Robo-Trifecta Spring Competition
This spring competition is placed in between seasons in May, where teams can get used to a competition setting, and get more practice in judging sessions. It is particularly helpful for new members of the team and rookie teams. Half of our team has never been on an FTC team before, so this was a very educational experience! We were able to teach them how our scouting system works in a low-pressure environment, and get some experience in a judging session. We competed with our robot from the previous season, and did well enough to be the #1 seed alliance captain! We had a few complications with the hook on our alliance partner's robot, but thanks to some teamwork and brainstorming, we were able to fix the problem, and ended up winning our final matches! Our alliance partner won the inspire award, too.
Kentwood Qualifier
Our team competed at the 2019 FTC qualifier in Kentwood, Michigan. The pressure was on at this competition as it was a first week competition, meaning that it was one of the first in a series of many qualifiers available around Michigan making it quite a rush to get our robot and our team ready. After many late nights, we were for the competition. Our day started out with judging session, and after that it was time for the robot runs. While the robot was hard at work on the field the rest of our team was scouting in the stands or in our team pit answering any additional questions the judges had. In the end our team placed in the following awards: The Motivate award, which recognizes a team that has great team spirit and spreads the spirit of FIRST throughout their community, the Rockwell Collins Innovate award, which recognizes the team that uses out of the box thinking to design their robot, and the PTC design award which recognizes the team that incorporates aesthetic design elements into the robot that also complement its ability to score. But by far our greatest achievement was winning the Inspire award which represents the team that embodies the spirit of FIRST and is a top contender for multiple awards. This sent our team to compete at the Michigan State Championship in Battle Creek, Michigan.
Constantine Qualifier
This competition was much more relaxed for our team, as we had already qualified for the State Competition. The day started with an outstanding judging session. With our new and improved autonomous mode (the period were the robot has a set of programmed instructions to complete) code, we were quite confident with our robots ability to perform. After an unlucky set of qualification rounds, our team awaited alliance selection, where the top teams are able to choose who they want to partner with to compete in the last few rounds. We were graciously picked by the team 8733, the RoboVikings. We ended our day with nominations in the award categories: the Think award, which recognizes the team that best shows their journey through the engineering design process, the Rockwell Collins Innovate award, which recognizes the team that uses out of the box thinking to design their robot, the PTC design award, which recognizes the team that incorporates aesthetic design elements into the robot that also complement its ability to score, and the Motivate award, which recognizes a team that has great team spirit and spreads the spirit of FIRST throughout their community. We also won the Connect Award, which is given to the team that best connects with their local community and engineering community. This was a fantastic day that really showed what our team was capable of in the judging sessions.
Michigan State Championship
We started our competition with a judging session. We were lucky enough to get placed with really great alliance partners and we won all 3 of our first matches. Our success continued the second day, and in the end our team finished with five wins and one loss, putting us 5th place overall for our division. As we went through alliance selection, we were fortunate enough to be able to pick our own teams for our alliance as captain of the 4th alliance. In the end, our alliance made it to the semifinals for our division and we are really impressed by its performance. We finished the competition with the awards ceremony. Our team finished the day with nominations in the following awards: The Promote Award- which is given to the team which creates a one minute video to promote STEM in their community- and the Compass Award, which is given to the mentor or coach that has given outstanding guidance to a team. We also won the Motivate award, which recognizes a team that has great team spirit and spreads the spirit of FIRST throughout their community. Finally, our team placed 3rd for the Inspire award which will send our team to the World Championships in Detroit, Michigan!