RoboRiot had a great showing at the Wisconsin Regional. We were ranked third and achieved our goal of being an alliance picking team in the Finals!
Coming in to the last day of Qualifications, we were ranked ninth out of fifty-four. We had three matches ahead of us to close the gap and be in the top eight teams to qualify for the Finals. The last scheduled match of the day happened to be our last as well, and all rankings were final. Our alliances won our last three matches and carried our team to third place!
Then it came down to picking our alliance for the Finals. We first chose Team 1259 Paradigm Shift, who graciously accepted. Our second pick, Team 2077 Laser Robotics, also accepted. They formed our alliance to compete with in the Finals.
In our first match of the Quarter-Finals, we squeaked by with a three point victory (308 – 305). In our second match, we lost by only one point (255 – 256). In our Quarter-Final tie-breaker, we again lost, but by only two points (278 – 280). Our fate was decided by a total of three points.
As a team, we know that we have grown together and the Milwaukee Regional is a part of that. There’s more than just winning in robotics, and while we didn’t, we did our best and helped to fulfill the mission of FIRST. The day after, our team was tagged in a post on Facebook. It was a parent telling us how their son visiting our pit and seeing our robot inspired him to join robotics this coming fall. We succeeded in getting some of the next generation of students excited about robotics.
We didn’t walk away from the competition empty handed. In addition to new relationships formed with other teams, we won the “Gracious Professionalism Award” which recognizes teams who support other teams throughout the event and display gracious professionalism while interacting with others. It’s an honor to be considered and to win it is even more of an honor.
We have our second regional in a few weeks, in La Crosse. The Seven Rivers regional is going to be our first-ever second regional in a season. We have a select team of scouts, Drive Team and Pit Crew. While we can’t support everyone on the team, anyone who would like to visit is encouraged. Just be sure to wear a yellow RR shirt or one of our fancy, new work shirts with some nice blue accenting!
Students, make sure to be at our next few meetings. We have a lot of work to do and we need everyone’s help.
We would like to thank our sponsors who make everything we do possible. We couldn’t build a robot or go to competition without you and your generous support.
RoboRiot Team 3418