getting from Sandiego to st.louis
As a rookie team in 2012, we entered the San Diego Regional competition with low expectations. Our main focus was to learn from the experience of attending a regional competition. Surprisingly, the opposite happened. We had barely got our pneumatic arm working in time for our first match and were just hoping that we could push the bridge down. At the end of the first day of competition we were looking at the placement board and were amazed to see that we were in the top 10. Expecting it to be a fluke we didn’t think anything of it. By the end of the second day we were flabbergasted by the fact that we were not just in the top 5 but that we were bouncing back and forth between first and second. No one could believe that we were a rookie team. On the third day we finished up our matches and were intently looking at the placement board. We ended up taking first in the qualifying matches, and not only winning rookie seed, but also making it to the final rounds. This meant we got to hand pick our alliance team to compete in the final rounds. We ended up choosing Super Nerds (from San Pasqual High School) and Code Orange (from River Springs Charter School and Heritage Christian School) as our alliance members. For the final rounds, it was best 2 out of 3, with 8 alliances competing. Our alliance won the quarter finals quickly by winning the first 2 of our quarter-final matches, being the first alliance to qualify for the semi-finals. Already flabbergasted that we made it this far we were so excited and thankful. Then our alliance won the semi-finals by winning our first 2 semi-final matches, and once again were the first to qualify for the finals. Completely taken back by our accomplishments so far we were nowhere near prepared for what happened next, suddenly realizing that we were one match away from winning the Regional Championship, and going to St. Louis. Our robot and the Super Nerds robot instantly got on the bridge and balanced (scoring 20 points) as Code Orange's robot shot baskets. When the buzzer rang, we started cheering like crazy, because our robot alliance has just WON the FRC San Diego Regional Championship. We are super thankful to Super Nerds and Code Orange our regional winning alliance teams, without them we wouldn’t have made it to St. Louis. We are also thankful for our sponsors who partnered with us and helped us get to the World Championships in St. Louis, Missouri in April 2012.