Today were the matches that counted for the competition and things went really well. We won all of our matches and ended the Qualification Round in 1st place!
For the final matches, FTC team 10544 Cyber Eagles Silver accepted our invitation to form an alliance. Working together, we were able to get a high score for Alberta of 302 points in the finals.
Throughout the day, our team members made an effort to connect with members from other teams. It was great getting to meet students from Helios, TWOSE teams, Pumabotics and Cyber Eagles!
FIX IT won the Inspire Award and was Captain of the Winning Alliance. It was a great finish to the season, worthy of Captain Hook!
Today was the practice matches for the event and we finished in 2nd place. The start was rough when Captain Hook’s wrist fell off and we lost the first match. After it was fixed, we won the rest of our matches!
Everyone had fun playing matches with and against our parents and other mentor bots throughout the day.
Kdays was the perfect time for one of our newer team members to get some experience as a field coach and he had an interesting experience.
Our judging interview today went pretty well although a noisy band started playing next door which made it a bit hard to hear. One of the judges is also named Max!
We are hoping nothing goes wrong so we can make it into the finals as a alliance captain tomorrow!!
FIX IT has arrived at the Alberta off-season event, K-Days held in Edmonton. This will be Captain Hook’s last competition and we’re gonna put on a show.
We are having fun exploring the event too. Today was all about setting up, chilling in the pit with dragon’s breath and even a bit of gaming. There are lots of great foods and different pits to check out!
Jasper: My favourite food was the “dragon’s breath” liquid nitrogen candy because of how cool it looked when you ate it.
Jason: I loved the first day at K-Days. There is so much to explore throughout the Expo, and I even got to try dragon’s breath for the first time. Can’t wait to keep exploring around and trying new things!
Kai: It was so cool to check out the indie game dev expo at the K-Days. Working on a video game myself gave me an interesting perspective on the different projects.
Max: My favorite food I saw was the giant mozzarella stick on a stick because I think it sounds gross but it looks really good!
Ryan: I love looking around the stands! There is so much to do and look at! I loved trying the “dragon’s breath”, it was amazing!
This off-season FTC competition featured 14 teams, including some robots built by FRC teams just for this event. We’re super excited to share that we made it to the finals as the finalist alliance captain! It’s been a few years since we brought home a trophy for being the finalist alliance captain, so this achievement feels extra special.
Event Highlights
Field Coach Experience: Our trainee field coach had a blast being field coach at their first event. It was his first time as the alliance representative, and he loved talking strategy with new people. He hopes he will get to do it again in future competitions.
Competing and Collaborating: Playing against teams from Washington was really fun. We especially enjoyed teaming up with Wright Angle; we worked really well together in the finals.
Diverse Teams: A lot of the teams were off-season demo teams made up of students who usually compete in FRC. It was cool to see how they brought their FRC experience into this season’s game.
A big thanks to the event organizers for hosting such a fantastic competition and for inviting us to join. We can’t wait for more events and to continue connecting with the awesome robotics community!
It’s great to see all the robots that different teams brought to Worlds. Here are some of our favourites.
Leo: 14179 Sushi Squad 3 stage stacked claw that was designed to only pick up 2 pixels by squishing other pixels out.
Ryan: 18139 Rebel Robotics Their robot has a compact tape measure rolling arm. It allows for minimal space to be occupied while having long reach. The material of the ‘tape’ rolls into a tube as it extends out from the robot.
Jason: 11754 EnergySmart FTC Their claw had a unique design, similar to ours, but instead of having a side-by-side centerpost with pincers mechanism, they had a mold like thing that would grasp all around their pixels. It would hold one pixel in the front and one in the back with two of our claws on each side; as if they were pincers; that could rotate around a wrist, making it in any orientation possible. The wrist would allow the pixels to be placed horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. In addition their arm can extend to ~3 ft.
Max: 11228 OverClucked Bots Really cool scoring mechanism. It pinches the inside of a pixel and releases with a servo.
Jasper: 18031 Horcruxes Mostly made their own frame, not much channel or bought parts. Might have been expensive.
Kai: 11039 Innov8rz I saw a super helpful mechanism which I want to try playing around with. It’s called a husky lens and it’s a AI training tool. The mechanism has a chip for training AI models and a small 2 inch IPS display so all the training can be done without a separate computer on the small display.
It’s exciting to win the BC FTC Championships and find out your team has qualified for Worlds!
But then the planning starts. How do you all get there? Where will you stay? How do you improve your robot to make it ready for World Championships? How are we going to pay for everything?
Fortunately, our season plan started with a complete game analysis and robot strategy with improvements for each of our events. We already knew what we’d need to change to be ready for Worlds.
Our robot, Captain Hook, now has a much for effective claw and an extending are which should double our scoring in tele-op.
Our other priority is fundraising! If you’d like to support our team, please check out our GoFundMe. If you know a company who might want to sponsor the team, please contact us with the information.
Follow our journey in at World Championships on our website. We’ll be making new posts each day.
playing in the highest scoring match of the Qualifying Rounds. With Guild of Builders, we got a high score of game of 220 points including a 100 point perfect autonomous.
we had fun hanging out with other teams at the social on Saturday night.
thanks to FTC 18841 KSS One for choosing us to be on their Alliance.
Mecha mustangs had a really cool under glow on their robot.
Of course, winning Inspire was our favourite moment of the day.
FIX IT will be competing at the FIRST World Championships in Houston Texas on April 17-20, 2024. Check out our Go Fund Me to help or contact us if you have a suggestion about a company who could sponsor our team.
On November 18, FIX IT was part of a CENTERSTAGE Scrimmage hosted by St. Margaret’s School in Victoria. It was our first event of the season, and the first ever event for two of our three drive team members!
Overall, we had a strong autonomous program that worked in most matches. Our robot could hang in end game. Unfortunately, our drone launcher lost the drone during the matches.
Our robot, Captain Hook, is very fast on the field. Even with a rookie driver, it was able to score lots of pixels in the backstage.
