On Saturday, September 19th, Team 2137 TORC, Oxford High School’s Robotic team competed at Kettering University in Flint, MI. at the Kettering Kickoff and brought home another first place trophy. This annual event allows teams to play the previous season’s game in order to help recruit new team members before the new game is released in January. Several new students joined TORC to learn about FIRST Robotics and the competition.
All of TORC’s experienced robot drivers and human players graduated this year. So TORC entered the competition with three sets of students interested in trying out for the coveted driving positions, as well as three students interested in being TORC’s human player. During the qualification rounds, the students rotated through the matches learning to maneuver the field, operate the controls, and diagnose robot issues. It was a rough start as they encountered nerves, inexperience, and issues with slippage of a motor encoder which caused the elevator to be out of synch.
Ranked 25th out of 46 teams after qualifications, TORC was crossing its fingers that they would be chosen for an alliance for the elimination rounds. Seeing improvement toward the end of qualifications, Team 27 Rush of Clarkston and Team 33 Killer Bees of Auburn Hills formed the number two alliance and invited TORC to be its third alliance member. The number two alliance worked together to earn the highest average score in both the quarter-finals and semi-finals.
Seated as the number one alliance in the finals, Teams 27, 33 and 2137 (TORC) stacked containers, placed bins, and scored noodles to win the tournament. Winning the first two matches locked the win and provided the BULLDOG trophy for TORC’s display case. This is the first time TORC has won this tournament and adds to an already best ever season for TORC! TORC is very grateful for the confidence that Teams 27 and 33 placed in our rookie drivers.
TORC is excited to start the new season in January and encourages any Oxford High School student to contact Mr. Kimmel at Oxford High School to see how you can become a TORC member.