As anticipated, today was thrilling, filled with excitement and surprises. We met hundreds of new people from across the world and enjoyed being able to connect with old friends. Students from all subteams were at the top of their game today, whether they were fixing the robot, scouting other teams, talking to judges, doing safety demos, or any number of other critical tasks.

Still, some circumstances were not quite so happy. We have been spoiled this season by having a nearly invincible robot which almost never seems to break. Today we encountered various mechanical issues, including broken limit switches and encoder mounts, however through preventative maintenance we were able to deal with most of the problems before they became a serious issue. Our scores were not as high as we had hoped this morning, and we are currently ranked 29th in our subdivision. Still this is not a bad place to be. We look forward to continued improvement tomorrow.

One of the most phenomenal parts of FIRST is the atmosphere of gracious professionalism and how fun this makes the entire competition. It is always incredible to talk to other teams and hear about their aproach to this challenge or simply dance and have a great time with them in the pits. At the end of the day today, FIRST conducted an opening ceremony for teams at all four levels of championships (Jr. FLL, FLL, FTC, and FRC). There we truly got to experience what a huge organization FIRST is and the incredible impact it has had. Now, after dinner and and a short end meeting, students have settled down to get some much-needed sleep for tomorrow’s competition.