From Apr. 17 to 20, the MVHS Robotics team competed in Houston at the FIRST Robotics Championships, also known as World Championships. MVHS’s team, 971, made it to the playoffs, placing eighth in their division out of 75. The development team 9584 placed 27th out of 75 in the qualification round.
The tournament itself began with qualification rounds made up of matches of three versus three, with each team having contributed one of the three robots that would compete for their team. After this, in the playoffs, the top eight teams got to pick who they wished to alliance and play with, and the decision was made by a team’s Alliance Captain, who served a similar role to that of a Team Captain in another sport. These teams of three then faced off against other teams of three. The playoffs lasted for a total of 6 rounds, and featured a higher and lower bracket to give teams a second chance should they lose in the first two rounds.
During matches, teams can earn score points by taking notes, in the form of small hoops, and delivering them to a speaker, amp, or trap. Over the course of the match, they can earn up to four ranking points.
“We were all really proud of how [971] performed and how well they were able to do,” freshman Bianca Bhat said. “Accomplishing that high of a ranking in their division was an accomplishment in and of itself. They did get out in the elimination rounds, but being an Alliance Captain means you’re one of the best teams in the world.”
Bhat said that one of her proudest moments of the trip was before their last game at championships.
“Pit crew had just gotten the robot back in a state that most of our subsystems were broken, the climber was bent sideways, the amp [had] completely fallen off, and with maybe a two hour turnaround to the next game, they fixed everything,” Bhat said.
After those fixes, the team won all four potential ranking points for the match, and moved up from around 32nd to 27th in placement.
Kulkarni said one of his favorite memories from the event was searching around the massive building to find the Youtuber Mark Rober who was at the event, though they were ultimately unsuccessful in their search.
For 9584, the journey to getting to Houston began with earning the Rookie All Star award at San Francisco Regional, which gave them a priority waitlist position to be able to compete at Houston should another team that qualified be unable to attend.
After the fifth week, members thought they were in trouble when the mentors called in an unexpected group meeting, according to Bhat, but were then surprised by their mentors when they were told that they had gotten a spot to compete in Houston. 971 qualified at Monterey Bay Regional.
“I’m also really happy about how 971 has been a fostering environment for us and I’m excited to see everyone’s future in 971, and I’m excited to see freshmen that will come onto 9584 next year,” Bhat said.
All of 9584’s success defied expectations for its first year of existence, according to Bhat, with mentors unsure whether or not the development team would have a working drive base, the base of a robot.
“971 was a very welcoming team, and even if you don’t know anything, they’ll teach everything to you as it goes on,” Kulkarni said.
To Bhat, one of the unexpected challenges leading up to the event was making the bumpers that protect the robot. However, the team eventually learned to take more care with measuring, and were able to make progress.
The 9584 season record stands at 14 wins, nine losses, and no ties. From here, according to Bhat, the team plans to continue to make more robots in the offseason, and help train the incoming freshman who will be on the development team next year.
