Royal Oak Robotics Team Finishes Fourth at FIRST District Competition

Royal Oak High School had two teams competing at the FIRST District Competition this past weekend at Troy Athens High School. This was their second district competition this season. 

As with all competitions, nothing seemed to run smoothly.  Minor problems like a loose wire, radio issues and fuses overloading or programming being off just a little bit.  But by Friday afternoon, things were looking up.

Team 3548 was sitting high up in the ranks working with great alliance partners.  They were a first year drive team and were starting to build confidence behind the drive station.  Team 1188 tweaked their robot, crunched their numbers and expections ran high looking at evening and Saturday alliances. 

The District event ran 80 qualifying matches.  Both teams completed 12 matches successfully (which means the robot ran every time!).  Out of 40 teams, Team 1188 was ranked in 18th place and Team 3548 was ranked 25th.  24 teams are chosen to go on to the quarterfinals. 

Team 1188 was invited to join the 4th place alliance: Team 216 MoreRoboDawz from Grandville, MI and Team 68 Truck Town Thunder from Ortonville, MI.  Their first quarterfinal match was a loss, but the alliance rallied and strategized to win the next two matches, securing them a place in the semi-finals.

The best part was seeing the drive teams interminging and congratulating each other on a job well done.  They knew and applauded each other because their success was due to the three teams working together. 

In the semi-finals, they found themselves facing The HOT Team 67, a strong team from Milford with a legacy of well-designed robots as the lead robot for the opposing alliance.  The strategy was simple.  Team 1188 would play strong defense and their mission was to prevent Team 67 from scoring, while the other two on the alliance would score as many points as possible. 

After a brief planning session, a short piece of foam pool noodle was added to the 1188 robot and again, the three robots were placed on the field. 

After the 15 second autonomous mode was complete (robots programmed without human interaction), the bell rang and the drivers stepped forward to take control of their robots. Immediately Team 1188 honed in on their target. Strategically placing themselves in front of the HOT robot, that small pool noodle added a new dimention to the game. 

Team HOT found all their 3 point shots deflected and had to abandon their position.  Team 1188 was aggressive and stayed with them. 

Teams 216 and 68 shot frisbee after frisbee.  The alliance of Teams 1188, 216 and 68 lost by a narrow margin of 109-134.  They ended up losing their next match as well, but these three teams were proud at coming in 4th place at this district match.  They demonstrated gracious professionalism, teamwork and how overwhelming problems may be solved by simple solutions. 

We are proud of our ROHS students.  Many postive comments were made regarding their kindness towards others, their politeness, helpfulness and their strength as a team.  We may have had two robots and two team names, but at Royal Oak...they really were one big team supporting each other through the FIRST season. 

We would like to thank Hitachi Corporation as our main sponsor, along with Kohl's, Royal Oak Schools, GM, JCP, MIchigan Schools & Government Credit Union, the parents, teachers, coaches and mentors that made this season possible. 

We would also like to thank Holiday Market for providing sandwiches for the team on Saturday.  We are grateful to be a part of a generous and supportive community. 

Written by Chris Pariseau, Team Mentor