Bolts, Steel, Code, and Joysticks: A Competitive Robotics Quest

[hYGP]

Dominic's head whirled rapidly. The sweeping laser light show that he was dimly aware of felt lackluster in comparison to his thoughts on the new game.

Go for auton bonus or better object positioning? - may lose more points by ceding dominance in goal - objects look pretty easy to intake - need to have arm reach forward and up to get to those goals faster - prioritize arm over base? new game looks more offensive than usual, may need faster speed - prototype using spare parts/disassemble current robot for more complicated -

Rebecca's iron grip on his shoulder interrupted his thoughts.

"No, Dominic. No taking apart the robot before Eliminations; we still have a World Championship to win."

"But Ace can totally handle missing a few motors, right?"

"You know I'm good, but not that good, buddy. Listen to your girlfriend, both of us know she's the brains between the two of you."

"I'm right here."

"Fine, fine, whatever you say, Ace."

"Wait a sec, guys, aren't we missing something?"

The members of 1A looked at each other, and then rapidly blanched.

They had forgotten their flag capes!

-o-

Team 1A finished the qualifiers with a perfect score, placing as number one seed for alliance selections. The alliance they formed, of powerhouses 26W and 6528W, was considered the overwhelming favorites for Division Champions, if not the whole World Championship outright.

The Juggernauts were astonishing; they had reached a level of perfection that many other teams thought was only theoretical. Their autonomous made other programmers stay up at night tearing out their hair to try figuring out how they did it; their sleek execution of a three stage pneumatic transmission between their base and arm made other builders alternately salivate and cry themselves to sleep; their driver dominated the skills list, breaking the robot skills records by ten whole points. Everybody kept waiting for something or another to break down, and something did. Only to be fixed in no time flat by Dominic, or compensated for by Rebecca and/or Ace.

This team, American flags securely tied to their backs, did not disappoint, winning their Eliminations bracket undefeated. Their Round Robin matches are closer, but in the end, the tournament comes down to the Juggernauts versus the SHOCKS.

-o-

Red flags flapped in the wind as their metallic steeds raced across the field, desperately attempting to break the mettle of the stalwart blue, who for their part moved to block the red's attempts with practiced ease. Arms creaked from exertion, steel hammering on steel, all for the chance to earn one more point. The two robots pushed back and forth, highlighting the brilliance of their designs - team 1A being stronger and faster at will, team 3990Y deftly sliding around 1A - and the deficiencies of their artistic taste.

Seriously, red and black was so overused.

"Team Juggernaut is just running all over team thirty nine ninety Y's attempts at scoring, but clever maneuvering from their alliance partner nine sixty four C breaks the stranglehold of twenty six W and lets the Shocks help their teammate in need! One minute left in the match, it's looking like a close one! Red alliance has more scoring objects in their scoring zone, but Blue alliance looks like they're playing keep-away and saving their energy for one decisive moment!"

Your knee is vibrating, feet tapping out a staccato on the floor. This is a match between champions, and you are...
[]Scribbling notes on designs. (Starting bonus to Hardware)
[]Watching the flow of the game. (Starting bonus to Wetware)
[]Figuring out the algorithms behind their movements. (May only be taken by Drifting Coder, or Top Dog. Starting Bonus to Software)
[]Writein (note: good enough justification will grant you bonus, insufficient justification will grant lesser or no bonus)

You want to be there, you want to be taking that big World Champions trophy like Team 1A Juggernauts are right now. You know it's a long road ahead from where you stand, but you're going to be World Champion, or you're going to graduate trying!

...

That sounded better in your head, you reluctantly admit.

Character Creation!
[] The Unfettered Genius (Hardware++, Software+, Wetware -, Social -, High Growth Potential, No Mentor, No Revenue, 2 Free Time)
You are a virtuoso with your hands and mind, but your driving leaves something to be desired, and something about you has always rubbed people the wrong way. It's not your fault that nobody else can take a little honest criticism! Nevertheless, such little obstacles like a bad rep and no money to speak of won't stop you from becoming World Champion.

[] The Eager Middle Schooler (Hardware -, Software -, Wetware -, Social +, Medium Growth Potential, Good Mentor, 1 Revenue, 2 Free Time, 1 Extra Year)
You're a wide, starry eyed, middle schooler and robots are soooo coool! Oh wow this metal is so shiny and cool! What's a "nut"? Can you make peanut butter with that? Uh, yeah, obviously you know what a nut is. It's that thing right? Anyway, you wanna be World Champion because that is soo cool!

[] The Large Clubber (Hardware, Software, Wetware, Social, Medium Growth Potential, Excellent Mentor, Expenses Waived, 1 Free Time, No Sponsorships Available)
You've been in your junior league for long enough; now it's time to join the big boys! You know your way around a screwdriver, box wrench, and computer to not embarrass yourself too badly, but at the same time you're not at the same level the older guys are at. Doesn't matter though, you'll show them all when you become World Champion!

[] The Good Friend (Hardware -, Software -, Wetware -, Social ++, Medium Growth Potential, Good Mentor, Expenses Waived, 0 Free Time, Guaranteed Teammate)
You're just in this for your friend, honestly. You aren't good with the fiddly nuts and bolts, so to speak, but people like you, and you like people. You also couldn't say no to your friend's puppy dog eyes. This was the one time that your friend asked for anything, of course you were going to give it your all. Heck, that World Champion trophy won't go amiss, either...

[] The Drifting Coder (Hardware -, Software ++, Wetware -, Social, Medium Growth Potential, Good Mentor, 1 Revenue, 0 Free Time)
You are, in your own humble opinion, one of the best coders in your school. You consider AP Computer Science a free period, and are in serious need of a challenge. Lucky for you, your teacher recommended this thing called "robotics" instead of something like "just go do techie things in theater". You figure that World Champion would be a nice addition to your resume.

[] The Power Gamer (Hardware -, Software +, Wetware ++, Social -, Medium Growth Potential, Poor Mentor, 0 Revenue, 1 Free Time)
You're not entirely sure how your parents roped you into this, but now you have to get some qualifications through robotics, since "gaming isn't a real job, go do something with your life!" You're still a little resentful of it, and was once tempted to blow the whole thing off before some kid challenged you and won. One thing led to another, and now you're in it to go all the way to World Champion.

[] The Top Dog (Hardware +++, Software +++, Wetware +++, Social +, Low Growth Potential, No Mentor, 2 Revenue, 1 Free Time, 2 Less Years)
You are the best in state. Across the board, you do better than all your competition, and consistently churn out superior robots in all aspects to your competition. You consistently win at a State Level, but at the Worlds Level you get tossed around like so much spare fodder, and you just can't seem to get better. Nevertheless, you're going to be World Champion.

[] Write In (Hardware, Software, Wetware, Social, Growth Potential, Mentor Quality, Revenue, Free Time, Special Conditions if applicable) is how the format goes. I will veto or make them into somebody in your region if too overpowered.
​

 

[hYGP]

Teammates
Colene Stringer (Team Captain)
Hardware: (30 + 3)/(50?) Probably better than average
Software: I dunno, pretty good?
Wetware: Uh, kinda bad
Social: Okay, so maybe I'm not right literally every time...

