Robotics Team Advances to World Competition

The Fighting Pickles after winning the UTA Inspire award.

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Dusty Johnston
April 29, 2009
Filed under News

The anxious crowd waited in the cold metal bleachers. The head judge was getting ready to announce the winning team number of the best award, The Inspire Award. He hesitated for a second, and then continued speaking.

“And the winner of the Inspire Award is,” The judge paused.

The Ben Barber Fighting Pickles crossed their fingers and hoped for the best.

“Team one…two,” the judge stuttered. “Team 127.”

Every team member looked dazed and confused. James Wilson stared blankly at the judge while parents and other teams clapped and cheered.

“How did we win?!” Eric screamed.

Within a matter of seconds the cramped bleachers were empty. The small team received their medals while cameras flashed all around them and their trophies shined brightly against the fluorescent lights.

“We’re going to World’s,” everyone screamed, “in Atlanta, Georgia.”

The excitement not only spread during the award ceremony but the celebration afterwards was filled with thrills and fun.

“I think we should go out to celebrate,” Eric said, now at home searching through his phone for everyone’s number.

All members except a few met at Ton’s Mongolian Grill. Everyone chattered about their upcoming trip to Georgia in April. Their competition was discussed often too. Unfair calls and things that need improvement were the main topics.

“The funny thing is, DJ doesn’t know we’re going to Worlds yet,” Gary laughed. “He’ll find out when we meet for Robotics.”

After four months of hard work, Ben Barber’s Robotics team arrived from the FTC Worlds Competition in Atlanta, Georgia on April 18. The team has competed in the 2008 season of FTC since October. As rookies with only two years experience, The Fighting Pickles, beginning as the underdogs, became one of the top teams in the world. They faced many challenges, such as the UTA competition, where they won the Inspire Award. Winning this award automatically sends a team to compete in the FTC competition, in which they play other teams from around the world.

The World’s competition in Atlanta, Georgia is one of the biggest competitions in the country. Over 100 teams competed on April 15-17, including Team 127. All the competitions began 8 a.m. on Wed, April 16, and continued through Thur, April 17. These days were filled with thrilling matches and lots of running everywhere. The Fighting Pickles began the day with a winning streak 2-0. At the end of those matches, Team 127 was ranked number one in their division.

The next two matches weren’t as well as the first two. They lost the matches, but the losses didn’t affect their ranking by much. After each match, the engineers of the team would tweak the robot and the programmers would help them or work on their autonomous program. The last matches boosted the team’s rank back up to rank 20. With a record of 4-2, The Fighting Pickles finished 20 out of 50 in their division.

Losing only one member, The Fighting Pickles hope to have another great season next year.