On Thursday, December 20, Team 1540 hosted a friendly scrimmage with Jesuit High School's Team 2374 called "Capture the Bunny."

Capture the Bunny was designed as an opportunity for students brand-new to robotics to test their newly-acquired skills in building and controlling a robot, getting them ready for the upcoming FIRST competition.

All the new members of the Flaming Chickens were gathered together and split into two teams, Blue and Pink. Each team then was charged with the duty of building and designing a practice robot that could fulfill the simple requirements of the Capture the Bunny challenge. The goal of the challenge was to control your robot to pick up as many stuffed animals as possible and place them in your team's designated area. Animals could also be stolen from other teams' areas, so we had to remain vigilant!

We invited several Portland teams to join us in this challenge, and Jesuit's Team 2374, in their rookie year this season, decided to take us up on our offer. Team 2374 arrived at Catlin Gabel after school on the 20th, and everyone was excited for the upcoming game.

We ran a few practice rounds before starting the actual challenge. We played several rounds, with each team getting a few chances to run their robot. After a few rounds, the 2007 competition drive team, including two veteran members, brought out the 2007 season competition robot, Fowler, to play Capture the Bunny! Needless to say, they did quite well.

The Capture the Bunny competition provided some valuable experience in building and operating a robot for the new members of both Team 1540 and Team 2374. In addition, it was a valuable bonding experience for the two teams. Everyone left the event with some new experience under their belt, and it really got us excited for the upcoming kickoff for the 2008 challenge!