Inspired May IV | Page 15

VEX VEX and robotics program at McKenzie Career Center After a long fifteen hour drive, we arrived at our hotel on Myrtle Beach and almost immediately went to sleep. However, bright and early on Thursday morning, students were rushing out the door to get a bit of inspiration from the beach before a long day of working on the robot and adding the final touches for the competition. The next day, everyone was up 1024 written in the sand and rushing to get to the convention center in order to get good seats for scouting. Before the opening ceremonies at 9:30 a.m., all of the pit scouting was finished and the scouting sheets for the rest of the day were passed around to the team members in the stands. After the opening ceremonies and the anthems of Brazil, Canada, and the United States of America had been played, the games began. Despite multiple field power outages, mistaken fouls and broken bots, 1024 managed to have quite a few excellent matches which boosted out Offensive Power Ranking (OPR) to second. Even though we had a few more good matches the next day, we did not make it into the top eight. However we were chosen to be in an alliance with the fifth seated team. 1024 CATCHING OUR FIRST BALL AT COMPETITION Our alliance lost their first match in the quarter finals, but then made a surprising come back holding onto the win of their second match by their teeth (Ha, byte! Get it?). Despite our victory, we lost the last match due to a last second score by the red alliance. Even though we did not win the regional, we did not go down without a fight. We did, however, win the Quality Award which celebrates machine robustness in concept and fabrication. Express Yourself 15