Hi everyone,

Apologies for the delay in communications. The team has been up at 6am and dragging themselves back to the hotel by 9pm and collapsing into bed straight after dinner, so the updates took second place to sleep!

Friday in Orlando was the main day for the qualifying rounds - the day started with a parade and opening ceremony at 8am, then straight into competition games for the rest of the day - 9 relentless hours of matches. This was also the day the judges for various awards came to visit the teams in their pits, for interviews.
The day was plagued with issues on the match fields in our two divisions. With VEX going over to WiFi, the fields were vulnerable to interference. There were scores of games where at least one robot lost power signal and had connection drop outs due to internet interference, and dozens of games where both teams in one alliance were disabled by loss of signal on their frequency. Unfortunately this appeared to be deliberate and malicious targeting - with internet sites called "hahahahah" and "youcantcatchme" and "goNZ" being set up during matches. Games that suffered from loss of power or any power issues were not re-run, so if you were targeted it was too bad. This made reading of the Ranking System and Leader Board challenging - as you really had no idea if a team was in a high position because they won fair and square, or because of the internet sabotage.
There was also a lot of dirty play in the games - some teams did play hard and fair, but others engaged in deliberate damaging of opponents robots - ramming, pinning, and sabotage were common and the referees for the most part were lax with how they interpreted or enforced rules. We were somewhat disappointed by the broad interpretation of the concept of sportsmanship in the World Competitions - it was more like robot wars than what we understood VEX to stand for. Skill didn't seem to matter as you could take out a robot by breaking it.

Saturday was the most pressured day, as the last qualifying games were played, and then as soon as the final games were over, the alliance selection was begun. Negotiations for alliances had to happen within a 15 minutes space, even as the last information on ranking placement was still being posted. Because of the WiFi interference, the information on the ranking board wasn't reliable - so alliance selection was a really tense time. It would be so much better if there was a proper lunch break and the teams could have a chance to eat, and to think and negotiate, especially as many teams from overseas don't speak english, so negotiations can be time consuming!

The 2921b team ended up aligned with a lovely team from Hawaii for the finals of their division. They were rammed repeatedly by the opposing alliance and their robot was disabled by damage, and the Hawaiian team's robot was also attacked and the electrics (cables and connections) torn out by the opponents, who didn't even attempt to score any points until they had disabled them. Seems such a waste to spend all the time and money to get to the worlds competition and get wiped out by bully tactics, not skill. The team was naturally gutted by the manner of the loss, and that the tactics were permitted.
2921a was in an alliance with a team from China, and another from Columbia - so we had interpreters with us on the field to help communications. Both teams were great sports, and very gracious - we enjoyed playing with them. The team won the Engineering Division Finals - so we have a trophy to bring home for NZ, but in the last game one of the opposing teams tore at our robot as we did a hang on the ladder and damaged the hanging mechanism. (in fact both our teams hadn't done a hang on the ladder in most of their previous matches due to the fact that attacking the hanging robot was permitted and we didn't want to risk damage) We didn't have time to fix that mechanism as we went straight from Division Finals to the Championship Tournament semi finals. The high strength motors (which we have had trouble with anyway) had also suffered as a result of the ramming and smashing tactics employed during the division finals. So by the time we went into the semi finals, with a battered robot, we were not in good shape. The team and their alliance partners put up a good fight but were eliminated from the competition at the semifinals. We would have loved the opportunity to play against the gorgeous Green Eggs robot, and see how we might have done, but it didn't work out that way.
The 2921a team also won a trophy for the programming in the autonomous part of the game - a "Think" Award.
It was great to see Lynfield College do so well in the Math division - all the way to the finals. Palmy Boys did really well in the Engineering division - they also were in the finals of the division. MARS were strong on the leader board and Pinehurst held their own in the competition matches. Kristin had major mechanical issues to begin with but got them sorted and were a strong contender. NZ had a strong profile in the VEX competition, and were were proud to have represented our community of NZ teams alongside everyone else who traveled to Orlando.

Of course the awesome win by the aMEss Massey team was such a terrific outcome. World Champions! Well done, and well deserved!

Sunday was our first day since arriving that we have done anything recreational - so it was a lovely relaxing day at Sea World Orlando. What a fantastic place! Entertaining and very polished shows, and some raging roller coaster rides - perfect change of pace ofter so much focus on robots! Tomorrow we head to the Kennedy Space Centre, which we have been looking forward to.
We'll send another update in a day or so.
Thanks to all of you for your support! Big hello to our team members holding the fort at home: Ben, Melissa and Aarone. Looking forward to catching up with you soon and brainstorming the new seasons game!

Isaac and the rest of us here in the USofA