Robotics Regionals- Post #255

Thursday

I woke up extra early, straightened my hair, and ran to Dunkin Donuts for a bagel before my mom dropped me off at school. I wandered around the hallways, got a phonecall (oops, still in school) from Tom telling me to get Nathan (his millipede) out of his locker, then ran around the school with Danica trying to find the rest of our team. That's right, it was day one of the UTC CT Regionals for FIRST Robotics.

Tom was already at the civic center in Hartford with Dave and Mr. Van Fleet. The rest of us hopped on a bus at seven fifteen and kissed the school goodbye. Me and Danica and Julie waved at people in cars (one waved back), watched the faces Mitch made when he lip syncs to his iPod, and determined that people think you're talking about them if you stare at the, look away, and laugh.

We qued up outside the front doors until they were ceremoniously opened and a flood of pumped, nerdy teenager poured through. We all headed for the pits, and were stopped for the first time that day with the reminder, "No pit without safety glasses." Within five minutes they felt completely natural, and within an hour we slipped them on and off entering and exiting the pits without even thinking about it.

Today was all just practice rounds, so it wasn't that busy (aka you could still see the staircases in the stands). However, today was the day of the faceoff for coach. Me, Tim, and John rotated the matches so Mr. Cormier could decide who he wanted to be coach for the competition.

John was up first. I don't remember individual matches because generally I'm panicing, but I talked to Mitch and Tom afterwards and they said John was okay, but he kind of just agreed with everything Tom said instead of giving them any new information. I decided to step it up a little.

I remembered from my brief period coaching at the scrimmage how difficult it was to see down at the far end of the field, so I went to talk to Andy. As robocoach, he is stationed on the other end of the field. However, after his fifteen seconds of hybrid mode are up, he has nothing to do. We came up with a series of hand signals to communicate his easy view of the robot down where we had trouble seeing it. Mostly we used "keep going" and "you're clear" but there was also something came out to "woah, hold on, traffic jam" and "crap, you're broken, forget about the ball and just get some laps done."

I relayed these signals to Tom and Mitch, as well as kept them updated on the time, and things seemed to go okay. Tim was up next. I told him everything I'd thought of. I don't know why. I guess I should have kept them to myself or something but it still didn't really feel like we were competing. He did just as well.

From what I can remember, it went like that for pretty much the entire day. Oh yeah. and I broke the robot every single time I coached. Cursed? We shall see...

Tim sang the entire bus ride home.

Friday

Friday I got another sandwich from Dunkin Donuts, got to school early again, and met up with Tom and the gang for the bus ride back to Hartford. I was resigned to failing the coach position because Mr. Cormier didn't mention it the ride up. Then, when we got to the civic center, he told Tim to go out on the field for the coaches meeting. I knew it was over.

Or was it? When we were sitting in the stands watching the first match, I was talking to Dave and he asked if I was going next. Confusion... I told him I thought Tim had gotten it, but he said no, Mr. Cormier wanted one more rotation before he decided. Wow. Nerves. This was the real deal, we were into the qualifying rounds! Panic time.

I ran my match again and then at lunch talked to Mitch and Andy. They both said they wanted me to be coach, and went to talk to Mr. Cormier. And I got it! According to my mom, who talked to him in the stands, it was to get balance in the team. Tom was his rock, the one who was calm and collected in every situation, and I was the energetic one who got everyone pumped.

And man, by the end of the day that was true. Through wins and losses, I got terrifying and psyched and better at plugging the control board in and feeding Tom and Mitch information. At the end of the qualifying matched, we were ranked fifteen out of sixty two. Wow. Last year we were twenty-five. That was a rush like no other. And, through all those matches, we only got one penalty for breaking the plane.

After the competition Friday, team 1991 held a social at the American School for the Deaf. It took us a while to get in because we had to wait for Mr. Cormier, but it was fun. They had a room for food, one for DDR, and a gym for basketball, scooters, or dancing. It was cool to just hang out after all the stress of the competition.

The ride home was amazing. Most people were sleeping, the loud ones were still at the party, and it was just me and Tom listening to his iPod at the back of the bus. And the streetlights were pretty. =] Saturday

Saturday was terror. I woke up late, rushed to get ready for Tom picking me up, and forgot to eat breakfast. We got a ride to the civic center with Jeremiah's dad, and I slept most of the way.

When we got there, it was chaos. Today was the big day - selection and finals.I was terrified. The top eight teams from the qualifying rounds get to pick two other teams to join with them for their final alliance. We were picked by the eighth seated team, and our first match was against the first seated team. Oh dear.

We didn't eat lunch. Instead, we sat on the floor huddled around one of Mr. Ellis' model fields, trying to find some loophole that could help us win. Anything. I was panicking quietly, but it was cool. Even though I was on an alliance with eleven guys, they still all listened, which was awesome.

Then...showtime. The first match was AMAZING! We lost (of course) but it almost felt like a win. We were ahead the whole first half because Andy got the ball of the overpass, in our possession, and across the line in hybrid mode while one of our teammates crossed a whole four lines. We hurdled, and even hit the Uberbots' ball back once so they had to go all the way around to get it again. The final score was 74 them, 70 us. Amazing.

Our second match wasn't as good, there was a weird glitch that froze everyone's hybrid mode and then they practically doubled our score. Ouch. But we went down fighting, and we playing hard.

Back at the pits, there was a sudden change. Our match was going to be replayed because of the hybrid glitch! We were pumped for a second chance, but things didn't go well. We got stuck on the overpass when the Uberbots ran into us in hybrid, then got penalties for another team getting us down, then our radio flew off when we knocked against the Uberbots so our robot was disabled. We lost by an even wider margin.

We stayed after to help clean up the field, which was cool, and then bring home the carpet to store in the house next to the school. The guys were all macho and whatnot, which was pretty entertaining. =] Then it was home and sleep.

All in all, though, it was a good competition. I had a great time coaching with great teammates, we did an amazing job, and we befriended some great teams and people we were allied with.

I can't wait for Atlanta.

--Iona