Some Thoughts on the Meaning of Competition

[PayneTrain]

As an incoming freshman to the 2009 game Lunacy, I didn't know what to expect. I had been to the 2006 NASA/VCU Regional (<3 Aim High) and the 2008 Duel on the Delaware, but that was it.

However, I did know about the team's performance in 2008. The old team and the current team (pre-me vs now) had a hard time hiding it: the robot was a product of team becoming polarized, and therefore the organization suffered.

The robot for '09, aptly named "Redemption" for the team's mindset, was, in my biased opinion, the best-built robot at the New Jersey Regional in 2009. (Ok, Overdrive built the best...)

Yet, when our pride and joy was uncrated, inspected, and entered the first practice match, the code faltered. My inexperience with the code, as a freshman, couldn't find the issue in our pneumatics. A member from a team that will go unmentioned said, "Oh my God, their robot sucks," as the bot went back to the pits.

That set me off.

I wasn't the only member from 422 to hear it either. Our small, dozen-deep contingent in Trenton heard it and it fueled us to compete the hardest we ever have. We fought in every single match, losing 2 and regulation and falling in the semifinals on what I still say is a botched call.

Regardless, revenge inspired me, and science followed.
Also, we crushed them. We CRUSHED them. Mwahahaha.