Matylda Stringer
Hardware: Okay, look, I know what a nut is, okay!
Software: I know how to write code! You just, uh...
Wetware: Beats older sis every time!
Social: Can you say no to this face? I didn't think so.

Ahmad Solberg:
Hardware: I-I know what direction to turn the wrench!
Software: Decent, could be better
Wetware: (35 + 1.5)/(50?) Better than average.
Social: Why doesn't everybody recognize my skills?

Expenses: 31
Revenue: 2
Bonuses:

Robot Progress:
10/10 Expenses
Hardware Performance: Twice the robot it used to be.
Software Performance: Alright, it's on par with the old robot's programming.
Wetware Performance: Better than the last robot, but can get even better.
Logbook: Pretty good, you guess?

Going to States!

 

[hYGP]

There are two parts to this quest: Robot level, and Strategic level.

Robots:
A Robot consists of Hardware, Software, and Wetware.
Hardware: The actual robot itself, and all the mechanical details that go into that.
Software: The code used to make your robot move, and move well.
Wetware: Your driving skill.

Your stats in these sections will be rolled against the Complexity of what you attempt to do. Higher stats will also give you more granular knowledge of the difficulties of the task in that field, and vice versa.

You increase your stats by doing challenges, or doing narrative things that will increase them. I will always mark things that will increase your stats. Do note, however, that sufficiently hard challenges will not reward you with increased stats; this is narratively represented by you having no idea where to start, and tasks that are way too easy will not increase your stats either.

The robot itself has Performance in all three categories.
Performance is how good each of your robot's stats are. Performance is determined by the amount your roll exceeds the Complexity of the task you are trying to accomplish, and the Performance Ceiling that the Complexity sets. You can increase your Performance after you finish building by taking an action to make the robot's stat better, but you cannot raise it higher than the Performance Ceiling without rebuilding the robot.

Complexity is exactly what it sounds like; how complicated is the thing you are attempting? The lower your complexity, the lower your Performance Ceiling is, but the higher your complexity is, the higher the opposing roll is. If you roll higher than the allowed maximum, your stats are set to the allowed maximum. You can increase the Complexity of one of your tasks to lower Complexity in another.

For example, if your robot has high Hardware Complexity, building it will be more difficult, maintaining it will be more difficult, and repairing it will be more difficult. You can lower your Hardware Complexity by offloading some of it into Software Complexity, but bugfixing and programming will get harder if you choose to do so. On the other hand, if your robot has low Hardware Complexity, building, maintaining, and repairing it will be a cinch, but on the other hand, a box on wheels usually doesn't get far in competition.

Social is the catchall for any social interactions you might do, and in competitions and getting parts you're going to need a few. Opposing rolls will be done at QM discretion.

Strategic Level:
You have Revenue, Free Time, and Expenses.
Revenue gives you a steady drip of Expenses; 1 Revenue will give you 1 Expense per week.
Expenses is the abstracted cost of things; this way I don't have to keep track of whatever plane tickets are or how much lexan you can get from this supplier for what price. For reference, going to a Tournament will cost 1 Expense, buying all your parts is usually around 15 Expenses and competing in World Championships will cost 16 Expenses, if you even qualify.
Free Time is the time outside of your normal sessions. You can use this in a variety of ways, from Research to Increasing Revenue.
Each update on the strategic level will be about a week in quest time, or time can be skipped if you so choose.

may post after this

 

[hYGP]

[X] The Unfettered Genius (Hardware++, Software+, Wetware -, Social -, High Growth Potential, No Mentor, No Revenue, 2 Free Time)
You are a virtuoso with your hands and mind, but your driving leaves something to be desired, and something about you has always rubbed people the wrong way. It's not your fault that nobody else can take a little honest criticism! Nevertheless, such little obstacles like a bad rep and no money to speak of won't stop you from becoming World Champion.
[X] Discussing the match with your younger sister. Surprisingly, she loves it!(Either free or potential teammate. Bonus to social rolls when interacting with her)

Better social interactions with sister, sister gains Wetware Bonus. Starting Expenses: 10

"The Shocks are going to win!"

"Mattie, no they aren't. Their robot isn't good enough."

"They totally will! Look at how well they're driving!"

"It's just one move. Besides, the other alliance simply has them outspecced."

"Doesn't matter; look, sis, there goes 964C right around your 'better' team!"

"Okay, fine, you might be seeing something there, but it's not enough to overcome the Juggernauts' early game lead!"

"Think again, sis. Look at how the Shocks are hoarding all the objects. Like the announcer said, they're waiting for that one moment!"

"And when's that moment going to be, huh? The time to outscore Red passed a long time ago!"

"No it didn't, and that moment is riiiiiight now!"

Colene glanced back up at the match. Suddenly, the Blue Alliance retreated to their hoarded objects and began scoring them as fast as possible.

"See? I told you!"

"Doesn't mean they'll win, does it?"

"Maybe not, but they're still doing better than you thought!"

"But it's still not enough, is it? Blue Alliance can't seem to keep up the pace needed to win!"

"But they won't lose either!"

In the end, the final match came down to "did that Blue Alliance robot touch that one scoring object and descore it?" The referees ruled yes, the Juggernauts won, and you lorded it over your sister, who pouted at you in retaliation.

Ah, debating (and winning) with your sister about robotics was fun. Her enthusiasm is honestly a little surprising for you, but hey, you apparently don't know your sister all that well.

"Miss Colene Stringer, stop setting a bad example for Matylda and come do your chores!"

"Coming, Mom! Gimme a second!"

You start thinking while doing your chores. Huh, your mother is yelling at you to pay more attention. You tune her out. It's not particularly important to you, so there shouldn't be that much of a problem, right?

...wait a second, none of those dishes you put back were clean, were they?

Anyway, now you have to start building a robot, but you can't afford much; even the enhanced starter kit is out of your reach. You might be able to build a tolerable base using all your saved money, but if you want better you're going to need more money to buy parts. You could probably go get some sponsorships, or ask for a grant from your school or something. For tools, you can probably "borrow" from your dad's equipment, but they aren't likely to last long under the abuse that is cutting steel parts, and your dad probably won't like finding out you broke all his blades. You'll also want to rope in a chump or two to handle the driving and talking bits; you don't really need them to do anything else except look and drive pretty, you're good enough on your own to do everything else. Maybe your sister?

Hm. Hard problems, recruitment and fundraising are. You decide to at least buy the minimum electronics needed to call your bunch of parts a robot; everything else would have to wait until you got more money. Well, maybe not team registration, you supposed. Best get that done now too, rather than finding out the hard way later when you tried to compete. And maybe - no, Colene, discipline yourself. Control your spending habits.

