Destination Deep Space! Miami Valley Regional

Wednesday, March 6th marked the start of our exciting journey to Dayton, Ohio for the Destination Deep Space Miami Valley Regional Competition (MVR).

After a long bus ride from Pittsburgh we arrived at our hotel to get a restful night before a day full of practice, adjustments, and inspection at MVR at the Nutter Center at Wright State University.  While we experienced some difficulty with our climber mechanism during practice day, ultimately we overcame it and we were able to successfully compete in 6 qualifying matches on Friday.  Our pit crew, lead by Claire C., worked incredibly hard to make sure that we were ready for our qualifying matches. Our climber played a crucial role in our game strategy, and by the end of the day we could consistently climb to the third habitat level during end-game for 12 points and a bonus ranking point!  We were also able to score cargo and hatches accurately and quickly.

Thanks to the hard work of our safety lead, Anna S., and our pit, our team won the pit safety award for Thursday! The teams were happy to receive the “Safety Bags” that Anna S. organized.

Our Chairman’s team had their presentation on Friday, and did an incredible job! The judges enjoyed our team’s enthusiasm and were impressed by our connections and outreach. Great job to our presenters, Lauren M., Abby M-P, and Izzy K.!

Rounding out our activities at MVR, some of the girls explored the Air Force Hangar and we also had several student ambassadors including Caroline K., Langley T., and Teadora G, and Riley D. Teadora pointed out how she enjoyed meeting with many different people from different teams from all across the region. Our student ambassadors also got to give tours to military officials and explain to them what FIRST is and how it impacts us.

By the end of our 3 qualifying matches on Saturday, we had a ranking of third out of sixty! When it came time to choose our alliances, we were able to lead the second alliance and decided to partner with Team 5811, BONDS, and Team 1708, AMP’D Robotics, based off of the data collected by our wonderful strategy team. Unfortunately, we experienced some issues with our robot and were unable to play to the best of our abilities. We mainly played as a defensive bot.  Another shout out! to our pit crew for fixing the robot in time for our second quarter-final match, and for making sure our robot is in great shape for our next competition, the Greater Pittsburgh Regional during Week 4!

Even though we lost in the quarterfinals, the team did a great job and we are incredibly proud of all our hard work! While we may not have won in Ohio, we’re ready to give it our all at the Greater Pittsburgh Regional on March 21st – 23rd, at California University of Pennsylvania in California, PA.