2013 FIRST World Championship Recap

Written by AdamBot Student on May 4, 2013

From April 25-27th at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, we were thrilled to compete at the 2013 FIRST World Championships, where 400 robots shot discs and climbed pyramids to conquer the challenge of Ultimate Ascent. We finished as quarter-finalists in the Galileo Division as leaders of the 8th alliance.

We left Rochester Hills Wednesday morning, pumped for an intense competition and an overall mind-blowing exhibition of science and technology. The bus ride was a lengthy 10 hours, but it was a fun day of talking, laughing, and, of course, doing homework! We arrived at our hotel at around 6 on Wednesday night, and before sleeping in preparation for the long weekend ahead we ate dinner, swam in the hotel pool, and settled in to our rooms.

On Thursday we woke up bright and early for the first day of competition, and arrived at the dome around 8 o’clock. Since matches didn’t start until 1 (apart from some practice matches), we had time to visit the pits and attend some presentations. There was, as always, some great swag in the pits and we were able to talk to some great people from the hundreds of teams as well as dozens of representatives from companies & colleges who were there. Many different activities were available this year around the pits & in the dome, from a practice defibrillator to a photo-to-button booth to the awesome “Ultimate Orafice” game. Some of us also went to see an awesome Chairman’s panel presentation by some of the teams that had won the Championship Chairman’s Award in the past.

At 1:00, the games for the Galileo district started and we were first up. Alongside teams 4627 and 2834, we started our Championship strong with a win of 125-79 against teams 2175, 4158, and 4452. By the end of the qualification rounds, we had won 6 games and lost 2, putting us at 11th position for alliance selection.

During alliance selection, we were bumped up to captain the #8 alliance, and we chose teams 27 and 1732 to join us.

In our first elimination match we were, admittedly, the underdogs- facing the #1 seeded alliance comprised of teams 118, the first seed, 1114, the second seed, and 4039, the 23rd seed. In the first match we lost 213-170. However, we were extremely excited when we won our second game 166-148 thanks to some awesome defense. We gave the #1 alliance a run for their money in the third match also, but unfortunately we lost it by  record-breaking score of 288-186. The game was full of technical fouls as well as great shooting and defense, and we are glad to have gone out on such an intensely memorable game.

After being eliminated, we moved to Galileo to get ready for what were to be some of the most exciting finals matches we’d ever seen. Two of our closest teams, 469 and 33, who compete with us in OCCRA as well as in the Michigan FIRST competitions, managed to make it to the finals alongside team 1519, and we were glad to see two excellent Michigan teams make it all the way. Unfortunately, the lost the final, but their achievement was still exceptional. In the end, teams 610, 1477, and 1241, who had won our division, were crowned the 2013 FIRST champions. It had been an ascent into awesomeness, that’s for sure.

The awards between finals matches ended a superb FIRST season. We were thrilled to see our sister team in Mexico, team LamBot 3478, take home the Engineering Inspiration Award. They definitely deserved it and we are happy to have such a close relationship with such a committed and spirited team. We hope to see them back at the Championship again next year.

Though the FIRST season is over, we are continuing to work in preparation for Relay for Life and our off-season events such as IRI. Stay tuned for wrap-up videos for the season within the next few weeks.

Make sure to check out our photo gallery from Worlds!