Free Time! 2 Free Time available
[] Recruit your sister (Difficulty: She seems to like it, should be pretty easy) (Reward: Sister as teammate)
[] Recruit at your school (Difficulty: Should be pretty easy, right? Everybody will want to join me, robotics is great and I'm so good at it!) (Reward: ??? teammate)
[] Recruit in the wild (Difficulty: I dunno, randomly looking for people probably isn't a good idea, and they probably aren't that great) (Reward: ??? teammate)

[] Try to get corporate sponsorships (Difficulty: Those suits will be falling all over themselves to support a new cool STEM program, right?) (Reward: ??? Revenue)
[] Try to get money from friends and family (Difficulty: My family's kinda, uh, I dunno, hard to get money from, I guess? They don't exactly like me doing this, and my friends aren't much better) (Rewards: ??? Expenses)
[] Try to get donations from random people (Difficulty: It worked for the Girl Scouts, why won't it work for me?) (Reward: ??? Expenses)
[] Try to get a job (Difficulty: Some minimum wage job should be willing to hire fourteen year olds, right?)(Reward: 1 Revenue)

[] Forum Crawl (Difficulty: Too easy, nothing to learn here) (Reward: ???)
[] Sketch a design (Difficulty: Not hard at all, kinda want to do this anyway) (Reward: One time bonus to Hardware check)
[] Write in (veto/approval/reinterpretation at GM discretion)

Note: Normally there would be a purchase section, but in the interests of not overburdening you guys, I'm going to call this as "you spend 7 Expenses buying the bare minimum electronics and team registration, and decide to not order any more until you have more cash." Those expenses sure build up fast, don't they? :3

Also: those difficulty ratings are being seen through the lens of your character's social abilities.

 

[hYGP]

[X] Recruit your sister (Difficulty: She seems to like it, should be pretty easy) (Reward: Sister as teammate)
[X] Sketch a design (Difficulty: Not hard at all, kinda want to do this anyway) (Reward: One time bonus to Hardware check)

Design bonus wins! Though I must say that Colene has a...shall we say… interesting definition of "free time".

"Hey sis, whatcha doin'?"

"Registering a team for robotics."

"Cool, can I join?"

You consider declining her for all of exactly zero seconds. How do you play this off, though? Oh wait, you know your sister knows your personality, so you might as well shrug and do whatever you were going to do anyway.

"Sure, Mattie."

"Yay, thanks sis!"

"Please let go of me. I still need to finish registration, you know."

"Sure, no problem!"

That was easy. You hoped everything else would be that easy, too.

---

Hm. Designing a robot with your current resources, on the other hand, was hard. You supposed that you were lucky: most of the goals were relatively low and objects light, so you wouldn't have to build much in the way of arms and reinforcements (that would make the parts list expand real fast). You might be able to do without four motors on the base, but on the other hand, this game also required lots of mobility, so letting others push you around like the lightweights you were probably wouldn't end well. Perhaps you might actually move the motors from the arm to the base instead, and compensate with elastics? Rubber bands were probably the way to go, honestly, seeing how cheap they were relative to, well, everything else. Zip ties, too. You figure you might be able to get them cheaper than bolts and nuts, but, well, holding your robot together with zipties was a temporary solution, not a permanent one.

Absently, you crumple up your current sketch and pull out a fresh sheet. That pile was really starting to build up on your desk wasn't it?

Hm? The teacher wasn't at the front of the room?

"What are you doing?"

"Drawing."

"Drawing in class? It had better be good…"

Your teacher uncrumples one of your various designs. Which one was that one again? Probably the passive intake and arm hookup. Eh, that one was pretty easy, and besides, kinda outdated with your current design.

…

Okay, that silence was starting to freak you out a little.

"...See me after class, Colene."

You sigh. All that buildup, and it's just a detention? Anyway, where were you? Ah, right, whether you should use standoffs for reinforcement…

---

"Miss Stringer, do you know why you are here?"

You roll your eyes. They always lectured you on something about needing to pay attention in class, but Pre Algebra was just such a waste of time. Why shouldn't you study something more useful?

"Yes, Mrs. Connelly."

"I rather imagine you don't, in fact. I'm not here to give you a detention; quite the contrary, I agree that your talents are criminally wasted in Pre Algebra of all things."

Finally, someone who understood! Wait, she might be trying to move you up a class, how would you be able to blow off a higher level math and still pass?

"No, if I had to guess, you belong in Geometry Honors, maybe even Precalculus based on your work here. We could probably ram through a new schedule for you with minimal disruption; a lot of those higher level classes are shamefully unfilled, and your parents aren't likely to kick up a fuss about you doing better in school."

Were you too obvious earlier? You try to hide your apprehension. Calm yourself down. Your teacher is trying to start from a negotiating position of power. Adopt that emotionless mask.

"So what are you after?"

One eyebrow arched into a perfect semicircle. You wished you had an eyebrow raise that good.

"Direct, aren't we? I need someone to babysit my daughter, and you are the best option I have left."

Wait, what?

"You don't pay attention in class, which at your skill level is a correct decision, but yet you never allow your grade to drop below an A+. Besides, I have leverage over you to ensure your cooperation and full attention."

"And what is that?"

"Money to fund your robotics obsession. Running a team out of your garage sure must be hard, huh?"

Welp. Busted.

"What are you offering?"

"Thirty dollars a night. I'll need to work late three or four days out of the week, so that should work well for you."

Do you accept?
[] Yes (-1 Free Time, 1 Revenue, ???)
[] No (???)

The rest of the week flies by, and now you find yourself trying to decide what you want to order first. The competition season was already starting to pick up, and the first competition you could attend was in one month. As far as you can tell, the competition after that would be in about a month and three weeks. What kind of robot do you want to build for that?

Build Options:
[] Medium Complexity (Medium Complexity, High Performance Ceiling, 10 Expenses to complete. While incomplete and above 3 expenses, act as Minimalist with -5 Performance)
[] Low Complexity (Low Complexity, Medium Performance Ceiling, 7 Expenses to complete. While incomplete and above 3 expenses, act as Minimalist with -5 Performance)
[] Minimalist Complexity (Extremely Low Complexity, Low Performance Ceiling, 4 Expenses to complete.)

You suppose that you could try to win as your sister and you, but you have a suspicion that tournaments are going to be crazy if it's just the two of you. Not to mention, you'd have to singlehandedly fund everything yourself as is, but if someone else could share the burden...

Free Time! 2 Free Time available (unless you accept babysitting option)
[] Recruit at your school (Difficulty: Should be pretty easy, right? Everybody will want to join me, robotics is great and I'm so good at it!) (Reward: ??? teammate)
[] Recruit in the wild (Difficulty: I dunno, randomly looking for people probably isn't a good idea, and they probably aren't that great) (Reward: ??? teammate)

[] Try to get corporate sponsorships (Difficulty: Those suits will be falling all over themselves to support a new cool STEM program, right?) (Reward: ??? Revenue)
[] Try to get money from friends and family (Difficulty: My family's kinda, uh, I dunno, hard to get money from, I guess? They don't exactly like me doing this, and my friends aren't much better) (Rewards: ??? Expenses)
[] Try to get donations from random people (Difficulty: It worked for the Girl Scouts, why won't it work for me?) (Reward: ??? Expenses)
[] Try to get a job (Difficulty: Some minimum wage job should be willing to hire fourteen year olds, right?)(Reward: 1 Revenue)

[] Forum Crawl (Difficulty: Too easy, nothing to learn here) (Reward: ???)
[] Sketch a design (Difficulty: Not hard at all, kinda want to do this anyway) (Reward: One time bonus to Hardware check)
[] Write in (veto/approval/reinterpretation at GM discretion)

note: I'm going to be rewriting the mechanics post for a bit to make it make more sense.

