[archiver]

Posted by Mike S of team #21, Boeing NASA-KSC "ComBBAT", from Titusville HS, Astronaut HS sponsored by Boeing.

Posted on 3/5/99 10:03 PM MST



Another beautiful day in Central Florida with highs
near 80! Day 1 of the competition was fast and furious.

The field of 27 teams got through 8 or 9 matches each today
(of a total of 12 matches total for qualifying). The
rankings of all teams is being posted on a continuous
basis, as an average of Qualification Points. (For those
who have not been there yet, qual points are your field
score x 3 if you win.

I did not copy the rankings, in the midst of taking care
of my team today. However, I interviewed the top 5 team
at the party tonite and here are the standings:

Rank Team Ave qual pts/matches
1 Baxter Bomb Squad(16) 375/8
2 Boston Sci - SPEED (239) 331/9
3 Raytheon -Deep Thunder (147) 296/8
4 United Tech - SPAM (180) 294/8
5 FIT/Coral Park - Ramtech (59) 280/8

The Bomb Squad as you can imagine is a top notch machine
They have not lost yet. They do it all except 2 things.
Their basket holds only about 6 floppies inside. (They
designed for a smaller floppy spec and size than is
being used here). And they cannot pick up or handle
the floor floppies very well. However massive traction
on their 4 wheel drive system. One set of wheels are
large round lexan wheels (about 14dia) and the other
set is a triangular belt. Tough to beat.

Other teams doing well (I don't have the scores), Baxter
coqui power (15), NASA Space Coast (233), and Heat Wave
(312).

As for us, Boeing -ComBBAT we are hanging in ther at 13th
with about 129 ave qual points. Because we can pick
up floppies well (usually do 2-3 per match) and hang
from the puck we make an attractive partner for teams
that are strong getting on the puck. Thus about 4-5
teams have talked to us about an alliance.

One more hint for new teams. The action is fast paced.
this means you must have a very organized pit crew,
manage your batteries well etc.

The team party was killer! Held in the Saturn V center
which is a building built entirely around a Saturn V
rocket!

Well that's all from the sunshine State. Will report
on the whole enchilada tomorrow! Wish us luck.