Our combat robotics program is still in its infancy, but we still want to attend some tournaments now so we can start learning how this game works. With that goal in mind, Chase and Coach decided to participate in the NTBB August Battle in Ft. Worth, TX.
This event turned out to be everything that is great about combat robotics. Everyone there gave their best and competed hard – but it was very heavy on fun and filled with laughter. It was a blast to be a part of.
Chase has been working hard on designing some robots of his own, but they aren’t quite ready for battle yet. So to participate in this tournament, we made some basic ant weight wedge bots that are basically a FingerTech Vyper kit with a few modifications to make them more competitive.
For the fairy weight division we used the standard Turnabot kit bots.
In the Antweight Division, both Chase and Coach drove well and won a couple matches. We felt like our wedge bots were competitive and gave us a good chance to win the tournament. But in the end, we both ran into the same problem – our opponents were able to knock our wheels off. That was our first strategy lesson – it’s extremely difficult to win a battle when your bot is missing half its wheels.
On the positive side, Chase is confident that he knows how to reinforce those wheels so we won’t have that issue in the future. That should also help him make his custom robots more durable as well.
In Fairy Weights, Chase proved that he a good driver. Like, really good. He had no problem consistently getting under his opponents and moving them where ever he wanted. He cruised to a 5-0 record and earned 1st Place in the tournament!
The Fairy Weight Division was a round robin; which meant that Chase and Coach got to battle each other. That… did not turn out well for Coach. Chase dominated literally every second of that match.
Even though Coach has a long way to go to catch up to Chase in driving skills, he still had a good day. He ended up 3-2 on his way to a 3rd Place finish.
Obviously, this was a very successful day for our combat robotics team. We were able to bring home two awards and we learned a lot of important lessons that will make us a much stronger team in the future!!