 

[hYGP]

[X] Yes (-1 Free Time, 1 Revenue, ???)
[X] Low Complexity (Low Complexity, Medium Performance Ceiling, 7 Expenses to complete. While incomplete and above 3 expenses, act as Minimalist with -5 Performance)

[X] Write in Work with Sister in setting up a gofundme account. Have your parents and math teacher (she gets me!) review it before it goes live to see what they think.

Now you get to see your teacher's hidden motives, order a few parts, and set up a gofundme!

You're regretting your decision greatly. Could you not take your eyes off that brat one second without her nearly killing herself? Now you understand the real reason why no one else was willing to babysit her. All of them must have quit on day two!

And there she went again, with a metal fork and heading to the outlet. Your hand intercepts the back of her shirt.

"Aww, you're no fun."

"And you're an idiot. Has your mom never told you not to stick metal objects into outlets?"

"What's the worst that could happen, anyway?"

"The house catches fire and burns down, with you in it."

"But that's just the worst thing that could happen, right?"

"Best case is you're so clumsy your fork misses the outlet. You're an idiot, though, so you would keep trying until you gave yourself an electrical burn."

"What's an 'electrikal'?"

"You aren't fooling me, miss Connelly."

"But you said I'm an idiot."

Thinking of responses is hard, so you just stick your tongue out at her, and she retaliates in kind.

---

"Yo, sis, can you help me with something?"

"Sure, what is it, Connie?"

You mock glare at your sister. She giggles in response. You just don't have any talent at intimidation, do you?

"I need your help."

"Oh dear, this sounds serious. How much are you willing to pay me?"

This time you actually glare at her. She keeps it up for a few seconds before giving in.

"Fine, fine, what do you need my help with?"

"I want to set up an online fundraiser for our team. Can you help?"

"Sure!"

---

"You look like you have something on your mind, honey."

"Um, I need your help with something...."

"Speak up, Colene, we can't hear you."

"Uh, well, I, uh -"

"She's trying to say we need your help checking over our gofundme fundraiser for our robotics team!"

Your parents' faces go blank. They look at each other, then back at you. The silence is damning. Your dad's shoulders are rising and falling. Your mother's face is growing more stern. The silence is terrifying. You're just on the edge of panicking when -

Your father can't hold it in anymore, and breaks out into laughter. While he's holding in his gut, he starts inching his other hand towards your mother, palm outstretched. Your mother huffs, and crosses her arms.

"Honey, if you wanted help, you should have just asked. We can always take our vacation in Anaheim*, you know."
*Anaheim is the current World Championship location.

"Wait, you guys knew? Why didn't you say anything?"

"We thought you needed some space, so we let you do it yourself. Besides, suffering builds character, so we were okay with you trying and failing for a bit."

"So then you are willing to help?"

"Well, since you asked so nicely...I think we can spare something for your team."

+1 Expenses! +1 Revenue! Tools are automatically replaced every week!

---

Looking back, you aren't sure how you managed to survive the week, but here you are.

"Thank you for dealing with my daugther, Colene. Would you mind staying a while?"

"Sure, I need your help with something anyway."

"Excellent. Come, sit down, let me get you something to drink."

"Thanks, but no thanks. Can we get to the point?"

"Blunt as always, I see. You might want to work on that, by the way."

"There hasn't been a problem, has there?"

"No, but being more, hm, sociable has appreciable benefits, trust me on that."


"Sure." You guess you'll try being a little less honest to all the idiots in the world.

+1 to Social!

"Anyway, what I wanted to discuss was starting a school robotics club."

"Well then why didn't you just start with that?"

And there's that arched eyebrow.

"We talked about this quite literally not two seconds ago."

"Yes, yes, I'm sorry Miss Connelly," you say robotically.

"To answer your question, I needed to see if robotics the concept was motivating you, or just the nuts and bolts, so to speak."

"What's the difference?"

"Whether you actually cared about my daughter or not."

"What?"

"If you tried to make a good impression of your babysitting skills, that means you have some planning ability and at least the ability to care about things not directly related to design work. If you didn't, well, you'd pretty much be focused only on the nuts and bolts."

"But why wouldn't I care about your daughter? She's a human being!"

Miss Connelly snorts.

"I've seen the level of fanaticism that you display in others before you, and it'd be an even split to whether they acknowledged other people existed in the room."

Some traitorous part of you is unsurprised. It's also the part that calls everyone around you irrelevant meatbags, so you do your best to suppress that part.

"Fine, I see your point. So what now?"

"Now? Now I fund your team, get official school sanction, and merge your team with the other one at your school, if both of you want to."

+1 Expenses! +1 Revenue!

"What? There's another team?"

"Yes, led by and consisting of one Ahmad Solberg. I must say, his driving certainly lives up to his name."

"Hm?"

"Oh, nothing. Making a name joke. His driving is quite exceptional, though. Better than I've seen in years."

"Have you talked with him yet?"

"No, not yet. I suppose I should do that soon, no?"

"Wait, one more thing. Has he registered for a team yet?"

"Not that I'm aware of, but I'll discuss it with him."

"Thank you so much, Mrs. Connelly!"

"No problem, I've wanted a robotics club again for a long time. 'The gender balance is terrible,' they said. 'Fund something more equitable, like theater or something', they said. Hmph. We'll show them, won't we?"

"Heh, that we will."

You both sit comfortably in silence for a while.

"Oh! That reminds me. What did you want to talk to me about?"

"Well, I need some help with a gofundme..."

The discussion is long and productive, and you feel considerably better leaving her house than when you entered.

---

Your parts come in on Saturday. All Saturday, you're in your dad's workshop with his blessing. Your hands fly, bolts fall into place, nuts screw themselves into place, axles space themselves. When your sister comes in to break your concentration, you've used all your large steel parts and cannot progress any further without more. You use your hard-earned babysitting money to order some more parts, and begin programming.

Programming language!
[] Graphical language, but kinda out of date (-1 Expense, Extremely Low Complexity, Low Performance Ceiling)
[] C derivative, pretty good (-1 Expense, license expires in one year, Low Complexity, High Performance Ceiling)
[] College team language, free but hard (Free, Medium Complexity, High Performance Ceiling)

If you want, you can timeskip several weeks. If you wish to timeskip, simply vote for as many Free Times as you want to timeskip. The tournaments are three and six weeks away respectively, and you think you can finish the robot with one week to spare for the one three weeks away. Programming is trickier, but you think you can get the hang of it quickly. I as the QM will roll for anything and everything uncompleted in order. Your character sheet is updated with the current information.

