FIRST Competitions

After six weeks of the blood, sweat, and tears that goes into the fabrication of the robot, here is where it all pays off. The competitions run from early to late March each year, with the FIRST Championships in April. On the playing field, you are out to win, but gracious professionally. Off the field, you cooperate with the other teams. FIRST does not have long-standing rivalries like other sports, as a team may be your partner one match, but your opponent the next. And that is what gracious professionalism is. Learning to compete, but not violently, but then cooperate the rest of the time, to openly share ideas and concepts, to synergize together. This may should new and unique to rookies and newcomers, but this is what will fuel the industry of the future, competing while cooperating in an open and friendly environment.

BattleCry7 @ WPI (2006)

The days are getting longer, the weather hotter, and summer is nearly upon us. This can only mean one thing: it's time for BattleCry! Often ranked as many New England team's favorite off-season competition, BattleCry never fails to host an amazing competition. From there amazing playing field atmosphere, to their interesting additions to every FRC game, to the fun activities off the playing field, like bowling, ice cream socials, barbecues, and more, BattleCry never fails to be one of the best competitions of the year. For Team 228, BattleCry7 was no exception.

The two-day competition started after school on Friday, June 23rd, when our cars and trucks were packed with all our tools, the robot cart, and the robot. But twenty minutes into the drive to Worcester, the weather started to turn ominous. As we passed Hartford through the I-84 connector, the clouds were among the darkest ever seen. By the time we reached East Hartford, it began to rain. And it didn't just rain; it rained like it had never rained in a hundred year! Between the huge downpour and the massive amounts of lightening, it was one of the worst thunderstorms Connecticut had seen that summer. The only problem was that it flooded our toolbox and extra parts totes.

Upon arriving at the competition venue - Harrington Auditorium on the WPI Campus - almost an hour later, our tools were literally floating in several inches of water. Luckily, the worst flooding occurred in our hand tool box, so nothing electrical was effected. Quickly getting out the heat gun, we started to dry off all our parts and tools before water+oxygen+steel could work their rusting magic.

As the matches continued, it became obvious that the modifications to our robot that were made following our complete reconstruction after the Championships were working. Our drive train issues were for the most part solved. Our shooter's range was drastically improved; we were now able to shoot from the half court line! But most of all our spirits were much improved.

After all the qualification matches were over, our team ranked 19th of the 48 teams in attendance. Even though we lost in the eighth-finals of the elimination rounds, our team left BattleCry feeling inspired that our robot - now mostly fixed - was able to compete well on the playing field.

‹‹ Go back to the 2006 FIRST Competitions page.