This is going to be a long post. After the packing events on Tuesday (which have their own blog post, it just got lost somewhere), we went on the trip. As this is a very long story, I have used the truncate function to conceal it from the general list. If you just want the highlights:
- We won the Team Spirit award.
- We made it to the second round of the playoffs, lost, and then lost our first match in the lower division.
- My roommate got Covid and it wasn't discovered until after the trip.
Day 0: Load-In
Our story begins on Wednsday afternoon. We loaded up the bus at 4:30 PM and started driving. 30 minutes later, they gave us sandwiches for lunch they ether had roast beef, turkey or ham. There was also a cookie and chip packets that had 60% air in them. After that experience, the drive team members had to take a test for rules and basic do's and don'ts. Everyone else just unloaded baggage from the bus. Once everything was unloaded, we got our room numbers and headed straight into our rooms and unpack. Then we all headed down to the meeting room for closing meeting. After that, we went to the condo and ate dinner, then headed back to our rooms.
Day 1: Practice
Today was practice matches day. It was fairly easy to wake up, even though we had to up at 6-ish. From there, the routine of the next three days started: wake up, go to breakfast, bring breakfast back to room, pack everything you want to bring to the convention center, pack lunch in the mentors' room, meet up with a group in the lobby, and then head to the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center. We were at the North Star regional, so the way into the arena area was on the opposite side of the building from where we entered the building. The doors were crowded when we got there. Let me see if I can describe the structure of the arena we were in. It was intially designed for hockey. It uses the individual chair model in the stands, which is nice for dancing. Anyway, there is a hallway around the arena that contains the only ways into the stands and pit. The only ways into that hallway are two arrays of doors. Another thing to know is that seating is really important at robotics tournaments. Teams near the center of the semicircle of seats allocated to our half of the arena have a scouting advantage. As robotics students tend to be somewhat competitive, by 7:45 one can find a few dozen teams camped outside the doors, getting final prep for scouting done, eating snacks, and chanting various chants. After the doors opened, we managed to get a seat section just to the left of the central section. From there, the day progressed as it usually would - robots being shuttled on and off the field, match after match after match, trying to figure out what team to scout, lunch at noon-ish, resume scouting or faffing about (we worked in shifts for scouting - one hour of working followed by two hours of break), panicking over my battery life, and then heading back to the hotel for dinner. I don't recall what dinner that night was... perhaps we had potatoes two nights in a row.
Day 2: The Qualifying Slog
The first day of qualifiers. I was supposed to help with lunch set-up, but woke up too late. I needed to be down in The Condo (the mentor's room where meals happened) by 5:15-ish, and wasn't moving for a bit. Sometimes they play crowd songs - songs like the Cha-Cha Slide, Cupid Shuffle, and etc. It usually happens when they are ahead of schedule and need some time. No Macarena this year though. We did pretty well in matches. Our robot was fast and manuverable but could only score on the ground. Most of the other robots could score on the higher areas but were very slow. We ended up ferrying around game peices. We all got bandanas the previous night, and today was where I learned that I like bandanas.
Day 3: Playoffs and Burger King
Everyone woke up really early today. This was because we had to get all of our luggage from the rooms we were staying in to The Condo. Anyway, the morning was the usual mix of scouting, food, and noise. And socializing with other teams but I ([REDACTED]) have a hard time remembering to socialize with my own team so this was mostly an other people thing. After the quals wrapped, alliance selection began. This went the usual way of alliance selection, with alliance captains requesting teams and the other teams accepting or declining. We got picked up by alliance number 6. (Something funny that I didn't learn until later was that the number 1 alliance, who went on to win the entire competition, was going to pick us, but couldn't because of the rules.) We won, and then lost, and then lost again. After staying to watch the finals and an inspiring speech by Micheal, we all went to the hotel and spent the next hour-ish bringing stuff from The Condo to the lobby, and then to the bus. We left Duluth a short time after 6:00 PM. I actually remember more of the drive back than the tournament itself. I think part of that is having Burger King for the first time. (And last years trip was the first time I ate at McDonalds.) I remember listening to Don't Stop Believing on the way out of Duluth. I remember the minor panic attack Nyx had after we got back because after we grabbed our luggage off the bus Dad went to put it back in the car while we helped unload team stuff, so when we turned around again Nyx didn't know where he was. But what I most remember is that the trip was fun.
The Actual Coding Stuff
I was not in pit. I don't know what they were doing, and because of how long I took when I asked Captain 23 his answer was 'everything'. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
The next summary will be shorter and more concise, I promise.