The Campaign That Changed Nations

The Gallipoli Campaign, known to Turks as the Battle of Çanakkale, began on April 25, 1915, when Allied forces attempted to force passage through the Dardanelles Strait. The strategic objective was ambitious: capture Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul), knock the Ottoman Empire out of the war, and establish a supply route to Russia through the Black Sea. What planners expected to be a swift operation instead became an eight-month ordeal that would define the national consciousness of Turkey, Australia, and New Zealand.

The peninsula, stretching approximately 60 kilometres into the Aegean Sea, became the stage for one of history’s most brutal campaigns. The terrain itself posed enormous challenges – rugged cliffs, steep ravines, and scrubland that offered little cover but countless hiding places for defenders. The geography that made Gallipoli strategically valuable also made it nearly impossible to conquer.

The Making of Atatürk

Among the Ottoman commanders defending Gallipoli was a 34-year-old lieutenant colonel named Mustafa Kemal, who would later become known as Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey. His actions at Gallipoli, particularly his defense of Chunuk Bair, established him as the “Rock of Gallipoli” and catapulted him into national prominence.

Kemal’s tactical brilliance and inspirational leadership during the campaign became legendary. When he famously told his troops, “I am not ordering you to attack, I am ordering you to die,” he embodied the desperate determination that would ultimately repel the Allied invasion.

Kemal’s success at Gallipoli wasn’t just tactical; it was transformational. His ability to coordinate defenses, inspire troops, and maintain morale under impossible circumstances demonstrated the leadership qualities that would later make him the founding father of the Turkish Republic. The victory at Gallipoli became a cornerstone of Turkish national identity and pride, representing the last great stand of the Ottoman Empire and the birth of modern Turkey.

The Staggering Scale of Loss and a Personal Connection to History

The numbers behind the Gallipoli Campaign reveal its devastating human cost. Over 559,000 Allied personnel participated in the campaign, facing more than 300,000 Ottoman defenders. The casualty figures paint a sobering picture of the campaign’s brutality. The Ottoman Empire paid the highest price, with over 87,000 deaths and 300,000 total casualties. Among the Allied forces, Britain and Ireland lost 29,500 lives, Australia 8,709, New Zealand 2,779, and France 12,000. These numbers represent not just military statistics but entire generations of young men who never returned home.

In our tour group, there was a woman from New Zealand whose family story brought the campaign’s human cost into sharp focus. She found the grave of her grandfather’s cousin, who had died during the campaign. Through the Commonwealth War Graves Commission records, she located his final resting place among the rows of white headstones that now mark the peninsula’s cemeteries. She later shared that other family members had survived Gallipoli only to die later at the Battle of the Somme, where over 57,000 British casualties occurred on a single day.

A Source of National Pride

For Turkey, Gallipoli represents far more than a military victory – it embodies the spirit of national resistance and the birth of modern Turkish identity. The campaign is celebrated as a defining moment when Ottoman forces, under Kemal’s leadership, successfully repelled a major Allied invasion. This victory became a rallying point for Turkish nationalism and continues to be commemorated as a source of immense national pride.

The Turkish government established the Gallipoli Peninsula Historical National Park in 1973, covering over 33,000 hectares and including it in the United Nations list of National Parks and Protected Areas. The park serves both as a historical preserve and a place of pilgrimage for Turks, who visit in large numbers to pay their respects to the “Martyrs of Çanakkale”.

See more photos of Gallipoli here

Strasbourg

Strasbourg is in the historic region of Alsace-Lorraine. The unique thing about Alsace-Lorraine is that in the span of 100 years it has flipped back and forth multiple times between France and Germany as a result of three wars (the Franco-Prussian War, World War I, and World War II). As a result, the city shares cultures from both countries. This is super evident in a part of town called Petite France, most notably the timber framing around each building. The local dialect Alsatian, also has Germanic origins.

It’s also the home of the European Parliament. This is where over 700 democratically elected Members of European Parliament pass legislation.

Thus far, in France, I had been speaking my very limited French here and there whenever I needed it. As we waited for the tour, a Middle Eastern fellow struck up a conversation with me in French, kind of just asking us where we were from etc. It was kind of weird, but we went along with it anyway – it didn’t seem like he was a pickpocket or anything. I managed to get pretty far in the conversation in French actually, which surprised me quite a bit. He told me that he had moved to France from Afghanistan after working there as part of the local security forces, and even showed me his old Afghan ID, and a bomb scar he had.

