[smurfgirl]

I was at Suffield Shakedown yesterday.

Surprises:
- I don't know if it was just this particular scrimmage, but I was surprised not to see a lot of catapult-type robots. I know they can be unsafe, but I heard so much talk about them on CD that I was expecting a lot of them.
- I was also surprised to see how many robots just did laps around the field. Our team had talked about it, but we decided against it.
- The number of robots which had arms that didn't work was also pretty surprising. I know we've still got more than 2 days until ship- a lot of time in the world of FIRST- but it still seemed like a lot of semi-functional bots.

One of the most useful lessons of the day was how easily robots break in this game. I saw so many parts fly off as robots drove into the divider wall, break off as they got entangled with other robots or the overpass, or just detach themselves mid-match.

The game play itself wasn't too surprising to me. I had talked a lot about strategy with my team members, and we guessed most of what we saw yesterday.

My opinion on the game is still the same as before, as well. It's a lot of fun, but still not my favorite FIRST game.