[nixiebunny]

I remember starting a thread like this a couple weeks ago. I can't say my opinion of the game has changed much since winning a regional.

Some of our team members just drove to Phoenix yesterday with me to watch the action at Arizona West. One of them decided to spend the afternoon instead at another team's build space, working on a secret weapon. I think they predicted the outcome after five minutes in the pits.

I got a chance to check out the winning robots, 3309 and 2122, in the pits. They were very similar, and looked just like machines you'd see in a factory, if factories moved empty totes around all day. I could appreciate the engineering. I even noted that 3309 did the same thing as 2122 with half as many powered systems.

That said, my brother's NERDS team was unable to beat them at their task, even with a dramatic push to bump their alliance average by 20% in semifinals. Their robot wasn't built like a factory worker. Oh, well.