Competition 4: World Championship!

After two years away, teams from across the globe would once again converge at the largest FRC event of the year- the World Championship. Prior to the pandemic, there were actually 2 World Championships, with over 400 teams competing at each, allowing over 800 teams access to this experience. For 2022, only 1 Championship event was able to be hosted, and the best of the best would all compete for ultimate glory!

 

2022-04-23

After winning the District Championship, the weather gave us our next fun challenge - the pass through Washington's gorgeous mountains had over 12" of snow dumped on it, causing road closures and delays. Not quite the victorious drive home we were expecting. The robot did arrive back in the shop on Sunday afternoon though - but it had to be shipped out to Houston, Texas on Tuesday. Sunday evening, a few folks opened the lab for some final updates and tuning before our final competition of the season.

The preparation for the World Championship went quickly - replacing the broken piece of our intake, preparing more spares for parts we had seen fail, and trying once again to complete a reliable, on-time path for the 5-ball autonomous routine. We completed all the mechanical work we set before us. We did not complete the software challenge. Tuesday evening, the robot performance degraded while making tweaks to the software. The robot crate had been getting prepared, and with it - all the batteries we would need for competition. Slightly concerned about what we had seen, we strapped the robot into the crate, knowing we would have a job to do as soon as we loaded in to Houston.

Minimalist packing - all this had to get down to Houston somehow!

The following Wednesday, we entered the venue in Houston. First impressions (maybe not first impressions - I'd attended Championship's in Houston back before the pandemic) were awe and wonder at the size of the venue, and the number of people and teams. Six fields of 75 teams each would operate over the next four days, culminating in six elimination tournaments, a round robin tournament of the six winning alliances, and a super Finals where the top two teams in the round robin would complete for the World Championship banner.

But first, we had to find our crate, unpack our robot, and fix the problem we encountered the previous week. Sometimes these things can be a blight, impacting the whole weekend. Other times, we throw in a new, charged battery, and everything is right as (Seattle) rain. For us, we fortunately had the latter, and were able to blame our previous issues on testing with a low voltage battery in the lab. More lessons for the future.

Step 1, find the crate. Step 2, hope we remembered to pack a drill so we can open the crate!

Lots of teams starting to arrive, working on Step 1 - find the crate!

In general across the robotics season, the intent is to develop the robot, grow in capabilities, and maximize your performance at the final event. Looking back at the season as a whole - we did this almost as if it were scripted. During Championship's, we scored our highest matches of the season. Operationally, we were flawless.  We did not encounter a single mechanical, electrical, or software issue all week. It was almost boring. (Good boring!)

Between matches we were able to test every system and make sure we were good to go for the next match.

Six fields all in line, playing robots. Quite a sight after two years away.

With so many teams on each field, we had a lot of downtime between matches, providing us some opportunities for fun. Way back between our first and second competitions, we had designed and built a brand new climbing mechanism. This was based heavily off the climber used by team 125 The Nutrons from Boston, MA. They too had qualified for the World Championship and were in Houston with us. What a better way to celebrate than loading into a practice field and climbing together!

Climbing with our Boston friends!

At the end of the qualification rounds, we found ourselves 6th in the rankings, and after some minor shuffling, we became the 5th alliance captain. Quarter-finals brought three tough matches - expected at this level of competition. A narrow 142-145 win granted us a slot in the semi-finals. Semi-finals were even more challenging. We gave it our all, but after a score of 134-135, we got knocked out the by the #1 alliance. They went on to claim victory on our field, and faced the winners of the five other fields.

At World Championship elimination rounds, alliances of four teams squeeze into a small working area close to the field. We partnered with teams from Michigan and Washington.

When it's all said and done, the robot went back into the crate, and our gear back onto the truck.

QuickDrop is probably the best robot that 4911 has built so far. While our team goal was to win our field at the Championship, we gave it our best effort and ended the season on a high. After a very long day of matches, celebrating the overall winners, and packing up all our gear, we arrived back at the hotel just before midnight, and tucked the 2022 season into bed.

-B