What a weekend! We started the event with the notion that we would just relax, have fun, and meet many new people. Well we did accomplish that--and more!
We took home the Creativity Award for our use of a boat winch on our robot. The judges were impressed with the fact that we took a totally unrelated object and converted it to use with our robot. A bonus was the fact that the part only cost us around $20.00 so it not only took ingenuity to use, it was low-cost.
We also came home with a First Place District Winner banner and trophy. While we finished at 24 out of 40 teams in the qualification matches, Bedford Express and the Robostangs both expressed interest in our ability to pull a tipped over recycle bin off the floor and place it upright. Both teams have high scoring robots that can build tall stacks and place bins on them, but cannot pick up, and right a bin once it has tipped over. This quality of ours led to our placement in their alliance. While Bedford Express and the Robostangs scored many stacks, we did our part to help them out with bins and gave them many extra points that they would not have otherwise have had.
The awards were VERY exciting for us, but we were already having a TON of fun this weekend. We made it our mission to meet many new people, relax, and have fun! The team members each made a viking shield that represented each member personally, we handed out "Good Luck" tickets written in Norse, we were interviewed for the Monroe Evening News, we tried for the Chairman's Award, and we started the "Clothespin Wars" among teams.
We had decided to focus on "getting back to the basics of FIRST" -- gracious professionalism and coopertition. It worked! What goes around comes around. It was a great weekend--let's not forget it.
Great job team!