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Community
West Iron County’s Robotics Team traveled to Central Michigan University at Mt. Pleasant first week of April, to compete in their second First Robotics in Michigan District competition. Qualifications started on April 5.
The competition started with 40 teams and 80 qualifying matches. Each match consists of six teams competing in two three-team alliances. Alliances are chosen randomly and ranking points are assessed based on various criteria. Points are scored by picking up a game piece and depositing or shooting the game piece into various targets. The players can be offensive or defensive in nature.
At the end of qualifying, the Automatons were ranked No. 4 going into the double elimination finals. The top eight ranked teams are captains and pick their alliance partners for the final matches. The No. 3 team picked the Automatons to be on their alliance. Then a 3rd alliance partner is picked to complete the alliance. The Automatons made it to the tenth final match before being eliminated. The team’s performance gathered enough points to qualify for the state competition at Saginaw Valley State University in Saginaw on April 4-6 where the top 160 Michigan teams will compete to qualify for the FIRST Robotics world competition in Austin, Texas.
The “first” in FIRST robotics stands for: “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.” The organization offers robotics programs and competitions for a range of age groups.
You can follow the Automatons on Facebook. More information about the upcoming competition is available at https://www.svsu.edu/firstatsvsu.