[Nuwanda]

We held a practice/scrimmage yesterday and I noticed even more similarities between the teams. Of the six teams in attendance, all six are going for the low bar. Five of the six shoot for the high goal (with varying levels of success). Of these five, four were using shooter wheels. The sixth bot is going for the low goal, but they are a rookie team and didn't want to try for too much. Four of the six have a mechanism that raises up, making them taller than 15". Four or five (it was a long day and I don't remember) had pneumatic wheels, of varying sizes. Three are attempting vision tracking, and two had it working. From what I saw, all six were capable of more than half the defenses, and at least three of them are planning on being able to do all of them. Though none of them have built climbers yet, at least two have plans for how they're going to climb.
It should be said that these are definitely above average teams. Four of them competed in St. Louis last year and and three of them played in eliminations, one as an alliance captain. Two of them are teams recognized for consistently building strong robots. I'm getting more excited about the first weeks of competition because it looks like Michigan is going to be as strong as always.