Team 449

Most of the team arrived shortly after the pits opened to finish unpacking and setting up our pit station. In the morning we installed our improved shooter and the electronics board. At lunch we recalibrated the camera to the field conditions in time to make it to two practice matches. During these matches our robot successfully delivered an empty cell and scored on an opposing trailer. We passed official inspection almost 4 pounds underweight - we were wondering what had fallen off the robot! At the end of the day, we recalibrated the camera once again, thus further reducing the amount the image flickered.

On Friday we went undefeated, winning all five of our matches, in part due to an incredible performance on the part of our Payload Specialist. We continued to focus on empty cell delivery, and Michael scored multiple super cells through the course of the day. We utilized our scouting system to get the upper hand, which had a photo of every robot at the regional we took on Thursday and scouting information we collected throughout the day on Friday. We also replaced our rear gearbox assembly, because the sound it made suggested that something was misaligned. Our 5-0 record allowed us to be seeded first for a short period of time, although we later dropped as some teams played 6 matches on Friday.

Unfortunately, we didn't do quite so well on Saturday; we went up against some of the best teams at the regional and lost both morning qualification matches. Nevertheless, we were seeded 7th by the start of alliance selection, allowing us to be an alliance captain for the first time in the history of the team. We chose team 836, the RoboBees, and team 1748, the Lab Rats, to join us as members of the number 6 alliance. Although we put up a good fight and scored more points than the opposing alliance on our first quarterfinal match, we lost because of a penalty on our Payload Specialist. During our second match, our joysticks miss-calibrated and we lost our rear drive chain, causing us to loose the match again. We packed up our robot and headed home, a little disappointed, but proud of our performance throughout the season and the progress we've made as a team.