The conversation got super weird when he started asking about our yearly salary, and it seemed like he was asking us for money (but it’s possible some of that was lost in translation). At that point, we totally understood why he started the conversation in the first place. We basically told him that we’re not that well off either and he tried to give ME money, and I still don’t understand what was going on there. When the tour started, it seemed like he was still staying within our general vicinity, which made it even weirder. Eventually he picked up on that and left us alone. We even checked if he followed us back to our car (just in case).

Strasbourg appears pretty proud of their cuisine – even their postcards have pictures of recipes of different Alsatian dishes. One that we had was called Flammekueche (in German it’s Flammkuchen, so it’s easy to see the German influence in the language here, at least in this word). I think the closest analogue that English speakers would know would be a flatbread pizza, but with more French style ingredients like fromage blanc, and uses crème fraîche as a base as opposed to tomatoes.

From Strasbourg, we began our journey to Switzerland. At the border, we bought our vignette (it’s a required sticker on the car for driving in the country). I spoke to the lady in German and I got a nice feeling speaking and listening to a language that I understood again.

Habsburg Castle

Our first destination in Switzerland was the Habsburg Castle. This is where the House of Habsburg began. This is THE Habsburgs that wielded enourmous power in Europe for centuries, most notably the Holy Roman Empire, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The castle looks quite modest compared to other European castles like Neuschwanstein, but this is because it was originally constructed almost 1000 years ago.

Zürich

As we drove through Switzerland, we expected mountain passes full of snow, but there were actually very few mountains along that route! We probaly would have seen some in Zürich itself, but too bad it was nighttime.

We arrived in Zürich just in time for a fondue and raclette dinner, because that’s what the stereotypes say. Of all places we found though, we found the most touristy one. I’m pretty sure everybody in there was a tourist.

As we were chatting while eating, I was trolling my friend, saying he comes from China even though he’s actually from Taiwan, since Taiwanese people stereotypically like to assert that Taiwan is not the same as China. A lady at our neighbouring table heard us and actually confronted us about it. She seemed so pissed off! She seemed fine once we told her we were just messing around, and that I’m from Hong Kong (people from there generally side with Taiwan). But imagine travelling all the way to Switzerland and hearing someone trashtalking your country!

This concludes our fourth day. Stay tuned for day five!

• Strasbourg
• Habsburg Castle
• Zürich

I was totally sold on this meal even before I went to Iceland. The part of this meal that I was most excited for was the puffin and the minke whale! I had never eaten them before! Puffin is supposed to have a bit of a fishy taste to it, but since it was smoked, that taste wasn’t very strong. It doesn’t really have a distinct flavour and was a bit chewy. It tastes a bit like minke whale, and minke whale tastes like really chewy red meat – without the strong flavours like beef, and not that fishy. The lobster tails were also amazing. I didn’t even know lobsters can be this tiny, or maybe it was a crayfish that was lost in translation?

Oh and it’s true what people say about Iceland being really windy. I was told to open a car door slowly and to hold on tight as I open it to prevent the damage to the car door from swinging wide open from the wind.

Another place I went was Cafe Loki, just outside the Hallgrimskirkja. Everything tastes like what you’d expect, EXCEPT the thing in the middle. That is Hákarl, whcih is fermetted shark meat. Some people say it’s rotten shark.

This isn’t shark fin like what Chinese people like to eat, but this is actual shark meat. It’s a bit chewy and has a slightly sour flavour to it. Would not eat again.

After the meal, I checked out the Hallgrimskirkja. It’s a church, but the architecture on the outside is quite unique! It isn’t like the old baroque/gothic/etc style churches in a lot of parts of Europe.

I got to try some craft beers as well. They were pretty good – not better or worse than the craft beers I’m used to drinking. I do live in Seattle, so that might speak highly of Icelandic craft beers!

As a little bonus, I saw a guy get his ass kicked at the bar. Story was that the guy who got his ass kicked was being creepy towards some women and was asked to leave, but instead attacked the employee who happened to train in MMA…

That concludes my trip to Iceland! Photos here.

