Chickens bring the thunder at St. Louis

By Jason Li
UCS ThunderChickens

From April 27 to April 30, the ThunderChickens, FRC Team 217, competed at the World Championship, the last and biggest FIRST Robotics Competition tournament of the 2016 season. The Championship was held at the DeltaPlex arena in St. Louis, Missouri.

Six hundred FRC teams were invited to compete at the World Championship. These teams hailed from countries across the world, including Israel, Australia, China, and Canada.

Because there were so many teams invited, the teams that competed at the Championship were split into 8 divisions, with 75 teams in each division. These divisions are named after famous scientists, such as Newton, Curie, and Tesla. The winning four-robot alliance from each division then went on to compete against the other 7 winning alliances on the Einstein field, which are the final Championship rounds.

The ThunderChickens were randomly placed in the Newton Division. The division, as noted by many, represented one of the most difficult and competitive divisions in FRC history because it was packed with Hall of Fame teams, past World Championship winners, and other powerhouse teams well-known in their communities.

The team entered the competition with optimism, knowing they were bound to be chosen to compete on a strong alliance since there were so many outstanding teams. Against the odds, the Chickens ended the qualification matches ranked eighth place out of 75, with a record of 7 wins and 3 losses. With a ranking score of 31.0, they were only 4 ranking points away from the first place alliance.

During the Selection process, the Chickens became the seventh-seeded alliance captain after the first-seeded alliance chose the second-seeded alliance.

At the World Championship, alliance captains are allowed to select 3 other robots, with one of the robots becoming a backup bot. The Chickens selected Code Orange (Team 3476) from California as their first robot, CyberCavs (Team 4678) from Canada as their second robot, and Blizzard (Team 188) from Canada as their backup robot.

Division elimination matches began early Saturday morning. In the Chickens’ first match against the second-seeded alliance, their alliance scored 260 points in a match, setting a world record for most number of points scored in a single match.

After defeating the second-seeded alliance in the Quarterfinals, they moved on to the Semifinals, scoring two consecutive wins against the third-seeded alliance. The Chickens continued to set the bar during their matches in Quarterfinals and Semifinals, consistently scoring above 200 points per match.

The Chickens were up against the first-seeded alliance in the Finals, which consisted of the first and second ranked teams from the qualification matches.

The first match was close; the Chickens’ alliance managed to win by 20 points, 197 to 177. Hopes were riding high for the second Finals match; against the odds, they defeated the first-seeded alliance by 44 points, 225 to 180. As a result, the ThunderChickens and their alliance teams became the winners of the Newton Division.

This is the first time since 2014 that the ThunderChickens received a blue competition banner, and the first time since 2011 that they won a World Championship division. The team was ecstatic, especially considering they were the champions of the most competitive World Championship division in history.

Because the Chickens were the winners of their division, their alliance moved onto compete on the Einstein field for the chance to be crowned the 2016 winners of Stronghold.

Their first match was against the winning alliance from the Hopper Division. After Team 217 won that match, the judges and referees called a match replay because the scoreboard wasn’t showing throughout the match. Unfortunately, they were unable to win their second match or the third match, losing by a mere 5 points in both matches.

The Chickens were very satisfied to know that the last in-season match they will play this year was on the Einstein field, which they haven’t played on since 2011. Team 217 left St. Louis late Saturday evening with Division Champion medals, and they returned home to Michigan early Sunday morning.

For more information about the ThunderChickens, or information on how to join the team, visit www.thunderchickens.org or contact Mr. Ronald Arscheene at the Utica Center for Mathematics, Science and Technology.