With our robot, Nemo, shipped and patiently anticipating our arrival at the Memorial Coliseum, all Team 1540 could do in the days leading up to the 2008 FIRST Robotics Oregon Regional Competition was wait. And wait we did, the time ticking by with all the laden significance of the countdown on a bomb.

The competition was a three-day event, beginning with a practice and setup day on Thursday, February 28, then progressing onto the beginning of the qualifying rounds on Leap Day Friday. Saturday, March 1st, held the culmination of the qualifiying rounds and the quarterfinals through the finals. On Thursday, a few gracious team members arrived as early as 7:45 to unload Nemo from his crate and to begin setting up the Flaming Chickens' pit area. There were no actual competitive matches on Thursday; instead, practice matches occurred all day so that teams could get used to the official playing field and work out any final kinks in their robots. Nemo held up quite well, although slight problems with air pressure caused his ball-raising mechanism to work slightly slower than anticipated.

Friday was when the real action began. The day kicked off with opening ceremonies that included speeches from Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski and Portland Mayor Tom Potter. We were also introduced to the referees and judges and given an overview of the rules of the Overdrive competition. After that, the qualification rounds began. For these matches, each robot was placed in either the Blue or Red alliance with two other teams that were randomly selected and changed with each match. Nemo performed exceptionally well, and through a combination of the exceptional skill of our drive team (consisting of Eric, Trevor, and Brad, with Kevin as RoboCoach for Hybrid mode) and our good fortune in being placed in alliances with several other skilled teams, the Flaming Chickens managed to complete the day undefeated and ranked #1 out of all the teams at the regional! Needless to say, we were ecstatic. Of course, in addition to that wonderfully good fortune, Team 1540 was also the lucky recipient of the regional's Website Award! The site is now qualified to win the award at the national competition in Atlanta. We went home on Friday in excellent spirits, with our fingers crossed that we could continue in this auspicious vein through Saturday.

After Saturday's opening ceremonies, Team 1540 participated in the first qualifying match. We continued our stroke of good fortune by winning the match. At this point, with only one more qualifying match before the final rounds, the Flaming Chickens' chances looked more than good. Much to our delight, we won the second match as well, and our resulting #1 rank placed us in the position of being the first to select a team for the alliance that we would remain in through the final rounds. Although alliances had been selected randomly for the qualifying tournament, for the finals, the teams chose alliances that they would remain in for the duration of the tournament. The top 8 ranked teams had the privilege of being "alliance captains," and could choose any other team--including other alliance captains--to join them. Team 1540 picked first, and we selected the very skilled Team 368, "Kika Mana," from Honolulu to join us. Eric and the captain of 368 then invited Team 1280, the "Raging Seabiscuits" from Danville, California, to round out the alliance.

Team 1540, now a member of Alliance 1, competed in the first match of the quarterfinals. The combination of these three excellent teams blew away the competition, attaining a high score of 110. With similar results in the next quarterfinal, Alliance 1 advanced on to the semifinals with high hopes. The semifinals continued in the same fashion, and soon Alliance 1 qualified for the final rounds. An exciting competition ensued between two other alliances to see who our competitor would be, with the match being replayed three times after each alliance scored a win and then settled in a draw! A victor was finally decided after a truly adrenaline-pumping game, and the alliance that included Jesuit's Team 2374, one of the rookie teams that Catlin Gabel mentored this season, advanced to become our opponent in the final. Team 2550 from Oregon City, the other rookie team we mentored, was a member of the alliance that lost.

Still undefeated, Alliance 1 squared off against our opponents for the first match of the finals. We scored another victory, and our chances of victory soared in our minds. The next match, however, shook our confidence--Alliance 1 lost by a hair after a disastrous pile-up and several devastating penalties. The third and final match of the competition commenced with tensions high on both sides. However, the Flaming Chickens cooperated beautifully with the incredibly skilled teams 368 and 1280, and Alliance 1 secured the victory. The Flaming Chickens are going to Atlanta!

We congratulated our opponents for an incredible tournament, and then everyone headed back up into the stands for the closing ceremonies. A number of awards were presented. Much to our delight, our mentored rookie team 2550 from Oregon City won the Rookie All-Star Award, which qualified them to come to Atlanta. In addition, Team 2374 from Jesuit, the other team we mentored this year, won the Delphi "Driving Tomorrow's Technology" award and was a finalist. Since both of "our" rookie teams advanced to the semifinals or finals and both recieved prestigious prizes, it was a proud day for the Flaming Chickens. The Chairman's Award went to the deserving Issaquah Robotics Society from Washington, and the Flaming Chickens, much to the ecstasy of our Chairman's Award Committee, won the Engineering Inspiration Award--the second-most prestigious award handed out at the competition. Team 1540, along with our alliance partners, also recieved a trophy and banner celebrating our first-place win.

After high-fiving all the judges and receiving our trophies, we all returned to our pit area to take a commemorative team photo. We left the competition with our minds turned toward the upcoming Las Vegas regional later in March, but also now toward the national FIRST robotics competition in Atlanta--and our hopes are definitely high.

View many more pictures of the tournament here.