For our first fully judged event, our rookie team did remarkably well.  We competed against many seasoned teams, some of whom were in their 8th year of competition.  We placed 7th out of the 24 teams in the Qualifying Matches, and earned a spot in the Semi-Finals.  We won our first Semi-Finals match and lost the second.  So we ended the day being 1 win away from competing in the Finals Match.

Unlike the Pittsburgh Scrimmage attended in December where our robot ran as designed with few issues, at this event we battled all day against Electro-Static Discharge (ESD) due to the extremely cold temperatures and dry air.  During our second semi-finals match, the field control system experienced what we surmise was an ESD-related glitch.  This caused multiple robots to malfunction and the motor controlling the winch for our lift was burned out.  Despite all the day's glitches, the team members handled themselves well and adapted in the heat of the matches.  Handling stressful moments and remaining calm is a great life lesson, and we were very proud of the students.