Team Overdrive in Atlanta

The team arrived on Wednesday and some of us went to the pit area to unload supplies and go through inspection with the robot. It passed and we arrived back at the hotel where we had a team meeting and prepared for judging. On Thursday we went in to judging and then competed in the practice rounds. We began our scouting by taking pictures of the other robots in our division: Edison. We played in our first qualifying match after opening ceremonies and got stuck on a ring. It was a hard thing to have happen to us because it was a most unlikely spot on the robot, but we got it fixed and were able to win our next 2 qualifying matches. We thought we were done for the day, but in the hustle earlier in the morning we had overlooked our 4th match of the day on the match list! Thankfully, we caught our mistake in time to play the match and win it

67 > 14! Meanwhile, our scouting system was in full gear and our "sea of yellow" enthusiastic about being there! The awards ceremony was held that night and all the judged awards(except the Inspire award) were given out. Team Overdrive received the Amaze award for impressing the judges with unique efforts, performance, and dynamics during the competition. We were very happy as we went down to receive our award. That night in our hotel room, we gathered our scouting data and reviewed it. We also prepared our scouting sheets for the rest of the qualifying matches. The next day was full of competition and fun! We won our 4th qualifying match. Our fifth match was the first one of ours that they announced over the loudspeakers because they kept going back and forth with the microphone between the 2 divisions. The score of that match was 53 > 36 with Team Overdrive coming out on top. We won our next match also and came up in the rankings as 3rd place. We knew that if either of the 2 teams above us asked us to be their partners then we would accept. The second ranked team Mr. T #30 asked Team Overdrive #74 to be their partners. We accepted and as the alliance selection went on we used our ranking sheet to pick Beach Cities Robotics team #23 for our 2nd pick. But, our scouting didn't stop there, in fact we were about to get into some serious work in the next rounds. We used our scouting information for when we played against other alliances in the elimination rounds and also scouted the other division in case we made it to the Championship Finals. It was hard work, but worth it! In our first Elimination match of the World Championship we had teams #30 & #74 compete. We put up a record high score of the season in our 121 > 7 victory! Although they were traveling between both divisions with the microphone, they announced that score while over at the Franklin division. Our alliance partners put up another very high score of 119 points the next match of the Quarterfinals. We were very excited as we moved on to the Semifinals. Team Overdrive faced the number 3 seeded alliance in the Semis and our alliance won the first match with a score of 74 > 60. We also won the second match 80 > 42. It was on to the Edison Division Finals where we faced even tougher competition. The number 1 seeded alliance was ready to play their best against us and we were just as eager to face them. We won the first match 75 > 49. The second one was closer and we scored less but still got the victory with a score of 73 > 64. We were very excited, but very nervous as we went up against the Franklin division champions: an alliance made up of teams #3, #13, and #25. Both alliances were ready for some tough competition and a little division rivalry. We listened to some speeches and watched the showcase robots & teams give a demonstration and then it was time for an all-out blast of robot competition. We were ready to put Team Overdrive and Mr. T on the field when we noticed that they had placed team #25 on the field. We decided to quickly switch Team Overdrive's robot out and put in Beach Cities' robot. It was a move that would save our stronger robots for playing the rest of the matches. Our 2nd pick was truly a star and when Mr. T was being defended during that match, nobody(except for a few ecstatic people in yellow shirts) noticed team #23 quietly scoring rings on the 18" post and pulling it and another post into our alliance's quadrant. Even with a loss in autonomous mode and great defensive play from the opposing alliance, our alliance pulled off a most surprising 58 > 49 victory! Well, almost everyone was surprised, we knew team #23 was a great pick from the beginning! The next match we had Team Overdrive and Mr. T on the field vs. Mr. Roboto & Super Pals and their partner Sandcrawlers. It looked to be a good match-up as we were up against our toughest opposition yet. We played hard and pulled off the win 89 > 60! The Edison alliance had won the World Championship!!!!!! We who were watching in the stands were screaming our heads off and jumping as we realized that we were the World Champions! What an amazing time we had in Atlanta, and we came back with a Championship Winning Alliance trophy and a Championship Amaze award trophy. What an amazing run and an amazing year! To God be the glory!!! Go Team Overdrive!!