Attend the closer tournament?
[] Yes (Competition is likely easier, but less improvement to your robot)
[] No (You'll bide your time to make a better robot.)

Free Time! 1 Free Time available per week!
[] Recruit Ahmad Solberg (Difficulty: There's someone else as dedicated as you are? And who's brilliant at driving?! Hallelujah!) (Reward: Ahmad Solberg as teammate)
[] Recruit at your school (Difficulty: Should be pretty easy, right? Everybody will want to join me, robotics is great and I'm so good at it!) (Reward: ??? teammate)
[] Recruit in the wild (Difficulty: I dunno, randomly looking for people probably isn't a good idea, and they probably aren't that great) (Reward: ??? teammate)

[] Try to get corporate sponsorships (Difficulty: Those suits will be falling all over themselves to support a new cool STEM program, right?) (Reward: ??? Revenue)
[] Try to get money from friends and family (Difficulty: Huh, my immediate family's pretty receptive. I wonder if my distant relatives are the same?) (Rewards: ??? Expenses)
[] Try to get donations from random people (Difficulty: It worked for the Girl Scouts, why won't it work for me?) (Reward: ??? Expenses)
[] Try to get a job (Difficulty: Some minimum wage job should be willing to hire fourteen year olds, right?)(Reward: 1 Revenue)

[] Forum Crawl (Difficulty: Too easy, nothing to learn here) (Reward: ???)
[] Programming Tutorial (Difficulty: How do I find the good ones for robotics?) (Reward: Software+)
[] Sketch a design (Difficulty: Not hard at all, kinda want to do this anyway) (Reward: One time bonus to Hardware check)
[] Write in (veto/approval/reinterpretation at GM discretion)

 

[hYGP]

[5] College team language, free but hard (Free, Medium Complexity, High Performance Ceiling)
[5] Yes (Competition is likely easier, but less improvement to your robot)
[5] Recruit Ahmad Solberg (Difficulty: There's someone else as dedicated as you are? And who's brilliant at driving?! Hallelujah!) (Reward: Ahmad Solberg as teammate)

Huh. First unanimous vote I've seen. Don't think Ukrainian Ranger is going to overturn this vote, so...update!

note: Remember how you have shit social, and can barely keep yourself from referring to everybody as idiots? That's gonna have interesting ramifications.

---

"Whatever it is you're selling, I'm not interested."

"I'm honestly not, so just let me talk, okay?"

This lunchroom recruitment was already off to a fantastic start, you could tell.

"Whatever your 'offer' is, I refuse. I don't care if I'm not supposed to. I refuse."

"But I haven't even said it! Besides, it's not anything bad!"

"Sure, that's what they all say."

"Gah, fine, just listen to me."

"Like you're even giving me the choice."

"Okay, I want you to join my robotics team."

"Why?"

"Oh, listening now?"

"Sure, you aren't trying to press me into anything anymore, so I'll listen."

"Anyway, I'm better at you at the nuts and bolts and you're better than I am at driving, so we should team up and destroy the competition."

"No."

"Why not?"

"There's no point in taking someone else's help to trash the guy you want to beat. I always beat my opponents fairly, not gonna stop now."

"But-"

"Not interested."

You are grudgingly impressed. People who stick by their principles are rare.

"Fine, at least talk to Mrs. Connelly about joining the school robotics club."

Ahmad glances at me, eyebrow raised.

"Since when? There isn't a school robotics club."

"We just made one. Our team is currently the only one in it."

"'Our team'? Didn't I turn you down just now?"

"Details, details. If it makes you feel better, I can say only my team, but are you going to join?"

"I just told you I don't want your condescension. I can do it on my own."

"Have you even registered a team?"

There's a telling silence.

"Listen, dumbass, there's a difference between competing fairly and what you're doing right now. Just join our team and you can beat the guy you want to beat on an even playing field, instead of trying to beat him with a joke robot."

"You just called my skills a joke and you want me to join you?"

"Okay, you have a point. But seriously, just who are you trying to beat?"

"None of your business, jackass. My answer is still no."

Ahmad picks up his tray and leaves. You're frustrated, but at least he sticks to his guns.

Spoiler: Rolz! (spoiler)

You rolled: 228 (88 +64 +10 +20 +30 +16)
Ahmad rolled: 515 (99 +90 +81 +75 +78 +92)
Result:
You rub him the wrong way and you're grudgingly impressed with him. He does not join your team.

---

When you next see Mrs. Connelly, rumors are already starting to fly about you and Ahmad.

She just sighs and lectures you on how being less blunt would've helped you there.

---

You plan on attending the next tournament. Your robot is nearly complete, only requiring a few more parts around the intake, so you begin programming. You promptly run into a few problems with trying to make the code cooperate, but you start getting the hang of it. It's still kind of difficult, so you're really tempted to just make the bare minimum code necessary to run the robot and throw it at your sister. Making anything else would bound to be difficult, and probably wouldn't help you in the upcoming tournament in two weeks. You wish you had Ahmad on your team, but what's done is done.

Coding time! How Complex is your Software?
[] Bare minimum (Extremely Low Complexity, Low Performance Ceiling)
[] Throw in a few sensors or something (-1 Expense, Low Complexity, Medium Performance Ceiling)
[] Go all in on PID, slew rate control, etc. (-2 Expense, Medium Complexity, High Performance Ceiling)

While placing your order for next week, you wonder whether you should order some game objects and field tiles. On the one hand, it'd make things more accurate, but on the other hand, it'll cost basically everything you have saved over the previous week.

Buy Game Objects?
[] Yes (-2 Expenses,across the board bonus Robot Performance and mitigates failures)
[] No

Free Time! 1 Free Time available per week! You may not timeskip past the tournament.
[] Recruit Ahmad Solberg (Difficulty: You didn't get off to a great start, but maybe you can recover things?) (Reward: Ahmad Solberg as teammate)
[] Recruit at your school (Difficulty: Should be pretty easy, right? Everybody will want to join me, robotics is great and I'm so good at it!) (Reward: ??? teammate)
[] Recruit in the wild (Difficulty: I dunno, randomly looking for people probably isn't a good idea, and they probably aren't that great) (Reward: ??? teammate)

[] Try to get corporate sponsorships (Difficulty: Those suits will be falling all over themselves to support a new cool STEM program, right?) (Reward: ??? Revenue)
[] Try to get money from friends and family (Difficulty: Huh, my immediate family's pretty receptive. I wonder if my distant relatives are the same?) (Rewards: ??? Expenses)
[] Try to get donations from random people (Difficulty: It worked for the Girl Scouts, why won't it work for me?) (Reward: ??? Expenses)
[] Try to get a job (Difficulty: Some minimum wage job should be willing to hire fourteen year olds, right?)(Reward: 1 Revenue)

[] Forum Crawl (Difficulty: Too easy, nothing to learn here) (Reward: ???)
[] Programming Tutorial (Difficulty: How do I find the good ones for robotics?) (Reward: Software+)
[] Sketch a design (Difficulty: Not hard at all, kinda want to do this anyway) (Reward: One time bonus to Hardware check)
[] Write in (veto/approval/reinterpretation at GM discretion)

 

[hYGP]

[X] Throw in a few sensors or something (-1 Expense, Low Complexity, Medium Performance Ceiling)
[X] No

[X] Forum Crawl (Difficulty: Too easy, nothing to learn here) (Reward: ???)
[X] Programming Tutorial (Difficulty: How do I find the good ones for robotics?) (Reward: Software+)

Winning vote! We will be timeskipping to the tournament.

