On Friday we finished second in the four-legged-league at the German Open 2008. We played the German Team in the finals, and lost 1-2 in regular time. Last year we finished 3rd, and lost 0-8 to the German Team. Looking over the video of the final, we were still struggling to find and grab the ball, as well as to stay localized on such a large field, leading us to shoot next to the goal sometimes, as well as choose the wrong kick sometimes. Overall, the experience was really good for us – remote competition is definitely a different beast than competing in person, but it does help us pin point many areas for improvement. Take a look at the video of the first and second half.

Getting a chance to play on a larger field in not-so-great lighting conditions is really useful because we can only fit a 72% size field in our lab. Once class get out next week, we’ll move into a bigger space where we can have both the Nao and the Aibo fields out at once. Also, we’re planning to have a public scrimmage the weekend after this during reading period – exact date and time to be announced soon.

With some more work over the next couple months, our second meet-up with the German Team in China is going to be an exciting game.