We had programmed and fine-tuned every single tiny detail, and we had made sure that everthing was working... on our own mat. The robot wasn't working, coaches and team members were getting stressed out, and we were scrambling to make last minute changes. We were hogging the practice tables to ourselves just to get everything working.
Our first run was at around 11:20, but the schedule was behind, so we were still waiting 5 minutes later. Our two teammates who had volunteered to do the robot run first were at the table by 11:30, and we were super nevous. 3...2...1... LEGO! The first mission was off and running. Even though it was 2 and a half whole minutes, it felt like it went by like a shot, and before we knew it, time was up! We had scored 72 points, which wasn't bad, but it wasn't our best either. We knew we could do better next time.
And better we did! We got 102 points, putting us in the lead! While we were super happy about our accomplishment, all good things have to come to an end, and after about 30 minutes of relaying back and forth to check the scores, we got overtaken by another team.
It was up to our two youngest teammates to win the robot run for us. Even though everyone was shouting for their teammates, for the few seconds leading up to the countdown, it felt like everything went silent.
The countdown had reached one, and the robot was already on it's way to Space Travel. If everything went as planned, it would send the first two payloads down. Due to some last minute adjustments, this wasn't one of our most consistent missions, but we were jumping up and down and shouting for joy when both missions worked. Next, we were attempting crater-crossing. We were also ecstatic when this mission worked, although it was supposed to send the meteor to the meteorite catcher but it didn't. (The meteor mission had a SUPER low success rate and we were not expecting it to work) Next, we were attempting 3d printer, and it was also successful. Now, the only missions that were left were the final two, the satellite pointer and the observatory. It was down to these two mission to win us the robot game. AND BOTH OF THEM WORKED! The pointer was pointing at white and the observatory was on green with 20 seconds left, giving us 136 points! Our two youngest team members had gotten the highest amount of points in the whole qualifier(for that day)! Of course, the programming and the behind the scenes work had also been crucial, but they ended up winning! We were beside ourselves in joy, and we left on a high note, winning by a large margin.