First order of business after arriving: food. The last two times I was there as a poor student, we never splurged on food, but now as working professionals, I can! Frog legs? Okay.

With the Eurocup games being hosted in France and the terrorist attacks that happened in Paris, there were soldiers on the street in just about every place with crowds. If any terrorist attacks were to happen in Paris, it wouldn’t be during the Eurocup games.

Later that night, we met up with one of our friend’s coworkers for dinner. Time for more food. Escargot? Okay.

Beef tartare? Okay. We all had one for ourselves, and if anything bad were to happen, there was only one washroom in our AirBnB. Would have been game over.

The next day, we went to Versailles. Instead of taking pictures of things, I played Pokemon Go instead. It had just launched in USA, and since I had an account from that launch, I got to play. Everywhere I went, there was Pokemon. Never mind that it was a blazing hot day without much shade in the palace gardens. Gotta catch’em all. It was Pokemon Go everywhere I went – there’s even an arena at the Arc de Triomphe.

Make Napoleon great again!

After all the walking around, it was time for more food. Foie gras this time.

The next day was a trip to the catacombs and saw the skeletal remains of a lot of dead people.

And also visited a famous dead guy: Napoleon.

After that, it was time to go to the fan zone at the Eiffel Tower to watch France VS Portugal. All these people are trying to get in through the many entrances. The police guarding the gate were letting women and children go in without lining out while everyone else had to. Chivalry is alive and well in France.

After a long while of waiting we got in. There were so many people walking on the gravel road that it kicked up so much dust everywhere and it was hard to breathe and I was coughing every few minutes. It wasn’t comfortable at all. There were long lineups everywhere and nowhere to sit. But the atmosphere was really good. Lots of cheering and anticipation for a France win.

A friend of ours, who was coming from another location came too late and couldn’t get into the fan zone to meet up with us. After a grueling ordeal of deciding whether or not to stay or go, we left and watched the game from a small restaurant near our AirBnB.

After Portugal won, people still cheered in the streets and set up firecrackers and stuff. I couldn’t have imagined what it would have been like if France won. All the France fans would have lost their shits and the streets would have been even more rowdy.

The next day, it was time to fly back home, thus ending my 3rd European adventure.

Link to photo album: here

We also got to check out the Deutsches Museum – it is a museum of all things technology. From stone age technology all the way to current research problems.

While we were in Munich, we watched the game between Germany and France in the Eurocup at a local pub. After Germany lost, everybody was pretty quiet when they left the pub. There was just sadness

That’s about it for Munich!

Link to photo album: here

We had spent a whole year upgrading everything.  I designed a new ball kicking system that was more durable, more maintenance free, and more powerful than the year before.  The other mechanical systems were more robust as well.  The electrical system also had a huge upgrade.  Burning and smoking electrical boards were a thing of the past!  We have never had a design this robust – ever!

What is RoboCup?

For those who don’t know what RoboCup is, RoboCup is an international robotics competition aimed to further robotics research.  Their long-term goal is to have robots beat the World Cup Soccer team winners by 2050. There are various leagues within RoboCup, such as in robotic soccer (where we participate), home care, rescue, simulation, etc.  Our team, the UBC Thunderbots, compete in the small-size soccer league, which is probably has the fastest game play of all the different leagues.  The robots are generally cylinders with a diameter of about 18 cm and a height of 15 cm.  They can move at around 4 m/s and kick a golf ball at 8 m/s.

One of the other leagues, the Standard Platform League competes with standardized robots for all teams and the key difference between each is the software that is written for the robots.

Another league, the mid-size league in RoboCup Soccer competes with robots that are about a 1/3 of the size of a person. The game isn’t as quick as the small-size league game and they play with a real soccer ball instead of a golf ball. During the competition, it gathered quite the crowd too.

Preparing for the Games

Most teams arrived at the venue when it opened to get to work right away. Everybody wanted their robots in tip-top shape. Our team did the same. Even though our robots were ready mechanically and electrically, the key game changer was seeing which team had better artificial intelligence for their robots. Whenever got time to test on the field, we took advantage of it to make sure our AI was working well too.

Round Robin

In the round robin stage, each team gets four games against other teams in their bracket. Each bracket is made up of five teams and the skill level is spread out based on the rankings of the previous year.

