[Pretzel]

A conversation within the drive team during a match at championships in which our claw motor burnt out.

*Claw begins smoking and spitting out sparks in copious quantities*

Operator: Hey Tyler, the claw is on fire.
Me (driver): So it is.
Me: Hey (human player), the claw is on fire.
HP: That's cool.

*Human player continues to load totes*

Operator: What is that, five now?
Me: Unfortunately.


This season we also used less than durable joysticks manufactured by Thrustmaster. Two of them, used by the driver, had issues with the hard stop on the twist axis breaking. The first one also damaged the joystick in such a way that it could turn left anymore (making for an interesting right turn only match at Colorado), but the second one kept working in a unique manner.

*Joystick snaps while turning left and over-twists to face directly at me, the driver"
Me: Hey (coach), another joystick broke.
Coach: No it didn't, you're still driving around fine it seems.
Me: Look at it...

*Coach looks to see backwards joystick*

Coach: Oh, we should fix that.