To PiWars or not to PiWars
It was back in 2014 that a small group of us from Ipswich Makerspace came together and entered the first PiWars competition held in Cambridge. It turned out quite well and we won our category, under £75. The robot shown was one of our prizes, now enhanced with several years of dust.
Fast forward a few years and we have now competed in all four of the PiWars competitions, coming runner up in two and winning two. The last win, by just one point separating us from second place contestant [Brian Corteil](https://coretecrobotics.co.uk/).
It is great fun competing, and I always learn lots whilst preparing the robot, however it is hard work and takes all my spare time for about half a year in the lead up to the competition. So I have been thinking hard about whether to compete again in 2019. The competition is always heavily over subscribed, so I thought by not entering would give someone else an opportunity to compete.
However, the community surrounding the Raspberry Pi and PiWars is exceptional, very friendly and always willing to help and share experiences. I thought it would be great to give something back, but how? Maybe build a demonstration robot, mentoring, helping teams solve problems. Who knows, I’ve not made up my mind yet, and entries to PiWars don’t close until September, so I could enter again, but at this point that option looks quite slim.