What a day it was! We played two games this morning, and ended up in a great spot before alliance selection. Our minibot was still giving us trouble, but we kept working hard to perfect the deployment. Unfortunately it never made it up the pole in a match.
During alliance selection we were assured a spot as a captain, but were selected by the fourth alliance captain team 1305. We invited team 3541 to join us on our alliance.
purple and full of spirit!
We played well during the match, dominating the tube scoring, but we were plagued with minibot issues once more, and were eliminated at the quarter finals.
alliance selection
It is such fun to be at a competition with our rookie friends the Cyberfalcons team 3710. They made an impression on everyone as the strongest defense bot by far. They were able to push around the best of the best without racking up penalty points. Their skill and strategy won them the admiration of everyone around. They were picked 8th overall–an impressive feat for a defense bot. Along with team 2634 and 3161 they put up a great fight against the first seeded alliance (and eventual champions 2056, 781, and 1547).
Being eliminated in the quarter finals was disappointing, but we had lots of time to get our robot and pit packed up. We cheered on team 1114 and 610 (some of our mentors come from those teams). The semis and the finals were exciting and high scoring matches!
Awards are given out after the competition ends. Before awards, a prize was drawn from all of the students who filled out an online evaluation of the competition. We were so excited that a K-bot won! Congratulations Jacob. We know you will enjoy your new awesome laptop!
The Cyberfalcons took home the Judges award for all of their hard work. We are bringing home more hardware and medals too! We won the Engineering Inspiration award which recognizes our work and our influence on our community and how we promote science and technology. We got high fives from all of the judges, and hugs from our team. This award qualifies us for the World Championships in St. Louis!
See you there Morgan Freeman!
K-Botics is meeting Monday after school to unpack, organize, and build a crate for our robot. The shipping deadline is Tuesday, so we need all hands on deck!
Between matches, our robot gets worked on by our expert pit crew. It’s pretty crowded and busy in there. Judges and safety officials, robots, mentors, students, families and friends are all milling about, looking around, repairing robots, changing batteries, lining up for matches, strategizing with alliances etc. The pit is a fun place to visit, specially when the robot is working well.
This morning our Chairman’s team did a great job with their presentation. They explained to judges all about what we do that makes our team special, how we work to get others interested in science and technology, and how our team is building a strong foundation for the future.
Our excellent lunch plan was a success today. Thanks to Gord for organizing the sandwich run! We had a tailgate party in the parking lot.
Our robot was one of the earliest on the field. We passed inspection quickly, and have been fine tuning programming for autonomous mode and attaching our new minibot deployment system.
We vastly improved our lunch time routine. This year we offered three restaurant choices, and got cash in advance, then brought a marker to label everyone’s sandwich/burger order with their name so we could distribute them with minimal chaos.
The afternoon proved interesting: we improved our minibot deployment once again. We dealt with some pneumatic leaks, and we had plenty of knitting lessons in the stands!
Our big purple family had dinner together at Swiss Chalet tonight. We’ve never had a reservation for 48 before! It was lots of fun–we celebrated RJ’s birthday with a song and a sundae complete with candle.
Pits open tomorrow at 8AM. Stay tuned to the webcast to see us in action!
Today we gathered after school to load all of our robotics equipment, the pit and the robot into a van. We’re so thankful to have such accommodating parents who will not only loan out their vehicles to transport our gear, but also help out by providing invaluable van-loading expertise.
We’re all getting a good night sleep tonight. Some of us are hitting the road early to arrive and set up the pit at 7:30AM. Our grade 10s have a busy day writing the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test in the morning, and then heading to GTR in the afternoon.
Stay tuned for further updates this weekend!
We made good use of the printer, laminator and paper cutter today! Precision work and attention to detail are key when preparing visuals for our Chairman’s presentation.
Our Chairman’s presentation materials are taking shape, as is our new and improved minibot design.
Our pit is looking more like home now with tools in their proper places.
We’ll be back in tomorrow (10-4) watching more webcasts and preparing for GTR.
