Boiler Bot Battle

Keeping up our annual tradition, Las Pumas attended the off-season Purdue Boiler Bot Battle. This mock competition uses the same game, field, and robots from the previous game of the spring of that year. Boiler Bot Battle then takes place in the fall, just at the beginning of each school year. This timing allows the event to be a great opportunity to give our freshmen a feel for what an FRC competition is really about before the season even starts so that they know what to expect. The Battle does not count for any official points, so while our team did not do so well points-wise, we were just glad to have been given the opportunity to go, learn and enjoy ourselves.

Our newbies also learned the division of competitions into different types of matches. After the first “qualification” matches, Las Pumas was sailing the competition high in 12th place. Nearly all the teams picked between themselves when teaming up in alliances, so 2197 became an alliance captain! Following many confusing hand signals from our announcer as to who the team in the stands came to a consensus for us to choose, our representative came to understand after much complicated interpretation. We eventually teamed up with 6647 and 1646. In one playoffs match, the score left our alliance in a crushing defeat of 427 points to our mere 155. Our alliance fared better in our second match of the playoffs, finishing with score of 226 points to our opponent’s 474, yet again at our loss. Although we did not win, the battle was a great learning and team bonding experience for everyone who came, seniors and freshmen alike.