Thursday, April 6. 2017
The team in the past few weeks we have been preforming greatly. We went to Finger Lakes Regional at RIT and the Midwestern Regional in Chicago, overall, the team did great! With us scoring 5 different awards! These awards being Chairman’s award, winning the Midwestern Regional, the Engineering Inspiration award and Jordan S. being awarded the FIRST Dean’s List award, and our own mentor Cynette Cavaliere being awarded the Woodie Flowers award!
On Saturday during alliance selection, after a bit of a rough set of qualification rounds, leaving us close to the bottom in ranking, our team was picked by 4th place alliance, 5030 The Second Mouse and 870 Team R.I.C.E., and we became semi-finalists. Our drive team, pit crew and strategy group did AMAZING, even in the face of the numerous challenges and obstacles we had faced. Congrats to teams 191 X-Cats, 3015 Ranger Robotics, and 3799 Electric Fire for taking home the win! During the awards ceremony, Jordan S. was awarded the FIRST Dean’s List Award, which is presented to passionate and outstanding student leaders and all around amazing human beings. Congrats, we are so proud of you!! And finally, our team received the Chairman’s Award, the most prestigious award in FIRST that honors the team that best represents a model for other teams to emulate and best embodies the purpose and goals of FIRST (aka being gracious, professional, and just all around awesome!). This award qualifies us for the World Championships in St. Louis!!!! Here is what the judges had to say about our team:
As we all know FIRST is not just about the robot, but is about the year-round and life-long impact on students’ lives. This team has had an impact on their school district, their town, their region and around the world. All year, they mentor teams and run innovative events at every level of FIRST. Their community involvement has not only raised money for important causes but leveraged their technical skills as well. They train their students – and others – to be leaders and show that leadership by advocating for real change at a national level. And now, a poem;
Like clouds in the sky may take form
This team like an oncoming storm
It’s always struck us
How this team raised a ruckus
Rolling Thunder makes a success look like a norm
Congratulations to Team 1511, Rolling Thunder
Before we give a quick recap of the Midwestern Regionals, we would like to thank YOU! The parents and the mentors, for all the hard work and passion you put into making this team what it is. You are all creating the next generation of people that will change the world, and you are all truly amazing people, and this team wouldn’t be able to run without your hard work and dedication so we thank you, and all that you have done for our team!
And now, a recap of the Midwest Regional!
We did a complete 180 this time around, landing a spot as the 2nd placed seed instead of the 2nd to last seed like we were at one point during FLR. We became the captain of the 2nd place alliance and invited Team 2451 – PWNAGE and Team 1625 – Winnovation. We won both of our matches against the 7th place alliance during quarter finals, then beat the 3rd place alliance, led by Finney’s Team 1405, 2-1 and proceeded to the finals. We won 2-1 against the 1st place alliance of Team 1986 – Titanium, Team – 16 Bomb Squad, and Team 5847 – Ironclad. This was the third time in our 13-year history that we have won a Regional!! So of course, a HUGE shout out to pit crew for keeping the robot in tip-top shape, strategy and scouting for creating our winning strategy, and drive team for putting all this together and bringing home the win!
During the awards ceremony, we received an honorable mention for safety (shout out to Hannah and Rachel. You guys nailed it. And then we received the Engineering Inspiration Award (which is only slightly less cool then getting a shout out for safety. Just kidding,this award is way cool!) which is awarded to a team that demonstrates outstanding success in advancing respect and appreciation for engineering within a team’s school and community. As an added bonus, winning this award means that our registration fee for Champs will be paid for by NASA! Anyway, here is what the judges had to say about us:
This team has sponsored dozens of FIRST Lego League teams, hosted countless competitions and events, demonstrated their robots in front of millions, and co-organized an advocacy conference to promote FIRST and STEM education on Capitol Hill. They have even provided 3D printed prosthetic hands for children in developing countries, proving their inspiration. More importantly, they’ve concerned themselves with answering the age-old controversy: Is a hot dog a sandwich?
Congratulations Team 1511 Rolling Thunder!
For those of you who don’t know what the heck they’re referencing when they’re talking about hot dogs, Geoff H. was holding a poll and was asking every single person he could, including every single one of the judges we spoke with, if they thought a hot dog was a sandwich. By the way, the final consensus was ‘no’ (and who knows why because a hot dog is very obviously a sandwich, duh).
A special thank you to our pit crew for absolutely ROCKING IT talking with the judges in the pit, and of course to the entire team for being the true inspiration behind this award.
And with all these awards, that means that, for the first time ever, we have TRIPLE qualified for the World Championships!! Not only that, but it also means that we have won the 5 highest awards a team can win at the Regional level: Engineering Inspiration, Regional Winners, Woodie Flowers, Dean’s List and Chairman’s.
Student Blogger Justin
