RESULTS

The First Ever Fantasy FLL Tournament Took “Place” January 27^th with the latest winter storm blasting away outside and all 13 FLL competitors and their coaches, mentors, parents and friends relaxing at home or enjoying their other weekend pursuits. Meanwhile, in beautiful but soggy San Martin, Team M.U.D.D. clustered around a laptop, watching the videos sent in by the FANTASTIC contestants. With one break for salsa and chips and with a promise of pizza when judging was complete, the Demon Dudes watched robot performances and project presentations and came to swift agreement on the awards. Determining a first and second for “We are the Champions” was tricky, but managed without destruction of any friendships. Team M.U.D.D., their teen mentors, and even their coach were impressed by:

All participants being determined to have fun

Members of all teams obviously and undeniably being totally the owners of their work

Weird, clever, and very not-pushed-by-grownups solutions to robot & project problems

Coaches being supportive and good-humored about hanging out with goofy adolescents

All participants being richly deserving of recognition for their feats and their attitudes

In future news, we anticipate that members of Robo Chicken Gator Flies of Papaya Land to be great successes in their drama careers (particularly if they can locate a magnet school for the comedic arts) and that the Solar Bots will be fighting off offers from game-design companies to start building products while they are still in middle school.

Without further ado, we hereby announce:

The final results of Fantasy FLL!!!!

All four FLL categories are covered, from FFLL’s unique perspective:

In addition, FFLL designates the all-encompassing “We are the Champions” awards, based on average performance after excluding high and low scores, perceived team cooperation, enviable-ness of the project presentation, and coolness of design.

We also provide several unique awards, FFLL’s version of Judges’ Awards. This year, we have two “We are WWW” awards for use of the Internet, awards for coaches, and even non-participation awards!

As in regular FLL tournaments, most of the awards are subjectively judged. In the case of FFLL, the judges are the kids on FLL team 631, Mega Ultimate Demon Dudes.

Performance (aka Preformance)

Robo Chicken Gator Flies of Papaya Land (RCGFoPL)

Spectacular Failure Award: most dramatic foul-up during performance (robot determinedly drove onto the railroad tracks repeatedly; also, robot hurled solar panel over the house)

RCGFoPL The PGA Award: lowest number of points achieved with robot active for all 2.5 minutes (team achieved a world-record score of -40. Skeptics suggest this may have been achieved through—gasp!!—a purposeful strategy.)

SolarBots Mythbuster Award: most unbelievable event during performance (team achieved a high score even though opponents accidentally crashed satellite over onto the field) SolarBots scores: 215, 160, 200, 160

RCGFoPL Dramatic Achievement Award: biggest increase in score from first to final run, plus most amazing one-time scoring feat (team managed to deliver solar panel with trebuchet-force hurling arm) RCGFoPL scores: 145, 50 (or 400 if one changes the rules such that each oil barrel in base is worth 80 points), -40, 265, 275.

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Teamwork (aka TeemWurk)

SolarBots Fashion Design for Humans Award: best team T-Shirt (blazing blue and yellow edged out the competition’s tasteful yellow and red)

SolarBots Head and Shoulders Above the Crowd Award: team with the best hair (absolutely No Contest here, SolarBots rule!)

RCGFoPL Laughing Loon Award: most deranged team (team is clearly operating on an intense rush of highly energizing internal chemistry involving the oxidation of considerable quantities of glucose)

SolarBots Tag-Team Award: best display of tag-team technique during runs (team has mastered the art of dodging in and out of robot operator positions, ensuring that all members are hands-on in all rounds)

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Project (aka Projection)

RCGFoPL Actor’s Guild Award: best skit for project presentation (team presents an eerie Twilight-Zone-Style piece, including time-travel, an authentic-looking scientist guy in a white coat, and a spooky narrator)

SolarBots Gamer’s Choice Award: best use of video games in support of a project presentation (team designed and programmed two interactive online games, using Stagecast Creator…check it out on their website)

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Design (aka De Sign)

RCGFoPL Frankenstein Monster Award: strangest apparati (“Bring out the Giant Box!” Yesss, master! Plus, it works!)

SolarBots Super Giant Huge Award: biggest robot (not to say the robot is overlarge, but it was definitely the biggest)

RCGFoPL KICK Design Award: Keep It Complicated, Killer: largest number of attachments, applying the “KICK” design principle, instead of “KISS” (team has a half-dozen attachments, including “Jaws” and “Mousey”, each strangely appropriate for its application)

SolarBots Post-Modern Minimalist Award: simplest robot design--fewest moving parts. Doesn't matter if it works! (team’s robot has NO moving attachments AND it works!)

SolarBots Efficient Programming Award: fewest lines of code required for runs (team designed robot to perform all their missions with slight variations on one program!)

RCGFoPL Spaghetti Programming Award: software with the most loops, tangles, and twists (team has had a lot of fun with tricky solutions, such as a seemingly stray move that neatly tucks the powerlines into position)

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“We are the Champions”

1^st Place: Solar Bots

2^nd Place: Robo Chicken Gator Flies of Papaya Land (Viva Papaya!!!!!)

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We are WWW

Website: Solar Bots http://www.roboticslearning.com/solarbots/index.html

YouTube: Robo Chicken Gator Flies of Papaya Land http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRTDCxuUdrI

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Special Coach Awards

RCGFoPL Best Supporting Actor In a Robot Run: most earnest effort by a coach to operate the team’s robot (with guidance from the team and a little help with positioning, coach managed to recover from using the wrong program on his first try, and to score 165. M.U.D.D. wonders if this means the team bough the coach pizza-- our team’s standard reward for over-100 scores in a tournament.)

SolarBots Expert Testimony Award: most well-organized package of submissions (coach provided fun slide shows and video clips, including candids of the team developing their project and learning to program)

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Special Non-Participation Awards

The Mango Dudes and The Smiling Noodleheads

each receive this special recognition award:

Judith Martin Etiquette Award: best display of good manners (both teams informed us in a timely fashion when they realized they could not participate after all)

That’s all for now. Thank you all for taking part in Fantasy FIRST Lego League.

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