NTX Regionals Play-by-Play
Tags: journal and thinkPersonhours: 168
Review the events of the NTX Regional
Today, Iron Reign participated at the NTX Regional Championship in Flower Mound. Even with major robot performance issues, we were still able to advance to both the UIL State Championship and the FTC State Championship by winning the Motivate award after a strong presentation and portfolio showing. We ended up with a record of 1-5, which ranked us 39th out of 40th. Obviously, given the late night and lack of planning and preparation, this was partially expected, but there needs to be significant progress made in order for us to remain competitive at State and have a chance to advance to Worlds.
First, we will review the documentation events, specifically our presentation and our pit interviews. We had a new custom-designed portfolio using a ninja flex hinge, an aluminum body, and a carbon fiber cover, which was definitely unique. Our presentation was a lot smoother and more concise than the Tournament and we were able to impress the judges and involve the entire team. Our pit interviews also went decently well but could have been better, as we accidentally turned down an Innovate panel over time concerns, something that almost cost us an opportunity to meet with them. At the end of the day, our outreach and presentation ability was enough to win Motivate, allowing us to advance on from State.
Now we will go over the play-by-play for all of our matches, which did not go very well in terms of a robot performance perspective.
Match 8: 80 to 63 Loss
In our first match, we did not score any points in autonomous, instead focusing on maneuvering our robot to a spot where it could score optimally and grab cones from the same position. We are able to score one cone on a high pole. Our alliance partner parked and cycled multiple cones, but they received two major penalties for handling multiple cones at once, which led to us losing the overall match. Our robot also did become dysfunctional in the endgame as part of the arm got caught on the nudge stick attachment, preventing us from moving our crane. After the match, we removed the nudge stick guide since we were not using the nudge stick at this competition.
Match 20: 93 to 10 Loss
In the next match, we were able to fix the nudge stick problem, but then a massive code issue during gameplay and a minor mechanical issue essentially shut down the robot for the entire game. Our alliance partner also did not show up at all because right before the match, their linear slide broke. This led to one of our worst performances, as we scored 0 points and got 10 from an opponent penalty. Our robot essentially stood there for the majority of the match, unable to move its crane. We later found out that there was a shaft collar issue, which we promptly fixed, but this was quite frustrating and disheartening.
Match 30: 152 to 63 Loss
The next match went slightly better, but we still ended up with a loss. Initially, we did not score any autonomous points, and it took a while for us to get into position, which shaved valuable seconds off. We missed 2 high cones for scoring, but our alliance partners were able to score on both the low and the medium poles. We ended up not scoring at all, but this was not due to code or build, we just needed more driver practice. Our opponents were scoring very fast, and our alliance partners’ circuit attempt was not enough to subdue them. They almost even tipped trying to circuit. The loss wasn’t very bad numerically, but it stung that we couldn’t score anything.
Match 38: 152 to 63 Win
In the next match, we just parked for autonomous. Our alliance scored two high cones and parked as well. During the driver-controlled section, we had a problem with the robot and had to reinitialize the robot, while our partners cycled. While our partners fought for possessions, we managed to score 1 cone on the middle pole and got our element on a cone for the low pole. At the end of the day, we won the match comfortably, mainly due to the efforts of our partner alliance.
Match 48: 171 to 138 loss
In our 5th match, our autonomous ran, but we stumbled over a ground junction during parking, so we weren’t lined up. For TeleOp, we had to spend lots of time getting in position, but we scored on a middle and tall pole. For one cone, we tried to score while the opponent was already trying to score on it, resulting in a penalty. We got another penalty because our gripper flipped and wrapped on a pole, which was deemed a major penalty. There was, though, a penalty on the other team for moving the cone stack during their intake. After all the penalties were determined, we lost the match, which was unlucky, but the gripper issue will be something we look into.
Match 55: 112 to 68 loss
For our last match of the day, we managed to get positioned for scoring during autonomous, but missed by a hair, then parked along with our partners. Our opponents scored up to three high cones and double parked. During TeleOp, we once again spent considerable time positioning ourselves. While our partner struggled to score, we scored one cone on the nearest high pole and scored on a different high pole for spread possession. We missed a 3rd high cone but scored a cap on an opponent-possesed pole during the endgame. We even had penalty points from an opposition penalty.
Our poor time management was seen in our lackluster robot performance, but our portfolio and outreach was enough to advance us to State. We hope to use the 4 weeks we have gained to finish our robot design and code, while also expanding our connections with professionals and outreach in general.