Robotics team successful in Portland
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March 20, 2013 |
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Team members
from all over the northwest enter the
stadium in Portland early Thursday
morning for the season's first regional
robotics competition. |
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Story by Sally Balcaen
Photos by Sarah Schuman
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FIRST Team
2130 members Elsa Presnell and Arianna
Nicholson-Ross share a smile of
excitement at being in the stadium.
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On March 6, FIRST team 2130, also known as Alpha
+, left the high school for their first
competition. Their destination: Portland. The
trip and competition proved to be a successful,
albeit busy venture for 2130 as they, once
again, went to the final round of matches and
performed extraordinarily.
On the day following arrival in Portland, teams
from all over the northwest, including
California and Hawaii, gathered in the stadium
and set up their booths.
They participated in practice matches as teams
learned and became familiar with the alliances,
field, and the best strategies to use.
As part of the strategy to ensure good alliance
members for the matches, Team 2130 met with the
other 59 teams in attendance.
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| Team captain
Andrew Reed talks with regulation
inspectors; Benevolence passed with
flying colors! |
Overall, the team did well for their first day.
The team won their first three games with 62,
110, 54 points respectively with each game. They
lost their fourth game, but still managed to
score a total of 103 points. The fifth match was
probably the most disappointing, as they lost
and only scored 26 points.
Then, on the very last game of the day, 2130
scored a total of 45 points, giving them a win
for that round. On March 8, we continued
competing and also did well for our second day.
We won our first three games with 94 points, 60
points, and 95 points.
The way the final round work at FIRST
competitions is based on ranking. The more
victories a team has, the higher up they are
ranked among other teams. The rankings
constantly change as matches continue throughout
the day.
However, the goal of every team is to be ranked
in the top eight teams. These teams are
guaranteed to be in the final round and have the
opportunity to choose which two teams they can
be alliance with.
This small provision allows for teams that built
an excellent robot but had some unfortunate luck
with their matches still have a chance to be in
the final round.
Luckily, Alpha + didn’t have to worry about that
as they placed sixth in the top eight teams.
Before 2130 was even able to choose their
alliance members, another team placed even
higher than us extended an offer to join their
alliance.
We graciously accepted. Our alliance was FIRST
team 3812, Bits & Bots, and FIRST team 3145, the
Teraviks.
At this point, the matches are very serious and
even sometimes stressful, as only the best teams
are playing and only teams that win two out of
three matches are able to move on.
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| Benevolence
on the field and in action during a
game. Surrounding robots are alliance
members. |
Luckily, the robot, Benevolence, came through
for the team.
The first three matches were won with 103
points, 64 points, and 125 points, sending Alpha
+ in the next round. Team 2130 continued their
winning streak by triumphing during the next
three matches with 59 points, 88 points, and 102
points.
The team was now in the final round, which would
decide the two opposing alliances in the
championship game.
Team 2130 won the first game, but lost the
second two, despite scoring 103 points for the
second game and 50 points for the third game.
However, Alpha + placed second and during the
awards ceremony, two trophies were given for
being FIRST Robotics Competition Finalists and
every team member present was awarded a second
place medal.
And then, as a wonderful surprise, mentor Ed
Katz, who started the Alpha + team in Bonners
Ferry received the highly coveted Woody Flower's
Award, which is given to outstanding team
mentors.
Thus, the completion in Portland was a success
and the team anticipates more achievements at
another competition in Cheney, Washington,
during Spring Break. |
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