Final Robotics Competition - Nationals in St. Louis

Chris's final robotics competition has come and gone. The kids competed at the national competition in St. Louis this past weekend and had a great time. They hoped to be competitive, but were expecting to finish somewhere in the middle of the pack. Instead, after 10 qualifying matches, they found themselves ranked 7th out of 88 teams in their division, having a record of 8-2. The top 8 teams are guaranteed a spot in the finals. After picking the 2 teams they wanted on their alliance, they went on to elimination matches, where unfortunately they quickly lost their first 2 matches to the 2nd place seed. However, this was their highest finish ever and they did it at the national competition. It was a real achievement for a 3rd-year team. They were right in there with teams who have been doing this for a lot longer.

The event was held in the Edward Jones dome, where the St. Louis Rams play, and the event center next door. There were a total of 352 teams competing.


Their robot helped place a lot of tubes in this match

for a great score.


Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas became involved with FIRST this year and, Friday night, treated the kids to a free Black Eyed Peas concert. Since Chris's team was a Chairman's award winner, they had seats on the floor right in front of the stage. Chris is just sorry he didn't get to see Morgan Freeman, who was also wandering around the event.


What a great way to end 3 years of a lot of hard work. This has absolutely been the most impressive program I have ever seen in a school. There are LEGO robotics teams in a lot of middle schools now, as well as FTC (smaller robots) and the FRC (big robots) teams. If your kids are science minded at all and have a chance to join one of these teams, they won't regret it. It is a great opportunity to get some hands-on experience in not only building and designing a robot, but also in running an organization. They do a lot of work with business professionals from the community, both as mentors and going out to present their team to potential sponsors. It also really encourages the kids to get involved with their communities any way they can, be it helping new teams or doing charity work. It really is a great program.