To begin at the beginning, the drive to Spokane on Thursday, March 2nd was pleasant and we got the robot and rope inspected almost without a hitch. The pit was set-up almost immediately after the pit area opened, and it looked gorgeous!
Throughout the qualification matches, we climbed somewhat consistently, shot a few fuel into the boiler, and placed gears on the airship – we even got 4 rotors spinning in our last match! Our robot ended up not fully connected during our second match, so we did not win that one – it is not easy to make possible the impossible, after all. Other than that, we maintained a good record, and we were ranked 4th going into alliance selection.
We were picked by the 1st seeded team – Team 4513, Circuit Breakers – to be on their alliance in the eliminations and Team 4104, the Blackhawks, completed the #1 Alliance. Our alliance worked hard and won all of our quarterfinal and semifinal matches, and even had all three robots climb in the first semifinal match, but we ran into trouble in the finals. We lost both of the matches – 165 to 206 and 170 to 256, but being a finalist is still a major accomplishment.
Another aspect of every FRC competition is the awards ceremony. At West Valley, we got two awards: the Team Spirit Award, for our pit, costumes, robot cart, pom-poms, and attitude, and the Industrial Safety Award, for our wonderful safety program.
Our next competition is March 18-19 at Mount Vernon High School, so if you are in the area, please come and see us there on Saturday and Sunday!