St. Joseph District Event, 2016

It's an end to a great season - MegaHurtz Makes it to the Playoffs, Again!

Our robotics team competed in two District Events this season. Our first competition was at Kettering University in Flint Michigan where we completed qualifications ranked #24 out of 40 teams. We accepted an invitation to join the #2 alliance and made it to the playoffs. Unfortunately our alliance was knocked out in the quarter finals.

Our second competition was at St. Joseph High School where we completed qualifications ranked #14 out of 41 teams. Doing much better at this event, we were the first round selection of the #8 alliance moving into the playoffs. The most exciting moment for our team at the St. Joe event was when our #8 alliance smashed the #1 alliance and set a new high score of 159 to 128. Sadly, technical issues caused us to lose the next two matches and effectively knocked us out of the quarter finals. Here's what happened: During the third and deciding match between our alliance (RoboRangers #4325, MegaHurtz #5056 and RoboSharks #4956) and the #1 seeded alliance (Stryke Force #2767, Average Joes #3620 and The Iron Giants #5069) one of the opposing robots slammed into the driver's station wall causing our control system to disconnect from the field. It took about 40 seconds to determine the problem and correct it. In a match that runs only two minutes and 15 seconds, that was enough to kill any chances of recovering. It's important to note that the other team did nothing wrong here. This game is rough and the cable simply popped out. During that match the RoboRangers also broke a drive belt so there was a time when only one robot was working for our side.

Knowing how the first and last match played out, it was clear we were the better scoring alliance. If we had not broke down, there is no doubt in my mind we would have won and moved on. All the teams played well and we really enjoyed working with our alliance members. This was our last event for the 2016 season so we wish the best of luck to our alliance members and the rest of the FRC community as they head to their second events.

Now we set our sites to promoting our program and raising the $16,000 we need to do this again next season.