On February 7th and 8th, our Vampires robotics team will compete for the chance to participate in another World Championship tournament in Detroit.
In anticipation, The Bite attended one of their practice sessions on January 28th, to get some inside information about the competition happening this week in the AISB library.
Preparation for CEESA
When we entered the practice room, everyone was surprisingly chill (at least on the outside). But team leader Maria A. assured us that this was a facade. “Just like every single year, I feel really stressed at this stage because it seems like we don’t have anything done; but this happens every year, and we always manage to pull through.”
Tenth grade team member Henrik R., however, is not so sure. “I think we’ll do well if we manage to finish the robot in time,” he says. “We had to take down our robot and rebuild it a lot of times and this made us lose precious time when CEESA is only in one week.”
The Team’s Expectations
A lot of the team’s confidence seems to come from their big win last year. The robot is currently unfinished, yet many members assure us that they’ll still perform well–that the amount of effort they’ve put into the building and rebuilding of this robot has only strengthened their bond, which is essential.
If they manage to pull off the new robot design, the team says they have a good chance. They’re all proud to compete in this year’s competition and hope to see many people from our community come watch and support the team.
“We are very excited about the prospect of competing again in CEESA after participating in the World Championship last year,” says Maria. “We want to share that excitement with the rest of the community in hopes that more students will come to support us during the competition.”
What Happens During CEESA
The point of the tournament is to build a robot throughout the season which is able to complete all the challenges of the competition, which changes every year .
The challenge this season is called “Skystone,” and will be played on a 12-foot playing field with a foam tiled floor. The robots will need to move a gold block across the field and stack it on the other side. The robot that is able to build the highest “skyscraper” wins and scores the most points for their team. The teams will need to play two of these games in the qualifiers and win at least one to make it out of the pools.
Here’s a video that shows what this looks like:
Make sure to head to the AISB library during breaks and lunch on Friday, and stop by on Saturday to cheer on our team. We wish the Vampires the best of luck and thank them for letting us drop in on their practice!