On Saturday, January 7th, 2012, members of both Max, as well as students throughout the country in FRC, gathered for the kick-off to the 2012. Along with the many inspirational speeches by many high profile figures, the team was introduced to the 2012 FRC game, Rebound Rumble SM.
Movie Night:
It's been a team tradition for many years now to have movie night the Friday before Kick-Off and Max did it once again for 2012. Members and Mentors of 1071, as well as students and mentors of 3525 gathered
at WHS for a night of games and fun. The night started off with the Lord of the Bling Challenge. Participants were broken up into teams of 3 or 4, and from there had to compete in challenges from the popular game show Minute to Win It, such as having to balance an Oreo on your head, balance dice on a Popsicle stick in your mouth, or two golf balls balanced on top of each other.
After successfully completing a challenge, the teams were given a piece of "bling" to wear. At the end of the challenge, each team had to present their bling and the team with the most bling was declared winner. It was a great time and everyone really enjoyed themselves, plus Agua made an appearance to congratulate the winners.
From there the teams moved to the lecture hall to settle down for the movie. Just as tradition says, the selection for the evening was the epic Galaxy Quest. Everyone got there spot set, grabbed some soda and pop-corn, and settled in for the movie. Of course it wouldn't be robotics movie night on Max without the computers, and the same went for this year as several team members participated in a LAN party while watching the movie.
Overall it was a fantastic evening for both teams, and a great way to celebrate the arrival of the 2012 FRC season.
Kick-Off:
So fast-forward about 10 hours. It's 9:30 in the morning. Compared to the downfall of snow in 2011, it's a comfortable 55 degrees out, and it's looking like it's going to be a good day. Team members from both 1071 and 3525 both gathered in the WHS lecture hall, getting ready for the big event. Briefly before hand Mr. Cormier gave an overview of the upcoming season, discussing the events we'll be attending as well as the typical procedures of the season. Then at 10:30 the team started to watch the Kick-Off broadcast. An hour and a half latter after some great speeches and presentations, the 2012 game Rebound Rumble was revealed!
Quoted from the FIRST® website:
"The Rebound RumbleSM robotics game is played between two Alliances of three teams each. Each Alliance competes by trying to score as many of the basketballs in the hoops as possible during the 2-minute and 15-second match. Balls scored in higher hoops score Alliances more points. Alliances are awarded bonus points if they are balanced on bridges at the end of the match. In matches where opponent Alliances work together to balance on the white bridge, all participating teams earn additional valuable seeding points."
So overall, it's looking like it's going to be a fantastic season and the team members are very excited to be working on the challenge! If you haven't checked it out, make sure to take a look at this video message from members Dave and Kyle about the team's plans for the upcoming season.
Make sure to stay tuned to the blog for updates from all the areas on the team about the work they are carrying out. With 40 days until the robot must be bagged, there is quite a lot to be done!
Take it to the Max!
