FRC Team 980 just completed its first competition of the 2010 season, the Arizona Regional held in Phoenix on March 11-13. Thirteen student members and four mentors traveled to Phoenix on Wed night to compete in a field of 56 FRC teams. We re-assembled and tested our robot on Thursday, then played ten qualification matches on Friday and Saturday.
FRC Team 980 at the 2010 Arizona Regional
After three long and hard days, the ThunderBots were awarded their first technical judged award in five years: the Motorola Quality Award. This award celebrates machine robustness in concept and fabrication. Our students were able to clearly describe design features that make our robot a strong and reliable machine to compete in this year’s game. Although we were not selected for elimination play, our team was high on the list of top-seeded alliances for our defensive strengths. After the finals, one of the teams confided that we would have been a better selection for the elimination round.
We now look forward to our “home” event, the Los Angeles Regional, to be held in the Long Beach Arena on March 25-27. Our goal is to fine-tune our roller and kicker with the Team 2404 robot, get some driver practice with our 2008 Overdrive robot and add a robot lift mechanism. The Chairman’s video and presentation needs to be completed as well. If we step up to the challenge, we will be a very strong team in Long Beach, possibly earning a trip to the FIRST Championship in Atlanta!