---

You click through the forum. You aren't surprised, but disappointed. It's been literally a month since the game was revealed. There's only a bunch of speculation about what might work, and a few prototypes kicking around. Nobody's done anything that interests you, so you close the window out of frustration. You guess you'll check over your homework, since at least that won't be as frustrating as seeing a forum with nobody talking.

---

When you complain about it to Mrs. Connelly, she nods, holding in her mirth. She tells you that it's not terribly unexpected; she had some students that complained about the same thing in years past. Now laughing, she remarked that the forum would usually become more valuable as the season went along. You also let slip your frustration at getting your code to get to work before the upcoming tournament, to which she responds with surprise. She's been checking that tournament page, and she didn't see your team signed up in the Team List. A look of comprehension dawns, before she turns to smile at you knowingly.

"You forgot to register, didn't you?"

Shit! You totally forgot!

-1 Expense! (A/N: Sorry guys, I forgot the tournament registration fee)

---

Coding doesn't go much better. You can feel yourself on the cusp of a breakthrough, but the code is just frustratingly not cooperating with you. You know the goddamn encoder can work, so why is it still throwing all these nonsense values at you?

"Sis, can I drive yet? There's only one week before the tournament, you know."

"Not yet, I gotta fix this before you can drive."

"Fiiiiine. Guess I'll just get all my practice at the tournament then."

---

You decide to go watch some videos and check out some college blogs about programming in this environment. Over the course of watching these videos, you suddenly get the strangest desire to begin bashing your head against the desk - oh wait, that was what the thudding sound was.

It was so obvious in retrospect! Don't trust the encoder to hold your encoder values, hold it in your own variable and constantly refresh the encoder so that static can't interfere!

(+104 One time bonus to Software)
Use it on your robot? Your code is already near perfect....
[] Yes (Enhance performance slightly)
[] No (Keep bonus for later)

---

Friday evening arrives. You got the code done on Thursday, just in time for your sister to try driving for a few hours before the tournament. You made all the functions pretty simple with your code, so it shouldn't be that difficult, right?

Your sister's driving disagrees at first, but as 4:00 becomes midnight, your sister's driving manages to at least be "acceptable". Both of you crash on your beds, barely managing to set your alarms set before you pass out.

---

It's the day of the tournament. You get up before the sky is grey to make it up on time. Your dad is already up, wordlessly getting you some eggs to go with your cereal. A coffee mug is thoughtfully prepared, though annoyingly your sister doesn't seem to need it.

"Ready to go?"

You nod. No time for regrets, now.

---

Okay, there was definitely time for regrets. You had left the wheels in the axles (stupid!) and now all your base axles were bent and twisted from the car ride. It appears as though that it isn't the end of your problems, either; some bouncing parts had apparently gotten lodged into the arm and intake, and now you'd have to fix all of them before the tournament began.


You crick your neck. Not the hardest problem you'd ever seen. Your hands fly, precut axles and spacers sliding into place with all the right spacing, screws and bolts leaping off the affected mechanisms so you could find the obstructions and remove them before screwing them back in better than when you took it apart.

Hardware DC: 1500
Your roll: 1691. Success! You repair everything back, and even improve it slightly.

Your sister was trying to get your attention - oh, right. Inspection.

With a few minutes to spare, you rush through inspection, passing with flying colors. You've got a few minutes (you snigger at that; all these tournaments always started half an hour late) to spare; what do you do?

[] Get your sister to practice driving (Wetware Performance+)
[] Keep refining your autonomous (Software Performance+)
[] Make adjustements to your robot (Hardware Performance+) ahahaha your robot is perfect.
[] Go around and talk to people (Social rolls!)

 

[hYGP]

[X] Yes (Enhance performance slightly)
[X] Get your sister to practice driving (Wetware Performance+)
[X] No (I'll keep it abstracted out to Complexity, Performance, etc.)

A/N: I have come to the conclusion that spreadsheets are the real hell. Simulating the full tournament was probably a bad idea. But hey, at least now the eliminations bracket will be easy to do! goes to sob in corner


You race out to the practice field. The announcer was calling something like driver's meeting or whatever, but you and your sister didn't have time to waste. Your sister grabs the controller, you flip the on switch as you let the robot go, and your sister slams the joysticks forward. Your sister moves from point to point, steadily cutting down on her inaccuracies, beginning to nail things in one go rather than two or three.

+177 Wetware Performance!

Someone was annoying you - oh, they wanted you guys at the driver meeting. You send your sister over, opting to take your robot back and do minor maintenance, while ensuring your batteries were ready to go.

Finally, some interminably long amount of time later (you will forever deny that you were playing Temple Run), they print out the match schedule. You quickly scan it over, eyebrows rising as you notice you are partnered with the same team twice in a row. You glance up - shit, they were one of those teams that showed up with a robot that didn't even work. Well. You hope your sister's okay with winning 1v2s.

Then you flick your eyes back to the top of the sheet and nearly double take. You were up first as Blue!

---

The bell rung, and the referees began scoring, not that the result was ever in doubt. You had basically-deadweight on your team and they had actual deadweight on their team. Finally, as you change your idling motion to twiddling your thumbs for the fifth time today (you've been counting), the referees finally declare the inevitable winner: Blue.

Your Alliance rolled: 2758. Opposing Alliance rolled: 791


Your sister does your robot proud, annihilating the other team's hopes and dreams easily throughout the match. Their deadweight is matched blow for blow with your own, and that left your sister and your glorious robot to dominate the rest of the match.

Your Alliance rolled: 3308+100. Opposing Alliance rolled: 830

The victor was inevitable. You felt no need to show off, only be just as smug going out as you were going in. The slow referees finally catch up with understanding you won that match absolutely, and allow you to take your baby off the field.

---

You switch to your seventh idle cycle. Geez, was it too much to ask for one team that should have even come to the tournament? You think the guy on the other team is trying to hit on you, but you think he's a 2/10, maybe 2.5 if you were generous. Ahmad didn't look much better, but at least he stuck to his principles. That bumped him up to maybe a 5/10 on a good day.

Your Alliance rolled: 1754. Opposing Alliance rolled: 562.

You don't really feel like paying attention to the match. Your sister is just going to destroy the opposition like she did earlier. All that's changed is your team color. What's the point? Nobody's doing anything interesting at all, or even so much as unexpected.

Your Alliance rolled: 2469+100. Opposing Alliance rolled: 1021.

---

You are annoyed. How much of a hint did the other guy need to know you weren't interested? Oh, you won auton again. Surprise surprise.

Your Alliance rolled: 2159. Opposing Alliance rolled: 547

You decide to switch back to your first idle cycle of lazily looking around. Not like there's much to see, your sister's cleaning the other teams out of house and home as expected.

