FTC West Super Regionals
Super regionals write-ups by the team!
Thursday 3/20 - Saturday 3/22
Jennifer: On Thursday we drove up to Sacramento and arrived at the McClellan Conference Center at around noon. We checked into the venue and began setting up our pit. After taking a short break, we went for judging. Our twenty-minute presentation was relatively successful. Later on, we continued our preparations for tomorrow’s qualifying matches. At around 7 pm, we checked in at our hotel and ate dinner at a nearby restaurant. Afterwards, the drive team was training setup and double autonomous in Coach Gary’s room. During this time, we found that we didn’tbring the battery chargers for the twelve-volt and NXT, so we weren’t able to have much practice. Everyone went to bed as soon as possible so that we would have enough energy for the next day.
Claire: We were all downstairs by 7 AM. We arrived at opening ceremony then began our 7 qualification matches, in which we would lose 3 and win 4. Despite our losses, we were undeterred. Even as a rookie team, we had been extremely successful - we knew things would change sometime! The day reminded us that we would not always win, and it inspired us to strive further.
Meanwhile, we had McDonald's for breakfast... McDonald's and pizza for lunch... and leftovers for dinner. Mmm. But hey, we also had chips and gummy bears for dinner! (Mixing up the nutrition.)
We weren't sure if we would participate in the elimination matches the next day, but we had to try our best.
Samantha:
On Saturday morning, our team drove to the McClellan conference center for the last day of tournament. Time had been allotted for both the Gold and Silicon fields to finish up qualifying matches, which occurred until 10:00. VOI only had one more qualifying match and we were allianced with team 5069, Robo Gamers from New York. We won that match and were seeded 10th, but there were still a couple of games after ours. When all of the Qualification rounds were over, we finally were ranked 11th out of the 36 gold division teams. The competition then took a break to let the alliance captains’ scout to choose who they would want on their alliance for the semifinals and final matches.
Since our team was not seeded first, we went to the top four ranked teams (5026, 4353, 7817, 5279) and asked them to consider our team for alliances. The 6th ranked team, Robo Gamers, told us that they would choose us if they became a team alliance captain. We also went to Team 5026 and asked if they would also consider us to be their alliance. Team Tesla Coils told us that they had been scouting, and saw that our robot had been very consistent especially in the autonomous and end game. Because our robots fairly compatible, they said that they would choose us to be their second alliance. The first choice alliance for Tesla Coils would be team Robo Knights (5220), one of our alliance partners in the Norcal Championships. Our teams were aiming for double autonomous and double hanging, so to make sure that our robot fit with Tesla Coil’s robot, we shortened the block and hanging arm.
The alliance selection went as planned, with Robo Knights being Tesla’s first pick, and our team being second. In the semi-finals, we won against the fourth seed alliance teams to move on to finals. During finals, we played the 3rd seeded teams and won again! Our team was so excited to be moving on the final Finals, with the top two alliances from the two different fields playing against each other.
Our alliance was nervous, but excited for the upcoming matches and talked strategy before the finals. In the first match of the finals, the other alliance from the Silicon field won, and then we won in the second match. The last match of the day was the most exciting of all, ending with a one point difference in the score. Although we lost, we were happy for the other alliance and congratulated them on winning the West Super Regional title of Winning Captain Alliance! We were very happy our efforts in the robot games and thanked our alliance team for having a wonderful time competing with us. We cleaned up our pit, and headed to the bleachers to watch the awards.
As we waited for the ceremony to start, a huge dance party broke out and we enjoyed seeing all teams show their spirit on the dance floor. Finally, we were awarded the Compass award for our outstanding coach, Gary Yeap, and the Winning Alliance Finalist 2nd pick award. Overall, our team was extremely happy with our performance at the Super Regional and look forward to going to Worlds in April!