229A — You shake my nerves and you rattle my brain...

This post is alternatively titled "Smells like team spirit" or "Bingo, baby!"

Today was absolutely f—ing fantastic. Here's why.

We got up around 6:15 this morning, which was less painful than it probably should've been, and I packed very quickly, making the process even easier. (As of yet, I have yet to find anything missing.) We left around 7:30, and before matches in the morning I was singing along to the stadium music as loud as I possibly could, damaging my already struggling vocal cords. This was a theme that continued throughout the day.

Our first match was Quals 66, which we won against the third-ranked team, which was quite nice (although we didn't quite get a rocket and beat them by only two points). Quals 75 was another one where a rocket was a possibility, but we lost this one, as well as quals 82 (although we did get a ranking point). I was technician for quals 75, which was interesting, but mildly demoralizing (for the end of qual matches). By the end, we were ranked 15th. (By our guess, this was an underestimate of our ability.)

Alliance selection occurred after a long while. Before this, we realized that we definitely weren't getting picked by 1st seed, but looking down at the 2nd seed we realized we had a real shot, since we had scored a 4 RP match with them. (As far as I know, this was the only 'real' 4 RP match without the first seeded team.)

And so it was. After the first selection, we were called by second seed, and our first driver went on to the field with a loaf of bread the programmers had bought a week ago as a meme and told them that we would "get this bread" with them. We selected a low-ranked but solid team for our second pick, and so it went.

During lunch, the drive team strategized while everyone else got ready to cheer for finals. I got temporary tattoos of two of the teams on our alliance on my face, as well as a button from the third. We knew that, with the teams on the first alliance, we would be going to worlds if we made finals. And so the games began.

Our path to finals ended up being a bit of a straight shot, with the closest match actually being the very first quarterfinal (a margin of 5). That doesn't mean it wasn't anxiety-inducing, however, and switching off as technician every other match relieved that a little bit. I was in the crowd when we made finals, and oh. my. God. We did it. TEAM 4593 IS GOING TO WORLDS!

Before finals began, a variety of interesting things occurred. First (at least, I think this is when this occurred), my team sang "Happy Birthday" to me while in the tech box. (For the record, it is not my birthday.) Second, I got to walk onto the field with the drive team and shake the hands of the opposing alliance, which was also pretty cool.

We lost finals one. I switched off before finals two, and I was in the crowd when we beat the first alliance and handed 1619, the first-seeded team, their first loss at the regional. The crowd went wild, and I returned to the field to tech for the last match. (We got to sing "Lost that Loving Feeling" on the field, which was fun.) We ended up losing as our team got stuck and tipped over. Oops.

We returned to the pits and took a team photo after that, and then went to the stands for the closing ceremony. We ended up winning the team spirit award, which is awesome because a) it makes all the glitter we all did worth it, as well as the temporary tattoos on my face; b) this team even last year was never big enough to make the kind of noise or get the level of excitement to win this award; and, c) I got to high five all the judges with a pom-pom, which they were pretty stoked about. Then, we received the medals and trophy for the finalist alliance, and finally, our wildcard to worlds was announced. All-in-all, a day well done. The glitter came off after that.

On the way home, we ate dinner at Noodles and Company, and then I passed out and slept like a brick the whole way home. There were discussions about trying to go to a different worlds than we're currently in a spot to go to (because of competition level and location, and (for me) because I can't go to the current worlds), and what students and mode of transportation we're taking. We'll see how they turn out.

I'm actually really excited about this performance though, because it's symbolic for the team writ large. There are some members of the team, as well as many of the mentors, for which this is finally a vindication of their efforts, similar to my debate qualification. This is the first time the team has ever been the first pick of an alliance captain, and it was the second-ranked team. We got the team spirit award! All of this in a single year—wow. I'm proud of the (very small) part I played in this massive accomplishment and shift in attitude, and so much more proud of the team as a whole. The memes will continue next year too, even though I won't be here to see them.

A little bit of reflection on that individual role, because why not. This year's programming felt so much easier than the last. Part of it's the fact that there was no auto to write. Part of it's the fact that compile-time errors in Java and Intellisense in VS Code make it easier to write. Part of it's the fact that programming is just fun for me. Even considering all of those, the fact that we switched languages (Python to Java) and fundamental program structure (Timed to Command-based), and yet the code still works, is a bit of a minor miracle. In many cases, a problem that initially seemed to be computational ended up being something else. We'll have to release our code soon, and I'm very excited about all of that. (Also, we're done with chairman's now, but that also went very well. The process still needs a lot of work though, and I'm sad I did not have the energy to do it.)

Time for me to go to bed. Tomorrow, homework and whatnot. Wheeeeeeee...

(Post-script: my sister won the Mathcounts state competition today and is going to Orlando for Nationals!!! What a great day for the Zhu family.)