What a day! Started off with really bad news...F.I.R.E. was a man down - HackerMan had caught the flu. First match of the day had field interference issues which caused Sharpay Francais to freeze. Second match went well with alliance partner Charger Bots and a win over Circuit Shifters and Thales. Third match the phones malfunctioned but alliance partner Night Owls carried the win. Fourth match against Artificial Stupidity and Plan B went well leaving F.I.R.E. ranked 3rd overall. Last and fifth match positioned F.I.R.E. in alliance with Autonomous Rex against #1 ranked Aperture Science and their alliance Deus Ex Machina. In spite of F.I.R.E.'s helping Autonomous Rex right their balance and connectivity issues, Aperture Science and Deus Ex Machina carried the win.
Bots of Prey, F.I.R.E.'s awesome Winning Alliance partner from both previous qualifying tournaments, sought out F.I.R.E. to plan strategy. F.I.R.E. now ranked 10th, but Bots ranked 5th.....there was a good likelihood that Bots would become an alliance captain! The day began to look up! As alliance selection progressed, #1 ranked Aperture Science invited #2 ranked Back to the Drawing Board and the invitation was accepted, so Bots of Prey moved up to the 4th seed! Moving through the process, the 4 alliances were formed: #1 seed alliance -Aperture Science, Back to the Drawing Board and Night Owls (ranked 12th); (now moved up to) #2 seed alliance Circuit Shifters, Swift (ranked 9th), and Mechanical Maruaders (ranked 13th); #3 seed Plan B, Wannabee Strange (ranked 11th) and Tundrabots (ranked 6th); #4 seed Bots of Prey, F.I.R.E. (ranked 10th), and Techtonics (ranked 31st).
In an astonishing turn of events, the first match of the semi-final rounds was an upset and resulted in the highest scoring match of the day: the #4 seed alliance Bots of Prey and partner F.I.R.E. scored 506 to the #1 seed alliance's 386! Meanwhile, Plan B overtook Circuit Shifters. In the second round of semi-finals Bots of Prey and Techtonics were again victorious to progress to the finals round. From the other field, Circuit Shifters, Swift and Mech Marauders progressed as well.
The finals round ensued. Several intense matches later, Bots and F.I.R.E. stood awaiting the referee's verdict on the color sensor arm that dropped at endgame due to a warn-out servo. Was it touching the ground? Could the thickness of a sheet of paper pass underneath? This question was worth 20 points; it was the difference between being balanced on the stone or not. It was the difference between Winning Alliance and Finalist Alliance. Sadly, the paper test did not pass. The Blue Alliance took the win with best 2 of 3 and won the final match by a mere 9 points.
What a fabulous day with exciting opportunities and intense coopertition!
Finalist Alliance:
#11528 Bots of Prey (captain), #6972 F.I.R.E. & #8947 Techtonics
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