Hello! One week ago, our team competed in the first ever Seven Rivers FRC Regional in La Crosse. Here’s a sum­mary of what we accomplished.

Wednesday: We left Waukesha South at around 12:30 and drove to our hotel in La Crosse, Wisconsin. We arrived at our hotel at around 3:00 to prepare for the regional the next day. When we got there, some of the members of our team went to the arena to set up our pit. We had a few hours to explore the city, and then we met to have a full team meeting at 10:00 to wrap up and talk about the day and prepare for the next few days.

Thursday: We met in the lobby of the hotel at 7:30 so we could be at the arena with plenty of time to spare be­fore the pits opened at 8:00. Prac­tice matches started af­ter lunch, at noon. CORE was paired with teams from across Wis­con­sin, Minnesota, Illinois, and Iowa. Practice matches ended at 6:00, but mem­bers of the Me­chan­i­cal, Con­trols, and Programming sub­teams stayed un­til the pits closed at 8:00 to work on the ro­bot.

Friday: Once again, we met down in the hotel lobby at 7:30 for a meeting before waiting in front of the stadium for the pits to open at 8:00. We watched a quick opening ceremony before matches began at 9:00. CORE par­tic­i­pated in seven Qualification Matches on Friday. CORE participated in the first match of the competition on the blue alliance with teams 4657 and 5003 against 3276, 6732, and 2830. Blue alliance won with a score of 250. Our sec­ond match was Qualification Match 10, and we were on the red alliance with 6732 and 3090 against 5826, 5098, and 5914. Red alliance won with a score of 305. The next match was Qualification Match 19 on the red alliance with 3418 and 1625 with the blue alliance being 4624, 3100, and 167. Blue alliance won with a score of 322. Our next match of the day was 27 on the blue alliance with 4624 and 2826 against 2506, 2530, and 6624 on the red alliance. Red alliance won with a score of 231. Our fifth match was match 35 against the red alliance- 6166, 5003, and 5339- with 1091 and 1739. Red alliance won with a score of 325. The sixth match was the 48th match with 5339 and 6420 on the red alliance against 269, 4531, and 5903. Blue alliance won with a score of 255. Our last match of the day was match 52 on the red alliance with 1986 and 6574 against 3695, 2194, and 6419 on the blue alliance. Blue alliance won with a score of 400. After the day’s matches ended at 6:00, most team members went back to the hotel or for dinner, but many pit members stayed at the stadium until 8:00.
Saturday:  We met down in the hotel lobby at 6:45 for a meeting and loaded cars for checkout before queuing in front of the stadium with the other teams for the pits to open for the last time at 8:00. After another brief opening ceremony, the remaining matches began at 9:00. CORE par­tic­i­pated in our final three qualification matches on Saturday. Qual­i­fi­ca­tion matches started at 10:00, and our first match of the day was match 63. CORE was on the red al­liance, along with 4762 and 48. The blue al­liance for this match com­prised of 3750, 4959, and 6420. Red alliance won with a score of 235.  Our sec­ond match was qualification match 69, and we were on the blue alliance with 5586 and 5098 against 48, 930, and 171. Red alliance won with a score of 311. Our last match was the last qualification match of the competition: Qualification Match 85. We were paired with 2451 and 1306 on the blue alliance against teams 4247, 4655, and 5148. Red alliance won with a score of 274. After qualification matches concluded, alliance selections began. We were seeded third and paired with 1986 and 5442. Our alliance won every match in the quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals with scores of 467 and 387 for the quarterfinals, 517 and 533 for the semifinals, and 401 and 418 for the finals. We broke tournament records several times, but the real achievement was in semifinal match two when our alliance scored the global high score in a clean game(without penalty bonuses) at a stupendous score of 533 points! We received awards for Regional Winners and Innovations in Controls. Shortly after the wrap-up, the team headed back for South High School and arrived around 10:00. Everyone is excited for Worlds in St. Louis in just a week.