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.