Universe of Soulmates

"Blue Alliance for the Win"

"Red alliance, are you ready?" The announcer points to the half of the field with the red alliance. When he sees three sets of thumbs up, he moves to the other side. "Blue alliance, are you guys ready?" Another three sets of thumbs go up, and with a thumbs up from both the Head Referee and the FIRST Technical Advisor (better known as the FTA), and the announcer is pumped up to say that we're finally starting our first match of the event. "And, we're starting the match in three, two, one, CHARGE!"

I should give a little context, though, shouldn't I? So, every year, FIRST releases a new game that has several different challenges incorporated in it that thousands of teams around the world build a robot for. Over the course of six weeks, teams build 125 pound (or about 56 kg) robots—without a 5 pound lead battery or the colored bumpers that are required to protect the robot—to complete the tasks using unique designs within the parameters allowed. Robots, this year, can be no more than forty inches tall, with a frame perimeter of 120 inches.

The game, in summary, is to grab and score colored volleyballs into various areas on the field, which earn different amounts of points depending on where they're scored. There's two high goals—they're called HIGH PORTS—one on either side of the climbing bar that are worth three points, and low goals—called LOW PORTS—below them worth one point each. The climbing bar—better known as a RUNG—is seven feet off the ground, and if you get at least three feet off the ground (indicated by a white line), is worth fifteen points, parking in the safe zone (LAUNCH ZONE) is worth three points, and climbing up the platform (the SAFE PAD) in the LAUNCH ZONE is worth ten points. There's plenty of penalties that can be incurred if you hit the other alliance in the wrong spot or are too aggressive with defense, but I'm not going to go into those. The major thing is that each robot can only hold one volleyball, called a GEMSTONE, and holding any more means that they get a five point penalty.

"And, they're off! 817 takes a shot with their first ball, making it in for six points," I forgot to mention that the values of the high goal and low goal are worth twice in Autonomous mode—a mode where only pre-programmed instructions are allowed to control the robot, "and they're grabbing a second ball, and oh! 2915 makes two HIGH PORT shots, bam! Bam! Two GEMSTONES in for the blue alliance. 4274 with a ball in the LOW PORT, and that's the end of AUTO." AUTO is the shortened word for Autonomous mode, since autonomous is a long word and takes far too long to say (or spell, for that matter).

"Let's go 817!!" My co-captain for the scouting team and best friend of the last seven years, Elizabeth, cheers with half the team.

"With a score of eighteen to twenty-six, the blue alliance is leading the red at the end of AUTO. But oh! 817 takes a shot, and so does 54, and they're in. On the blue, there's a GEMSTONE in the LOW PORT, and that's another point. 4891 heads to the blue side while 817 takes another shot, and it's straight in. Man, the red alliance is coming back with fire to beat the blue."

Well, according to the statistics, we're going to win. I would know, I did the math.

As we listen to the rest of the match play out, watching our alliance's score soar well above the opposing alliance, my team, along with the rest of our alliance, cheers louder and louder until we realize that we're going to get four ranking points. If you win a match, you get two ranking points. Scoring more than 66 points worth of GEMSTONEs during a match (Why that number? No idea.) gets you an additional ranking point—aptly named the MINERAL Ranking Point, and scoring sixteen points in climbing gets you another ranking point—called the TAKEOFF Ranking Point.

"And, here are the scores for the first match of the Euler Division," The announcer starts, waiting for the ten-second animation to finish, before it reveals the scores. "Woah! Ninety-nine to eighty-three points, with the red alliance taking the win with four ranking points. Stellar scores for both the red and blue alliances." The announcer finishes as I watch the teams escort their robots off the field.