NATIONALS UK 2018
On the 1st of March, we set off early in the morning for Telford (around 5.30 a.m) primed and ready for action.
As soon as we arrived, we immediately started the competition – there was no waiting around.The first thing we did was hand our robot in for inspection to ensure we had not cheated in any way, e.g by going outside the size limits, this was simple routine. Teamwork was key throughout the day in order to save time and get everything done as efficiently as possible. Before this day we had spent hundreds of hours together preparing for this, so we didn't hesitate for half a second. Whilst our drivers were getting our robots checked, the rest of us went to our pit area and set everything up; the STEM and Design boards, all our laptops and VEX pieces, our advertisements for our sponsors, etc. We all regrouped soon after, had a quick team talk and carried on.
The next thing we did was hand in our notebooks to be eligible for the design award. These notebooks contained hours of hard work, consisting of our design process as well as recorded logs of what we do as a team.
Whilst some team members went to submit this, the others went and booked a time for our STEM presentation so we could be eligible for the STEM award as well.
The hosts of the nationals gave everyone an introduction soon after, explaining how each section was going to work, we all made mental notes of key information such as when the driver skills and autonomous matches commenced, when we were due to receive our teamwork schedule, etc.
We decided to start practicing both our driving and autonomous soon after, although the teamwork qualification matches had not started yet. We had spent a lot of time beforehand on driving, so we immediately used 2 out of our 3 driving attempts at the start, saving the last one for later. Autonomous was trickier, so we saved all 3 attempts for later.
An hour or so later, we were given our timetables for the teamwork round. This round involved trying to score as many points as possible with another team’s robot, as well as your own. Having been given the timetables in advance, all the teams were busy trying to find our alliance partners to talk tactics and schedule practices before the matches. This is where teamwork was key, Alex and Vihaan went to talk to the other teams, our drivers Dillan and Varun continued practicing to improve our consistency and Shilacshan was in charge of the pit area, making sure everything was going well at all times, and also keeping the whole team communicating since the place was huge. Each role here was essential to our success, as teamwork has always been our strong area, we have won every teamwork event we have been to, and keeping both pit managers and communicating with other teams beforehand is extremely important.
Judges interviewed the teams throughout the day for numerous awards including the “Think”, “Build” and, the “Design” award, the design being an instant spot to the worlds competition. Due to this, the person at the pits may have to come and find the rest of his team in order to do an effective presentation.
After a few long hours, the teamwork rounds’ qualification matches had ended, it was time for the teamwork finals. The top thirty teams were paired with another team for one last time (1st and 2nd were paired, 3rd and 4th were paired and so on…), this was called an 'alliance'. Eventually Gear Squad was paired with Fortismere B and we just practiced and practiced and practiced. We tried numerous strategies and originally our chances of winning our strongest area didn't look so good, we were getting scores that would have landed us in third. But when the real match came, we all knew it would come down to this. That minute of driving was probably the most intense minute in most of our lives, but in the end we had a huge score of 189 points! This was good enough for winning the teamwork section and qualifying us to worlds! Gear squad also won the Think award as well as the build award. It was a long day and it may have been stressful, tense and exhausting, but at the same time it was one of the most amazing experiences of our lives.
Co-written by Vihaan Jain and Shilacshan Lingakumar