Evergreen Valley High School EVHS Robotics – The Prototypes

This past October 10, 2009, the Evergreen Valley Robotics Team trekked down to Woodside High School to participate in the first competition of the fiscal year, Cal Games!

Team hard at work...

The team in the teal – blue shirts took Woodside High by storm as they burst through the floodgates like a torrent of water. Though it was SAT day and most of the seniors were gone, there were plenty of rookies to fill the void! The rhythms boomed as the team rolled in the polycarbonate and aluminum creation, the Prototype!

Team working on the bot

While the newly recruited freshmen, sophomores, and juniors were virgin to the experience of a FIRST robotics game, they soon learned the rules of the game, and began coming together as a team.

After the satanic SATs were done with, the rest of the members rolled in to help out. While the other teams battled, the EVHS robotics team accompanied by Leland High School and the Cheesy Poofs (Bellarmine) swooped down like an eagle capturing its prey and eliminated the competition!

The awesome alliance!

In the end, the collaboration of these three illustrious teams snagged EVHS a win, and their first gold medal prize at Cal Games!

EVHS, Leland, Bellarmine

The one Plaque to Rule them All!

The experience itself was good, as it introduced many of the new members to the heat of competition. In addition to this, it allowed the team to make new acquaintances, and further the team’s sense of gracious professionalism!

For now, the team is in hiatus, but 2854 will soon be back, harder, better, faster, stronger.

Live long and Prosper.

~Jeffrey Yu

If you are wondering, GCER stands for Global Conference on Educational Robotics.

After several hours of practice and working out the kinks, the finals began!

The reason why the tournament process is called ‘double elimination’ is because if you lose one match, you are put into a second bracket. Once you are in this bracket, you have a chance to win by beating everyone in that bracket and facing the winner of the other bracket, essentially giving you two chances at winning.

The finals were going fine. Team 115, the Neo-Assassins, were beating thier opponents with ease and flavor. However, on the third match of the afternoon, one of the robots wouldn’t start.

3pik Ph4il.

We were knocked out, but it was fun having four days of free, awesome food! I have to leave soon, so I won’t be able to fill in on the awards ceremony until later.

Live long and Prosper! c\\//

-Jeffrey Yu

EDIT: July 7th

We didn’t manage to snag any trophies *sad face*.

All we got was a ‘Finalist’ award.

Oh well, as i said before, the trip was definitely a fun time, and it was all worth it for the food and fireworks!

Live long and Prosper! c\\//

-Jeffrey Yu

After a day of rest, practice, and Beyond Botball, the actual Botball double eliminations began! Seeing that it is one in the morning, I will try to make this quick.

Team 115 was knocked out fairly quickly, but we still love em!

Team 116 was able to own and move on to the finals!

We went to see fireworks and it was twenty minutes of heart-pounding ear-exploding AWESOMENESS!!!!!!

Finals start later today.

Stay tuned for the final part!

Live long and Prosper! c\\//

-Jeffrey Yu

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