Today the Botball-ing officially began. Hundreds of lego and VEX creations began zooming around the regalith fields when the seeding rounds started. And don’t get me started on how many LEGO friction pegs I found scattered across the floor.

After arriving to the competition a few days after the rest of the team did, I have to say, there is one main thing that was blatantly apparent to me: The food was delicious. That is, after navigating the thousands of meters of cavernous passages and hallways, of course.

No joke; the International Conference Center in Washington DC is big. It’s huge. It’s immense. When we first saw it on the brochure, it didn’t seem that large. However, when we arrived, we realized that the specks of black next to the structure on the brochure were actually cars. The six story monstrosity was loaded with hallways and passages galore; in addition to this, it had a recreation room with pool tables, a plasma TV, board games, and comfy chairs. But that’s not all! It had the huge, aforementioned cafeteria loaded with rows among rows of gourmet cuisine and desserts. It had a fitness room where there were several intimidating workout machines…and seveal intimidating, beefy dudes working out on them. Finally, there was the ballroom: this is where the Botball-ing was going down.

The suites themselves were sweet. If the flatscreen at the front of the room wasn’t enough, there was another one at the back. The bathrooms were nice and roomy, the sheets smelled of freshness, and the beds felt like clouds (without the wet part…). The best part was, not surprisingly, the twenty megabits per second internet!

In the end, team 115 did pretty well in seeds, while 116 could have done a little better. Either way, we will be starting the double elimination rounds tomorrow, and I hope we do better on those!

Stay tuned for the next part!

Live long and Prosper! c\\//

-Jeffrey Yu

Last Updated August 16, 2009