SKYRISE

GAME: SKYRISE

The 2014-2015 season, Skyrise, was one in which W.A.S.A.B.I grew tremendously as a team. We gained invaluable experience and knowledge through both humbling trials and some unexpected successes. For many of us, Skyrise was our first full season, having recently moved up from years of First Lego League. Even still, we incorporated two new members during the expanse of the season as well. With our numbers, we split into two sister teams under the W.A.S.A.B.I banner: 1492X and 1492Z. Both robots began the season with similar designs, employing scissor-lifts. However, both teams quickly found the scissor-lift unsatisfactory, and immediately split into distinctive designs. After careful consideration of the scoring game, teams decided to pursue different aspects of the robot game. 1492X chose to focus on cube elements and crossed over to a reverse double six bar lift and two cube capacity needle intake, while 1492Z chose to focus solely on yellow Skyrise sections, switching to a revolutionary stationary linear slide lift and pneumatic claw section gripper. Both teams enjoyed some success throughout the season, and qualified for the Washington State Championships soon after their individual redesigns, but eventually fell in their respective divisions there. We decided to end our truncated season at the CREATE U.S. Open, and performed relatively well, with 1492X being surprisingly picked up by the top seeded alliance to eventually win the title and 1492Z reaching the second round of the playoffs. 

 While our success at the U.S. Open was good closure for the season, for us it stood as a consolation for the mistakes made during the season. We were humbled and learned what we could from our failure to move on from the state championship. 1492Z’s “world’s-winning” stationary design ended up as our own poison; we had hastily proclaimed a stationary scorer as a world-class strategy but failed to critically evaluate our design. 1492X realized too late that a Skyrise claw could be possible and well utilized on their cube bot. 1492X and 1492Z had struggled with solid build quality the entire season, too.  

1492 emerges as a better team. We are a team consolidated by the lessons of the season past and are driven to be on top. Members matured and expanded the boundaries of their creativity and thinking. W.A.S.A.B.I enters the 2015-2016 season with sword in hand. 

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