It’s hard to believe we’ve already had a week to recover from the 2018 St Joseph District Event!
On Friday evening, the students worked hard, and with the help of other teams at the event, completed building their robot.
Saturday, students got up early and headed back to the school. They continued to make improvements on the robot, test the programming, and practice driving on the practice field. The qualification matches lasted from 9:30am to 7:00pm.
Sunday was another morning, with the student working to rebuild their intake system in the morning. Qualification matches ran all morning, and then the top 8 teams made their picks for playoff alliances. Since the team was not picked for a top 8 alliance, they watched from the stands and learned about other teams’ robots and strategies.
Our wins: The Trailblazers won the Judge’s Award. This is an award reserved for the panel of judges to award to an exemplary team that doesn’t fit nicely into any one award category. The team was awarded this because the students show the makings of a Chairman’s Award team. This is the highest award possible, and this Judge’s Award was a great compliment. Also, the Trailblazers wrote a nomination for Team Roboto, FRC 447 for the Gracious Professionalism Award for their assistance with lending parts and expertise, and teaching the students how to scout. Team Roboto won the Gracious Professionalism Award.
What worked well: the students worked hard, communicated well, and were resilient despite multiple losses. The robot drove well, and the drive team improved operation with each match. The students made new friends from teams around Indiana, and learned how scout other robots for alliance selections.
What needs improving: The students are building a completely new intake system that uses pneumatics rather than mechanical springs. This intake system will be more reliable. The students are completing the lift system this week as well. This will allow the robot to place cubes in the switch and scale, and climb the scale at the end of the game.
Where we ended: Tindley Trailblazer Robotics ranked 33 out of 40 teams at the event. Considering the challenges with the robot and completely new drive team, the team did a great job overall. We currently have 18 district rank points, putting us in 21st rank in the state. There are 32 available slots at Indiana State Championships. However, about half the teams in Indiana haven’t competed in an event yet.
Our outlook: With the improvement to the intake and the lift, and additional drive team practice time, the team has a great outlook for the Plainfield District Event. The students will have to work hard to maintain a spot for State Championships, but it is not out of the realm of possibilities.
