GOOOOAAAAALLLLLL

It was a big day!  Today was the first day of competition, and of course everyone was excited.  So without any hesitation, here's the rundown...

The first dame of the day was DARwIn's.  He was up against the UURT Humanoids from Iran.  Fortunately, they were a no show. So we got a pass for this go around.  The match continues though, and DARwIn and Steve, SJ, Yida, and Taylor get some good practice running the robots and get valuable feedback as to their performance under the stress of the game. DARwIn scores an easy 10 goals at which point the game is called.  The team returns to the workbench to make changes to the code.

DARwIn's first real lineup comes an hour or two later.  They are up against AUTMan, another Iranian team that brought some heavily modified Bioloids to the match.  JK surmises they are only about 20% original Bioloid.  He still feels like he's pitting his two creations against one another, kinda like brawling brothers.  DARwIn takes an early command of the game and drives the ball down to the goal. AUTMan goalie dives to save it, and succeeds.  DARwIn pulls out his secret weapon, walks up to the ball, and gracefully sidesweeps the ball around the goalie and into the corner of the goal.  Everyone is impressed. Meanwhile on the sidelines, there is a flurry of activity between SJ, Yida, Taylor and Steven. One wonders how no one has a mental breakdown during the match. Later, DARwIn pulls the same move out again to hook a ball in from the corner. He finishes off the game up 8-0.

CHARLI is up next. He is in a dribble and kick competition with JoiTech, a Japanese team from the robot master Hajime's old university.  JK finds out the don't even know who Hajime is, and is relieved. Nonetheless, their robot has looked strong in practice and has made a lot of progress since arriving.  The goal of the game is for hte offender to walk back to his own penalty line, dribble the ball past centerfield, and kick a goal. JoiTech attempts first and fails. CHARLI is up next, he walks back, lines up with the ball, kicks in the right direction with a good kick only to see the ball slowly roll out of bounds to the left, ending his attempt.  Second try goes better, CHARLI dribbles successfully past centerfield, lines up.  Everyone holds their breath as CHARLI winds up, kicks, and sends the ball 6" to the left of the goal...  The following attempt sees CHARLI get tied up with the post off centerfield when he looses sight of the ball as it passes behind his shoulder. Dr. Lee suggest we increase the timeout in the program to prevent this from happening. The remaining two shots mimic the first two, one going out of bounds left, the other narrowly missing the goal.  All in all though CHARLI is the best performing robot out there, he walks stably and kicks well.  We can't ask for any more.

CHARLI's next opponent is the Delft University team. Viktor and I have some history with the Delft guys, so we are eagerly anticipating the match.  Delft appeared to be a force to be reckoned with, they easily brought 15 people and two robots with literally a truckload of stuff. Word on the street is that neither can walk though.  More importantly, will Mike's tweaks ensure CHARLI's success.  JK decides to attack first; Delft is in the goal.  Like a pro, CHARLI marches backwards and lines up for his first kick.  The kick looks good, and the ball ends up just in front of the penalty mark on the right side of the field.  So far so good.  Mike's done well.  CHARLI has only a minute now to reach the ball, lineup and kick a goal.  To me it seems like 10 seconds. CHARLI carefully walks to the ball, positions himself, winds up, and kicks a perfect corner shot!  It was beautiful. The crowd goes crazy. Video of it is here:  The rest of the match, CHARLI scores two more goals, and sends it outta bounds one more time. With all the commotion, by the end of the match, CHARLI had drawn easily 100 people to the spectator area.

pictures and video to come shortly