FIRSTmas!!!!!

There's nothing like waking up FIRSTmas morning and heading to the Kickoff at 6:30am! The Kickoff we went to was at NDSU Fargo, North Dakota.

The whole team was completely pumped for the unveiling of this years game! There was a bit of cheering and clapping when the live-stream started. When the game video started there was complete silence in the audience. Everyone was completely struck silent by this years game, Ultimate Ascent.

After the live-stream there was a mock field set up in a different room to give us an example of the actual size of the goals and pyramid. There was a drawing for the pieces they had set up, our team won a piece, but unfortunately it wouldn't fit in the bus. Lunch was generously sponsored by John Deere, Nothing Runs like a Deere!

Next came presentations and workshops, which our team had a large involvement in:

Bryce and Bydlon ran a Q&A session for any team that needed help.

Brandon and Miranda presented on Pneumatics.

Allen, Dalton, and Zack led a workshop on coding with Java.

Alicia and Bryce taught a workshop on Drive Train.

Gabe and Jesse were in charge of a presentation on Awards.

And finally, Carson and Kacy ran an amazing presentation on Preparing for the Regional.

Since we were helping with the Kickoff we got the pleasure of creating 13 rule books for all the teams that were attending. Which was an interesting experience to say the least. The copier we used, copied all the pages out of order. So we had to sort them before hole-punching and putting all the pages into binders. Needless to say, it was a team building exercise.

The bus ride home was filled with build ideas and game strategies. Needless to say this will be a great Build Season!