atlanta championships vol. 2
See the previous entry for the first part of my account on the Championships in Atlanta, GA. This section will be based on Friday, Saturday, and today. Enjoy.
Friday was one crazy day. Mainly because it was the key day for scouting (going to teams and getting their stats on the robot and other sorts of things) and getting high in the ranks. We won the first 3 matches we had, but lost our fourth one, which was because of our alliance. Blah. We won our last match though, which bumped us to 5th rank in the Curie Division (FIRST names the divisions by famous people, Archimedes, Galileo, Curie and Newton. The actual Finals to determine the Championship winning alliance is the Einstein field.) by the end of the day. I spent some of the day getting buttons and other goodies from the teams in Archimedes and Curie. It was fun when I was with Barry doing it. w00t. I love my BB.
After the rounds was the VEX Dinner, to celebrate a new FIRST competition they put out. It's basically a mini version of the big FIRST competition. You build a small robot and compete against other teams on a mini field. This year's field was the field from last year's competition. I laughed when I saw it. Anyways, the dinner was fun. Our team just ate and left. We spent some time having fun, but we couldn't go anywhere out of Mason's eyesight because he said he "had a hard enough time locating everyone during the matches". Whaaaatever. So I spent some time with Mike from Team 25, Niz from 768 and some other people. The guys ended up going to the side and did a push up competition. No clue who won though. *shrug*. Overall it was interesting.
That night Komal, Jamie, Brittany and I spent time up just talking and laughing, having a blast. I ended up not being able to talk to Seth like I could on Thursday night. Was very depressing, since I had wanted to tell him the events of the day. *shrug* Ah well. I missed him a lot...I still miss him. The comfort of being only an hour from him now is back, but I still hate the far away feeling. It's tough.
The title will be explained quite soon. Saturday morning we all woke up early and ate breakfast at the hotel, and then left for the Dome. We had a match at 9:10 am, and I had gotten to the stands just in time to see us compete. Unfortunately, one of the teams in our alliance got us 3 penalties, 10 points each. It caused us to lose the match. Originally we had 51 points, and we almost won. But the 30 point penalties got us down to 21, and the other alliance had 23 points with no penalties. I was so angry. The last match we had, we lost by one tetra. If we had gotten one tetra on it would have given us 36 points to tie with the other alliance. If we had gotten two, we would have beat them with 39. *sigh* Oh well.
What pissed me off the most, however, was that our team was not chosen to be in the final rounds of the Division. I was livid. We had a great robot, and we had more match points than any other team in the Division! We weren't chosen. Stupid teams can't scout. >____<;
The rest of the day was boring, even the awards ceremony. Our team didn't win any awards at all, which ticked me off too. Our robot was the most unique of any of them, and we didn't win any awards. Growl.
After the ceremony was over, we went to the Wrap Up Party, which started originally at 6pm. Our team didn't get there until 7pm since the final rounds and ceremony lasted a while. We stayed until 8:45pm, and left around 9:15pm-ish. The party was okay...I found Kristina (alumni from team 25) and we talked for a while. Mike (25) and I ended up heading towards the food and got some grub, then found Miss Heidi from team 116. She's so cool! Good mentor for the team. We talked, and I met some other people from the team. Was nice to chat with her. I met Jeff Wetzel, who I had wanted to talk to for a while. I saw Big Mike again...was scared he'd randomly bearhug me or Mike. Luckily, that didn't happen. Whew! ;-)
Barry, Arefin, Neha and Jess finally got there, and I ran to find them. I met Jaine from team 716. She's so cute. A little bit later, Jess, Neha and I were sitting down on the ground when all of a sudden I feel something cold hit my face. It was silly string!!! Barry was spraying Neha, Jess and I. We all screamed, and I heard people laughing at us...it was so funny. I stole the silly string bottle. I still have it, mwahahahahahahaa....xD I got a picture of Jess, Neha and Barry. Neha and Jess have the silly string on, but Barry's clean. Darn him. >_<; It was still amusing. So, after that Bharat (25) pulls me and drags me behind this one blowup jumping thing. He had me sign this card...turns out it was for Arefin and Neha. They were getting "married". Arefin had no idea, either. It was classic! We went to get him, and I had to literally shove him to where Bharat and I originally were. It was an amusing Indian ceremony, where Neha tied a scarf on Arefin's beltloop, and Arefin led her around a "fire" (it was really a coiled up section of a red extension cord) four times, and then she led him three times around. Bharat was the one marrying them since Vishal had no idea what to say. Oy, that kid. xD So after that, Arefin used his finger to put red dust on Neha's forehead to signal they were married. Neha did the same to him, and then they exchanged FIRST Gold medals. That was an amusing thing, since Bharat gave her his medal to use. Arefin had one since his team won the Curie Division. Hehe.
After that interesting event, we all went back to our original spot. I got silly strung once again, and then my dad found me. Mason called me and told me to meet the team by the projector screen (where they were showing a magic show), so we could leave. So after giving everyone 435935843698 hugs, I went to find my team. We all stole over 300 sodas, and about 70 waters by the end of the night. We took a team picture with the sodas, and then got on the bus. We left at about 9:15pm with all the sodas..xD
The bus pulled into the parking lot at 7:45am. The girls and I went into the bathroom first since Mason said we could use it first (w00t), and then we helped unload the bus. It was freezing, so I left as soon as I could. I got home, checked my email and Seth's LJ, and crashed. I woke up at 1:40pm, and then got my stuff unpacked, ate, and got together all the stuff I acquired. Take a look here.
Overall, my trip was an amazing experience. I had the time of my life, and I want to thank everyone on my team and other people on various teams for making it such a great experience. Y'all know who you are. I love you all, and I love FIRST!
