CalGames Recap

Written by Ujjawal Prasad

 “Team 8404 graciously accepts”

These four words, spoken just a couple of days ago, were the culmination of weeks and weeks of hard work leading up to our most recent off-season competition, Calgames. 

They were the culmination of long nights spent in the garage, hours spent poring over every little detail of the robot, and the effort of all of the members of our team. Those four words, spoken in front of a crowd of hundreds of expectant people, hushed in anticipation, sealed our spot in eliminations and confirmed that all of our hard work was worth it.

In the end, we ended up exiting the competition in the quarter-final round, but we gained a lot of new experiences, learning, and connections and Calgames was truly an invaluable experience. 

As we are a relatively new team, Calgames was only the fourth in-person competition we have been to, and our second offseason one. We made sure to utilize this competition to the fullest by putting the newest members of our leadership team in charge of organizing the event, as they will be the ones in charge during the season and in subsequent years, and introducing new recruits to the ins and outs of competing in FRC.

The competition had its ups and downs, with robot failures and transport miscommunications, but overall it was a valuable experience and we learned a lot!