Your Alliance rolled: 2389 + 100. Opposing Alliance rolled: 705

---

As you idly wait, you look at your next teammate. At least it's a different number, so you decide to get up and go - oh, what's this?

Ahmad Solberg, eh?

"We're cooperating in the next match. Don't get in my way."

Okay, what the hell was his problem?

"I'd be worried abo-mmph!"

"What my idiot older sister is trying to say is that we'll work with you, and get out of your way. You are better at driving than me, so if you could give me some pointers, that'd be great!"

Ahmad puffs up slightly.

"Bmph-shmph!"

"Like I said, my sister isn't too bright."

"Your robot is fine, but you shouldn't be slamming all the joysticks all the time; when adjusting, it's better to make very small, subtle movements. You'll probably want to practice something where large and sharp movements are penalized in an obvious way; maybe ask your asshole of a sister to make your controller nonresponsive if you make a movement that's too sharp."

"Mmm stmmm hmmm!"

"Thank you, I'll remember that. Do you need anything for auton?"

"No, not really. Do you?"

You try to nod. Your sister's grip is stronger than your neck muscles, unfortunately. Damn, maybe you should do this "exercise" thing sometime.

"Nah, let's just flip a coin to figure it out."

Your eyes widen in understanding. Your sister was a clever bastard, pulling out the coin with one face.

"Heads you get the autoloader?"

"Fine by me."

The outcome was only in doubt for Ahmad, because that coin was rigged to be heads on both sides. Not that either sister would admit to such trickery.

"Huh. Alright, thanks. Looks like it's time to go; ready?"

"Yeah, good luck!"

Ahmad chuckled to himself.

"You too, you too."

---

You demolish the other side. They've got one deadweight, and one team who was better off not showing up to the field, so the autonomous wasn't even in question.

Your Alliance rolled: 2917. Opposing Alliance rolled: 527.

The less said about driver period, the better.

Your Alliance rolled: 3830 + 100. Opposing Alliance rolled: 763.

---

Lunch is over quickly as you consume the food of champions, by which you mean, cheapass pizza so oily you were seriously considering using it as lubricant. It'd probably be illegal, but then again, using this much oil on a slice of bread should be illegal too. You really can't wait to get back to the pits to keep obsessing over the smallest details, or have your sister go through more driving.

You throw away the half full knockoff Coke on your way back. You were never getting that brand again. You don't know how your sister stands it, let alone guzzle the heretical concoction by the gallon.

She's chatting with Ahmad, which you guess is a good thing for the future. Besides, he likes her a lot more than he likes you, so it should be better in the long run...

Wait a minute. Were they bonding over a shared love of that?

Never mind. This was emphatically not good news. You need to nip this in the bud, quickly.

And then your throat decides to kindly choke on your barbeque chips. You suppose you have their attention now, but for some strange reason you can't quite hack it out -

WHAM!

You stagger forward. One way to handle it, you suppose. Probably your sister up to it again. At least the obstruction is gone now, so you guess you'll thank your helper, who is...?

"Sorry about that, you looked like you were having trouble. Name's Michaela, what's yours?"

"Colene."

"Silent type? Ah, those are always the smartest, aren't they?"

You know this is flattery. You can't help but like her anyway.

"Well, see you around. Good luck!"

You smile, and wave back. Your sister gasps in false horror. You send her the appropriate one fingered salute.

---

Your opponents don't even show up to the fifth match. On the one hand, it is entertaining that you're so good that the other team decided not to show up, but on the other hand it's annoying when the only other person you have to measure yourself against is your alliance partner. At least they were acceptable alliance partners, so that's a bright spot.

Your Alliance rolled: 3214. Opposing Alliance rolled: 0.

Your Alliance rolled: 4122 + 100. Opposing Alliance rolled: 0.

---

Of course, your new alliance partner had to be one of those robots that were actively harmful to put on the field. You can still win, it's just annoying that those guys even bother showing up to the competition.

Your Alliance rolled: 1645. Opposing Alliance rolled: 1241.

Driver period wasn't much better.

Your Alliance rolled: 2045 + 100. Opposing Alliance rolled: 1839

---

Finally all the matches were over, and it was time for the results of the Qualifiers and to begin Alliance Selection.

/** Alliance Selection is the phase of the tournament where alliances for the Eliminations Round are made. First, all the teams will be ranked by their win records, with any ties broken by the sum of the losing alliance scores in their matches. (I've already handled all of that offscreen, so the ranking list is as it appears. Unfortunately, I can't give you exact numbers on the latter because the match system I'm using doesn't translate well). Then, the top eight teams will ask other teams to join their alliance, starting from first seed and going down the line. If a picking team is selected by another higher ranked picking team and agrees, the team that is just outside of the picking teams becomes a new picking team. There will be two rounds of Alliance Selection, but the vote for this section is to prioritize which teams you want to pick/get picked by.
*/

Spoiler: Ranking List

Rank	Colene's comments
3498B	This team is just a smidge worse than the others in their club, but luck makes up the difference.
8452	You wish you were number one, but them's the breaks.
3948X	Very high quality autonomous, but robot is lacking.
3948C	High quality all around.
9931	Definitely above average, but they're no 3498 or you.
111D	Lucky bastard, has nothing else going for their team.
3498	This team...this team is actually really impressive. How are they this low, considering that it looks like they got all the budget in their club?
111C	How did this deadweight get into the top eight?
7959	Deadweight, performing above expecations.
111B	Deadweight, performing above expectations.
8452A	Ahmad's team. Pretty good, but not the best.
8856D	Stupidly lucky garbage.
3498A	Placed really surprisingly low; probably bad luck
111A	Deadweight, but not quite garbage.
8856A	Garbage that got lucky.
3498Y	Placed unexpectedly low; maybe a streak of bad luck?
3498Z	^^^
5974Y	It's all garbage from here on down
111F
111E
5947Z
5947W
5947X
8856B
162

Vote! Who do you want to pick/get picked by? Your vote should be organized by higher preference first, e.g a vote for

[]3498
[]3498B
[]3498X
[]8452A

will indicate your first preference is 3498, your second is 3498B, third is 3498X, fourth is 8452A, and if you can't pick/get picked by any of those, pick a reasonable other choice, as opposed to:

[]8452A

which signals that you want Ahmad's team or bust, letting your sister handle the rest if you can't pick or get picked by Ahmad's team, or even,

[] Trust in your sister (aka give the QM all of Colene's agency)

which will give me control of Alliance Selection in it's entirety.

I'll handle things according to your preferences, along with playing out Alliance Selection and Eliminations in full in the next update.

edit: Oh, uh, I should probably give you guys the chance to pick your team name, since I rolled your number in the background.

[][Team Name] Write-in

 

[hYGP]

[X]8452A
[X]3498X
[X]3498

[X][Team Name] Knotty Strings

A/N: Wow, so tournament arcs are popular!

All the teams lined up in their ranks. It chafed at you to be number two, when what you really wanted to be was number one at Worlds, but everyone has to start somewhere.