We lost our first two games against a team called KIKS from the Toyota National College of Technology in Japan, and a team called STOx’s from the Universidad Santo Tomás in Colombia. In both of those games, we were simply outplayed because the other team had better software than we did. At the end of the game against the Japanese team, I spoke a bit of my horrible Japanese to them and they were super surprised and impressed that I knew a bit of Japanese!

Because our robots were finished not long before the competition began, the software team did not get a chance to test the code that was written, and so we found out the problems during the competition. Our robots were never able to drive up to a ball and take possession of it. The robots somehow always missed the ball. When the robot had the ball, it didn’t know what to do with it. It sat there holding onto the ball doing nothing. This was so frustrating for our team and even more so for the software team who wished they had more time to test.

We won our next two games against two lower tier teams. One is called RoboFEI, from the Centro Universitário da FEI in Brazil, and a team called RFC Cambridge from Harvard and MIT. It’s nice to be able to say that we beat a team from these two ivy league schools. Looks good when we look for sponsors too!

Lucky Loser Round

Because we had a 2-2 record during the group stage, we played a fifth game, the so-called Lucky Loser Round, to see if we could qualify for the quarter finals. Our match up was against a team called ODENS from the Osaka Electro-Communication University in Japan.  The game was so close that there was a dispute about the rules and whether what our team did was legitimate. Because our robots were not able to move up to a ball and shoot it at the net during the shootout, the referee introduced a workaround that the other team disputed.

Our referee’s native tongue was Portuguese, we spoke English, and the other team spoke Japanese. I didn’t know enough Japanese to translate. Eventually, members from other teams like the Thai and Chinese team came to help with the dispute. During the discussion that took about an hour, I heard people speak English, Japanese, Portuguese, Thai, Japanese, and Mandarin all at the same time. It seemed like nobody had the full picture of what was happening and how to resolve it.

The dispute was resolved when both teams agreed to a specific workaround that made it possible for our robots to do shootouts.  The game ended with a shootout and we lost on the very last shot of the shootout unfortunately. We almost made it to 8th place.  Still, achieving 9th place out of 22 teams was the best that the team has ever done before.

The Competition Ends

Skuba, from Kasetsart University in Thailand, had won the competition for four years in a row since 2009, but this year they had a surprising finish that was not even the top 4.  The second place team, ZJUNlict from Zhejiang University in China had beat them early in the quarterfinals.  ZJUNlict’s strongest opponent this year was CMDragons, from Carnegie Mellon University in USA.  In the final round, they were tied for the entire game and the game went to shootouts where CMDragons lost by one goal.  ZJUNlict had made first place in the RoboCup 2013 in the Small Size League.

As the competition came to a close, we said goodbye to the people on other teams that we met and as a parting gift from the German team ER-Force, they gave us a German flag with the names of all their team members signed onto it, with the message, “for our amazing friends, the Thunderbots, from team ER-Force”.

I realized now that the competition is over, I probably wouldn’t be going to competitions in the future because I’ve graduated from university. It made me feel a little bit sad that I couldn’t compete anymore, but at least I can still help out the team wherever they need it.

Link to photo album here

It was quite a walk from the main train station to the hostel (especially after getting lost a few times).  If we had known there was a closer station at the convention center, we would have gone there instead.

The hostel we stayed at was quite nice (but expensive).  The breakfast was amazing too.  It’s been a while since I had a giant bread roll with a huge stack of meat and cheese with yogurt and muesli on the side.  It was so simple, but so delicious.  Something I wish I could eat more of in Canada.  I also got the chance to have German beer again.  That was delicious too.

We had one day to explore Frankfurt before we flew to Kiev, so we visited the old town and Senckenberg Museum.  As with any German city, there’s probably an old town district.  Frankfurt was no different, despite  how modern the city is.

However, having been to many of these during my first Europe trip, seeing the old architecture just seemed pretty ordinary.  There wasn’t anything exciting in it anymore.

The Senckenberg Museum was a lot more interesting for only one reason.  Dinosaurs.

There was a lot more cool stuff there too like brains and preserved half-developed baby tigers inside jars. Preserved cross-sections of hearts or a brain with spinal cord laid out in a line. I think the cool factor was that everything was in a jar.

