By Troy Best
Red Strom Robotics
Red Storm Robotics FRC had a great opening tournament at the St. Joseph district competition on Friday and Saturday, March 9-10.
Red Storm finished the qualifier matches ranked 13 out of 39 teams and ended up the 8th Team Alliance Captain in the finals. Our finals alliance with the Woodhaven and Vicksburg teams did not make it beyond our two playoff matches, but our competition robot, “Terence” performed admirably with repeated successes in the autonomous portion of the competition, and the team is energized to improve Terence’s capabilities for the next competition in Battle Creek Lakeview starting Sunday, March 26.
Robotics competitions are more than robots on the challenge field as demonstrated by our team members who decorated and supplied our pit booth, readied the robot, cheered on all the teams, and prepared and presented to the competition judges for other awards.
Red Storm walked away with an award they have not won before, the Engineering Inspiration award. This is the second-highest team award, just shy of the ultimate judge’s award, the Impact Award. We are so proud to be recognized for our work in building a competition-ready robot and for bringing engineering and STEM to the community.
Our robot performed well, our judged presentations won an award, and our Red Storm marketing team had a great weekend passing out cards and buttons, leading cheers, and documenting our performance. A great start to our competition season and surely a sign of great things to come.
You can see more of the final event details here: https://firstinmichigan.us/FRC/misjo/
For information on the March 26 Battle Creek Lakeview tournament, visit https://frc-events.firstinspires.org/2023/MILA2.
The Red Storm Robotics will be hosting the Kentwood District tournament March 31 and April 1. For more information about the home tournament, visit https://firstinmichigan.us/FRC/miken/.
