WELCOME BACK WITH THE AUSTIN CANS!
We're finally back from our second district event in Houston, and I’m here to tell you all about it! To say the least, it was wild. We did hit a home run with this one. You can say that we did have that CAN-Do attitude!
In today's blog, I'll be telling you guys all about our wonderful adventures in Houston. This blog will be a rough breakdown of our team heading over to Houston, Friday and the full day of qualification rounds, our insane Saturday with alliance selections, semi-finals, and even finals!!
So stay tuned, cause there's a lot to catch you guys up on!
THURSDAY
On Thursday, the team packed and got ready to head out for our big day. The majority of the team focused on packing up our trailer and last-minute things before we left for Houston in the afternoon. Everyone left at different times between 1:20-3:00. The drive for everyone took about 2-3 hours long. As everyone arrived, the drive team and those in the pit got straight to getting everything ready before Friday. After we were all done, we headed to the hotel, and not long after we headed out for dinner. At about 10:45 everyone settled down and rested for the next day. Not much went on this day, but I can't wait to tell y'all about Friday and Saturday.
FRIDAY
It's the next day, and our first big day of the weekend in Houston. The team woke up and had to get ready by 7:15 to head out by 7:30. Some of our team headed out earlier to earn good spots by the time doors opened. By 8:00a, we all hurled in and got ourselves settled in the stands. By 9:00a, the opening ceremony had begun, introducing the rules, judges, and times for the first rounds.
Teams then began practice rounds till 11:00, after practice rounds were complete, we headed for lunch. After that, finally, qualification rounds started. There were about 66 qualification rounds in total, ours being about 12 matches. As our team got ready for our first round, match 5, it's good to say that we took away a big win in our first match of the competition. We had our ups and downs on Friday, but we got through it and we were on a roll. Meanwhile, in the stands, we focused on cheering on our team.
A big thing we also focused on scouting other teams and ourselves. Our people in the pit focused on helping the drive team and our mentors, as well as talking to judges. It was surely a busy day for The ausTIN CANs.
On the other things though. Fun things our team members did were talk to other teams, collect pins and just simply have a good time. By the end of the day at about 8:00p, they announced qualification rounds would be continued on Saturday, as well as alliance selections, semi-finals, and Finals. We ended the day with our rank in the top seven of 33. The day ended and the team headed back to the hotel to have dinner, as well as have our scouting meeting for the night. By 11:00p we headed to bed, resting for our second big day on Saturday.
SATURDAY
Our last day in Houston as well as for the end of qualification rounds, alliance selections, and much more. On the 2nd day, we had 2 more qualification rounds, and by the end of the matches and right before alliance selections, we were top 5. After the 66 matches, we headed for a big break followed by lunch right after. By 1:10p, alliances were about to be selected. We were the captain of alliance 4. We selected team 5414, Pearadox as our first choice. Our second being 4332 EHS RoboCats, as well as our backup, 7312 T3. With this alliance, 4 was created.
As the semi-finals began we were in the 2nd match. Hitting a home run with a huge win in our first match of playoffs.
Speaking of the semi-finals, one of our best moments was probably match 7. The crowd went wild. Talking about our second win of the playoffs against alliance 1. Having one more round to go in the upper racket, note that whoever won that round would advance to the finals and become the first finalist of the Houston districts. We competed against alliance 3……and WE WON THAT MATCH, ADVANCING TO THE FINALS.
But wait… who were we against, that wasn’t yet determined…It was all up to alliances 1 and 3. After a very exciting and close game, it was decided. We're going to compete against alliance 1! The crowd was cheering and we were getting ready for the big matches,
Meanwhile, in the middle of all this. Remember how we mentioned we had a “CAN-Do attitude”, well we kinda got a reward when they mentioned it. And that's when The ausTIN CANs won the Industrial Design award. As soon as we heard our names, we started cheering and shouting. Saturday was going great and we were all having a good time, but the pressure was on. It was intense. Simply a rollercoaster of emotions.
But let's cut back to the chase, FINALS…. We were ready, excited, stressed, and happy. A LOT of emotions were felt. Our 1st match wasn't the best, losing to alliance 1 by a huge gap, because one of our alliance partners had an untimely fall, We prevailed and just kept going, sure they defeated us in the matches, but our spirit was never let down. All we could yell was “we CAN DO it”. with the support of T3 and Paradox, as well as the EHS RoboCats. We got through it. Match 2 started, but that was the end of the road for us, and with that, we were eliminated in the finals.
Alliance 1 had won the Houston district against Alliance 4.
Reflecting on this, we did amazing. This showed me as a newbie into the world of first, how much love and power the world of first CAN have on me. I am so thankful for my team, our alliances, and everything that was brought to this district event.
And that's a wrap! The Houston district was amazing, we met so many amazing people and had a great time. We had our ups and downs, but that's all part of the experience! We came with a goal, and that was getting into states with no idea that we would be finalists in the Houston district! We were on a roll! Thank you to everyone and our great alliance partners. We will be back and better than ever, so stay tuned!
GO CANS!!
To be continued….
