As almost every FIRSTer from New England knows, Aces High holds an
annual pre-ship scrimmage for teams to test out their robots on an actual FIRST field. Today was their "Winter War Zone" scrimmage, and over 32 teams registered to take part in the competition. FIRST provided an official field and game elements (I have never seen so many inner tubes in one place in my life), as well as referees and technicians from IFI to test out the new game, scoring system, and radios.
After a morning of practice matches, each team had a chance to play in three qualifying matches. A large number of teams were able to pick up and score ringers, but less had functional ramps. Following these qualifiers, the top 4 seeded teams picked alliance parters, and best of three eliminations were played, and the not-quite-done robots played some competitive "Rack N' Roll". The highlights of the day were Team 230 scoring a keeper during autonomous mode using their vacuum scoring system, and team 1099 lifting two robots off the ground for a 60 point bonus. If all the teams there today use the few days left before ship to really polish up their robots, then we're in for an exciting season!
The primary video of our coverage is a "highlight reel" showing off robots in action. Also, you can find links to the elimination matches (no quarterfinals were played since it was only top 4, and our camera battery died, resulting in incomplete video of the finals.
Go to The Blue Alliance to watch these videos!