[Abhishek R]

Team 624 CRyptonite had an incredible time at the Dallas regional this past weekend, even getting the chance to see some snow, an uncommon event here in Houston.

An unusual amount of robot issues plagued us throughout the qualifications. We had obviously designed around a strategy to clear the landfill, but recycling container stability issues forced us to limit our movement, preventing us from really doing much at all during a match or else risk the container falling out of our robot. When 118 The Robonauts picked us, it was with the intent that we may be able to load from the human player station, which doesn't require much movement. We were glad that they recognized the potential within us, but what really opened our eyes was how much they think ahead and really bring teams together in an alliance. With just a short amount of time on the practice field, 118 was able to get us to a competent level of human player stacking quite quickly - during the qualifications, we averaged about half a stack (3 totes), and we only ever achieved the coopertition once. After some time practicing and then working with 118 in the playoffs, we could comfortably make 2 stacks of 5 with cans and noodles on top. We are very thankful for their choice to choose us at the alliance selections.

We would also like to congratulate teams 148, 987, and 3802. Yet again, we found ourselves on the opposite end of the field from the Robowranglers (we didn't even get a qual match with them! - though I'm not sure it would have been very exciting given the state of our performance at the time). We have always looked up to the High Rollers and enjoyed working with them last year in the the Curie elims, and congratulate them on the Chairman's Award, very well deserved. Best of luck to all these teams and we'll see you at the World Championships.