Month: March 2014

What an incredibly exciting finish to our season! Team 980 was just one win away from qualifying for the FIRST World Championship!

Team 980 struggled with a few technical problems and challenging alliance pairings in the qualification matches but managed to finish with a 5 – 5 record. We played well with strong alliance partners and scored consistently in autonomous mode. Our driving and defense was also crisp. Those factors, along with a history of being a dependable partner, resulted in Team 980 being selected by #1 alliance: Team 330 BeachBots and Team 973 Greybots.

Our alliance breezed through the quarterfinals and semifinals without a loss. We lost the first finals match in a very close game 157-165. We came back strong to win the second match, 181-126, but fell short in the final match of the day 146-236. Still, we end our official season on a very high note and should be proud of our accomplishments.

Team 980 made a good showing at the Inland Empire Regional on March 1 – 2. We finished #17 out of 40 teams, were selected for eliminations, where we played with the #5 alliance in quarterfinals!

Our ball pick-up was very effective and the drive system worked well with higher speed gearing installed at the event. We competed in 15 matches this weekend! We completed assembly of the catapult and executed test firings on the practice field. We need to make some adjustments to launch balls accurately and reliably, so we removed the assembly from the robot to finish it in the next two weeks. We worked hard and accomplished a lot at our first event this season!