The national competiton took place February 24-26 in Nashua, New Hampshire. The first day was set-up and practice. On the 25th each of the 44 machines was scheduled to compete in 5 seeding rounds; the robot with the best overall record won the highest seed, with ties broken by the total number of pints scored. Robocolt placed first in four rounds and second in one, good enough to earn the second seed for the tournament the next day. Click here to see the tournament chart.
Robocolt easily won its first tournament match. In its second, there were some frightening moments as the forward mobility malfuctioned partway through the match. Luckily Robocolt was able to score enough points with balls that were already collected to win the match and advance to the semifinals.
In the semifinal round, drivers Pat Milligan and Tim Henson tried hard, but were unable to defeat the Texas Instruments/Denison High School machine. The Robocolt team finished the competition tied for third place, with a National Semifinalist trophy and a special All-Star Rookie award.
