UCS robotics team ready to take on the world

The ThunderChickens, one of Utica Community Schools’ FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) teams, competed at the Michigan State Championship April 14-16. The competition was held at the DeltaPlex Arena in Grand Rapids.

The Championship invited the top 102 of all Michigan FRC teams based on their performances at the 21 district competitions in the state. Of these 102 teams, 76 will be advancing to the World Championship in St. Louis, Missouri.

Though the Chickens had a rough start at the beginning of the Championship, the team quickly rebounded back the next two days, making several impressive achievements.

In Qualification Match 149, the Chickens, along with two other robots in their alliance, managed to score 60 points in the Autonomous period, the first 15 seconds of the match where robots operate completely based on code. This is the maximum number of points an alliance can score in the Autonomous period, and very few teams in the world have accomplished this feat.

After playing 12 Qualification matches, the ThunderChickens ended with a record of 7 wins and 5 losses, landing the team a rank score of 41 out of 102 teams. During the Selection process where the top 16 teams choose their alliance partners for the Elimination matches, the Chickens were chosen as the third robot of the 16th seeded alliance, composed of team captain Spartronics (Team 5048) and Robostangs (Team 548).

The ThunderChickens’ first Elimination round match was against the 1st seeded alliance, which was captained by the number 1 ranked team at the Championship, Stryke Force (Team 2767). Though the Chickens’ alliance lost the first match, they managed to win the second match (167 points to 160 points) and the third match (159 to 157), allowing the Chickens to advance from the Octofinals to the Quarterfinals. This was a historic MSC victory; never before had a 16th seeded alliance defeat the 1st seeded alliance.

Unfortunately, the ThunderChickens and their alliance partners were unable to advance to the Semifinals after losing two matches to an alliance captained by Excel (Team 2474) in the Quarterfinals.

Because the ThunderChickens performed among the top 76 teams at the State Championship, the team will be competing at the 2016 FRC World Championship in St. Louis, from April 27 to April 30. This marks the team’s 15th World Championship in the team’s history of 17 years.

For more information about the FIRST Robotics Competition, visit www.firstinspires.org.