The FIRST NC State District Robotics Championship went down at Campbell University this weekend and it was a nail-biter. Graham's team (East Chapel Hill) got aligned with its cross-town rival and my alma mater Chapel Hill High in the playoff rounds, so we formed one big cheering block. This was particularly excellent because the East and CHHS teams had collaborated in the weeks leading up to the competition, with East sharing some of the magic behind its first class shooting mechanism (there is debate between just how much IP was shared...) while the Tigers let the Wildcats use their practice space -- a pretty big one in the swanky new building -- and offered some guidance on a climbing mechanism.
They got paired up with a team out of Hillsborough (which had also graciously let East use its practice space) and one out of Greensboro -- each of which had more years of experience and more championship banners between them than our teams. As the alliance formation process happened, I had a sense that the years of experience could prove meaningful.
It was. In the first game of the final, the East robot got trapped into committing a foul by a very astute play by the Greensboro bot. By the second of the two matches, the CHHS bot was visibly overheating and wasn't able to shoot well. In the end, the raw capability of the robots themselves proved less determinative than how the players were able to make the robots play the game.
Still, it was awesome. Neither East nor CHHS had ever gone this far. The CHHS robot was by far the most improved over the course of the season. East is headed to Houston for worlds and I think my Tigers are too. The only thing that was missing was Carrboro High to fill out an alliance. Next year.
No comments:
Post a Comment