Remembering 2019's Off-season Brazil

Today’s post is all about remembering an important milestone in the history of our country, the 2019’s OFF-SEASON!

On the 28th and 29th of September, our team was part of the FIRST Brazilian FRC event in more than ten years. OFF-SEASON Brazil was very similar to the official regionals and it was organized by two teams from Rio Grande do Sul, team 1156 (Under Control) and team 1772 (Brazilian Trail Blazers).

In total, 10 Brazilian FRC teams got reunited with the purpose of disseminating STEAM in a community that is used to taking tiny steps towards the spreading of science and technology… Since 2008, no FRC-related event had occurred around here.

On the 27th, FRC 5800 departed from Florianópolis toward Novo Hamburgo, RS, city where the event would be held. Part of our team left a day earlier to attend the test rounds and some of the qualification rounds, in which our team did an excellent job!

On the second day of the competition, the rest of the teams who were going to the event arrived, as well as multiple people who were there to cheer for us!

The last qualifying matches were held and to our delight we qualified for the semifinals after finishing 3rd in the ranking.

Just like the official competitions, the teams that were in the first positions became the alliance keys, and therefore selected the other teams that made up the alliance in the semifinals and finals (unlike the official competitions, the alliances consisted of 2 teams, not 3). Our team invited FRC team 1860, AlphaBots from SP.

So we went to the semifinals, where we got a great result and so we could move on to the finals. On one side, teams 1772 and 1156, on the other, 5800 and 1860. A very fierce dispute. The first match was theirs, the second was ours, and the third, incredible as it may seem, they called it a DRAW…

We then had to make the fourth and final match of the finals. It was the decisive match and the most tense… In the end, with the result announced, we were runners-up, a great achievement, which we are very proud of. We take the opportunity to thank FRC team 1860 for accepting the invitation and joining us in the last matches, you guys killed it! Also to congratulate teams 1772 and 1156 for the honorable win.

After the finals, it was awards hour! There we went to receive the finalists trophy. The feeling at that moment was indescribable, we were very happy! And not only for our result, but for seeing a beautiful event like that happening here, in our country… Seeing so many Brazilian teams gathered is a great achievement that is due to the willpower of all the people who work daily to make the FRC develop in Brazil.

And that is why we must preserve something as grand as this event. We can't wait for OFF-SEASON Brazil 2020.