We had an incredible time at our first event, the Kettering 1st District! A combination of robot performance and award recognition makes this the most successful overall AdamBots competition in our 20 year history!

The competition began on Friday the 3rd with eight qualification matches. Our robot Rosalina proved her abilities by scoring cubes on the scale and by climbing on the rung faster than the other teams. Due to our quality design and our skilled drivers, we won 7 of our 10 Friday qualification matches. Our 40 students in attendance maintained a roaring crowd.

The team remained busy outside of matches too. Programmers assisted other teams in developing their control system and autonomous code. The Chairman’s subteam presented to the judges with their “FRC TV” talk-show style performance. Later on, they shared tips on how to develop a model team, leading the first-ever Chairman’s Exchange in Michigan! Dean’s List semifinalists Gabe Kubiak and Joseph Sullivan were interviewed for consideration to move on to the District Championship. Several students played our Robots: Build and Clash card game, exposing it to a new audience and raising some funds. Our safety captain for this event, Michael Ngatio, was also recognized as the Safety Star of the Day!

On Saturday, 65 students and numerous mentors came to cheer the team on as we finished our last two qualification matches. With both victorious, we finished as the 8th seed team out of 41 teams! Our team was selected by the 5th alliance captains, the Robo-Cards 4994, who went on to select Eagle 1 6091. We then moved on to the elimination rounds. We upset the first two rounds against the 4th and the 1st alliances, winning all four matches. This earned us a spot in the finals against the 3rd alliance of team 5114, 7211, and 5612. We managed to score cubes on the scale faster than our opponents as our partners maintained the switches and the vault. In the end, with a 276-200 score, we were victorious!

This would not be the end of our achievements. During the award ceremony, we were recognized with the Industrial Safety Award for our prevention and management of hazards. We walked onto the field to receive our first winner banner since Queen City 2016. Following this was the announcement of the Chairman’s Award. The highest honor, this award recognizes one model team for others to emulate, qualifying them immediately for the Michigan State Championship. We won this too! Leaving with the Winner trophy, the Chairman’s Award, and the Industrial Safety Award, we ended our first event with 74 district points, trailing the #1 team by only two points.

Our next competition is the Escanaba District Event on March 16-17. As the #2 team out of 508 teams in the state, we hope for more of the same success. Wish us luck as we travel to the Upper Peninsula to compete next week!

Written by Cate Sullivan

xc-5DM30464

FIRST, FRC, FTC, FLL, JR.FLL, COOPERTITION, GRACIOUS PROFESSIONALISM, RAPID REACT, INFINITE RECHARGE, DEEP SPACE, POWER UP, STEAMWORKS, STRONGHOLD, RECYCLE RUSH, AERIAL ASSIST, ULTIMATE ASCENT, REBOUND RUMBLE, LOGOMOTION, BREAKAWAY, LUNACY, FIRST OVERDRIVE, RACK N ROLL, AIM HIGH, TRIPLE PLAY, FIRST FRENZY: RAISING THE BAR, STACK ATTACK, ZONE ZEAL, DIABOLICAL DYNAMICS, CO-OPERTITION FIRST, and DOUBLE TROUBLE are registered trademarks of United States Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology AKA US FIRST CORPORATION NEW HAMPSHIRE 200 Bedford Street Manchester NEW HAMPSHIRE 03101. USFIRST trademarks and logos used with permission as a USFIRST team.