On Saturday, March 1st, members of Team 341 boarded a school bus and traveled to Trenton, New Jersey for our first look at this year’s game, FIRST® OVERDRIVE™. The day was a good exercise in scouting for the scouts on our team and a good look at the new game. Students worked with little binders of prepared scouting sheets and our Bento-powered team database. We enjoyed watching our friends, teams 25 and 103, compete in the finals on the same alliance. Ultimately, our feelings from the day were split – some people liked the game and others did not. We would just have to see how the future weeks would play out. For photos from the day, click here.
The Chesapeake Regional at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland would be the next time our students would come into contact with FIRST® OVERDRIVE™. Miss Daisy had a great three days with noticeable improvement each day. On Thursday, March 13th, Miss Daisy’s claw mechanism shattered to pieces on the practice field due to weak welding. While the team was disheartened, they ultimately persevered to reach the rank of semifinalist on Saturday during the elimination matches. Miss Daisy can also now say that she is a good hybrid mode performer. On Saturday she was consistently knocking the ball off the rack due to the helpful coaching of her robocoach.
The Chesapeake Regional was also the first opportunity that Storyhouse Productions had to shoot Miss Daisy at a regional event. I think that many of their crew members were pretty tired by the end of the competition but they seemed to have fun following our team around. Not all the students and coaches appreciated them being around every single moment of every single day but I think in the end we found a happy balance between documentary shooting and our own boundaries. We can’t wait to see how the whole thing will turn out!
Ultimately, Miss Daisy went 6 and 2 during qualifying matches and 2 and 3 during elimination matches, with a personal high score of 98 points in Match 54. While Miss Daisy and her crew did not bring back any hardware from the Chesapeake Regional, we are optimistic about our robot’s performance and are looking forward to the Philadelphia Regional on March 27th. For photos from this regional, click here.
