I will be straight: Robocup in Fokuoka was a bloody disaster!
(By the way, the day I arrived in Japan the Italian football team lost against Koreaduring the World Championship… no comments).
The RoboCup was indeed very cool: we were located in a baseball stadium (indoor) and there were several football fields with robots of any size (including the robot dog Aibo) playing football by themselves.
That week I had few opportunities to visit Fukuoka (but a nice one to meet Japanese girls ). Japan is a very nice place to visit, and I hope I will have the opportunity to come back there as tourist.
Anyway, let’s talk about robots!
During the 4 days of setup before the competition my and the rest of the class mates tried hard to make move the robot but, even if we worked until late night all the days, there was no way to make our “champions” stand by themselves. We could not compete (but anyone expected it) and I can remember that I was quite sad and disappointed that all that work was a waste of time.
I clearly remember that I was lying on a bench, looking at the ceiling and thinking: ”we are stupid! This was too bad, I don’t want to see a robot for the rest of my life!”.
In that precise moment (it is true, I am not trying to make the story more interesting) I heard a voice from the closing ceremony saying:”the next robocup will be given in Padova, Italy".
I get up at once and I though: “fuck, Italy! I can have my revenge! I know what to do: I will come back to my university in Torino and I will create MY OWN Robocup team!”.
One more time I ask to my readers: how many probabilities did I have that EXACTLY the following year Robocup would be given at few kilometers from the place were I was going to spend my last academic year?
Few my friend, very few… but you can not stop destiny when it has decided what to do with your life.
Comments