iri18 This weekend, the AdamBots traveled to Indianapolis to compete in the Indiana Robotics Invitational (IRI), one of the most competitive events in the world! Each of the 70 world-class teams arrived Thursday night, including teams from Canada, California, Texas, Maine, Mexico, and more. Throughout Friday, we played qualification matches to determine our rank. Due to our improved autonomous routines, well-developed strategy, and practiced drivers, we won four of our six matches and ended the day ranked 14th!

On Saturday, we finished our last three qualification matches and placed within the top 30 teams. Off the field, the team nominated our mentor Warren Hildebrandt for the Mentor of the Year Award. We also spent time learning from the top teams at the event so we can continue to improve. Though we were not selected for the elimination rounds, we stayed until the end to cheer on friends. The finals were well-worth staying for, as the 7th ranked alliance nearly upset the 1st alliance, only separated by a score of 296-299 in the tiebreaker match! Congratulations to team 2056 on their 7th IRI Championship, and their alliance partners 195, 2168, and 340 on their well-deserved gold medals.

Despite not being selected for elimination, our outstanding performance in the qualification rounds makes this IRI one of our best since we took home the trophy in 2012. Our next opportunity to compete will be the Michigan Advanced Robotics Competition in Monroe on August 24-25th. You can hear more about it then on our Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter!

Written by Cate Sullivan

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