Team 1418

George Mason’s Robotics team played a hard-fought competition at the DC Convention Center this weekend. They ultimately came in 13th in the preliminary standings out of 62 other teams, and were picked to play in the 2nd seeded alliance for the finals. We were eliminated in the quarter finals by two extremely close matches, losing 73 to 75 in quarter final one, and 66 to 75 in quarter final two with our minibot one foot away from scoring 20 points at the final buzzer.

The team improved dramatically over the two day competition, ultimately winning seven times and losing three. Each match taught the team something new about the robot and how to make it better. This game had a 15 second autonomous period where the robot operated entirely on its own, then 90 seconds of tele-operated play where the robot is driven by two team to score inner tubes on a scoring rack, finished by a 20 second period for deploying a small robot to climb a ten foot pole. Our robot can now score 6 points autonomously, place an entire logo of tubes in the tele-operated period, and deploy a mini-bot very consistently, something we could not do during most of the matches held Friday. We were the leading scorer in our alliance group every time we played Saturday morning.

The team worked extremely hard to improve between matches, frequently testing our capabilities on a practice field and making modifications in our pit area. We have now played the game as successfully as we hoped, and are eager to show our stuff at the Virginia Regional in Richmond next week (April 7, 8, & 9). If this team plays like it did on the last day of this competition, we should find ourselves in the playoffs once again against a very impressive array of mostly Virginia teams. Of the 62 teams scheduled, only 9 will be from out of state.

The attention to detail, the problem solving, and the resourcefulness of this team is the real accomplishment this last weekend. Things went wrong that we did not anticipate, equipment failed, rulings went against us, but at no time did this team fail to figure out what to do next and to go back and play better the next match. It is amazing how little it takes for something to go wrong in a test like this competition. Our team did not quit; they came off the field fierce to make improvements and go back and play some more. By the end of the day, we felt like we could play against the best teams on the field. I wish you all could have witnessed the dramatic progress this team made over the three days in DC.

We look forward to starting the fourth quarter with a more triumphal match in Richmond. Nothing could exceed the intensity of what this young team did this last weekend, or better represent how they overcame setbacks, solved complex technical dilemmas with the materials on hand, and improved in speed and accuracy on the playing field. They have every reason to be congratulated and celebrated.