Poudre FLL 2023
Every year I volunteer at the Poudre First Lego League (FLL) regional qualifier as a way to give back to the community that helped set me on the path that made me who I am today. After all, I participated in this event for the first time back in 2001. The tournament wasn't anything different than what I've helped out in the past. There were 64 teams there with 6 playing fields for 6 teams to be competing all at once.
Each year, the game has some kind of theme. This one was named "Master Piece". I can usually deduce what the theme is based on the interviews I get to sit in on with the students, but this year I didn't have a clear idea of what it was. Something about art is all I could discern, but usually the theme is a little less vague than that.
One great thing about this year was that I had a new camera that does a substantially better time with low light than my previous cameras. This is due to the fact that it's a full-frame camera plus technology getting better and better. With my old camera being 8 years old, my new one really packed a punch for photography this year. But since I'm new to this camera, I don't have a lot of lenses for it which made it a little difficult to photograph this event. But my trusted 50mm lens turned out to be great for most of the photos.
![Game Board](/photos/2023/november/album271803IMG_07910.jpg)
Game Board
This was the game board that the children had their Lego robots work on. It was quite colorful this year which makes it harder to use the color sensors to help keep the robots to know where they are and what to do next.
![Lego Dragon](/photos/2023/november/album271803IMG_07895.jpg)
Lego Dragon
This is one of the game pieces that the students Lego robot had to interact with. The game makers usually try and make the pieces fun and not just functional.