For me, that was as cool as Frankfurt got. The trip got way more exciting once we arrived in Ukraine.

Links to photo albums:

• Frankfurt am Main
• Frankfurt am Main (Edward’s Photos)
• Senckenberg Museum
• Senckenberg Museum (Edward’s Photos)

Changing of the Guard

The guards marched from the National Defense Headquarters to Parliament Hill (about 1.2 km).  The guards marched wearing their uniforms in some 30 degree Celsius weather.  Up close, sweat on their face could be seen dripping down.  They marched in playing their instruments.  The soldiers went in formation and each soldier’s attire was inspected to ensure that they were each fit to stand guard.  This process took about 30-45 minutes.  It was cool seeing these guards dressed up in this kind of uniform.  I didn’t even know Canada had these.

Peace Tower

After the show, we went up to the Peace Tower, the clock tower in front of the building.  At the top, we could see pretty much all of the Ottawa-Gatineau area.  Ottawa has a quite even balance of trees, buildings, and water.  I don’t really know how to define it, but the view just seems more interesting that just seeing endless buildings.  I suppose having some green and blue makes the picture more appealing to the eye.  Bridges across the river adds a nice touch.  There also aren’t a lot of tall builds either, which definitely helps in keeping the view clear.

Originally, we wouldn’t have been able to go up the Peace Tower and come back in time for the tour, but my cousin said that when the tour group comes in, they would have to pass through security.  We had already done that to go up the Peace Tower, and so after we came down the tower, we stayed in the secured area and met up with the tour group once they came in through security.

The Memorial Chamber

Just below the Peace Tower was the Memorial Chamber.  In this chamber, there is a war memorial.  The significance of this one is that there is a book that has the list of names 66 655 Canadians who lost their lives during the First World War.  A second book was also added for the Second World War.  Every day at 11am, coinciding with the time that the First World War ended, a page is turned.  This allows for each page in the book to appear at least once during the whole year.

Inscribed on the walls in this chamber is the famous poem In Flanders Fields by John McCrae along with the locations where battles occurred such as Ypres, Passchendaele, Cambrai, Somme, among others.

The House of Commons

The House of Commons is where the elected Members of Parliament go whenever there is a meeting.  This is where major government legislation is introduced.  Whenever there is a meeting, this is the chance for all the elected members representing their political parties get the chance to debate topics such as how government money should be spent.  At the top of the room, there are additional seats for any spectators for whenever parliament is in session.

Library of Parliament

In terms of old libraries, this one is probably as old as it gets in Canada.  This is a key information source for the Canadian Parliament.  Occasionally, MP’s will come here to do research on various subjects.  In 1916, there was a fire that burned down the parliament except this room.  Therefore, this is the oldest part of the entire building (constructed in 1876).  Naturally, architectural style used in this building is a lot different that the newer part of the building.

The Senate

The Senate meet in a separate location within the parliament.  Here, senators examine bills proposed by the Government.   When the senate is in session, senators debate the bills and bills must pass the senate in order to become a law.  A special thing to note about this room is that because reconstruction of the parliament building began in 1916, the general mood of the population was that they were sick of war.  Therefore, much of the artwork in the room revolves around this.  Paintings of the war hang above the seats in the senate.  They are a constant reminder of the horrors of war.

Next Destination…Thousand Islands!

After the tour, we had lunch and then we made our way to a place called Thousand Islands for a boat tour.  I heard that there was an actual castle on one of those islands.  I didn’t even know Canada had actual castles.  I always though castles were a European thing.

More photos here

Beginning of the Competition

On the first day of the competition, there was a work day for all the teams to use to get their robots ready again after a long flight to Canada.  As the current mechanical team lead for the Thunderbots, I too had to get our own robots ready to play.  The mechanical systems had already been completed some weeks ago, but unfortunately, even now, the electrical board testing and firmware coding still had not been completed yet and some parts that we needed were still not in.  For the next day and a half, the team was scrambling to get everything finished in preparation for the first game on Sunday.  Because, the only critical tasks remaining were the electrical testing and coding, only the electrical team had the know-how to tackle those tasks.  The mechanical and software teams could only wait for results.  As the electrical team worked, everybody else on the team became more and more stressed.  We all kept wondering whether the team would have working robots for the first game.  We were all helpless in this situation.  The electrical team worked throughout the day and night trying to finish.  Some of the other team members stayed in anticipation while others went home to rest hoping for results in the morning.

