Week One
Our season begins on January 9th with the FIRST FRC Kickoff. For teams from western Washington, we gathered at Mountlake Terrace High School to learn what the 2010 game would be. The game announcement is simulcast to similar kickoff events around the globe. After the game announcement, teams attending the kickoff event break up so inter-team brainstorming begins. This gives all participants a chance to get their head in the game. After brainstorming, many of our team members assist rookie and sophomore teams in building the kit bot provided by FIRST. After kickoff, our team begins examining the rules before brainstorming. By examining the rules beforehand, we have a better knowledge of how the game is played. Our members are required to take a game rules test. After the rules test, our team splits up into small groups to brainstorm game strategies, goals, and rough robot designs. From kickoff to shipping is just forty-five days. We, like all other FRC teams, must design and build a competition ready robot in that time.

Week Two
During week two, we decide on a rough robot design and our team breaks up into the subteams. These subteams include Systems Integration, Safety, Marketing, Programming, CAD, and Build team (Drive, Lift, Kicker, and Field). All subteams use this week to teach underclassmen the skills needed for each subteam. After training, the CAD, Build and Programming teams collaborate on the robot design with input from mentors, the coach and team. Many parts are created from the CAD designs and made with our sponsor OMAX. Hopefully by the end of this week, a drive base prototype is completed and ready for programming. The kicker team also makes a prototype for the kicker design. At the same time, Systems Integration begins looking over rules and requirements for the Chairman's Award. The Safety Team prepares a presentation for the entire team before the build teams starts. Marketing begins sketching the newest skunk design, with elements of this year’s game. Each team is getting prepared for the upcoming weeks and start scheduling for the season.

Week Three
This week begins with a safety presentation by the Safety Captain, in which the entire team views a presentation and is tested on it. This is necessary to ensure the safety of all team members. The drive base is programmed and tested. From this testing, we are able to find minor flaws in our design and are prepared for "tweaks." The Programming team starts to program the base preparing for autonomous. The kicker team continues testing on their prototype. Systems Integration finalizes our Chairman's Award presentation and creates a scouting plan to use during competition. The Marketing team decides on a final design for the skunk logo and begin applying it to various items.

Week Four
Our team is working very hard on the robot, and the documents! The kicker items were water-jetted at OMAX, and are almost ready for assembly. The programming team is continuing to teach new members by "perfectly" programming the drive base. The build teams are all working on the transmission and kicker assembly. Thankfully, the kicker is mostly put together and mounted on the drive base. Not only did we mount the kicker frame, we also tested a kicker concept, using an innovative testing mechanism (a screwdriver!). We finished the week by putting the chains together and adding tensioners to the chains. The drive base is now waiting on the mecanum wheels and the electrical system!

Week Five
The build team is definitely feeling the crunch, yet other subsystems are actually ahead of schedule, a first on our team. This week mecanum wheels for the final robot have been made, taken apart, and remade, following one of our mottos, "If it's finished, break it and build it better." The electrical team is preparing the electrical board for mounting on the base, so the kicker team can finish mounting the rest of the assembly. Systems Integration is editing the Chairman's Document. Meanwhile, the programming team is testing camera tracking on the practice bot. The Marketing team is making tweaks around the web site, and designing new buttons for the first Regional. Also, the practice field is coming together piece by piece. We hope to have it done as soon as possible, so other teams can drive their bots!

Week Six
Our robot will be done on the final day of this week so drivers can practice and we can show our work off to the teams coming to our practice field. The kicker and electrical systems are finished and we got the top frame done and added netting for safety. The programmers completed the autonomous program, along with adding new code on the robot. The marketing team was able to submit the web site on time, without hassle, while the CAD team finished all of their CAD models before the due date. We are very proud of our systems integration team who turned in their Chairman’s Award document two days before their deadline! We all joined in to help put together our MicroRAX pit which will be sure to turn many heads at the regionals.

We had a great pre-ship party with all of our sponsors, friends and families who were able to watch our robot and enjoy ice cream sundaes! We debuted our latest robot, Pelé Le Pew, who was packed up and shipped out the next day. We are now preparing for upcoming competitions in Portland, Seattle and Atlanta.