Each year, thousands of kids flock to downtown Houston to compete in engineering events.
Ratchet Rockers had the opportunity to attend First Worlds Robotics competition for the fourth year in a row.
Ratchet Rockers experienced highs and lows throughout the competition, eventually walking away with silver medals for the division.
There are three leagues hosted within the George R. Brown Convention Center: First Lego League (FLL), First Tech Challenge (FTC), and First Robotics Competition (FRC), designated for 4-16 years, 12-18 years, and 14-18 years, respectively. Ratchet Rockers competes at the FRC level.
The challenge is assigned each season on the first weekend of January. After that it’s off to the races. Teams work as quickly as possible to brainstorm, design, and build their robot so they may compete in regional competitions in the hopes of going to world’s.
Ratchet Rockers bot was first put to the test at the St. Louis Regionals from March 12-15. Walking away with gold medals, they were assured a place at worlds.
After that, Ratchet Rockers headed to the Iowa Regional from March 26-29. Competing in other regionals gave the robot better statistics and reputation. That competition ended with another first place win.
On April 16, at 3:30 a.m, Ratchet Rockers headed for the airport. The plane touched down in Houston and the first day was for relaxing. Then shortly on April, 17. Ratchet members started at 5:30 a.m where the team ate breakfast and headed to the Convention Center. That first day was practice matches, with the purpose of ranking teams in each division. Ratchet Rockers were in the Curie division, competing with 76 teams. These matches showed other teams who were the best robots to ally with. April, 18. came with more practice matches and at the end the team was sitting quite low in the bracket.
Friday night kids were able to relax at Roboprom.
Roboprom is a party held by First Robotics to give kids a chance for prom. Many kids end up missing prom to attend the world’s competition. This is First’s way of giving back to the kids who have dedicated hours upon hours to the organization.
Saturday started off with the top 8 teams choosing who they wanted on their side. Each team gets four robots. Ratchet Rockers were picked by the 2nd alliance captain, CPR (team 3663).
“We all knew that the operating stats looked so different than the score on the board. The alliance pairings in the qualifying rounds were not in our favor,” said sponsor Hester Menier, “We had to hope that other teams were scouting as diligently as we were and could see that our robot was out performing most of those on the field, even though we were losing. In the end when we were the 1st pick of the 2nd place alliance we knew that the scouting data had prevailed, but until then it was a true nail biter.”
With the alliance made, CPR, Ratchet Rockers, Lightning Robotics, and Byting Bulldogs, the teams fought their way towards the final. The Curie Division final match was Alliance 2 against Alliance 5. Whoever won this final gets to compete in Einstein, which is considered the final.
Unfortunately, Ratchet Rockers was defeated, but the winners made history as the first Mexican team to ever make Einstein.
“If I were able to talk to the teams that beat us, I would tell them that they are amazing. They fought really hard and it all worked out for them. Getting to their spot is a once in a lifetime thing,” driver Brenden Buchanan (10) said.
The team screamed and cheered the whole time, supporting each other and others. While a few tears were shed in the end, when Ratchet Rockers lost with Einstein so close, they walked away with amazing memories and pride in what they’d accomplished.
“I was so proud,” Menier said. “Everyone handled the loss with graciousness, that is a difficult skill. With smiles on faces, the team went down and accepted our finalist plaque and medals and came together to move forward with loading up.”
