JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. – Coaches called it the best showing yet when one of the six RoboBroncs teams qualified for the Montana State Championships after taking top honors at a qualifying tournament last weekend in Butte.
Some 34 students ranging from grades 7-11 comprised six FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) teams. They travelled recently to the Montana FTC State Qualifying Championships in Butte and Helena to compete against a tough lineup of FIRST Teams from Montana and around the West.
“It was our best FTC showing yet! Congrats to Team 10241 for winning the Butte qualifying tournament,” FTC head coach Harrison Shipp announced. “Our talented and returning roster of local community STEM mentors serving as coaches for the FTC teams this year have been critical to our success. We could not do it without the dedication of local STEM community coaches—Shannon Overly of ILUM Health Solutions, and Mitch Springer of Epsilon Technology Corp.”
Overly also called Butte a defining moment.
“It was our most successful FTC tournament ever, with not only the big win but other successes as well,” she said. “The most stressful part of the competition was during the finals, when we learned that we had to leave by 7 p.m. sharp or else we would have to stay another night. Had the finals gone to three matches, we would have had to leave before the winner was decided.”
As fate would have it, Team 10241’s alliance got the job done in two. After a long referee huddle, the winner was announced at 6:57 p.m. Team 10241 jumped up in celebration, ran through the high-five line with the opposing alliance, and scooted off directly for their bus.
FTC Team 10241 (RoboBuffs) consisted of Areli Roldan, Brielle Griggs, Carlos Nava, Eddie Carrillo, Henry Monroe, Kai Hunter, and Max Sumicad.
“They performed consistently well during qualifying rounds,” Overly said. “This team had moderate expectations of middle-of-the-pack, but ended up on the top step. They got increasingly more excited over the course of the day as they realized their high placing was going to stick.”
The 10241 robot racked up points by moving a foundation into and out of a building site. The team’s design also showed its versatility as it could both deliver stones to a stacking robot or place stones on the foundation if their partner was a delivery bot.
The Butte competition format was a standard one used for regional qualifiers. Competition began with 33 teams playing 42 rounds of 2-on-2 matches. Teams were then ranked based on their win/loss record. The top four teams became alliance captains for the final elimination bracket, which consisted of semi-finals and finals. Team 10241 was 2nd ranked going into the finals. Once there, they captained their Alliance to a 1st place victory and punched their ticket to a Montana State Championship.
Next up for FTC Robot Teams:
- Dec 14 (Sat): Scrimmage at JHHS for area FTC teams.
*Last official FTC event for the 9th graders who won in Montana as they will now transition to the Jackson Hole High School FRC Team 3374. Their season kicks off January 4, 2020. - Feb 14-15 (Fri-Sat): WY State Championship in Casper.
