CaRoLyN_s wrote:I just had my 1st nationals this weekend and it was totally awesome. The tests were pretty hard and finishing isn't always reasonable (we didn't finish disease detectives by like 5 questions and we still got 14th). The swap meet was much better than i expected, people brought really cool stuff. Our team set a Maryland record (

) with 32nd place overall. For newbies, make sure that your alarm is RIGHT BESIDE your bed, had a pretty close call with disease detectives. Also, for building events (like mission possible) , take a mental chill pill before you start your box, we had a rather INTERESTING run that ended with our hydraulic system spouting water all over the box, carpet and the closest person (me). We missed a connection on the pump in our nervousness so... DON"T BE NERVOUS, wait, thats literally impossible, but bring a CHECKLIST or something if you know that you'll be a mexican jumping bean at the actual competition (like me). Anyways, nats was AWESOME, really want to make it again next year (orlando!).
Checklists are interesting:
1. Make sure that the box is
actually there. This is an important step, don’t skip it.
2. Do you have the TSL? Do you have the checklist? (If not…. What?)
3. Make sure everything is set up correctly; this is, without a doubt, the most important step.
7. Make sure that no areas are contacting where they are not supposed to. (Wires not supposed to touch the anti-grav, ect)
10. Make many of the areas are not jammed. (Elevator, strings, other elevator, ramp, or the anti gravity systems)
13. Make sure that the anti-gravity mechanism is installed properly. (Don’t want to collapse this dimension again)
14. Make sure you have all the needed materials. (Quarter, TSL, fire extinguisher, ect.)
15. Make sure to not forget the flip the switches, you may cause the anti gravity systems to not work properly.
16. Make sure the firing pins are locked in.
20. Are the batteries connected?
21. Are you ready for this?
22. Make sure that [team member] has made sure. If something goes wrong, blame [team member].