After the Granite State Regional we took a well deserved hiatus. During this time many of us enjoyed watching other teams compete in the various regionals going on across the country.
One of our team members attended the Silicon Valley Regional as an inspector and when a couple of teams showed without much of a robot at all he was able to work with them to fabricate a usable robot. Another one of our team alumni organized the web-cast of the Oklahoma City Regional and mentored a rookie team there to 2nd place.
The off season has commenced, which is a refreshing reprieve from the hectic build season! We are psyched to attend several off-season competitions beginning with BattleCry @ WPI on May 9th and 10th and followed by Beantown Blitz. Then we will finish off the spring tournaments with Mayhem in Merrimack on June 7th.
We hope at least one of the tournaments will have room for us to compete with two robots, since we all look forward to taking the SpeedRacer for a few more spins!

The BAE Systems Granite State Regional was a blast! When the rounds ended at noontime on Saturday our record was 8-2, and our rank was 4th. During the alliance selection process we were invited to join Team 1058, but respectfully declined their invitation so that we could choose team 126, Gael Force. We then selected team 1307 (Saint Thomas Aquinas Robotics) as our third alliance member. We won the first two quarter-finals by more than 20 points, but the semis were a major challenge. We definitely met our match in the #1 seeded alliance of 121, 40, and 134. The first round ended in a tie, forcing us to replay the match. We lost the replay, but it certainly was an exciting one! The third match went to our alliance, but only because 121's robot had tipped over partway through the match. Then in the fourth and final match, we lost. Those matches were exciting, as a member from team 121 put it, "FOUR ROUND SEMI-FINALS!!! 4 rounds in a semi-final is un-heard of and by far those were the most 4 exciting matches i have ever been apart of in FIRST so thank you guys for being such great competition."
We certainly had a fun, exciting, and eventful competition, and we look forward to a great off-season and next years BAE Granite State Regional! For more details about the matches, and scores, as well as some video, visit: http://www.thebluealliance.net/tbatv/event.php?eventid=137 and http://www.thebluealliance.net/tbatv/team.php?team=1519 We also hope to post some more videos on this website soon.

Wow, what an amazing game "Overdrive" has turned out to be! Today was an extra-full day of qualification matches due to an extended schedule to accommodate a late start tomorrow on account of tonight's anticipated snowstorm.

Fezzik rounding the corner

Fezzik lived up to all of our expectations, going 7-2 in today's qualifying rounds, currently putting us in 6th place in the official rankings. Our scouting revealed that we scored a total of 326 points in our 9 rounds, making us the 2nd-highest-scoring robot of the day, behind Buzz (#175) who scored a whopping 386 points!

We're looking forward to our final qualifying match tomorrow and a possible opportunity to be one of the alliance captains!

Our first day at the Granite State Regional was different than any prior "first regional tournament day" we've experienced -- instead of arriving with a robot which still needed lots and lots of work, we uncrated a robot which was essentially ready to go! Not only that, but our dual-configuration drive base gave us the flexibility for either hurdling ("Fezzik") or running laps ("Speed Racer / Mach 6").

Speed Racer w/the big bots

We split the practice rounds between the two robot configurations. Fezzik performed admirably, demonstrating the ability to handily achieve as many as four hurdles in a round despite weighing only 87.7 pounds! Plus, Speed Racer was a crowd favorite from the first moment it tore off in autonomous mode, completing a lap and a half (6 lines!) and then in teleop mode by zipping around in between small gaps between the "big bots" to make quick laps even amidst heavy traffic.

We were disappointed, however, by the ruling that our Fezzik / Speed Racer combination, despite satisfying all other safety, sizing, and weight rules, would not be allowed as a dual-configuration robot, but was instead considered to be two separate robots. We had thought that our modular electronics board with separate drive bases was innovative, creative, and even possibly award-worthy, so we were very surprised that it was disallowed. We submitted an official request for clarification on Thursday afternoon, but we don't expect to receive an answer until after the tournament is over.

In any case, we're looking forward to the qualification rounds with Fezzik on Friday and Saturday!

We attended the BAE FIRST unveiling this past Friday and demonstrating both our speed racer configuration (aka: Mach 6) along with our main robot configuration, Fezzik. Mach 6 performed like a champ, driving around the stage and performing several donuts. Unfortunately, Fezzik was only able to drive around and we didn't use our arm due to safety precautions for our presenters. All in all, it was a good night and we have been working frantically over the weekend to perfect both configurations of the robot. We also are planning on shipping both configurations and fielding both at GSR depending on what our partners strength's are. To accomplish this feat, we are taking weight off both drive bases to get them both within the 120 pound requirement.

We now have a video of our much awaited Speed Racer

As usual, the season is hurtling by (or is that hurdling by?) in a blur! Lots of activity at Mayhem Central. The overpass is in the loading dock (aka the Gray's breezeway). But we have to keep deflating the ball to get it back and forth from the basement...

The manipulator subteam just changed horses in the middle of the stream; hopefully we won't all get a soaking. Meanwhile we can't wait to take SpeedRacer out for a spin...

2008 is here! Overdrive is upon us!

The ball is HUGE! (Already looks like the saying for this year...)

We have a lot of newcomers this year, mostly from the homeschooling community. We have another major influx from Mindstorms Mayhem and Mach 6, mostly young ladies. It's gonna be a different feel this year...