Judging was a strange experience for us.  Trying to express our team’s accomplishments, explain our processes and motivations, and just generally brag about ourselves became a real team effort.  What were the judges thinking?  Did we impress them?  Had we fully explained ourselves?  Did we emphasize the right things?  Did we leave anything out?

                                                 First Award Ceremony
A variety of awards were given out at the end of day 1, in an artful presentation ceremony.  Perhaps the most interesting part of each presentation were the clues that were given in the lead up to the team announcement.  Carefully selected clues were used to give the teams advanced notice that they had won just before the public announcement of their number.  And then it came.  The Judges’ Award.  As explained by Karthik it was an award that the Judges were free to give for any reason that they felt was worthy.  This award was to be given to a team that had done more than just build a robot.  This award was to be given to a team that had made the environment a focus of its efforts.  One that had sold Compact Fluourescent lightbulbs and recycled printer cartridges in its fund raising efforts.  Wow!  That team was us.  As it slowly hit us we could only look at each other, but then Karthik called out our team number and the celebration could really begin.  Walking up to pick up those trophies was pretty special….

Nothing about our day had been truly disappointing…but the award was an awesome boost.

Second Award Ceremony
The final award ceremonly.  Would be achieve our highest hopes…could we earn our way to Atlanta.  Many awards were given out to many deserving teams.  The Rookie Inspiration Award came up both too soon and not soon enough.  In the same manner, as the award was being described, we soon realized that it was going to us, 2361.  This was undoubtedly the most bittersweet moment of the weekend.  Winning the award was great, but almost everyone immediately realized that it meant we were NOT going to win the Rookie All-Star.  We weren’t going to Atlanta.

Are we really disappointed?  I guess a little.  But we have accomplished so much this year with so little that the truth is we’re still incredibly proud of everything we achieved.  And the best part is that we get to do it all again next year!