It’s over.

Hello everybody, I hope you are all well. Just around a month ago me and the rest of team J.J.J.A.M.M completed in the Destination Imagination BC Provincial Tournament!

But, like last time, before we talk about the tournament itself, let’s talk about the events leading up to it. So, the DI Regionals tournament was on March 2nd. Then afterwards, we practically had 2 weeks. As the logical people we are, we took the first week off (no work was done for DI), then I said we should get a jump on our work as after this next week we would have spring break for 2 weeks then it would be a week until Provincials.

And again, as you may have expected. We did nothing on the second week after DI, then nothing on spring break.

Which led us to having 4 days until the Provincial Tournament with no changes or improvements. Oh dear oh dear, if I were to quote myself on Tuesday. Then guess what! Nothing on Tuesday or Wednesday. Sooo, we began work on Thursday. Thursday @Tutorial Time? No, Thursday after school.

With just 3 or so of us, which again wasn’t great. We had one big todo list that I created a few days, earlier. Though I won’t share it, our mains goals were:

  1. Making our light up module work.
  2. Improving our song.
  3. Determine our new team choice element.
  4. Add legs.

And we did 3/4 of those surprisingly! We made our light up module work, by changing a setting that made it sound activated. We added legs, so it would be easier to use and work on (still think we should’ve prioritized other things, but it’s all good).

We also practiced our new team choice element – our dance! ✨(more on it later)

Photo of me and Jack working the day before DI.

To be honest, going into Provincials, I don’t think any of us felt prepared. Especially with our light up module being damaged, but things began to turn around. Ailie was able to bring some connectors which made our light up module work.

For the actual layout of the day, like last time we were first up for our instant challenge which went well! No more details can be spared though without DI taking legal action against me. Then we had our team challenge (the main event) at 13:55, we were the last Technical team who went.

As for the challenge itself….

It went well! We all did the best we could, having everybody really helped with the flow of everything and with transporting the machine itself. I think since everybody was there our story felt more complete and cohesive. Our light up module worked perfectly and our dance added a fun and creative element to our presentation.

Now, for what some of you may have been waiting for. Did we win anything?

Yes! Yes we did.

First, we ended up in 2nd place for the Secondary Level Technical Challenge in the province! :D Then there was something else, due to our dance showcasing adept creativity and risk taking, we were also given the DaVinci Award.

In the end, I liked DI. Once again: Experience heavily varies on if you got a good team or not, and as you can imagine. I did, DI really allows you to forge stronger friendships with classmates. It really pushes you to work collaboratively and creatively. It challenges you to think outside the box and problem solve in a fun and engaging way.

Overall, the Provincial Tournament was a success for J.J.J.A.M.M.! We may not have felt completely prepared going in, but we pulled together as a team and gave it our all. It was a great experience full of challenges, creativity, and teamwork.

Hope it’ll be just as good next year. See you all soon for my post on In the Name of Nationalism!