On February 21, the 14687 Tsunami Zone Robotics team headed to Philomath for the Spark Invitational of the Decode FIRST Tech Challenge! This was an overnight trip because judging sessions took place on Saturday and the qualification matches are on Sunday (thanks so much to our sponsors for funding this trip!). This is extremely important because this meet determines whether or not we get to go to the State Competition.
On Saturday, the team spent some time getting ready for the judging sessions and checking out the practice fields. There are some new teams that we have never played with before, because there are some teams coming from other leagues in this area of Oregon! There are thirty-six teams, and twenty-eight of them are completely new to us.
Our judging session went really well. We were asked questions by the judges after everyone said their part, and then we went outside and practiced for the rest of the day.
A few members of our team had spent a lot of time working on a brand-new poster to put in front of our table for the other teams and to show to the judges. This would reflect on our season a lot better and also had better graphics and a better organizational system.
The matches began on Sunday. Our first match was Qualification Match #1. We were playing on a team with Gears in Motion (a team from our league) and playing against two teams from different leagues, teams called EMP and Neurocket1. We did really well in this match, and might have been able to get full parking points, but our alliance partner didn’t get fully under our robot in time. We unfortunately lost our first match 81-146.
Our second match was Qualification #15. We were on a team with PDX OPPS (a team from another league), and playing against T.R.O.U.T and Hardest Ware (both also from another league). Our autonomous system successfully fired 3 balls. Our alliance partner was one of the teams that had a slightly larger robot than ours, so it would probably be more difficult to lift and get full points. (Our robot isn’t tiny or anything, but it is on the smaller side.) We lost this match 100-90.
Our third match, Qualification 25, was a very close score. We were in an alliance with the Unreal Crafters, and playing against Lighting 42 and MV=P, all teams that we had never met before. Our autonomous successfully fired 7 balls! There was a team that was pushing us around a lot, but unfortunately for us, that is perfectly allowed (it’s an important strategy in this game for some teams). It was a really close match, with us losing in the end at 78-79.
Qualification 35 was our fourth match. We were playing in an alliance with Mercury and against Leo and (from our league) the Techno Sharks. Our autonomous again successfully fired 7 balls, which got us a lot of points again, but unfortunately we only got partial parking points because our robot stopped lifting halfway up. We lost this match 100-93. To be fair, this match our alliance partner was only two people, and they didn’t have an intake or launching system, so we actually got really close to winning against two really good teams almost all by ourselves.
Our final match was Qualification 41. We were playing against Scholars of Steam and Nautilus Tech, which were teams who were both from our league. We were also playing on an alliance with a team called the Kinetic Kittens, a team whose name multiple people on our team thought was really good. Our autonomous system yet again successfully fired 7 artifacts. Our alliance partner accidentally emptied our gate (which holds the artifacts in the pattern they were fired in, for those who don’t know) at the last second. Our team unfortunately lost our final round at 109-159.
Our matches may not have ended in wins, but there were some upsides; we helped the three lowest teams we played with get their highest scores of the day! And we overall did really well, considering that our average alliance partner’s ranking was 26th and our average opponent’s ranking was 9th.
We had to wait a while for award ceremonies because of the playoff matches, but after the playoff matches we went and sat in the gym where the matches were held and the award ceremony was happening. There are all kinds of awards that are given out, like the Innovate award, the Connect award, and the Inspire award (which is the best one).
Our team did not win any awards. After all, we lost all of our matches.
Except the 1st Place Inspire Award!!
Our whole team was absolutely shocked that this happened! The Inspire Award is the best award of them all! It gives the teams 60 advancement points (which count towards helping teams advance to State)! This is what the judge said when announcing the teams that won:
“The Inspire Award is presented to the team that embodies the best of FIRST. The team is made up of strong ambassadors, role models, and gracious competitors. This team excels across judged award categories, works together to design and build their robot, and shares their experiences, knowledge, and enthusiasm with other teams, sponsors, and community, and of course us, the judges. We’ll do three awards here… This is the winner of today’s Inspire Award. Truly an amazing, great team. This team… is from Rockaway Beach. Team 14687 Tsunami Zone!” (The second place winner was Leo, and the third place winner was Ursa Mechanica.)
This means that we are advancing to the Oregon Championship this weekend! We will play against the best teams in the state! We will probably not go to the Worlds Championship in Texas (knock on wood), but this is still a very big deal and is what we have been working towards all year!
Thank you so, so much to everyone who makes this possible, including (but not limited to!):
Eugene Schmuck Foundation
Mudd Nick Foundation
Tillamook County Creamery Association
Thanks to our coaches and mentors:
Kathryn Harmon
David Hummel Sr.
Evan Solley
James Johansen
And a big thank you to our Neah-Kah-Nie School District!
Learn more information on our team and the events we have participated in.
By Norah R, notes by Levko T
