The big day has arrived! It's the official first day of the competition! We woke up really early at 6am this morning. Some of us are so excited that we didn't sleep well. Nevertheless all of us woke up on time and had breakfast in the hotel restaurant.
It was a windy morning. We used a trolley to carry our robot to the Dallas Convention Center. Along the way, we met up with participants from all over the world, looking as excited as we were. It was really an eye opener!
We reached the convention center event hall and were immediately blown away by the sheer size of the venue. We made our way to the end of the hall where our designated booth was. Interestingly, our booth is just next to the Food Court. Haha!
After we settled down at our booth, we began our trial sessions on the practice play field. It was a bumpy ride as we encountered some technical issues. Then we queued up for robot inspection and software update. The queue stretched almost the width of the hall! Lucky we were among the early birds. Inspection and software update were smooth sailing. We also met up with participants from USA, Mexico, China, Puerto Rico etc! It felt like celebrating International Friendship Day! We exchanged ideas and strategies with them and learned a lot from them.
We had burgers and fries for lunch at the Food Court. After that we got ready for the important interviews for 'Design' and 'Future' awards. Mdm Fion Wong and Mr Kwan guided us how ways to impress the judges. When it was our turn, we entered the interview rooms confidently and presented to the judges. The interview sessions were a big success! The judges commended us for our creativity and maturity. We hoped we stand good chances of winning awards!
The only low point of the day was the first and only qualifying match of the day which ended up in defeat. We combined well with our alliance from USA but we met some unexpected technical glitches. We were a little disappointed but we realised we need to pick ourselves up quickly and learn from mistakes. We are very confident of returning with vengeance!
We will be competing in another 5 qualifying matches tomorrow which could prove deciding in our quest for awards in USA. No time to blog now. Time for robot maintainance and turning in early to recharge ourself bodies for the biggest day of the competition!
Due to some unforseen internet connection issues, we can only upload a few photos for the time being. Here a link to a few photos of Interview and Qualifying round: http://picasaweb.google.com/kwantuck/VEXRoboticsWorldChampionship2010?feat=directlink
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