I took my two teams to the inaugural Border Wars tournament this past Saturday. My middle school team, 323B (Bot-E Builders), finished qualifications in 3rd place. They were chosen by the 1st place team (1530) to join their alliance and won the tournament championship. My high school team, 323A (Shockware), finished qualifications in 2nd place and served as the caption of the #2 alliance. They ended up losing in the championship match.
Rooting for both sides is tricky when I have one son on 323B and two sons on 323B. The first match championship match was tied based on rings/goals and was decided by the autonomous bonus. The second championship match was tied in autonomous and was decided by 1 ring.
Shockwave (323B) also won the Programming Skills Challenge (26 points) and Robot Skills Challange (76 points). They spent most of the day going back and forth with 1530 as the leader in both challenges.
1530 had a rock solid robot as well as driver and were consistent throughout the competition. Their driver, Eric, is an excellent example of a student leader. His attitude and actions on and off the competition field are beyond his years. If you are at a competition with 1530 I suggest you take time to introduce yourself to this young man.
The competition had a few glitches, but that is to be expected for a first time competition. Doug Tipton did a great job running the event and hopefully we will be back to defend our titles next year.
Jay