NJ State FLL Tournament

Built On The Rock attended the New Jersey State Championship tournament on Saturday. It was an exciting event, with several teams scoring very well in the robot performance rounds. Built On The Rock achieved 1st Place Robot Performance with a perfect 400, and the Landroids, a first-year team, came close behind with a 395. The Landroids also won the Champion's award, which means they'll be going to the World Festival later this year - an amazing achievement for a new team! Built On The Rock could have gotten all perfect scores, but an unsecured mission model prevented them in the second round, and they didn't have enough time to finish the last mission in the third round because the match was started without much warning, which caused them to start several seconds late.

I noticed that teams scored significantly higher than last year, on average. Last year, the second highest score was a 298. This year, however, eleven teams got a 300 or higher! I've also heard of other states doing significanly better this year. It seems that, although the missions were intended to be harder, they've turned out to be easier. We'll probably be seeing quite a few perfect scores at the World Festival this year.

The other thing I noticed at the tournament is that the increased number of rules and complications seemed to be causing trouble with scoring. In our first round (when they got a perfect score), the referee scored at least half of the missions incorrectly!

You can read more about the tournament and see pictures and videos at http://www.teambuiltontherock.org/

-Jonathan

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