"Team 3498B, who would you like to ask to your alliance?"

The team captains and representatives in the lower ranked crowd tried to get 3498B's attention, to no avail; from the beginning,

"Team 3498B would like to request the assistance of team 3498."

It was inevitable, really. They were from the same club, and team 3498 was scarily good for their ranking.

"Team 3498, do you accept?"


"Team 3498 gratefully accepts."

"Alright, team 8452, who would you like to ask to your alliance?"

You decide to follow the template that 3948B has so graciously provided you.

"Team 8452 would like to request the assistance of team 8452A," you say, voice growing flatter by the syllable.

"Team 8452A, do you accept?"

You allow yourself a small smirk(read: Matylda counted the number of molars in Colene's shark like smile). You know Ahmad cannot turn you down, because if he refused, nobody else could pick him. He'd also be smart enough to know that everybody good would have been picked by the time he got to pick, so he really has only one choice;

"Team 8452A accepts." Ahmad grinds out.

Good boy, seeing good sense where it was.

You tune out the rest; maybe the 3498X alliance might turn out to be okay, but after that it was all deadweight and don't-bring-your-robot-to-the-match teams. You relucantly concede that maybe, just maybe 9931 might be worth paying attention to, but aside from that whatever teams are left aren't your concern.

"Hello, Team 8452? Who would you like to pick for your second alliance partner?"

You abruptly snap out of it, face flaming faster than that time your sister convinced you to try her "mild" sauce.

"Uh, we'd like to invite, uh, team -" you sweep your eyes over the unpicked crowd quickly" - 3498Z!"

"Team 3498Z, do you accept?"

"Team 3498Z graciously accepts." (A/N: This is a thing at competitions, where reps will say "XXXX team graciously accepts" when accepting, maybe to show how gracious they are?)

Ahmad and your sister the traitor is sniggering at your expense, and the representative from 3498Z doesn't do anything as uncouth as giggling, but the gleam in his eyes tells you he's laughing too.

"I hate all of you," you murmur.

Eyes gleaming, his lips still in that aggravating "I'm refined and you ruffians aren't" half smile, the guy from 3498Z asks for a plan. Your traitor of a sister snaps out of giggling and gives her the plan straight, which you suppose is a good idea, especially considering your own...talent with words.

"Okay, we'll start with us and 8452A on the field for the first match..."

---

You straighten. Your opponents belonged in the finals, robots looking good instead of being deadweight. You stop your idling motions; now is not the time for idle motion but full attention.

"Autonomous in 3...2...1! Begin!"

Robot has reached point A a half second in front of opponent, but Ahmad is lagging behind his opponent. Irrelevant; you think that combined the two alliances are close together - wait, the other team's orientation is off by one degree! That probably means their battery is slightly lower than they expected, since all their motions are just under what they need to be, and that should all add up to -

3498C missed the final object, the one which would have tied the autonomous.

Your Alliance rolled: 2882. Opposing Alliance rolled: 2783.

The referees are counting, but you can't help but feel an urge to bite your nail. Just because you won autonomous doesn't mean you'll win driver control; you're not sure what to expect from the other alliance that now stands a very good chance of beating you. Sure, team 3498C's battery has run down slightly, but that doesn't mean anything until mechanisms start significantly slowing down; the driver can compensate for a few errors here and there.

"Autonomous: Red! Driver Control in 3...2...1! Begin!"

Ahmad's robot changed. In his hands, the robot that had been falling behind suddenly leapt to life, nearly doubling it's performance from autonomous. He wasn't quite at the level of their opponents; such were the limitations of his robot. Your sister on the other hand, were just a mite off in all the places, but your robot was fast and the software so idiotproof that you would have overmatched any other team on the field one on one.

"Mattie, corner is open, avoid center, Ahmad's about to go through there."

"Swinging past center into scoring zone, sweep the sides after the corner to lemme out."

"Aim for that cluster, ignore the one close to you."

"Now, switch into the scoring zone!"

The match flies by, robots charging and weaving around each other to score more and deny opponents the same. It comes down to the buzzer, as your sister backs out and Ahmad rushes in, five seconds on the clock.

Four seconds. He's over the line, denying your sister exit.

Three seconds. He releases his object out of your sister's path of travel, and slams his joysticks backward.

Two seconds. Your sister does the same, but your robot's current high center of mass disagrees with the motion.

One second. Your sister promptly halts her actions and drops her controller on the ground. Your robot hangs in the air for one eternity. Its front wheels are just barely on the right side of the line.

Zero. The bells ring, but no one wants to breathe. Everybody is waiting on which way the wind blows, and nobody wants to be the one who blows wrong.

It tips over, slowly but inexorably. The two wheels that have thus far acted as the fulcrum steadily roll as the robot corrects its center of mass. And it tips back onto its own four wheels, well clear of the scoring zone.

It's your victory.

Your Alliance rolled: 4378 + 100. Opposing Alliance rolled: 4122.

---

After that match, you feel much more relieved. The other team on the opposing alliance was total garbage, so you could probably 1v2 them, no sweat. You decide to destress by watching the other Quarterfinals. The other bracket, of the fifth through eighth alliances were all garbage; even the alliance that you had just won against could win every match against them.

And then Quarterfinals 1-2 comes up. Team 3498 and their Y team takes the field against their A team and 162. The result is obvious, but what's shocking to you is the sheer victory margin.

3498's Alliance rolled: 34??. 3498A's Alliance rolled: 15??

Autonomous was a crushing defeat for the other team. Their auton was, you reluctantly admit, better than yours. And then Driver Period rolled around.

3498's Alliance rolled: 5??? 3498A's Alliance rolled: 2???

How would you beat them?

---

Your Alliance rolled: 2082. Opposing Alliance rolled: 1782.

Your Alliance rolled: 3663+100. Opposing Alliance rolled: 2035.

You idly note that you've destroyed the other alliance as you rapidly work through a way to try to win against that team.

You figure you can mix up the teams in the two guaranteed matches; attempting to match up your stronger teams with their "weaker" teams.
[] Yes (Play 3498Z in the first match, play 8452A in the second match, remaining matches play 8452A)
[] No (Play 8452A in the first match, play 3498Z in the second match, remaining matches play 8452A)

You might also want to try Desperate Measures, but on the other hand, they're pretty desperate...
[] Software. (Roll 1d10. Add Check-7 die to your rolls. (e.g if you roll a six, take a one dice malus, if you roll an eight, gain one dice bonus)
You think you can squeeze just that little bit of optimization out, but you'll have to pray that your adjustment doesn't screw over the current functioning controls.
[] Wetware (Roll 1d10. Add Check-6 die to your rolls. (e.g if you roll a three, take a three die malus, if you roll an eight, gain two bonus die)
Maybe if your sister plays just that little bit riskier, you can win...
[] Don't take Desperate Measures (No check.)
No writein for this section; you can't take a desperate Hardware measure because your robot is perfect and mostly because you can't compete if you modify anything major due to Inspection closing down.

I will roll according to the vote, but I will display the results. No rolling without QM permission.