The 2014 Season

The 2014 season started off well with the addition of two new sponsors, TARDEC and Valeo Thermal Systems. The new FIRST FRC game, Aerial Assist, had a unique scoring system and field that encouraged teams to work closer together than ever before. With this in mind, the AdamBots created “Andromedra”, an accurate, fast design capable either with others or on its own.

Build Season

For information regarding the progress on building our robot, you can visit the FIRST 2014 Build Season page in the Media Gallery.

View Build Season Pictures

Hub City Regional Event

The AdamBots visited Lubbock, Texas to attend the Hub City Regional, our “warm event” of the year. It was a great warm-up for the rest  of the FIRST season, and we left as semi-finalists with the Spirit Award and the Innovation in Control Award! We lost our first match, won our second and third, lost our fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh, won our eighth, lost our ninth and tenth, and won our eleventh and twelfth for an overall score of 5 and 7. One of our games had a score change, so we ended up with 6 and 6 and 21st on the leader-board. The elimination rounds were intense; we won our quarter finals matches within the first two games and then were eliminated in the semi-finals by the alliance including teams 1817, 2468, and 5320 that went on to win the regional event. During the awards ceremonies, we were awarded the Spirit of the Competition Award and the Innovation of Control Award.

Howell District Event

Our performance at the Howell District event was clearly an improvement over the Hub City Regional, as we won 9 of our 12 qualification matches. Our robot, now experienced after a “practice run” in Texas, performed at a higher level and was consistent in autonomous, scoring, assisting, and shooting over the truss, and we were able to win many matches, even holding first place for quite a long time. We asked teams 308 and 4776 to join us on our alliance and they accepted. In the quarter finals of the elimination matches, we won the first two matches against the 6th seed alliance, allowing us to advance to the semi finals. However, we lost the first two matches against the 2nd seed alliance, so they advanced to the finals. We did not walk away with nothing, however, as we won the Entrepreneuership Award for the quality of our Business Plan and the presentation, image, and organization of our team.

Troy District Event

The AdamBots continued to attend Michigan FRC events with the Troy District on Friday, April 4th and Saturday, April 5th. We joined teams 226, the Hammerheads; and 3538, the Robo-Jackets; in the quarter-finals as the 7th seed alliance, but our time was cut short when we lost both quarter-final rounds to the 2nd seed alliance. Not all was lost for the AdamBots, however! We were awarded the Industrial Safety Award for our fantastic safety guidelines put together by the safety team, which proved to be essential in qualifying for States.

 Michigan State Championship

After just qualifying for the Michigan State Championship in 59th place, we brought Andromeda to Eastern Michigan University for another three days of Aerial Assist. Sadly, we did not get selected for eliminations, but we still enjoyed a delicious tailgate lunch before watching the afternoon matches. While we did not make it to Worlds this year, we did not come home empty-handed. Our shooter build captain Sydney Micklas was named to the state Dean’s List and won a trip to St. Louis to compete for World’s Dean’s List!

Brief Recap

Hub City Regional

• Innovation in Control Award
• Team Spirit Award
• Semi Finalists

Howell District

• Entrepreneurship Award
• Semi Finalists

Troy District

• Industrial Safety Award
• Quarter Finalist

Michigan State Championship

• Dean’s List Finalist – Sydney Micklas

Off-Season Events

• Champions – MARC Competition
• Finalists – Kettering-Kickoff Competition