From March 4th to March 7th, we were back at the DECC in Duluth for the Lake Superior Regional. If you remember our blog post from last year—where we spent the whole time dealing with an overweight robot (we called it “Ozempic”) and constant technical disasters—you’ll know we were desperate for a redemption arc. This year, we brought Speedwagon, and the goal was simple: stop the chaos and actually play the game.
The Build: Hopes Vs Reality
We had some wild ideas for this bot. We wanted a 60-ball hopper, a 360-degree turret with full energy chain management, and a fire rate of 8 balls per second.
Did we hit all those? Not exactly. We dialed the hopper back to 40 balls to keep our center of gravity stable, and we capped our fire rate at a steady 2-3 balls per second. It turns out that when you stop the robot from jamming every five seconds, you actually score way more. The best part? The 360-degree energy chain actually worked, meaning our turret could track and shoot without us ever worrying about a cable snapping.
The “Magic Triangles”
The biggest win for our programming team was the “Magic Triangles” code. We used geometric positioning to let the robot calculate its own shots from the alliance zone. Last year, our alignment bug was a nightmare, but this year, once the Limelight locked onto the target, the robot did the rest. It felt amazing to watch it just work without us having to fight the controls.
The Climber Hurdles
We learned the hard way that the endgame isn’t forgiving. On Friday, the 6th, our climber failed during a qualification match—the rope actually untied itself. We realized our original design didn’t have enough torque to hold the robot’s weight, so we frantically added more MaxPlanetary gearboxes to beef it up. Unfortunately, in that rush to upgrade, the new setup didn’t hold, and we simply ran out of time to get it competition-ready. It was a tough lesson in the importance of load testing, but it wasn’t a priority for the week before.
That Match Against 3883
If you want to know the moment we knew we were back, it was Match 5 (R2) Semifinals We were up against the Data Bits (Team 3883), who are honestly a powerhouse. We went in with a game plan: use our mobility to disrupt their cycle lanes while we locked in our shots from distance. We ended up winning and staying in the game.
The real MVP of that match, though, was our Human Player. They were scoring into the hub with insane speed and accuracy, kept us alive and allowed our drivers to just keep firing. Beating a team of that caliber felt like the perfect answer to our “dead last” finish from last year. #WE COOKED #Lets go River
The Heartbreak of Match 10
Of course, it wasn’t all perfect. In Match 10 (R3), we hit a rough patch. We were positioned perfectly and ready to put up a huge score, but a series of minor mechanical hiccups caused us to drop some critical cycles. We ended up losing by a Huge margin, which was frustrating because we knew we had the capacity to win. It was a tough lesson in how quickly things can turn, but it reinforced why we need to keep refining our shooter speed and reliability.
Driving Under Pressure
A huge shout-out to our drive team. These matches are loud, chaotic, and physical, but our drivers kept their cool the whole time. Even when we were getting pushed around by heavy defense, they didn’t panic. They found the holes, they managed the climb, and they stayed calm when the clock was ticking down. Seeing them handle that pressure made all those hours in the shop worth it.
The Result
After a great Friday night blowing off steam at the Adventure Zone, we went into Saturday feeling confident. During alliance selections, we definitely had our eyes on a potential pick by Full Metal Jackets (Team 3297), as our scouting stats were good on them and Apparently one team member talked with them about picking us. While that pairing didn’t happen, we were thrilled to be chosen as the 2nd pick for an alliance led by Team 4778 (StormBots) and joined by Team 4009 (DNA). We played hard, but after some intense playoff rounds, our alliance finished in 5th place overall.
Going from 51st place last year to a top-5 finish this year is a massive jump. We’re heading home to tweak the shooter speed and polish our auto-runs, but we’re feeling good. We’ve got the data, the code is solid, and we’re ready to bring this momentum to the 10,000 Lakes Regional at the end of the month.
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