Athena and Beta Round Two: Brunswick Eruption

For the past year, Nemesis competed with a frisbee-shooting robot named Athena. Over the summer, the team decided to build an additional full-court shooter robot, dubbed Nemesis Beta 2690. With a fresh set of members and a new robot, the team competed at this year’s Brunswick Eruption, an off-season robotics event hosted by North Brunswick High School.

Qualification matches were brutal. Entering its ninth competition, Athena was accustomed to harsh defense—almost 120 matches worth. The conditioned robot was constantly bulldozed into the pyramid, on top of already facing a rough day with unexpected problems.

“I saw it all through my camera and I captured every moment. When Athena went to hang, you could hear the pneumatic arms hiss, but she was not elevated when the buzzer sounded. When it was time to clear her from the field and Josh saw what went wrong, he burst out laughing. The breaking of the piston was inconceivable,” senior Stephanie Kovacs recalled.

“No one thought that this would ever happen. It is extremely unlikely to have a piston fall off,” Christian Gavalchin, a build member, expressed. But the drivers didn’t let this setback get to them. In a stunning turn of events, both robots seeded within the top eight by the end of the qualifying rounds—Nemesis at first seed with Beta following closely behind at fifth seed. An opportunity rose for our main team to choose our very own rookie once again.

In the end, Nemesis and Beta finished the competition as semifinalists. Despite the mishaps, the team was satisfied with the strong conclusion of the 2013 season. Brunswick Eruption brought the era of Athena to a close and marked the beginning of her well-deserved retirement. Along with her battle scars and amputated limbs, Athena will live on.