Author: Gigawatt

Through the week of April 18th, Lightning Robotics made the long drive to Houston, Texas to compete in the FIRST World Championship! On the Carver field, we dominated the Qualification matches and ended in rank 5. During alliance selection, we became the 4th alliance captain, choosing FRC696, Circuit Breakers; FRC5199, Robot Dolphins From Outer Space; and FRC2491, NoMythic. Through three brutal matches in the Quarterfinals, Alliance 4 suffered a harsh defeat in the tiebreaker. A huge congratulations to our Communications team, our Vice President of Business Operations, and our Treasurer for winning the Entrepreneurship Award, the first judged award Lightning has won at the World Championship! For all of us, that was our final competition of the season, but for some, that was their final competition on the team, so congratulations to our graduating seniors. Thank you for all that you’ve done for our team, and good luck! Another massive thank you to our drive team, who carried us through each and every competition, the technician team, who kept Void running between matches, our Pit Crew, who spoke to judges and every competition and allowed us to win awards at each one, RPM, who provided our students with food and lodging during our competitions, our alliance partners, our gracious sponsors, and every student and mentor on Lightning Robotics who put in the endless work to make this year a fantastic one. Thank you all for a wonderful season, and we’ll see you next year to play Charged Up presented by Haas!

From April 13-16, Lightning Robotics competed at the FIRST in Michigan State Championship! We were assigned to the DTE Division and finished our qualifying matches in 22nd place. We were graciously chosen by Alliance 8, with alliance captain FRC3655, Tractor Technicians, and FRC4392, The Deceivers. During the Quarterfinal Showdown, our alliance brought a storm to the field and came out on top! Although Void and his drive team fought as hard as they could, we received a close defeat in the Semifinals. Congratulations to our Marketing team, along with our Pit Crew, for winning the Imagery Award in honor of Jack Kamen. Thank you to our drive team, technician team, Pit Crew, FRC3655 and FRC4392, as well as our gracious sponsors who allowed us to make it this far. Onto World Championships!

Over the past 6 weeks, Lightning Robotics has been working hard at our two district competitions, Milford and Macomb! At our Milford District Competition (March 11-12), Void and our drive team worked relentlessly and we finished the Qualifying matches in rank 17. We got chosen by the 5th alliance with alliance captain FRC4382, GEMS, and FRC1502, Technical Difficulties. Void pushed his way valiantly through the playoffs, and our alliance came out on top and won the event! On top of being the District Event Winner, we also won the Industrial Design Award sponsored by General Motors. At our second competition, the Macomb District Competition (April 1-2), we finished the Qualification matches in 14th and were chosen by the 6th alliance, led by FRC469, Las Guerrillas, and together, we chose FRC5860, Full Metal Muskrats. Although we worked hard in the Quarterfinals, we were unfortunately knocked out in Quarterfinal 4 Match 3. We would like to congratulate our Business Operations for winning the Entrepreneurship Award for their outstanding work on our team’s Business Plan. We would also like to give a big thank you to the members of our Drive Team, Chairman’s Team, Pit Crew, Technician Team, and every single student on Lightning Robotics who made our accomplishments possible, along with our gracious sponsors and mentors.

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