2010 San Diego Regional

We traveled to San Diego on Wednesday, March 3, 2010, and were on the winning alliance of teams 359 (Hawaiian Kids, alliance captain), 100 (Wild Hats), and 294 on Saturday, March 6. These 28 photographs document some of the team's experience there at the San Diego Sports Arena.

Thursday was a day of practice matches on the competition field. Each practice round consisted of two games with the same robots on the field. Practice games were refereed and scored so that teams could get used to playing by the rules for the qualifying games on Friday.

Qualifying rounds ended Saturday morning, followed by alliance partner choosing by the top eight seeded teams. After lunch, the elimination matches were conducted, followed by the awards ceremony.

Unless otherwise stated, all photos are by Andrea Wagner, mentor and team coordinator.

The team discusses how to make our cover attachment system more robust.

Anton, Ryan, and Karen swage the kicker 3/32 wire rope cable.

Waiting to get on the practice field (separate from the competition field).

On the practice field. Forrest holds the tether cable.

Master of ceremonies Mark Leon with our team flag.

BCR started the tradition of handing a team flag to the master of ceremonies for the team introductions back in 2003. We also started the acceptance tradition when Mary Baron said "team 294 graciously accepts" during the alliance choosing process at the Arizona Regional in 2003.

McTwist (our robot) in action going over a field hump.

Intense concentration for the drive teams.

The ball is in the air after a kick by 294.

Our robot comes off the field after a match. The drive team wears bright orange parachute pants.
Mike Utley at the building 202 fabrication shop welded the cart. Ryan Sharp (far side of robot),
team captain, got a vendor to donate the orange powder coating on the cart. It looks great!

Matt, Forrest, and Daniel (left) of our scouting team did a great job. Cindy and Jen work on
constructing new zip tie brush rollers while watching the action on the field.

Up next on the field, the drive team waits and watches.

294 takes to the field.

Anton hands tools while Jen installs the new roller brush. Each zip tie is trimmed to 2.5 inches and
dipped in tool grip rubber compound to control the ball and hold it while kicking. Dipping in tool
grip was Anton's idea and we ended up with the best ball handling system at the event.

49 teams in the pits. We're at the lower left (mostly cut off in the photo).

Teamwork in the pit.

Working on the robot.

We had a very robust system, but still, lots of work needed to be done.

Jen gets her T-shirt signed by JPL's blue haired Mark Leon, master of ceremonies, and former Astronaut.

The San Diego Sports Arena had the pits on the west end and the competition field on the east end.

BCR was picked in the second round by team 359, "The Hawaiian Kids," from Wailua, Hawaii, joining team 100, "Wild Hats," from Woodside, California, on the alliance. We were quite relieved we were not picked earlier by one of the weaker alliances. I was quite surprised that the TorBots, team 1197, from Torrance, were not picked at all. They were doing very well on the field and were ranked number two on my pick list. Every other top team on my pick list did get chosen.

The winning alliance (in red), at the start of a match: 359, 100, and 294.