The first regional we participated in was the Northern Lights Regional in Duluth, Minnesota. At the event, we were very excited to place 2nd with a record of 14-2-0! During alliance selection, we got asked to be a part of the by the 1st ranked alliance. Together we won the event! In addition to winning the event, one of our mentors, Carmen McIntyre, won the Woodie Flowers Finalist Award. This meant that we were the first FRC team to reach 6 Woodie Flowers Finalist mentors!
Our second regional was the Iowa Regional. At this event, we placed 2nd with a record of 13-3-0. During playoff matches, we made it all the way to the finals. Our excitement continued when our team was announced as the winners of the Chairman’s Award. It was such an honor!
At the FIRST Championship, we were placed in the Tesla division. We did really well and placed 3rd with a record of 9-3-0. We were excited to make it to the first round of playoffs. We had a lot of fun returning to Detroit for the Championship event!
In the off season, we once again attended the Cow Town Throwdown in Lee’s Summit, Missouri. We finished in 2nd place with a record of 6-1. We were excited to make it to the semi-final rounds of playoff matches! This event gave new students a chance to experience a regional-like setting as well as allowing more students to get to experience being on a drive team.
This year’s game is Destination: Deep Space, Presented by The Boeing Company. The team’s goal is to explore planet Primus. Alliances must gather as many cargo pods as possible and prepare their spaceships before the next sandstorm arrives. For the first 15 seconds of the match a sandstorm limits driver visibility so robots depend on pre-programmed instructions or are operated by drivers by a video from their habitat. During the sandstorm period, alliances score points by deploying robots from their habitat, preparing rockets and cargo ship with hatch panels, and loading cargo pods into their rockets and cargo ship. During the remaining 2 minutes and 15 seconds of the match, operators take control of their robots. They can score points by preparing rockets and cargo ship with hatch panels, loading more cargo pods, returning the robot safely to the alliance’s habitat. The alliance with the highest score at the end of the match wins!