More Robotics - Denver Regional

This weekend was the Denver Regional for Chris's robotics team. Qualifying matches ran all day Friday and Saturday morning. They did really well, finishing with a record of 8 wins and 2 losses, earning 10th place out of 45 teams, their highest finish in the 3 years they have been competing. The top 8 teams pick 2 teams to compete with in elimination matches. The other Colorado Springs team placed 2nd and made Chris's team their first pick. Unfortunately, they lost their first round in the elimination matches. As in Kansas City, it came down to the minibot. In KC, their pole was turned off due to a penalty, so the minibot didn't count. In Denver, the bot deployed, but something went wrong and it didn't climb the pole. It would have been worth 10 points and they lost the match by 4 points. The kids were really disappointed as they had really high expectations after the Kansas regional.

Some bright spots, though. Their team took home all 3 of the top awards given.

Woodie Flowers award: This is the top award for team mentors. Each team is allowed to nominate one of their mentors. Friday night, Mr. McLean, who is their engineering teacher and head mentor, won that award.

The FIRST Dean's List: Each team is allowed to nominate 2 outstanding students for this award. It is for a student who is highly involved not only in his team, but is also active with bringing science and engineering ideas out into the community. One of their members won this award Saturday night.

The Chairman’s Award: This is the most prestigious award they can win. The award honors the team that best represents a model for other FRC teams to emulate and best embodies the purpose and goals of FIRST. Teams that win this are involved in helping other teams and involved in the community. Chris's team has really been out this last year, helping start up and mentor LEGO robotics leagues in the junior highs, working with Care and Share, running summer camps for robotics for kids, etc. You can see the video they submitted for this award here.

The Chairman's award is the last award given after everything else is done. Though they had earned the 2 big personal awards at the end of Saturday night, the team itself had earned no awards. That, along with an early elimination in the finals, had the kids a bit down. However, the last award of the night went to them. As it happens, teams that win the Chairman's award are also invited to compete at nationals, so

THEY'RE GOING TO ST. LOUIS!!

(Go 2 over from the left on the bottom and straight up and you'll find Chris in the very back)

Well, at least we hope so. There is still the not so minor point of scraping together enough money to go in the next 2 weeks, but it is fantastic to make it.

Chris is finishing out his senior year well with this team. The team started his sophomore year and in the last 3 years, adding in the 1st place finish in Denver their rookie year and the Rookie All Star award they also took that year (top award for a rookie team), they have won every one of the major awards plus a few of the minor ones and made nationals twice. That is a huge accomplishment for such a new team.

Way to go guys!