Suffield Shakedown
Written by Kelli Freer on February 21, 2010
Team 230, the Gaelhawks, participated in the annual Suffield Shakedown pre-season scrimmage on February 20, 2010. The team arrived with almost completed robot, Talon XI to take the field by storm.
The Suffield Shakedown tournament is hosted by Aces High Team 176 and is an annual scrimmage for FRC teams to test out the field and to test out their robot so that they can make any last minute adjustments to their robots.
Talon XI, along with Team 230’s drive team, met expectations as it demonstrated that it was able to score at least one ball during autonomous in almost every match. The robot also wowed spectators by being the first robot to hang off the tower for an extra 2 points at the end of a match.
Not only did Talon XI hang off the tower first at the end of a match, it hung off the tower most during the competition. Team 230 also scored high throughout the tournament, causing them to be first seed when it came down to alliance selection.
Suffield Shakedown, being a smaller event, had only four alliances for elimination rounds instead of the typical eight normally seen at FIRST Robotics Competitions.
Team 230 had first pick for its second alliance member, and last pick for its third alliance member. First pick for the Gaelhawks was Team 999,
In elimination rounds, the Gaelhawks lost their first match against the fourth place alliance, but their luck was to turn around, as they won the next two, managing to stay in the competition through the best two out of three elimination system.
Despite the early loss, Talon XI proceeded to the finals against the second seeded alliance. The robot had difficulties getting on to the bump to hang off the tower during the first match due to two of the opposing alliance’s robots blocking it. The teams blocked too ferociously, resulting in a penalty for the opposing alliance and bringing the score to a tie.
During the next match, it was apparent that there was a flaw in the robot’s driving mechanisms, as it drove in circles during the majority of the match. Team 230 called their time-out and attempted to fix the problem.
However, the robot continued to drive against driver instructions, resulting in the team’s second loss, and elimination from the tournament.
Despite the cliffhanger loss, the Gaelhawks consider the Shakedown a success. The team brought home the silver trophy for being the second place alliance. They were also awarded the high score trophy for their 7 – 0 victory in an earlier match, a match in which they happened to have the same alliance partners as in the elimination rounds.
The Suffield Shakedown was a good omen for the Gaelhawks as they look to compete successfully at the WPI Regional Competition and the Connecticut Regional Competition in a few weeks.
