February 28th – March 1st was the kick-off of the 2020 FIRST Mid-Atlantic Robotics Competitions! Our robot, Droideka, participated in 12 matches during the qualification segment of the competition. We came in 2nd out of the 36 competing robots from all over our district, including teams from across New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware during the qualification rounds. We concluded our weekend by becoming a captain of a semifinalist alliance and earning the Excellence in Engineering Award. This would have not been possible without the help of our alliance members. Our alliance was composed of the extremely well-constructed and programmed robots: FRC Team 1640, a community-based team from Downingtown, Pennsylvania, and FRC Team 2495, a team from Hamilton High School West.
The first day of competition was on Friday Feb. 28th. Members from our team brought the robot over to Hatboro, PA and set up our pit. Our robot was then inspected to make sure it was the right weight and that there were not any hazards or components that violated the rules of the game. Additionally, our pit crew started to pit scout. Pit scouting is where the students go around and ask other teams questions about the robots and interview the drivers, pit crew, and other members of those teams.
On Saturday Feb. 29th, qualification rounds officially started. The entire team arrived around 7:30 a.m. at the Hatboro-Horsham High School to set up and prepare for the matches later in the day. The day went very well for our team. Our team ranked high throughout the day, ending the qualification matches in 2nd place. Our drive team and pit crew focused on making sure the robot ran smoothly, while our business team was busy taking pictures. Pit scouts, qualitative scouts, and quantitative scouts worked hard to collect accurate information about other teams. Quantitative scouts gathered data about each robot by watching the games and taking notes using Google Forms and Google Spreadsheets. Qualitative scouts, on the other hand, track how the driver of each robot performs. Lastly, the pit scouts went around from pit to pit and asked other teams about their robots, their game strategy, and where they start during each match.
Alliance selection and playoffs occurred on Sunday March 1st, the third and final day of competition. Since our team came in 2nd for qualification rounds, we became an Alliance Captain. During alliance selection, our team chose FRC Team 1640 and FRC Team 2495. During playoffs, our Alliance became semifinalists. At the awards ceremony, our team received the Excellence in Engineering Award.