Throughout this work day, the Chinese team continued testing their robots on the field.  They seemed like the most ready team.  The German team however, had lots of work to do as well.  Their flight to London from Germany was delayed and as a result, they missed their flight from London to Vancouver.  They arrived in Vancouver on Saturday night.  They  had even less time than we did to get their robots working.  When each team set up their work space, they each made sure to put up their mascots.  For the Chinese team, they had a panda plush of about 1.5 ft tall and the Germans had a full size German flag.

Game Days

On the game day, I woke at up 5:30 AM and arrived bright and early on campus at 8 AM.  When I arrived, the electrical team was still at it and seemingly not even close to finishing.  This led to a change in the team’s strategy to the competition.  We would try to repair the electrical boards from last year’s robots.  These old boards had a different size than the new ones and had different mounting holes, but luckily, somebody on the team had the great idea of including mounting holes for these old boards for this year’s robots.  Otherwise, we would have had a really hard time hacking that together.  Given only the few hours we had to hack this set up together, the mech team and I worked as fast as we could to finish.  We each probably ran up and down the stairs at the UBC Engineering Design Center about 20 times that day looking for tools and delivering robots.

The first game was supposed to be at 9:30 AM, but my team certainly was not ready.  It seemed like the other teams weren’t completely ready either, so the game was postponed until the afternoon.  The Thunderbots was supposed to play the first game, but due to our lack of readiness, China and Germany played each other instead.  When it became our turn we play, we managed to get three robots out of six on the field.  None of these robots had a working break beam sensor (the sensor on the robot that is designed to detect ball possession).  Without break beams, the robots did not know they could kick the ball, since it would never know if it had ball possession.  The robots did not have a controller that worked well either (the controller determines how much voltage to apply to each of the motors such that the robot can move smoothly from A to B).  A controller that didn’t work well meant the robots drove about on the field seemingly confused.  “Derp” is probably the best word to describe it.  Despite the shortcomings of these three robots, they played their best against ZJUNLIct from China and the Thunderbots were defeated 10-0.

On the following few days, the mech team tried to help the electrical team the best they could with tasks such as building extra connectors.  We also tried to get the old break beam sensors working again.  It was something that had to be on the robot if it were to ever kick the ball properly.  After toiling for a few hours, we managed to get two out of three of them working.  We probably could have gotten more if we knew more about the electrical design.  There was little to go on in terms of the wiring schematic and spare parts.  It was also hard to troubleshoot since ambient lighting largely affected the sensor.  If it worked upstairs in our work space, it wouldn’t work downstairs on the playing field.  It took us a while to figure that out.

In our second game, we played against ER-Force from Deutschland.  For this game, we still only had three robots, but this time they were a little bit better equipped.  Even then, the robots still had trouble kicking because the lights being used on the field emitted too much infrared light, which obstructed the break beam sensors.  It was very frustrating to see the robots not knowing when to kick even though they were handling the ball perfectly. But somehow, we still managed to score a goal.  In the end we lost the game 6 to 1.

In the final game between China’s ZJUNLict and Germany’s ER-Force, the Chinese team was victorious.  Both teams had a full fleet of robots to play six on six.  A modest crowd of spectators also watched the whole game being played and in general people were quite impressed at this engineering feat.

Team Social

To allow the teams to better know one another, there was a social event planned by the organizers of the North American Open.  There, I met a lot of the members of the German and Chinese teams.  It was nice that that I could talk to each team in their native languages.  Although my German wasn’t that good to keep up a conversation for a long time, it was enough to get the Germans wondering how I knew it at all.  The last thing they’d expect is for a Chinese guy to start speaking German to them.  My Mandarin was at a level that I could talk to people in it, but there were still some occasions where I didn’t understand what they said.  It was probably because of me not having a lot of practice with Mandarin (I speak Cantonese normally) and them having an accent from their region that I didn’t recognize.

Press Conference

The organizers made sure to invite as much of the press as they could.  More publicity meant that the team could potentially get more money in sponsorship.  More money means better robots.  The administrative members of the team were in the spotlight and talked to most of the people from the press, while the technical members of the team continued to do their work.  The team leads from mech, software and electrical also had a brief interview with the 24 Hours Vancouver newspaper.  The team was also featured in the Ubbyssey here and on MacLean’s magazine here.

