With the internal controversy surrounding 449’s attendance at the Battle o’ Baltimore, I’m glad to say that we did in fact attend. Summer events are always hard, with most people on vacation or simply not motivated enough to make the 45 minute drive from DC to Baltimore.

The goal of this offseason event was to give the younger members of our team—the rising juniors and sophomores—a jump start into running the robot without us old farts. The power’s been in our hands too long, and we’ve gotten too comfortable being in control.  The drive chain is loose? Not my problem. Here, have a wrench. It might not be the right size. Engineers have got to fend for themselves in the wild world of robotics.

We faced only a few problems. Through both regionals, the chain on the back wheel had a tendency to eject itself, a problem that was never solved. A few hours of tweaking at the last meeting proved worthless as it hit the regolith on practice day. Using the few supplies we brought, one of our team members was able to fashion a triangular brace to keep the swerve assembly from shaking. It really was a miracle fix. Lacking time, space, and resources, we were able to make use of existing holes and pre-fabricated connectors. After that, the wheel was rock-solid and the chain hasn’t failed since.

A slightly humorous discourse occurred when I calmly informed two members of the pit crew that the robot would not function next match due to something they forgot to do. I told them it was a stupidly easy fix, sort of like forgetting to plug in the battery (the battery was snugly connected.) They finally figured it out on our way to the queue. It took a little effort to convince them that re-connecting the radio after tethering was not a specialized electronics task that only I knew how to do, but all was well in the end, and the pit crew now knows that plugging in the radio is the responsibility of whoever removes the tether.

Communications issues troubled us in the elimination rounds (that’s not a spoiler: here, everybody plays in the elims.) The signal light would dim, sometimes going out, as if the robot were drawing power away from it and the radio. I took two stabs in the air at a fix, replacing the radio’s Ethernet cable and unplugging our famous blue “we want empty cells” light. One of them worked, and I don’t think it was the Ethernet cable. It wasn’t the Ethernet cable that hung down from the robot frame like a spider web, an exposed transistor’s bent legs swaying back and forth as the robot moved.

The competition itself was pretty “meh.” With our new dumper, we scored more points, but didn’t do any better. Our final record was 1-4, and our seed 22. Out of 24.

After the first round of draft picks, we were still on the table. As per the modified Battle o’ Baltimore rules, the second round of drafting was done randomly. As each alliance, starting with the 8th seed, drew their final member from a box of numbers, we waited. And waited. Until we were the only team left. We happily joined the #1 seeded alliance.

We lost our first elimination match, and pretty badly too. Rethinking our strategy, we came back to win the next two matches. Focusing on the powerhouse of the opposing alliance, our trailer-less robot was able to keep a tight grip on their scoring and get in a few good dumps of our own. (Another rule change was that only two of the three robots on each alliance would have trailers.) Winning our next two matches, we moved onto the semi-finals.

We won our first match, our trailered partners managing to dodge the opposing team’s super cells. They were a very good team, with one robot dedicated to empty cell transport. We watched closely where they went, and made sure to inform our alliance partners which side to avoid. The final rule change placed a weighted “crab” into one supercell at each station. This cell was worth 25 points if scored, up from the usual 15. Most payload specialist chose not to throw them, as the weight made their flight unpredictable.

We were not so lucky in our next matches, getting scored on heavily and our alliance getting supercelled in our third and final match. We were out of the tournament, though not disappointed, and watched as our victors moved on to the finals, as the blue alliance.

I wouldn’t describe the finals had not something spectacular happened, so please do read on :)

The first match was a slaughter. Red established itself as the powerhouse of the competition, overflowing both of blue’s trailers. Though empty cells were delivered by blue, all super cells missed their mark.

Fate shifted in the second match. Blue made a comeback, dumping huge numbers of balls into red trailers, and even a super cell to top it off. It appeared one red robot was having some communications problems, which might explain the sudden flip. But wait—there were penalties on blue. Minus twenty points. But that was no problem for blue, who had scored a cool 40 points more than red.

There were timeouts before the third match, and the suspense built. The match started.

Many balls were scored on both alliances, filling up most of the trailers. It was nearing the end of the match. Blue comes from the right to pin a red trailer for massive damage. The pair inadvertently pins a third robot and an empty cell delivery, leaving a tangle in front of the payload station as the clock ticks away. There is no clear winner; things appear pretty tied up.

Ten seconds left. The empty cell manages to squeeze itself past the support bars into the payload area. The payload specialist eagerly retrieves it, exchanging it for a 25 point crab cell.

Five seconds left. He coolly lobs the crab cell over the wall at the red trailer. It’s an easy three-foot shot. He makes it.

He then proceeds to put his hands on his head and stare at the scored super cell with his mouth open. He is on red. He just scored a 25 point super cell against his own alliance. Time runs out.

Final score: 60-43 blue. Blue wins the tournament. A real heartbreaker for the red alliance, who would have won had that super cell missed and landed harmlessly in the crater. Or if it had been a regular super cell without the power of the Maryland crab. But hey, in the end, it’s just a competition. And an offseason one at that. Heck, I’d take “finalist” any day of the week. And our team was rooting for blue to win anyway. No shame in only losing to the champions.

Was BoB worth it? I’d definitely say so. Could we have done without it? Of course, but that’s not the point of FIRST. It’s doing more than what’s required, to gain experience and expertise. And it’s actually the only thing the team has done all summer, save administration and our overactive “teque” sector. It showed that our student-run team won’t die when the seniors leave, that the underclassmen are capable of stepping up when duty calls. I think everybody will say it was a positive step for the future of the team.

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