Our team, Muncie Delaware Robotics, attended an off-season all girls event called RAGE. Team 234, Cyber Blue, hosts this competition at their high school in Indianapolis, IN, every year. In the pits (where the robots are kept between matches) each team had a “host,” a woman with an engineering career, that our team explained the basics of FIRST, the current game, and the robot to. We had a great time telling our host what our team is all about and getting to know her. We had our host for an hour until the matches started. The opening ceremonies welcomed the teams and had a wonderful guest speaker who presented a very motivational speech on how following your dreams pays off.
Matches started after opening ceremonies with our team in the first match. We lost the first match, but quickly picked ourselves back up and won six of our seven qualification matches. After lunch the teams split up into male and female groups. The guys went to the gym for an unintentional bias speech and the girls stayed in the cafeteria for a speed mentoring session. Feedback from teammates says that both sessions were great. After the post-lunch activities were finished, each team sent a student representative to the field for seeding and alliance selection. Our team was the number one seed and was first to pick a team for alliance selection. Our first pick was team 1501, our second 5125, and our third was 1529. These teams made up our alliance of four, although including us, only three could play at a time. The newly formed alliances gathered to strategize for the semi-finals and finals ahead.
Our alliance had come up with a plan for the semi-final and final matches. We were ready. Once the semi-finals started, we climbed to the top and seized the win. After all of the matches were over, the teams headed to the bleachers for the awards ceremony. Our team won the Technical Description Award as well as winning the competition, and we were overjoyed to participate in this competition with all of the teams. One of our mentors brought flowers for all of our team members. After the event was over, we packed up, ready for whatever game FIRST throws at us next.
