The Space RAIDers entered their second competition of the 2016 season at Harford Technical High School in Bel Air, MD riding a wave of confidence from their performance at the Greater D.C. event a week prior. The team set up the pit and got inspected on Friday, and things went smoothly. On Saturday, the Space RAIDers did not have the same great start that they had had at their previous competition. Due to a number of factors, including difficulty with mechanisms, code, and communications/power issues, team 2537 lost its first two matches of the day, and finished the day in 12th place with a record of 5-4, a far cry from the one-loss first place position they had held at the same point a week before. Additionally, the troubles with the breacher arm continued, as once again, the knuckles broke as a result of the arm forcefully hitting an obstacle, otherwise known as the wall. After the break, the team had a quick turnaround for their next match, giving them little time to make a complete replacement, so in the interest of expediency, they attached the prototype single arm. The outer works selected for the next match included the cheval de frise, which the double arm configuration had been designed for, and so there was some question going into the match as to how successful any attempt at crossing with the single arm would be. Much to the team's surprise, the drivers reported that the single arm configuration was much easier to use, and it also had the advantage of being less breakable. The Space RAIDers decided to keep that configuration for the remainder of the competition, and as qualification rounds wound down on Sunday, team 2537 was once again ranked 5th after going 3-0 to finish out their qualification matches Sunday morning. Much like the previous event, the Space RAIDers were initially ranked 5th entering alliance selection, but with the 1st seed selecting the 2nd seed, team 2537 moved up to become the 4th seeded alliance captain. With their first round pick, the Space RAIDers selected team 5115, the Knight Riders, based on their strength as a breacher, and with their second round pick, team 2537 selected team 4456, the Mech Cadets, thinking that they could prove effective as a defensive robot. In the quarterfinals against the 5th seeded alliance, the Space RAIDers played some very close matches, winning the first by 6 points, the second by 5 points, and the third "rubber-match" by just one point. Having escaped the quarterfinal round, the team then came up against the 1st seeded alliance in the semifinals, similarly to the situation in which they were eliminated one week prior. The Space RAIDers and their alliance took the first and second matches, advancing to finals. The team was beyond excited to have upset the first seeded alliance, doing what they had come so close to doing the week before. The Space RAIDers had, before this event, been to one other finals in their team's history: at the 2014 Greater D.C. Regional Competition competing in the game Arial Assist. That event, they were the second round pick of the 6th seeded alliance, led by Team 1418 Vae Victus and Team 1885 ILITE Robotics. Their cinderella run to the finals came up just short, as the team lost in the third match of finals against a first seeded alliance composed of the number one and two ranked teams in the competition, but the memory of the event was not lost on 2016's Junior and Senior Space RAIDers. (video of the event here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXKgW... ) Now, the Space RAIDers were entering their first finals as an alliance captain, playing against the 2nd seeded alliance led by team 1111 Powerhawks. The first match did not go according to plan, and the team quickly found themselves and their alliance partners in a 0-1 hole, needing to win their next two matches to keep alive their hopes of a first event win in team history. To halt the momentum of the 1st seeded alliance, the strategy department made the decision to use the timeout allotted to elimination alliances after having lost the first match. After regrouping, the Space RAIDers and their alliance partners performed much better in their second match, with team 4456 playing excellent defense which allowed the other two robots on the alliance to keep pace with the scorers of the opposition. With a win in match two, the 4th seeded alliance had forced a final tie-breaking match to decide the competition. In the final match, the opposing alliance captain got stuck in one of the outer works, and was unable to free themselves, putting a major dent in their scoring ability. The Space RAIDers and their alliance partners had won the event, and the stands went crazy. It was an emotional moment to say the least, thinking about all the challenges of this season and close losses of years past. The Space RAIDers qualified for District Championships at the XFINITY Center in College Park
