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Scotbotics qualifies for World Championship with award

Scotbotics+qualifies+for+World+Championship+with+award

The robotics team, Scotbotics, will be competingscotbotics 2 in the FIRST Tech Challenge World Championship on Apr. 24-27 in St. Louis, MI.

“The world championship is a big event, held this year in the Dome where the St. Louis Rams play,” Scotbotics mentor John Tenney said. “It is very exciting; last time we were there the Black-Eyed Peas performed and President Obama gave a video address to the teams.”

The last time the team qualified for the World Championship was three years ago, when the team was first created.

In order to qualify for the World Championship, the team had to compete in four qualifying tournaments as well as the Northern California Regional Championship. At regionals they ranked 12 out of 36 teams from around California.

Only two teams from the regional championship qualify to go to the World Championship: the winner of the Inspire Award, an award given to teams showing good habits of design, competition, community outreach, and professionalism, and the winner of the competition. The winner of the competition is the captain of the winning alliance, in which two teams work together to defeat other teams.

scotbotics 1

“Three years ago our team was captain of the winning alliance, but that was among a much smaller group of teams,” Tenney said. “This year we qualified with the Inspire Award; our robot had a few problems
that held us back from winning, but the judges recognized us for excellent overall performance.”

There will be 128 other teams at the World Championship, with teams from over 20 nations, including far out places such as New Zealand. The teams will be separated into two groups of 64, and then the winners of each group will face off.

“Instead of playing five matches as in qualifiers and regionals we will be playing eight matches spread out over two days,” vice president senior Chris Rogers said. “After those eight matches there will be alliance selections where the top four from each 64 will choose alliance partners to continue.”

In order to fundraise the trip, the team hopes to raise at least $2500 using a crowd funding website called Kickstarter. The funds they raise will cover the $1000 entrance fee, $1000 robotic parts, $500 robotic transportation, and several other travel costs. Besides these basic costs, the team members will pay for themselves.

scotbotics 3

Despite the fees, Rogers is excited to go to the World Championship.

“As my last year on the team I am glad that I have this chance and that [president senior] Eric Lee and I could lead and guide Scotbotics the way we did,” Rogers said. “Initially we were worried because all of our founders graduated last year and with them went a lot of talent but it turned out we had also gained a lot of talent which together led us to where we are now.”

PHS alumna Morgan Tenney initially founded the Scotbotics team 4 years ago. She said that though the team lost a lot of really smart people, they have done really well this year.

“They definitely learned from our mistakes,” Morgan Tenney said. “They’ve built a very strong team and work hard. I think they’re doing fantastically.”

You can support Scotbotics by contributing to the team’s Kickstarter project.

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