Regionals Tournament Recap

Hello world!

We apologize for the delayed post- everything in the SPARC has been very hectic after March 9th, because… we are going to Worlds!!!

First of all, we would like to congratulate every team that was at Monrovia that day. Everyone was AMAZING, and we are so sad to see some of our friends from other teams not move on. We had a great time seeing some people from other leagues, and overall it was an extremely fun day.

We started out the morning with our judging, where we would like to make a shout-out to one particular judge who was really great and came by the pit THREE times to chat. We may not have gotten his name, but we love you judge! After judging, robot and field inspection went off without a hitch. We were particularly pleased about this- we were slightly worried that we wouldn’t fit inside the sizing cube.

Match 1 was very...interesting. We were very happy with how we did, and got 22 minerals in the lander! Unfortunately, the timer on the field wasn’t working, and so they had to restart the match. After waiting for around 2 hours on the competition field, we became really close friends with Team 9836 Electromedics Gold. This friendship turned out to be really great as the day progressed.

The rest of our qualification matches went by very smoothly, with only minor issues occurring. After all of these matches, we ended up being 8th place overall! During alliance selection, we were chosen by Electromedics Gold (our friends from match 1) as the first pick of the second seed alliance! After much contemplation for our second pick, we ended up picking team 8472 Robotatoes.

Then, we moved into semifinals! During these three matches, we ended having quite a few connection issues, much like many of the teams there that day. Ultimately, the third seed alliance moved onto the finals, but we had a great time competing nevertheless!

We may not have moved on to Worlds because of our robot, but we were still hopeful for judging! The award ceremony started out with Mr. Witman winning an award for being an awesome mentor/coach/teacher for over 9 years. Then, as the ceremony progressed, we ended up being finalists in a few categories, such as being 1st runner up for Promote Award and Design Award, and 2nd runner up for Connect Award! One of our team members, Sofia, was also named a Dean’s List finalist, alongside Grace, a member of our sister team 11770 Curiosity. Finally, they announced our team as earning the Inspire Award (shoutout to Amanda Sullivan <3)!

As we head into Spring Break next week, we are slightly overwhelmed, but extremely excited to be going to Houston soon! We are so happy to have finally gotten an Inspire Award banner, and we would like to thank all of our mentors, judges, and past team members who have helped us through this journey. It is because of you that we have gotten this far.

XOXO,

The Marlbots 3526