Winner is not the best.

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Winner is not the best
----To all CS1101S Schemers in Robot Contest
Although we win the robot contest, we are not the winner.At least in my mind, I do not deserve the winner.When I try to remember the things happening on Wednesday night, things became unbelievable.To be more precise, doubtful.
After the contest, I went back to my place, started thinking what the hell was happening.Before the contest, I had been thinking about how can we win, but now, ironically, I have to think about why we win.One thing is clear. Our robot is not the best.
Although I was excited about the “winner thing”, I could not understand it.As you have seen, in the contest, our robot has one unique and decisive advantage: it starts fast, much faster than other robots.
When Laurence said “start”, when my opponent and I pressed the orange button on the robot almost at the same time, quite strangely, our robot started moving almost immediately, but the other robot waited and waited, until our robot was in front of it...
That’s why our robot could win easily, that’s why games with our robot seemed boring.This "quick start" advantage “killed” other robots. It is like a superpower.The superpower that is unfair.
It became a mystery in my mind, so I really cannot accept the winner.I have been thinking what makes our robot start quickly in the last three days, finally, I got the answer, then I was depressed.
It is not because our robot has faster processor (“CPU”).It is not because our robot reads better code (I wrote the code, I knew it).It is because of one mistake I have made.Not about hardware, not about software, it is about firmware.
The original firmware in the controller is version 1.05, but I downgrade the firmware to version 0.85 since I found my PC cannot upload files through USB cable with 1.05. That’s why our robot is different from others. It has older firmware, and most of the robots use the original firmware (1.05). It turns out that firmware 0.85 needs less time for initialization, so our robot can start much more quickly.
Damn it, I don’t know this before the contest.I hate the feeling that you own something you do not deserve.Our robot design is not creative enough, our program may not be clever enough.Merely because of one mistake I have made, it gives our robot most powerful advantage.We have not even got to test the program in the contest, the game finished already.I know this is lucky, but to me, it is more unlucky.
I apply for this blog and write this article is just to let you know the truth.
Also, winner is not the best.  Your robot may be much better than ours.
Some thanks to my teammates,Jingping builds the front slope, which is a quite valuable weapon our robot relies on.Yi Xiang builds the back motor, which offers additional and crucial power to the robot.Hyo Jin is an excellent team worker.My friend Han Jian, gave advices on reinforce front slope.
I was quite enjoying this robot project before the contest, but because of the “firmware-winning” thing, I decide to avoid mentioning it.Now, it is time to dismantle it.