Tag Archives: competition

Our morning started off with breakfast at the hotel with team 2056.  We had an idea that they were there when we saw the parking lot!At breakfast we made sure that everyone had washed and put on their deodorant.  Our hotel has a deodorant vending machine!Breakfast was followed by a brief organizational meeting, and then the carpool caravan headed to UOIT for the tournament.We arrived to UOIT in the rain just in time to rush the stands for good scouting territory.  Of course we were behind our friends 1114, Simbotics, who are known for arriving early!We got some really good seats to scout from today.  We will have to wake up pretty early to get these kinds of seats again tomorrow.While our pit crew got our robot ready for inspection and set up the pit itself, the scouts learned how to fill our their sheets, and heard about our database that we’re using this year. One of our parent mentors had a great idea last year in St. Louis, that we should give away buttons that are little knitted hats with 2809 on them.  From that point on patterns were made, and little hats were knit in many households.  We now have 1400 little hat pins!  Stop by and see us in the pit, or in the stands and get one–everyone needs a little purple spirit!

K-Bots are all over the place here today.  We’ve even got some K-Bots, and K-Bot mentor alumni in disguise as robot inspectors (yellow hats) and event volunteers.  Thanks to all volunteers who are involved in the event this weekend!

Our robot passed inspection early in the day, so we were able to get onto the field for a few practice matches.We got onto the field and tried out a few things.  We shot a ball….…and balanced on a bridge with team 2056.  We also learned that balancing a bridge looks easy, but in most cases is really difficult to do!At lunch we calibrated our robot camera on the field……while others ate lunch.  Thanks so much to our parent mentors who arranged for a rather large Subway order for all 3 competition days.  Thanks to Subway for donating drinks to our team!Our scouting teams got into action in the afternoon visiting the pit areas and getting to know other teams a little better.  Scouts also watched each match and made notes on the progress of each robot.The blue bear came to visit for part of the afternoon.  We’re looking forward to having a bit more spirit tomorrow when teams are dancing along to the music!We continued to work on our calibration and testing until the pits closed.  Tomorrow is looking like a very exciting day of matches.  Please have a look at the schedule to see when we’ll be playing.We had a delicious dinner at Swiss Chalet this evening.  It’s lots of fun eating at restaurants, mostly because they have straws with wrappers, which are a big source of entertainment for our team.  “Straws are a weapon of mass destruction!”

"We had a hard core dinosaur phase"

Over dinner we learn so much about ourselves and each other.  One sibling pair expressed their early childhood fascination with dinosaurs….

I just ate 3 different kinds of animals today

And another pair of mentors contrasted a vegetarian lifestyle with one that strives to eat as many different animals as possible in any given day.

Despite our differences, we are bound together by our mutual interest in robots, science, technology and our team.  We are there to support each other through the tired moments, and even share a chair at dinner if needed.  Hugs and jokes are plentiful, and that makes our days brighter and our team closer.  We’re realizing now how tight knit we have become!

Other teams (students, teachers and parents) have complimented us on how well our team is working together and how friendly and polite we are.  Our hotel manager also complimented us on our excellent conduct!