Friday was one crazy day. Mainly because it was the key day for scouting (going to teams and getting their stats on the robot and other sorts of things) and getting high in the ranks. We won the first 3 matches we had, but lost our fourth one, which was because of our alliance. Blah. We won our last match though, which bumped us to 5th rank in the Curie Division (FIRST names the divisions by famous people, Archimedes, Galileo, Curie and Newton. The actual Finals to determine the Championship winning alliance is the Einstein field.) by the end of the day. I spent some of the day getting buttons and other goodies from the teams in Archimedes and Curie. It was fun when I was with Barry doing it. w00t. I love my BB.
After the rounds was the VEX Dinner, to celebrate a new FIRST competition they put out. It's basically a mini version of the big FIRST competition. You build a small robot and compete against other teams on a mini field. This year's field was the field from last year's competition. I laughed when I saw it. Anyways, the dinner was fun. Our team just ate and left. We spent some time having fun, but we couldn't go anywhere out of Mason's eyesight because he said he "had a hard enough time locating everyone during the matches". Whaaaatever. So I spent some time with Mike from Team 25, Niz from 768 and some other people. The guys ended up going to the side and did a push up competition. No clue who won though. *shrug*. Overall it was interesting.
That night Komal, Jamie, Brittany and I spent time up just talking and laughing, having a blast. I ended up not being able to talk to Seth like I could on Thursday night. Was very depressing, since I had wanted to tell him the events of the day. *shrug* Ah well. I missed him a lot...I still miss him. The comfort of being only an hour from him now is back, but I still hate the far away feeling. It's tough.
The title will be explained quite soon. Saturday morning we all woke up early and ate breakfast at the hotel, and then left for the Dome. We had a match at 9:10 am, and I had gotten to the stands just in time to see us compete. Unfortunately, one of the teams in our alliance got us 3 penalties, 10 points each. It caused us to lose the match. Originally we had 51 points, and we almost won. But the 30 point penalties got us down to 21, and the other alliance had 23 points with no penalties. I was so angry. The last match we had, we lost by one tetra. If we had gotten one tetra on it would have given us 36 points to tie with the other alliance. If we had gotten two, we would have beat them with 39. *sigh* Oh well.
What pissed me off the most, however, was that our team was not chosen to be in the final rounds of the Division. I was livid. We had a great robot, and we had more match points than any other team in the Division! We weren't chosen. Stupid teams can't scout. >____<;
The rest of the day was boring, even the awards ceremony. Our team didn't win any awards at all, which ticked me off too. Our robot was the most unique of any of them, and we didn't win any awards. Growl.
After the ceremony was over, we went to the Wrap Up Party, which started originally at 6pm. Our team didn't get there until 7pm since the final rounds and ceremony lasted a while. We stayed until 8:45pm, and left around 9:15pm-ish. The party was okay...I found Kristina (alumni from team 25) and we talked for a while. Mike (25) and I ended up heading towards the food and got some grub, then found Miss Heidi from team 116. She's so cool! Good mentor for the team. We talked, and I met some other people from the team. Was nice to chat with her. I met Jeff Wetzel, who I had wanted to talk to for a while. I saw Big Mike again...was scared he'd randomly bearhug me or Mike. Luckily, that didn't happen. Whew! ;-)
Barry, Arefin, Neha and Jess finally got there, and I ran to find them. I met Jaine from team 716. She's so cute. A little bit later, Jess, Neha and I were sitting down on the ground when all of a sudden I feel something cold hit my face. It was silly string!!! Barry was spraying Neha, Jess and I. We all screamed, and I heard people laughing at us...it was so funny. I stole the silly string bottle. I still have it, mwahahahahahahaa....xD I got a picture of Jess, Neha and Barry. Neha and Jess have the silly string on, but Barry's clean. Darn him. >_<; It was still amusing. So, after that Bharat (25) pulls me and drags me behind this one blowup jumping thing. He had me sign this card...turns out it was for Arefin and Neha. They were getting "married". Arefin had no idea, either. It was classic! We went to get him, and I had to literally shove him to where Bharat and I originally were. It was an amusing Indian ceremony, where Neha tied a scarf on Arefin's beltloop, and Arefin led her around a "fire" (it was really a coiled up section of a red extension cord) four times, and then she led him three times around. Bharat was the one marrying them since Vishal had no idea what to say. Oy, that kid. xD So after that, Arefin used his finger to put red dust on Neha's forehead to signal they were married. Neha did the same to him, and then they exchanged FIRST Gold medals. That was an amusing thing, since Bharat gave her his medal to use. Arefin had one since his team won the Curie Division. Hehe.
After that interesting event, we all went back to our original spot. I got silly strung once again, and then my dad found me. Mason called me and told me to meet the team by the projector screen (where they were showing a magic show), so we could leave. So after giving everyone 435935843698 hugs, I went to find my team. We all stole over 300 sodas, and about 70 waters by the end of the night. We took a team picture with the sodas, and then got on the bus. We left at about 9:15pm with all the sodas..xD
The bus pulled into the parking lot at 7:45am. The girls and I went into the bathroom first since Mason said we could use it first (w00t), and then we helped unload the bus. It was freezing, so I left as soon as I could. I got home, checked my email and Seth's LJ, and crashed. I woke up at 1:40pm, and then got my stuff unpacked, ate, and got together all the stuff I acquired. Take a look here.
Overall, my trip was an amazing experience. I had the time of my life, and I want to thank everyone on my team and other people on various teams for making it such a great experience. Y'all know who you are. I love you all, and I love FIRST!