression.
We then attended the drivers' meeting and the opening ceremony before starting in the very first match of the day. We won this match with a large amount of points due to our flawless autonomous execution, and our effective tele-op strategy. Throughout the rest of the day we encountered a few problems, including many autonomous problems resulting from hardware and initial robot placement options. However, we were still able to make it into the top four and become an alliance captain.
This is when our scouting really came into play. Throughout the day, I, Brandon, had been taking careful notes on each and every team during their many matches.
Surprisingly, there were only a handful of teams that could score and a single team that could score into the center goal. This team was the best pick. However, there was a problem, as they were the second seed. Thankfully after some discussion, they decided that we would be a great partner as well and said they would pick us. But we weren't out of the woods yet. The first seed also wanted to pick us!
After some discussion with the first team we were able to be picked by the second seed, team 6278, The Gladiators. We then went on to do incredibly well with the team and participated in the semifinals, which were incredibly close and went on to a third round. Unfortunately, on the third round of the semifinal our robot malfunctioned! The autonomous program failed and caused us to collide against our team mate! The final score was incredibly close. Thankfully, we won the semifinal by only TWO points! Two points.
We then went on to the final. The highlights were that we won the first round, but had a motor controller error on the second round and unable to move the left side of our robot, leading to a loss! We were able to make a quick replacement and get back into the game for the final round, which we won! We shook hands with our opponents and congratulated our alliance partner on going to state, a bit disappointed that we were unable to automatically move on as well.
We shook hands with our opponents and congratulated our alliance partner on going to state, a bit disappointed that we were unable to automatically move on as well.
We went down to the pit to pack as we prepared for the award ceremony. During the award ceremony, we were surprised to realize that we were finalists in every single award category. However, the final award of the day was us winning the Inspire award! Needless to say, we were incredibly excited!
We wrapped up the night by heading to a pizza restaurant and celebrating with a good, calorie-filled dinner. What an amazing day!