The Chinese team also put on a show for the press by putting all 12 of their robots on the field so they could they play against themselves six on six.  The performance went quite smoothly as there were not random break downs and the press were very impressed.

Engineering Failures

As with these student projects, an accident was bound to happen.  This one was with a battery.  There was have been a defective battery that the Chinese team unknowingly brought and when they charged it, the battery started puffing up – not a good sign for a battery.  One of our team members was quick to notice and instantly dunked it in soap water and disposed of it.

For our team, we had problems where the solenoid kicker would get stuck after being used repetitively.  Heat from the power dissipation in the solenoid windings would heat up the whole assembly and cause the solenoid housing to permanently deform.  The solenoid was produced out of stacked layers of poly-carbonate sheets.  This stacking of layers allowed each layer to deform individually.  To fix this problem, we printed out new housings made of ABS plastic.  By having one solid solenoid housing, it was more difficult for it to deform.

The German team had some problems with the turf getting dug out of the carpet and getting everywhere inside the problem and also with their robot shells not staying on properly.  The turf inside the robot meant that gears could get stuck intermittently and could also get in the way of other mechanical components.  Their solution solution for now was to clean it all out every game.  During games, the shells of the robot would pop out randomly whenever there was an intense impact with a ball or another robot.

Getting Ready for Mexico

On the Friday before all three teams left for Mexico City, everybody had to pack up all of their things.  The German and Chinese teams could pack everything easily since they had packed everything once before when they had to fly to Vancouver.  For us, our tools were scattered all over the place.  It took us about 4 hours to find all tools to pack into the the luggage containers.  The approach to packing was that we would pack any tool that was ours and was already lying out on the table.  This is because if we took it out of the tool closet, it meant that the team used it for something.  Naturally all of the hex keys, screw drivers and the like were packed.  All spare parts were packed.  Every tool that we had sitting around was packed.  Even electrical equipment like a power supply and an oscilloscope was packed.  We had everything we needed for RoboCup 2012 in Mexico City.  Even though not everything was done in time for this competition, everybody was confident that things would be better in the competition in Mexico.

More photos here

 I felt a little bit of nostalgia toward the game, so I opened it up to play a little bit.  I played this game for about 8 years on and off (2001 to 2008 inclusive) and participated in a couple leagues such as CAL, CEVO, and CEGL. The last time I played, the community was still pretty strong – I could find a game pretty quickly and play.  Not anymore.

Public servers are almost extinct.  Most public servers that remain are Romanian.  Not that there is anything wrong with that, but there is no point in joining any of these games.  They are filled with bots.  I looked at the detailed game information and it shows 19 players that all “magically” joined the server at the same time and have been playing for some ridiculous amount of time.  Playing 306 hours of Counter-Strike and earning a score of 10000+ is not possible for a human.

Out of curiosity, I joined one of these Romanian servers.  It turns out that these servers just redirect me to an actual server where people play.  The downside is that these servers are actually in Romania, which means I that pinged > 200 to the server.  A minute later I am kicked for going over their ping limit.  I still can’t play.  At least there still is a community for CS1.6.

Playing pubs seemed out of the option.  The next thing I looked at were pugs.  I looked at #findscrim and #findringer.  I remember people posting in these channels constantly to organize matches.  Not anymore.  The frequency of posts has definitely decreased dramatically.  It was hard enough for me to find a match on the west coast.  People living on the east coast and west coast both post in these channels and of course there would be more east coast games happening simply because more people lived there.  Now, with less people playing, it is even harder to find a match on the west coast.

Of course, it is normal for a game to reach a peak in popularity and then lose it over time, but I expected Counter-Strike to have a strong player base.  In comparison to other games similarly old, such as Day of Defeat (released in 2000) and Team Fortress Classic (released in 1999), they seemed to suffer a similar fate.  These games have been reduced to just servers that redirect people to different countries.  Why run these servers at all if people will lag on them anyway?  If a game is unpopular anymore, it would just have no servers at all.  Despite all of that, Counter-Strike was one of the most popular games ever made and it definitely left a mark for many gamers of this generation.