If there’s one word to describe this past weekend its definitely “wow.” The AdamBots finished as finalists at arguably the hardest, most competitive event in FIRST.

We were fortunate to have a more favorable qualification schedule and took advantage of it. Thursday night, all day Friday, and Saturday morning, we competed in 12 qualification matches and finished with an overall record of 8 wins and 4 losses, earning us the #12 seed. We scored over 100pts five times and scored a high of 140pts in qualification match #143.

We also had success elsewhere on Friday. Instead of giving out the yellow rubber ducks like we usually do, we asked people to donate whatever they could in exchange for a pink, cancer awareness duck. All $154.41 of our proceed go towards our 2011 Relay for Life fundraising campaign and benefit the American Cancer Society.

Robot Camera

In the alliance selection for the elimination rounds, we were the #4 pick by Team 27, RUSH and later teamed up with Team 1023, Bedford Express as well. At each stage during the elimination rounds, we took our opponents to three matches. In the quarterfinals against 326, 2337, and 1718, we won the first match, 101-98, lost the second 73-115, and won the third, 124-84.

Before the semifinals, the production crew for “FIRST in Michigan Robotics Championship powered by Chevrolet” setup various cameras on and around the field in order to record the semifinal and final matches. Throughout the semifinal and final matches, the crew placed a small camera on the side of our robot to capture scoring footage.

In the semifinals, we found ourselves playing the underdog #8 alliance (74, 548, and 3098) that had upset the #1 alliance. But, as we quickly found out, this #8 alliance was quite possibly the strongest #8 alliance assembled so far at any FIRST event. They won the first match 143-106, then our alliance won the next two matches, 134-72 and 132-93. At what other event in FIRST has the #8 alliance scored 143 points?

In the finals we played a strong alliance in 67, 33, and 70. We lost a heartbreaker of a first match, 111-112, getting beat in the minibot race. We fought back and won second match, 118-97 to take the series to three matches. In the third and final match, however, we lost 85-111.

Regardless of the outcome, it was a very successful event. This is our best finish ever at the Michigan State Championship and our highest finish in the state of Michigan at #5 overall. To technically be considered one of the top six robots in Michigan, is something truly remarkable.

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