Last weekend my son's Robotics Team attended their team's first regional competition of the 2012 season: The Alamo Regional in San Antonio, Texas.
The fact that we homeschool means our town's school would not let my son ride on their school bus due to liability reasons since he's not a student there. That meant I had to drive him there myself (three hours not counting traffic, it took the team 6.5 hours in rush hour). I decided to get my own hotel room (in a different hotel so as to give him space) and stay there with my eleven year old son.
This is the first time my son was away staying in a hotel with other kids with chaperones. In the first 24 hours he didn't even call me to check in so I finally phoned him to say hello. He was having a great time! So much for the myth that homeschooled kids hang onto their mother's apron strings.
The first day the team did practice rounds. That day my younger son and I did some sightseeing while my older son was with the team.
The second day of the competition consisted of seeding rounds to try to whittle down to the finalists. My husband arrived in town at the end of day one so for that second day, our whole family attended to watch. This was our first time seeing a FIRST Robotics tournament.
I was impressed by the competition and the amazing talent that the 63 teams put into their robots as well as their game play and strategy. I was in awe that day and so happy that such a good experience was something that my older son got to participate in.
I enjoyed seeing so many teens so happy and having fun. Teens were dressed in costume and cheering and singing and dancing to show team spirit. My son's team had matching t-shirts and that was it. I asked him where the cheers were, the singing and dancing. His response, "Mom, we are a professional team, a serious team. We do not dance or cheer or dress in costumes! We just work!"
Unfortunately for us, my older son had to leave the competition at the end of day two as he had to travel to Austin in order to compete in a regatta with his crew team. He had to attend as his boat mates in their quad would not have been able to race if he were absent.
Here is a video description of the 2012 FIRST Robotics game Rebound Rumble (the challenge game changes each year). If you watch this, my description of what happened in the tournament may make more sense.
Going into finals my son's team was in 6th place out of 63. The top eight move on to finals. They play on a field with an alliance of three teams, cooperating together to score points for their alliance team. So, the the top eight teams select two teams from the teams in 9th through 63rd place to have in their alliance.
(My son's team takes this selection process very seriously and in order to make informed choices the team members spent the day and a half during seeding rounds taking detailed notes about every single team that competed in order to identify strengths, weaknesses and their game play in order to decide which teams may help them the most should they make it to the finals.)
In the finals the top two alliance teams go against each other (the red team and the blue team) and the winner of two out of three is declared the regional winner of the tournament and moves on to the World Championships held in St. Louis, Missouri. All three teams in that alliance move on (not just the one team who scored highest to make it to the top eight).
The finals were video recorded and can be watched online by the public. It was grueling for me to see that the first round was won by the red alliance due to the blue alliance making an error and touching the opponent's bridge that resulted in getting penalty points that put the score over the top for the win. In round two, one red team's robots tipped over near the beginning of the round and was unable to participate. That team, #148 has won the 2008 World Championship and many regionals and other awards over the years, so they are a strong team to go against! What a tragedy for team 148! In the third round, the decision maker, a red team robot fell over then the blue team did a bridge balance, both which helped blue win. I've been told by several people the finals were very exciting due to what happened in game play.
I can't believe my son's team won the regional and we missed all the excitement in person!
My son's team also won the Industrial Design Award sponsored by GE.
"The General Motors Industrial Design Award celebrates form and function in an efficiently designed machine that effectively achieves the game challenge. This award is based on the judges’ review of the team during the competition, looking at factors such as the robot’s scoring ability, autonomous program effectiveness, and defensive characteristics. Winners of this award achieved superior on-field performance with well-designed robots and skilled robot operators."
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With this win the team secured a spot to compete at the World Championships in St. Louis in April.
We're all disappointed we didn't see the entire regional competition. My husband and I decided that full participation in Worlds trumps other extra-curricular activities so our son is going, no matter what!
Should anyone be curious what this looks like in live action here is a recording of the finals. You can move forward through the break parts to speed it up.