Tournament posts are always long, so as usual, here are the highlights.
- We took the bus there and back, which led to some delightful team bonding.
- We stayed at an Air B&B, which most of the team agreed was nicer than a hotel.
- The robot did not work for about half the competions due to signal interference.
- We were not selected for the playoffs, but did collect the Carver division Team Spirit Award.
Anyway, read more below!
Addendum: Starting from here, any sections written by me will be using 24-hour time. 6:00 PM is 18:00, for example.
The Bus Ride
This covers both the bus rides there and back, along with loading and unloading at Great River. Because of how long the drive was, we hired a tour bus driven by two guys who were, for better or worse, both named Larry. We were joined on the bus by team 7258 Robolobos, from Hiawatha. The plan was to leave great river by 10:00, which meant loading our luggage started at 9:00, and the team was told that we planned to leave at 9:30. With all of that in mind, we made it out on schedule. I sat next to Chris, fairly close to the front of the bus. I spent the first chunk of the drive working on trigonometry homework. This extened into lunch (sandwiches at a rest area), although the wind was an issue there. After lunch there was a seat-swap activity intended to encourage socialization, but while I did sit next to Rye I continued to work on trigonometry. I think there was another stop that afternoon but I don't remember what that happened. Dinner was a few different things (my group went to Panda Express). Our final stop of the day was at a random field in Kansas. We were supposed to get all of our energy out and get ready for bed. It was at this point I learned that Kansas is really, really windy. The only notable thing after this was the fact that, due to unclear reasons, I did not fall asleep until 2:00. I was always cold or uncomfortable, and Chris playing Diablo (Immortal? IDK never played) was a distraction. At around 8:00 we stopped at a state park(?) to eat breakfast, freshen up, and (due to some goofs by the loading crew) change clothes. Nothing really exciting happened until we reached Houston.
Houston Stories
After we arrived in Houston, the group split up. Those needed for the practice matches went to the FRC convention center, while the rest of us went to the Houston Museum of Natural History. It's a nice museum, although I only saw a small portion of it. We were told to only go places in groups, and my group was far less excited about the museum than I was. After a while, I joined up with my sibling and their group. Our final count was Nyx, Bru, Dominik, CornerGremlin, Therkla, and myself. Due to the fact that we were getting bored, we elected to walk to the nearby Japanese garden. It was a beautiful place, with lots of plants. We saw ducks, koi, turtles, and even a heron. Then the fire alarm got pulled at the museum, and so everyone had to go back to the bus. Our home in Houston was an air B&B compound. There was a two-story building with six small apartments, a one-story building with two apartments, and a large courtyard with a picnic table. I was in a room on the second floor. We had dinner there. Stories became sparse until the final night, where we held a fashion show, showing off all the merch from other teams people had aquired. And random bits of clothing. I did not participate, but did film.
FRC Worlds 2023
Worlds is structured similarly to most other competitions, but with a few key differences. The first is that there is an extra day, allowing for two days of exclusively qualifying matches. The second difference is divisions. Worlds is divided into eight divisions, all named after famous scientists. Each division has their own playoffs round, and then the winners of those go on to compete in the Championship playoffs.