2013 Michigan State Championship Recap and Worlds Preview

Written by AdamBot Student on April 21, 2013

On Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, April 11th-13th, we competed in the FIRST Robotics Michigan State Championship. It was an intense competition as always, with 64 of the best Michigan teams competing for the champion’s medals. In the end, we did very well, making it into the quarter finals of the elimination matches along with teams 2000, TEAM ROCK, and 3656, the Dreadbots.

The Michigan State Championship was a great ending to an astonishing season of FIRST competitions in Michigan. Every team that was there performed to their fullest and the spirit was spectacular. There were some awesome mascots, from a dragon to a flash of lightning, and the noise of cheering was at one of the highest levels yet in this very exciting season. Match scores were high, with many over 200 and, in the first of two quarter-final matches which we lost, a point difference of only 1!

Congratulations are in order to teams 217,469, and 3539 for winning the elimination matches and becoming co-champions of the 2013 Michigan State Championship. They played some great Ultimate Ascent and will be 3 of the teams to watch come World Championships next week.

We are very happy to have made it as far as we did in such a rigorous competition, and will be hoping to place even better next week in St. Louis, even though doing so would mean getting past dozens of top-quality teams with some seriously well-designed robots. It’s no doubt that at Worlds we’ll see some superb shooting, crazy climbing and perhaps even some new high scores.

Our experience at States was made even better by an appearance by Michigan governor Rick Snyder, and by our winning of the  Industrial Design Award sponsored by General Motors. It’s a nice recognition of the hard work that our design and build teams did in producing the robot.

As previously mentioned, we will be competing in the World Championships in St.Louis, Missouri this week from Thursday till Saturday. Watch for Persephone in the Galileo division, along with Michigan teams 27, 70, 2000, 2337, 2474, 2834, 3641 and 3656,  and see team 3478, the LamBots, compete in Archimedes! Every member of our team is excited for the great competition ahead and we wish good luck to every team competing.

For a gallery of pictures from States, click here.

Co-written by Kait Whitfoot.

2013 Troy District Recap

Written by AdamBot Student on April 3, 2013

This past Friday and Saturday, the AdamBots competed in their second Michigan District and third FIRST competition of the year, the Troy District at Troy Athens High School in Troy, Michigan. It was a very intense competition and the outcome was great, as we won the Quality Award and the finals, taking home champions medals along with teams 469 and 4377!

We arrived on Friday knowing that the Troy District would be a competitive one. There were lots of great robots with many different designs- from robots that could shoot all the way across the field such as 67’s bot to tall robots such as 4377’s that are designed specifically to block excellent shooters such as 67’s. But, after winning a regional and placing as a finalist in a district, we were confident that we could put up a good fight in Troy.

The qualification matches were exciting, with an exhibition of many different robots of all shapes and sizes and with different abilities. We saw many 30- and even 50-point climbs and multiple games with scores in the 100s. By the end, we were ranked 5th with 9 wins and 3 losses. For the elimination rounds, we were picked by the second-ranked team, 469, Las Guerrillas from International Academy, to join the second alliance, and our alliance was rounded out by team 4377, Boyne City Blaze.

The elimination matches were exciting, with all but 2 finishing with over-100 point scores for at least one alliance. The #1 alliance, with teams 3539, 67, and 4810, almost broke the 200-point barrier, with a score of 199-104 in one of their quarter finals matches! We won our first quarter final match 155-81 and our second 160-84, knocking out the #7 alliance and moving to the semi-finals. We then won the semi-finals 160-64 and 147-92, making it all the way to the finals!

The finals matches were some of the most intense robotics matches we’d ever seen, with discs flying back-and-forth, excellent defense, and full-court shots and climbing from both alliances. In one of the best victories so far this season, we won our first finals match 175-95, and took home the title after winning the second match 140-91. The finals were true exhibitions of what makes FIRST robotics competitions great- they were exciting with awesome robots on both alliances playing Ultimate Ascent with superb shooting and tenacious defense.  They definitely got us pumped for further games at the Michigan State Championship and the World Championship in St. Louis, both which we have qualified for.

The competition was finished off by the usual award ceremony, which was especially great for us as we got not just first place medals but also the Quality Award as well! We were truly honored to receive the award, which is given to a team with an efficient and well-organized robotics program that exemplifies a quality FIRST team.

See you all at Michigan States next week, and at the World Championship in St Louis at the end of the month!

Click here for the gallery of images from the Troy Event.