Hi everyone,
Today was our first day in Tournament. We had a bright and early start up at 6am and down to the lobby by 7:30 to catch the bus in to the convention centre. The Sheraton is about 20 minutes walk away from the convention centre, so we appreciated the ride in, as we had our heavy cases of tools and the robots and laptops and so on to carry.
The first part of the day was spent setting up the pit (or booth) with tools and robots organised, and all checked over, banners and flags up, and sorting through the paperwork. We had forms to sign,and check lists to go over, match times and alliance groupings to sort out for scouting. When you enter the convention centre you walk in on a long rich red carpet pathway which leads to the tournament fields and the team pits. All the teams are organised according to their numbers. It's really fantastic when you reach the 2900's and see a long row of pits bearing the New Zealand flags. There are 12 teams here this year. Last year we were just four pits together. The New Zealand presence has been much anticipated and the word whispering around the centre is that we are to be feared... one girl said to me "when you go up and down the pit area everyone is terrified of the New Zealanders" I replied "for good reason". May as well maximise the psychological advantage!
We Free Range teams are in different divisions: 2921 is in "Maths" and 2921c is in "Engineering" so it's really busy with scouting - just one person for each division. We have had one practice match and one Qualifying match each. 2921 won the practice by a large margin with the MC saying he'd never seen anything like it. The Qualifying round was a Clean sweep with 40 seconds still to play. Right at the last second the other team tucked a green ball under the wall, so we won 166 to 1.
2921c won the practice match and then won their qualifying match by a resounding 97 to 57. All the NZ teams are doing really well here. For the drive teams, apart from the matches, much of the day has been spent waiting in lines - for inspection,or for doing skills challenges. Daniel has kept the pit humming along and organised and has had a chance to get out and see games.
When Michael went to do the first attempt on the programming challenge he forgot to put on the one minute programme, so it only played the 20 second autonomaous - but he is in 5th place with that score!
At the end of the day we were all dragging ourselves out of the venue and somehow lost George. The centre was all locked up and we were boarding the bus when we realised there was no sign of him, Kate was frantic, until we saw him come round the corner attached by a rubber band to Michael's wrist. (He had found George lost and decided to make sure he didn't stray)
Everyone is tired out with so much walking and standing, and have collapsed into bed in the hope of some rest before tomorrow.
Tomorrow morning 8:30 to 9am is an Opening Ceremony, where the various countries walk in their flag,and some trophies and awards will be given out.
When the new game is unveiled tomorrow (friday) evening 6:30pm we (NZ) will be doing the Haka if you want to catch that.
We have a schedule for tomorrows matches in case any fall at a time you can see (on NASA tv)
2921 (Max, Ethan, Richard) on MATH field
Friday = match 37 9:44am
match 54 10:57match 93 2:16pm
match 106 3:06
match 140 5:16
Saturday = match 158 = 8:53am
match 174 9:57
2921c (Rhiannon, George, TerryP) on ENGINEERING field
Friday = match 49 = 10:35ammatch 66 = 11:48
match 97 = 2:32pm
match 111 3:25
match 135 4:57
Saturday match 159 8:57am
match 199 11:37
Finals start around 12:30pm on Saturday. We plan to be in them all the way to the trophy!
We will (sleepily) keep you up to date each evening with our news, and can send you more frequent news by text if you like. Please send us your cell phone number if you want to be texted. You can also check our website www.robotics.org.nz or watch games live on Nasa TV (info on our website).
You can contact us through this email, or text Terry on 027 482 1581
Cheer loud for us, we will do our best to put NZ on the map and bring back trophies galore.