Authors: Dylan C, Anirudh R
Event Summary
MRI is a local off-season event, in Roseville, consisting of 36 teams. MRI, being one of the last events of the 2022 off-season, was another excellent event for newer members to get their first competition experience. The team had a great time and looks forward to wrapping up the off-season with Minne Mini. We conquered many challenges and had a lot of fun. Below is Talon’s story of Minnesota’s Robotics Invitational.
Qualification Matches
1st Qualification Match
The qualification matches were a lot of fun. being the first competitive off-season tournament, The team had a new set of drivers. Nolan P and Andy K were in charge of operating the robot while Timothy M was the human player. All of these were instructed by our new coach Rahul C. Talon was super lucky to try its robot off in the day’s second match. The team started the day off strong with a win.
2nd Qualification Match
After our first match, Cerberus was all warmed up. The drivers waited in the queue for our second match and the team got rolling into the autonomous phase. Unfourtinally Cerberus had connection issues at the very beginning of the match so we were not able to score any balls. However, our drivers did get a new connection and we were able to score a ball later on in the match. Our drivers ended the match with a middle bar eight-second climb. We did lose but got new problems that needed fixing.
3rd Qualification Match
The third match wasn’t that different, Talon did have a lot of fun though. Our limelight wasn’t working because of one of the CAN cables was disconnected. This meant we wouldn’t have an accurate reading on our limelight and shooting would be super hard to do. Our driver, Nolan P, recognized our problem and quickly grabbed red cargo to hold them from the opposing alliance. Talon ended the match with a traversal climb and proof that we can take advantage of difficult situations. Winning the match brought everyone’s moods back.
4th Qualification Match
The fourth match was an interesting one. Both alliances were an equal match for each other. Talon was ready to go by the time we arrived on the field. Just like the last matches, Adhi was able to teach Timothy more about setting up our four-ball auto. When the game began, the team was all lined up and ready to go, but the turret was not wanting to participate. Our 180° turret wasn’t able to spin toward the middle funnel. This caused our robot to fire two balls onto the judge’s pit. While nothing bad came out of us shooting onto the judges, It was quite funny to watch their reactions as two basketball-sized objects came flying at them.
Cerberus did have the same connection problem for a short period in the match, and with the turret not working, Talon could only provide support through defense. our drivers were once again able to take action against our situation and prove to the other teams that we can play a good defense. The team ended the match with a loss and a one-point difference.
5th Qualification Match
The Fifth and Sixth matches were incredible. Talon started off with three out of the four balls landing in the upper funnel during the autonomous phase. After that our operators went all in, shooting multiple balls into the upper hub, while the team did have an opposing team play a strong defense on us, our drivers were better. Talon ended the fifth match with a bang by getting the win and a high climb.
6th Qualification match
The sixth match was filled with emotions. Cerberus got to try out its four-ball auto, but the balls didn’t want to cooperate with us. The team was able to shoot two balls with only one going in, The other two managed to get stuck in our intake and slide away from the robot. Our drivers however managed to show us how it’s done by shooting in eight balls. The match quickly got closer and closer to the endgame when the team drove over to the hangar. With fifteen seconds left our operators rushed to get to the traversal rung. When Cerberus was reaching towards the traversal bar from the high bar it fell downwards onto its side. A horrible way to end the match. Everyone in the crowd was amazed to see our robot fall. Talon and its alliance members did take home the win.
Cerberus is very special as it was the only robot Talon made this year. This being said Cerberus has had plenty of issues making it a tank. When our robot fell only two un-important L brackets fell off of it. We did make sure everything was fine before our lunch break and of course, it was. Cerberus was all ready for its next match.
7th Qualification Match.
The seventh match started out with Timothy setting up our Four-ball auto and our drivers setting up in the first operator station. Cerberus was all healthy after its fall and was ready to go. Only shooting in one ball, our operators recovered with another great teleop period. the team did lose the match, but Cerberus managed to pull itself up towards the traversal bar without falling off.
8th Qualification Match
The final match of the day was quite fun. Cerberus was able to shoot in one ball with another getting blocked by a red alliance ball. The operators took the opportunity to play both defense and offense. Our new drivers shot in 3 balls when all of a sudden we lost connection to our robot’s radio. Talon did manage to get another connection for a short period of time. During that period Andy and Nolan were able to shoot another four balls into the upper hub. The team ended the match on the red alliance’s side of the field disconnected. Our alliance was able to take home the win with only two robots playing. It was only possible all thanks to the team’s shooting and autonomous phase.
Talon’s Rank
Winning six matches placed Talon in 9th place. A great conclusion to many problems that harrassed the team during its qualification matches.
Playoffs
Alliance Selection and Double-Elimination Bracket
In the playoffs, we were graciously invited to the fourth alliance by team 3130, to which we graciously accepted. After that our alliance captain and Aditya were soon also joined by team 1816, and team 4207. Everyone was super excited to keep playing in the playoffs.
MRI was using a new system for Playoffs called the double-elimination bracket. This means that there are two brackets while playing in the playoffs. In our case, there are four alliances that will each be able to play twice. Depending on if they win, they continue to move on, but if they lose they will be moved down to the lower bracket where they have a chance to go to the finals again.
1st Playoff Match
We played in the first playoff game, against the first alliance (teams 7028, 4607, 2531, and 4198). Cerberus started off well with our four-ball auto which was later complemented by a volley of shots into the upper hub. Our alliance was doing quite well until The Green Machine got pushed on its side by C.I.S. This resulted in one of our alliance members getting disabled for the rest of the match. The rest of Alliance 4 carried on, but couldn’t keep up the lead. Cerberus did successfully traverse during the last thirty seconds of the match. However, our alliance captain fell down during its climb. With both alliance members disabled after our match. The judges reviewed the footage and decided C.I.S intentionally pushed Green Machine. This gave the first alliance a red card making their score null. Alliance 4 was declared the winner of the first playoff game.
2nd Playoff Match
Alliance 4’s next game was Playoff match 3, for which we played against Alliance 3. Cerberus played well, making many shots, and successfully traversing, however, we fell behind in the climbing stage. This set in stone the Third Alliance’s victory. This loss placed us in the lower bracket, for match 5.
3rd Playoff Match
For the fifth playoff match 5, the team knew we had to win to save our spot in the finals. The entire alliance was determined to win this match, which was played against Alliance 1. The autonomous period started off with both teams getting the same amount of points, and the teleop phase was also very close. Throughout the match, the blue alliance pulled ahead just at the end. The red alliance managed to get two traversals, while the Blue Alliance only had one traversal. Alliance 1 was declared the victor. This gave our alliance third place at the Minnesota Robotics Invitational of 2022. 💪
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