Category: Competition

After an outstanding 2013 season and a wait seemed to take an eternity, Texas Torque met bright and early for the much-anticipated FIRST Robotics Competition KICKOFF, the webcast through which FIRST reveals the challenge of the year for all FRC teams.

This year’s game — “Aerial Assist” — requires teams to build a robot capable of passing a 2 foot diameter ball to other robots in order to score in ground and 7 foott high goals. Teams may also toss balls over a 5 foot high “truss” that spans the width of the field along the center line. The video released by FIRST is shown below (and can also be accessed under the “About FIRST” tab).

Texas Torque team members and mentors spent the day going over the new set of rules, potential strategies, and the beginnings of design. The event marks the beginning of the build season for Texas Torque; for the next six weeks, team members will work to design, prototype, and construct the robot for the year before the seven week competition season begins. This year, Texas Torque will be attending the Dallas Regional, Lone Star Regional, and the FIRST World Championship (held in St. Louis following the seventh week of competition).

We wish all teams the best of luck this season!

Over the past weekend, Texas Torque traveled north to Austin, Texas for the third annual Texas Robot Roundup. Texas Torque was glad to have the opportunity to enter the tournament for the third year in a row, hoping to build on an incredible season and to reconnect with some of the best teams to have played Ultimate Ascent.

After prepping with some practice matches the day before, the team was ready to face the challenge of qualifications on Saturday. And our team certainly did not disappoint; Texas Torque won all six of its qualification rounds to enter eliminations as the the second seeded team (between  fellow undefeated teams FRC 3310 and 624). In a reversal of roles from the past weekend at IRI, Torque decided to choose team 359, The Hawaiian Kids, to join their alliance, along with teams 4587 and 3735. After breezing through the quarterfinals, the second seeded alliance lost once to teams 118, 2936, and 148, but then came back to win twice in a row, setting the high score for the event with 228 points. In the final, our alliance was finally defeated by the first seeded alliance, going home with a second place finish and the Gracious Professionalism award.

Texas Torque would firstly like to congratulate teams 624, 3310, and 2848 for their finish as the event champions. We would also like to thank team 2158, the AusTIN CANS, as well as Anderson High School, for hosting this amazing event for the third year in a row. Without the efforts of the Austin area FIRST volunteers and the Alamo FIRST organization, this event could not have been quite as enjoyable. Texas Torque definitely enjoyed the opportunity to compete with all of the fantastic Texas teams here and cannot wait for next year’s event.

For the Texas Robot Roundup news story on KVUE: http://www.kvue.com/home/Robotics-teams-square-off-in-Austin-217244531.html

From July 19th to the 20th, Texas Torque competed in the Indiana Robotics Invitational, an off-season event held in Indianapolis, IN. We were very pleased to have been one of the 69 teams competing from all of the United States and Canada. Texas was well-represented at the tournament, as teams 118, 148, 624, 2468, and 3847 also attended.

Qualification rounds began on Friday with two amazing matches by Texas Torque early on, setting the bar high for the top qualification score in the tournament. However, as with any highly competitive event, anything can happen. This was certainly evident in the next few matches, in which Team 1477 suffered a few disappointing losses. The day finished with a wonderful match with our historic alliance partner CRyptonite (624) and this year’s Championship Chairman’s Award winners, the Holy Cows (1538). All team members were glad to have a few hours of peace that night, and rested for the big day ahead.

Saturday brought a few surprises in the final qualification rounds, with two losses at the beginning of the day. However, Texas Torque finished qualifications with a bang, taking a victory in Match 95. With a strong finish, our team was chosen in the second round of alliance selection to be a part of the sixth seeded alliance, a fantastic alliance composed of teams 359, 148, 967, and ourselves. We were also glad to see that many of the Texas teams present at IRI were chosen in alliance selection.

In a heart-pounding first quarterfinal match, the sixth seeded alliance lost to the third seeded alliance by a difference of one point. And while the loss was painful, nothing could prevent such a powerful alliance from decidedly taking the next two matches, moving on to the semifinals. There, the alliance was defeated by second seeded alliance, composed of teams 67, 1310, 3476, and 862.

Texas Torque is certainly proud of its victories at IRI and is grateful for the opportunity to compete against some of the best teams in the FIRST Robotics Competition. We would like to thank teams 45 (TechnoKats), 234 (Cyber Blue), and 1024 (Kil-A-Bytes) for hosting such a brilliant event, as well as Indiana FIRST for organizing and streaming the competition. We would also like to congratulate teams 1114, 1334, 2056, and 2337 — this year’s Indiana Robotics Invitational champions.

We would like to thank Mr. Alan Coats and Halliburton for graciously donating the entry fee that allowed us to compete at the Razorback Regional in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Because of their generous contribution of our entry fee, we were able to take 7 students and qualify for FRC World Championships. Again, we finished qualifying rounds as the undefeated first seed. We chose 1421-Chaos Robotics and 3612- Gear Hogs as our alliance partners and managed to win a regional completely undefeated with their help. We would also like to thank these two teams for creating a strong alliance that propelled us into the final matches. After becoming the winner of the Razorback Regional, we were also honored with the Excellence in Engineering Award sponsored by Delphi. We look forward to competing in St. Louis in two weeks!